As the subsea industry continues to lament the loss of engineering talent, one company has taken a proactive stance to groom the workers it will need in the future. Across Tritech’s two sites in Ulverston, Cumbria and Westhill, Aberdeenshire, the company has been nurturing the potential of five student apprentices. At Westhill, a student and a graduate from Aberdeen University have been employed as Student Engineers. Gregor Will and Ben Bird are working under the guidance of the Customer Support Team and will be on placement until mid-September. The students are obtaining hands on experience in quality control and design as well as gaining an appreciation of the various subsea applications that Tritech products are used for.
Tritech’s Ulverston site has three Electronic Technician Apprentices; in conjunction with apprentice engineering and technology training provider GEN II, who are at various stages of the four year placement. Chris Ronson has recently just completed a work-based portfolio as part of his final year to achieve an NVQ level 3+ alongside completing his HNC in Electrical & Electronic Engineering. Whilst two apprentices are nearing the end of their second year, Sam Simpson and Jake Holmes have been receiving onsite training, spending the last year working towards their NVQ level 3 and completing their ONC in Electrical & Electronic Engineering in preparation for starting their HNC this year.
Craig Thorburn, Customer Support Engineer comments on the placement opportunities Tritech provides: “We are able to provide industry leading products for the subsea market as a direct result of our dedicated world-class team. Part of this success comes from our ability to take in student graduates, apprentices as well as placement students and give them their first chance of working in an industrial environment. We aim to help them develop key personal skills, such as teamwork and communication, which they will come to rely on in their future careers.”