SECTOR FOCUS: SKILLS


Apprentices prove their mettle A


ston engineering firm Radshape Sheet Metal has continued its


successful apprenticeship programme by taking on three new recruits. The new apprentices – Jack Higgins, Dylan O’Rourke and Ricky Burmi – beat off competition from 40 applicants, all of whom had to undergo entrance exams conducted by City of Wolverhampton College.


‘Each year it is getting more and more difficult to find youngsters with the right qualities’


Radshape managing director Keith Chadwick said that taking on the trio represented a continuing commitment by his company to educating and training the manufacturing workforce of tomorrow.


Left to right: Keith Chadwick with apprentices Jack Higgins, Ricky Burmi, Dylan O’Rourke and production manager Tony O’Rourke


He said this was despite difficulties the firm had encountered in recruiting apprentices with a good enough level of reading and writing. He said: “We are a thriving sheet metal manufacturer with a £4 million


turnover, staff on overtime and more business than my commercial department can cope with. “Four years ago we set up an in-house apprenticeship scheme using the skills of our employees who are past retirement age to train school leavers.


Each year it is getting more and more difficult to find youngsters with the right qualities and basic education qualifications. He added that despite this, the West Midlands sheet metal industry was


continuing to thrive, and there was also evidence that there were still plenty of young people who wanted to work in manufacturing. Of Radshape’s current workforce, 15 per cent of personnel have either gone through – or are going through – the company’s apprenticeship programme.


OCTOBER 2011 CHAMBERLINK 45


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