Apprenticeships scheme will leave a lasting legacy

A £2.1m scheme is aiming to provide vital support to local apprentices affected by the downturn. But are Teesside companies prepared to buy into it? Jez Davison reports.

KEIRON McKinley is thanking his lucky stars. The Acklam-born wannabe engineer was left high and dry when the Wilton-based plastics firm, Artenius UK, collapsed into administration last summer - putting his four-year mechanic apprenticeship in serious jeopardy.

He had embarked on the scheme with the TTE Technical Training Group - one of the UKs largest technical training organisations in the engineering, process and oil and gas sectors - in the summer of 2008 before gaining a placement at Artenius.

But the move looked to be dead in the water when Artenius mothballed its Wilton site last year after Spanish parent La Seda de Barcelona ran into financial difficulties.

Eighteen-year-old Keiron, a former pupil of St Davids school in Acklam, Middlesbrough, recalls the day he was told his apprenticeship was going up in smoke. We all got called in and a letter was read out to us saying our apprenticeship was terminated. I was gutted. But salvation came when Artenius was bought by Korean giant Lottes KP Chemicals division in January.

The new owner has given Keiron the go-ahead to complete his apprenticeship via a new multi-million pound training scheme launched last week on Teesside. The £2.1m
Tees Valley Apprenticeship (TVAP) Programme aims to help more than 150 apprentices who are currently on level 2 or 3 of their apprenticeship and who are at risk of redundancy - or may be unable to complete their course due to the economic downturn.

The funding is in place until March 2012 - buying Keiron enough time to complete the final two years of his apprenticeship. It is part of the Tees Valley Industrial Programme (TVIP): £60m of support drawn up for the process industry after Corus decided to mothball its Teesside Cast Products plant in Redcar.

Industry bosses claim that TVAP, a one-off programme, is no quick fix but a scheme that will leave a lasting legacy on Teesside.

Phil Jones, chief executive of the Darlington-based National Skills Academy for the
Process Industries (NSAPI) - which will manage the TVAP funding - said: We want to support as many companies as we can. Apprenticeships have been proven to work and companies will see the benefits of this scheme long after the two years are up.
The success or failure of the scheme depends largely on buy-in from the private sector, which has been hit hard by the recession.

Process bosses are under no illusions about the difficulty of getting companies to commit to taking on an extra apprentice - even if up to 75% of the cost will be funded by the programme.

George Ritchie, senior vice president of Sembcorp Utilities and chairman of the TVAP steering group, said: Its like pushing a wheelbarrow of water up a hill. But early signs are encouraging; so far, almost 50 local firms have applied to the scheme.

Project bosses want at least another 50 on board - with small and medium-sized firms a key target.

And smaller companies with limited resources are being urged to join forces to spread the cost and workload of managing an apprentice.

Stan Higgins, chief executive of the North East Process Industry Cluster (NEPIC), said: A cluster approach can work. Three or four SMEs working in a geographical area can share the management responsibility for that apprentice and reduce costs for the business. He warns that the consequences of industry not investing in skills could be catastrophic for the area. The whole region will be like a desert if industry does not get its act together. We have to look forward to the future. ICI is gone. I now care about the 500 companies that have replaced ICI.

Source: Evening Gazette