Thorite Supports Engineering Advanced Apprenticeships at Appris

Phil Black - PII Editor 16/10/2014

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Following investment by member companies and the Skills Funding Agency, the first intake of 50 engineering advanced apprentices has been announced by the new £1m Appris training centre in Bradford. As a dedicated supporter of apprenticeships in general and engineering apprenticeships in particular, Thorite is delighted to have been chosen to provide a new Hydrovane rotary vane air compressor and install the compressed air ring main to power many of the machines at Appris.

Thorite has also manufactured 6 pneumatic training boards to provide apprentices with “hands on” pneumatic system design experience, and customised additional equipment for use in conjunction with the boards. The training centre”s Pneumatic/Hydraulic Training Room has been sponsored by Thorite, as the company is providing a free service scheme for the compressor and its ancillary equipment, supplemented by additional in-depth support from Hydrovane.

Speaking of his company”s backing for Appris Thorite”s Managing Director, Stephen Wright said: “I am an enthusiastic advocate for apprentice training and Thorite currently employs apprentices throughout the company in our marketing, service engineering, IT, pipefitting and systems engineering departments, while many of our most skilled and experienced engineers began their training as apprentices. With over 150 member companies and over 300 apprentices across West Yorkshire Appris is now the provider of choice for the engineering industry and I am confident the latest engineering advanced intake will only add to Appris” outstanding reputation.”

Appris was formed as a merger of Bradford Training Association Ltd incorporating Keighley and District Training Association and Leeds Training Trust. Appris” Bradford Operations Director, Kenny Stoddart said: “Key to the delivery of the project was the continued support from our member companies. For three consecutive years we have recruited over 100 engineering apprentices across West Yorkshire that have attended local colleges for off the job provision. Listening to feedback from our members, we have now created a centre which, thanks to forward-looking companies like Thorite, provides state of the art engineering technology for apprentice training and gives employers choice to utilise the new centre or continue with the college support.”

The new centre is central to Appris” strategy to increase the number of apprentices in the region, as well as offering its members use of the facilities for research & development and up-skilling of existing employees.