There are number of community-based developments taking place in the regions. For example, three Rutland based plastics employers have formed an alliance to offer new apprenticeship opportunities to the region’s young people.

Linecross Ltd, RPC Containers and Rutland Plastics are sponsoring five apprenticeships.  All three companies are at the forefront of the polymers industry and have all made significant investments in the latest plastics processing technology. They are offering excellent careers, as well as further education opportunities, potentially right up to degree level.

Steve Ayre, General Manager at Rutland Plastics said: “We have had great success with apprenticeships in the past with participants progressing to management level. We see the programme as building on this success.”

North West

We are leading on a new Programme-Led Apprenticeship programme in the North West of England. This is an innovative scheme led by Cogent and funded by the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) that brings employers and providers together to increase apprenticeship opportunities in the Cogent sector.

Steve Waugh is Managing Director of O’Hare Engineering, which offers asset management, technical consultancy and project management to a range of blue chip clients.   He said: “In the past, larger operators trained an army of apprentices to maintain and operate their plants but, over the past 10 to 20 years, due to commercial pressures, maintenance work has been outsourced to companies like ours.

“Subsequently, the numbers of skilled engineers in the operating companies and those transferring to sub-contractors has all but petered out. Even students are disinterested in the industry, so new graduates are not filtering through. The result is that we are employing people from Eastern Europe and dealing with language and relocation issues when we would rather employ people from the UK. Cogent brought this collaborative initiative together and this new route to an Advanced Apprenticeship is moving in the right direction.”