Young given chance for work

Jul 3 2009 by Karen McLauchlan, Evening Gazette

A SMALL, family owned fabrication firm is flying the flag for Teesside apprentices as agencies report a worrying decline in the number of companies taking on trainees.

Maria Tuck, who with husband Jeff, inherited an ageing workforce when they invested in M&P Metalcraft in Middlesbrough four years ago, said companies had to give young people a chance or risk losing the skills base forever.

Mrs Tuck, who used the North East Chamber of Commerce apprenticeship recruitment service to find two new staff, said fellow bosses were surprised by their policy, given its relatively small size and the economic climate.

“But we have an older workforce and the skills are dying out,” she said. “I feel strongly that we need to boost skills and start training people.”

Nineteen-year-old Daniel Smith, who has started a modern apprenticeship in office administration and Daniel Watkins, 17, who has been indentured to M&P for three years as a fabricator and welder, join as the company completes its biggest contract win - a £240,000 new build project in Sunderland.

The firm, which specialises in the manufacture and installation of high grade pallisade fencing, also recently won the contract to install 373m of security fencing around the Eon power station on the Isle of Grain in Kent. Already a supplier to several housing associations on Teeside, the firm is waiting to hear if it has won a four-year supply contract under the North East Procurement project, set up by 11 regional social housing providers. M&P has already made it through the first stage of the tendering process.

M&P is one of a declining number of companies offering apprenticeships in construction and allied trades, according to sectors skills council, Construction Skills. Despite a dip in apprentice applications, thousands more employers are still needed to match demand it said, with 6,845 applications received so far nationally and only 1,880 employer vacancies offered. In the North-east, 667 applications have been received to date with only 105 employer vacancies offered.

It said companies hoping to win public sector contracts – which are forecast to remain stable over the next few years relative to other sectors – were better placed if they had apprentices on their staff than those that did not.

The Office of Government Commerce’s new guidelines for public sector procurement state contractors who can demonstrate a commitment to skills and training may be the preferred choice to take on work as part of the Government’s £7bn annual spend. Major contactors in turn will be looking to their supply chain partners to help meet these requirements, it said.