Nylacast has won a prestigious award for the second time for its work with apprentices at the Made in the Midlands awards this week.
The company, which has its headquarters and main manufacturing facilities in Leicester, is celebrating winning the top prize in the Apprenticeship and Training category two years in a row. They are now also automatically shortlisted as finalists for the “Made in the UK” awards which take place in July in Liverpool.
Nylacast’s successful apprenticeship programme is a key part of its growth plans. The company employs more than 400 people worldwide and specialises in the development of bespoke polymer components, from design to manufacture and testing.
The apprenticeship programme, established five years ago, has been extended as part of plans to double the size of the business. The number of participants has grown year on year, boosted by last year’s launch of the Nylacast Engineering Training Academy, which also provides training courses for more senior staff. The company will be recruiting more trainees in the summer.
Mussa Mahomed, Nylacast Group CEO, said: “We are so pleased with our apprenticeship programme and value all our participants as star apprentices, so it is great to see we have again been recognised by the judges at the Made in the Midlands Awards. Each of our apprentices brings different skills and qualities that we can build on. We believe local recruitment is so important and it’s great that we can give something back to the Midlands by investing in the next generation of talent. There is currently a deficit in engineering skills worldwide, and we’re pleased to be able to help fill that gap and show other young people that there are exciting career paths in engineering out there that they might not have considered. All of our staff and apprentices are delighted to have won again.”
Nylacast apprentices are trained in mechanical, quality and maintenance engineering, and the firm prides itself on a traditional ethos that sees apprentices learn in a manual machine room as well as a CNC programming room. This allows the trainees to understand the manual process, machine speeds and feeds and the techniques needed to undertake different procedures, before learning how to CNC program the machines to undertake the work.
Ian Mallabone, Group HR & Training Manager at Nylacast commented: “We are strongly focused and committed to continuous development for our people, so we are elated to have won the Made in Midlands Awards yet again, especially as we were competing against such a great set of finalists. To win two years in a row demonstrates our commitment to the continued development of our people and dedication to bridging the skills shortage.”
The company now has 16 apprentices in the academy with a number of graduated apprentices now in full time employment within the business. Each apprentice has a dedicated mentor with extensive engineering knowledge and experience, there to support them through their journey and learning process.
This engineering apprenticeship equips the students with practical and theoretical knowledge and experience, coupled with formal qualifications including Level 3 NVQs and BTecs.
In January 2015, Nylacast launched its graduate training programme, taking on four engineering graduates to study a four-year course taking in all elements of engineering from design to production and quality.
With a predicted 96,300 new engineers, scientists and technologists needed to replace the retirements in the industry by next year, Nylacast is playing its part in filling the skills gap.