A Hexham-based business with an outstanding apprenticeship programme is going to represent the North East at the National British Chambers of Commerce Awards in London on 30 November.
EGGER (UK) Limited, the wood-based materials manufacturer, part of the EUR 2.38 billion turnover Austrian-owned EGGER Group, has an award-winning approach to both apprenticeships and overall employee training, with 10% of its circa 600 Hexham workforce either currently, or have been, apprentices.
This year it has added to the 12 apprentices who are currently being trained in a range of departments from IT to engineering with eight new apprentices (two electrical, two mechanical engineers and four business) starting in September.
James Ramsbotham, chief executive, North East England Chamber of Commerce said: “We are delighted to be supporting EGGER to compete with the very best British businesses on the national stage. They have an outstanding track record in developing their own team and we wish them every success. EGGER is without a doubt leading the way nationally in training our next generation of skilled workers.”
EGGER’s mechanical maintenance apprentice team leader, Steven Walker, said: “I believe we have one of the best electrical and mechanical engineering training schemes available. Our apprentices learn the whole business inside and out, so they have skills across an unrivalled range of engineering disciplines. For the mechanical apprentices this includes machinery maintenance, hydraulics, pneumatics and material handling as well as training to drive fork lift trucks and health and safety. We go through a rigorous selection process for our engineering apprentices and the fact that the majority of them go on to have successful careers with us, shows how they are both valued and enjoy interesting roles here.”
The maintenance apprenticeship programme starts with a year at the training provider TDR in Newcastle, followed by a year working on maintenance across the business including a period in the fabrication shop and the machine shop. For the third year the apprentices concentrate on process training, the garage and chipboard lamination and rawboard processes. Then in the final year the apprentices work across the whole business, predominantly on shifts across the site, which includes fault finding and diagnosis of potential faults. This ensures that machine efficiency and availability is achieved.
Mechanical apprentice graduate brothers, Matthew Robson, 24 and Tom, 22 said, “we enjoyed learning the broad range of skills and that general maintenance keeps you on your toes!” Fellow graduate apprentice Dean Murray, 24 added, “Being an EGGER apprentice means that you are always progressing. I really enjoyed the supportive training and supervision provided.”
Over the last few years the company has started to see the number of females applying for their engineering apprentice positions increase and this year two female electrical engineer apprentices have been appointed.
The engineering team and apprentices benefit from a £4m engineering facility, built in 2013, which includes a state of the art training academy.
The company has recently introduced ‘EGGER Kompakt’, an award-winning internal training programme, which is delivered by in-house experts, providing both cross-departmental knowledge transfer and personal development opportunities. Across the EGGER Group over 550 employees have taken part in over 30 courses since it was introduced in May 2016.
The company has a policy of promoting from within, which has seen many employees launch and develop their careers. This includes Jenna Wiseman, who started on a two year undergraduate placement, before being appointed as a permanent member of the HR team. She completed her CIPD qualification through company funding and has recently been promoted to HR adviser.
As well as the Hexham plant a further 123 employees work at the EGGER Barony sister site in Auchinleck, Scotland.