Partner Article

EGGER invests in apprenticeships

Northumberland’s largest manufacturing company is investing in its future workforce by developing a brand new apprentice facility and training 11 new apprentices.

EGGER, which employs over 550 people at its Hexham plant where it manufactures chipboard products, will open a dedicated engineering apprentice training facility later in the year. The training suite will enable EGGER to better support the development of its regular intake of engineering apprentices.

Gateshead-based Access Training is training a number of EGGER apprentices including recently recruited stores apprentice, Alex Avery, from Denton Burn, and three business administration apprentices - Khloe Ryder-Wood from Alston, Catherine Frey, from Ponteland and Andrew Eschle from Hamsterley.

The firm, which supplies melamine faced chipboard (MFC) products to the furniture and construction sectors, has also enrolled four employees to gain customer service qualifications with Access Training.

EGGER has a policy of developing and promoting employees internally wherever possible and also recruiting locally.

EGGER’s human resources manager, Jackie Stevenson, said: “We take the development of our employees and apprenticeships very seriously. All of our apprentices are taken on as employees and follow specific training plans. As some of our former apprentices have gone on to supervisory and management roles, we know from experience that training our future employees from scratch works for us. The new training facility will be a great asset for our engineering department.”

Malcolm Armstrong, managing director Access Training, said: “It’s great to see a major employer like EGGER investing so heavily in the future of its business.”

Access Training is an award-winning training provider based in Gateshead. The company supports north east businesses to develop their people and grow. Its training programmes include short courses, NVQs (2-5) and apprenticeships.

Access Training is the only training provider in Tyne and Wear to achieve the prestigious Training Quality Standard (TQS).

For more information call Valerie Green on 0191 490 4646.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Jill Farmer (Dobson) .