Engineering firm looks to future with the young

Sep 4 2008 by Karen Dent, The Journal

As the new academic year kicks off and young people start to think seriously about their futures, Karen Dent meets a man whose passion for work-based learning is enthusing apprentices on North Tyneside.

IN the shadow of Swan Hunter’s redundant cranes, a Wallsend engineering company is looking to the future of industry on North Tyneside.

Northern Precision Engineering (NPE) is taking the traditional route of training the workforce of tomorrow by investing time and effort into apprentices. Currently, around 10% of the business’s staff if made up from apprentices.

NPE, which produces equipment as diverse as plastic kneecaps and hip joints to submersible vehicles for the oil and gas industry and satellite dishes used in space, is convinced industry needs to grow its own skills base.

Production manager Tim Maughan said: “If you look at the history of the North East, the great companies like Parsons and Swan Hunter’s, they used to have their own training schools. With them closing or being taken over, apprenticeships suffered greatly.

“The biggest commodity that stops companies growing is skills. We are a very, very cutting edge company. We need these skills and we grow those skills in-house.”

Mr Maughan, himself a time-served apprentice with Parsons, has been with NPE for two years but the company has been committed to training its own people throughout its 30-year history.

“All that time, we have had apprentices – 28% of our workforce is now apprentices and apprentices who served their time and work for the company,” said Mr Maughan.

The business currently counts eight apprentices and six former apprentices in its 52-strong workforce and Mr Maughan is seeking to recruit more.

“We are continually looking for apprentices. Anyone who contacts us will always get a response from us,” he said.

But anyone joining NPE must be prepared to graft to work their way up. Mr Maughan is passionate about instilling youngsters with a pride in their work and immersing them in the company’s culture. He said: “I take kids the day they leave school. I am very old fashioned, I start them right at the bottom – they’ll be mopping, clean- ing – I’m looking for a good work ethic.

“At one time, apprentices had a year off-the-job training. I like them to come in, to intermingle. The kids grow up with the men, they adopt them and pass on their skills and the young lads respond to this.

“We’ve got to have youth, you’ve got to have new guys coming through to bring industry back to where it was.”

Although very hands-on, NPE apprentices also receive a thorough theoretical grounding from North Tyne Training. Mr Maughan says he has worked closely with the training provider to adapt the curriculum to meet the company’s needs.

He is now attempting to further inspire his apprentices by introducing an Apprentice of the Year award, voted for by everyone in the factory and presented to the winner on September 26.

“My suggestion was to encourage a sense of competition and achievement which I hope will set new standards for the lads,” he said.

“I’ve been very lucky in the apprentices I’ve got.

“They are all local lads and keen to learn.”