A TYNESIDE oil and gas engineering services company is preparing to recruit hundreds of staff in the next few years and has opened its own apprentice academy to help reach its ambitions of adding £20m to sales.
Fabricom Offshore Services has masterminded a training, learning and development set of programmes aimed at engineering graduates, apprentices and people looking to upgrade or diversify their skills.
The Rt Hon Brian Wilson, UK business ambassador and former energy minister, officially opened The Fabricom Offshore Services Academy at the firm’s Quorum Business Park headquarters yesterday.
More than 30 people are already in various training programmes at the academy with another intake of around 12 expected this year.
With offices in Newcastle, Teesside and Aberdeen, Fabricom created its academy to consolidate the company’s position for future growth.
Chief executive Allan Cairns said: “We work with four major clients in the North Sea oil and gas fields but we want to expand that client base nationally and internationally as well.
“Our aspiration is to take us from a 300-person business to a 500-person business over the next two to three years. Our turnover hit £33m in 2012 and we’d like to head towards £50m in three years’ time.
“We want to build a bigger and better business and we can only do that by driving forward our training initiatives. We’ve brought in around 150 people in the last 12 months and we’re expanding into Aberdeen as we speak.
“We want to build on our fast-growing team of dedicated engineering and technical expertise, which is vital to our business, as well as encourage the next generation of talent into the vibrant oil and gas industry.”
