MGTS increases apprentices for the food & drink industry

11 July, 2019

The employer-led and membership-based charity is celebrating the achievement with an official opening on Friday, 5 July by Redditch MP, Rachel Maclean.

MGTS already trains 800 apprentices at any one time across the whole of the engineering industry. It has invested in its Redditch facility and has doubled the space devoted to apprenticeship training for the food industry by 355m2, refurbishing and equipping this space with industry standard equipment.

The additional workspace supports the demand of an ever-growing food & drink engineering maintenance apprenticeship programme. MGTS has already delivered this apprenticeship programme for seven years at its engineering academy within Reasheath College with increasing numbers of starts each year.

The additional space enables MGTS to build on its offering to budding engineers from around the UK and local firms. Already working with the cream of the food and drink industry, including Müller, Arla, Ferrero, Dairy Crest, Morrisons and Heineken, this expansion will help the whole of the food & drink industry to recruit much needed, highly skilled engineers.

Win-win scenario

David Bridgens, CEO of MGTS, said: “The country needs skilled engineers and that applies particularly to the food & drink industry. We are playing our part by increasing the numbers of apprentices. This would mean that our yearly intake capacity would be 100; circa 50 at each site. This is a fantastic time to build a career in food process manufacturing and we can help individuals develop the necessary skills and businesses recruit a trained workforce. It’s a win-win for everyone involved.”

Naboth Tinarwo of Arla Foods added: “Engineering and maintenance skills are of vital importance to the food & drink sector. Our dairy industry like any other in the UK is faced with massive engineering skills shortage needed to drive efficiency, innovation and productivity.

“Arla Foods and MGTS have been tirelessly working together for the past 10 years to developing these engineering skills and will continue to do so in order deliver these capabilities. Arla foods welcomes the huge investment and commitment that MGTS is putting into increasing of training capacity and infrastructure, and I am convinced that we share the same ambition and we will continue to recruit more apprenticeships through this programme.”

Brandon Smith, an apprentice from Morrisons, commented on his apprenticeship: “Since starting my career as an engineer I have noticed myself viewing everyday situations a lot more logically. It has introduced me to new subjects I never thought I would be interested in.”

www.mgts.co.uk