The Lord Lieutenant, Mr. Barry Dodd CBE, Her Majesty’s representative in the County and charged with upholding the dignity of the Crown, visited the Middlesbrough based company to present 16 members of staff with their Intermediate Level Apprenticeship qualifications.
Mr. Dodd CBE, who is also Chairman of GSM Group Ltd, spoke highly of the accomplishments of the young F Jones apprentices.
“You should all be incredibly proud of yourselves”. He said: “It takes great determination to go out there, find a job and then push yourselves to study and do further training. Your achievements here clearly illustrate the practical value of learning and I’m sure this experience will be of enormous help in ensuring you have the right tools to go on to even greater success in your chosen careers”.
In the three decades since its foundation in 1982, the Company has developed into the largest and most successful of its kind in the UK; a genuine market leader, pioneering many of the logistical and fabrication techniques that are now considered industry standard.
Chairman, Mr. Fred Jones, credits much of this success to the highly skilled and motivated workforce and the company’s close links with local government learning organisations. “Our aim is to give young people access to a pathway to employment through training”, he said. “F. Jones Cleveland has been running successful training courses since 2007 with all but two of our current team having come through an apprenticeship or training to work schemes”.
The Company prides itself on creating and maintaining strong community links, working with local organisations and people to build its workforce and goes the extra mile for apprentices by supporting and providing literacy, numeracy and IT training, private healthcare, banking, and in-house financial support schemes to ensure young people have the best possible opportunity for success.
Speaking about the event which took place at F. Jones Cleveland’s state-of-the-art, 60,000 square ft factory in Riverside, Mr. Fred Jones said: “It was a privilege to have the Lord Lieutenant visit and join us in support of the young apprentices here at F Jones Cleveland. The presence of the Lord Lieutenant gave emphasis to the value of their achievements and made the occasion even more significant and memorable for us all. Everyone has worked incredibly hard for these qualifications, and what better recognition than to have our honoured guest present their certificates to them.”
To find out more about F. Jones visit www.fjonesltd.com/