Apprentices power surge in British manufacturing

FLOURISHING firms are taking on more apprentices as the UK becomes a global manufacturing powerhouse, figures show.

- Giles Sheldrick

Two-thirds of companies say they are boosting schemes as the burgeoning Made in Britain sector assembles a crack workforce of young talent fit for the future.

The move comes as industry experts say skills remain the top priority with training budgets unaffected by a perfect storm of pressure that has caused global turbulence.

Brandauer, one of Europe's leading precision metal makers, became one of only a select number of firms to hold two different King's Awards titles simultaneously.

It was honoured for manufacturing innovative and globally competitive precision tools that can produce micron accuracy components for use in high-spec applications. It comes four years after it was presented with an International Trade Award from the then Queen's Award for Enterprise.

Boss Rowan Crozier said: "The best decision we ever made was reintroducing apprenticeships.

Some 15% of our workforce are apprentices and many of our young engineers have gone on to be quality specialists, new product introduction engineers and even manufacturing director.