Member Article

Tees steel firm Tata recruit Apprentices by the dozen

A dozen TTE students have been selected to become Advanced Level Apprentices by Tata Steel.

The group, who are from across Teesside, have secured sponsorship from Tata Steel after completing a year of TTE’s Engineering Pathway programme.

During their 12 months, the trainees achieved vocational qualifications and workshop-based practical experience delivered by industry experts.

They will now spend a further 12 months at TTE’s specialist technical training centre in Middlesbrough before joining the workforce at Tata Steel, gaining invaluable on-the-job experience while also achieving additional industry-respected qualifications.

Once they join Tata Steel’s workforce in 2015, they will work across a range of roles at either Teesside Beam Mill or Special Profiles in Skinningrove, based on their engineering disciplines.

Tata Steel Maintenance Engineer Tony Malone said: “Apprenticeships are an essential part of our workforce development and it’s important to generate new opportunities for young people keen to enter industry.

“The current group of apprentices, who joined us last year, are benefiting from working with our teams at Teesside Beam Mill and Special Profiles and we look forward to tracking the progress of our new recruits until they join us on site in a year’s time.”

Teesside Beam Mill employs more than 200 people in the rolling and finishing of structural sections for use in the construction industry. The mill supplies to worldwide markets of both stockholders and end-users.

Special Profiles is considered to be the world’s leading manufacturer of custom-designed, hot-rolled special shaped steel profiles.

It supplies a wide-range of industries world-wide including earthmoving equipment, materials handling, shipbuilding and mining.

This latest group of apprentices is following in the footsteps of a group of 16 TTE students who were sponsored by Tata Steel at the end of their Vocational Study Programme last year and are entering the final year of their training with Tata Steel.

TTE Managing Director Steve Grant said: “Their training at TTE is giving them the ideal preparation for joining Tata Steel.

“We operate our training centre like a working environment so students develop important skills such as timekeeping, team working and health and safety awareness alongside their engineering training.

“This enables them to be workplace-ready and more attractive to employers.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Martin Walker .