Six young people are looking forward to a rewarding career in
engineering after successfully completing a four-year
apprenticeship scheme at Briggs Equipment.
The Cannock-based company employs approximately 700 people with
350 of those in its engineering team. This year, it welcomes Thomas
Wood, Liam Parsons, Ryan Matthews, Matthew Shaw, Stephen Grant and
Matthew Molyneux after they achieved their National Vocational
Qualification (NVQ) level 3 in Engineering.
Dean Mansell, Briggs Equipment's Engineering Standards Manager,
explains: "Each year, our apprentices are exposed to a vast amount
of experience from hands-on practical work through to
classroom-based learning at college where they benefit from the
theory behind forklift truck engineering."
The first year of the apprenticeship scheme focuses on inducting
students to their roles in either Briggs' workshop or out in the
field where they gain general, all-round engineering knowledge.
During the second year, they are assigned practical tasks including
carrying out supervised routine service and maintenance work, which
provides more hands-on experience.
Apprentices are placed permanently in their specific field
throughout their third and fourth years to work independently but
with guidance from experienced colleagues as they develop into
fully qualified engineers.
Gavin Wickham, Briggs' Operations Director, added: "Engineering
offers a really rewarding career and is vital to the success of a
business such as ours. Having come from an engineering background I
know first-hand that engineering can open many doors as a career."
Briggs' apprenticeship programme is an integral part of the
business. Its engineers receive first-class training to develop
their careers in a world-class company. Briggs welcomes all
applications from existing engineers and people who are interested
in its apprenticeship scheme.
As a leading forklift service provider and sole distributor in
Great Britain of Yale Europe Materials Handling products, Briggs
invests heavily in its apprenticeship programme to assist those
interested in becoming fully qualified engineers with the prospect
of employment upon successful completion.