National Apprenticeship Week 2016

Welcome to National Apprenticeship Week 2016, a week that aims to showcase the range and depth of opportunities that exist for great careers that start with an apprenticeship to not only young people but also employers. Over the week we will invite you to meet some of the companies that are being funded by the Shipwrights’ Apprenticeship Scheme and the young people this is subsequently giving fantastic opportunities to.

Krueger supply and install air-conditioning and heating systems into all manner of vessels from high end super yachts to traditional square riggers and from wind farm support vessels to tugs! The work sees them operating in very different places and with many different considerations and apprentice Owen is already experiencing this; “I enjoy everything I do at Krueger, from service/repair work to fabricating parts and components for heating kits for installations and supplying, I really enjoy going out to different marinas to carry out service/repair work, having a different scenery every time. I think working on a wide range of boats from luxury yachts, racing sailing boats, wind farm vessels and much more is a massive opportunity for me and something I thoroughly enjoy”.

The company are benefiting from bringing in fresh young enthusiastic talent and are already being rewarded by Owen’s efforts to learn and excel. Owen has quickly taken on a number of tasks for Krueger such as diagnostics on components and building wiring looms al whilst studying for his all important qualifications at college; “At college I’m doing a marine electrical course which fits together with a lot of my in house jobs such as when wiring relays into IP rated enclosures and making wiring looms for touch screen controllers. It helps me learn more about the components I’m putting into the looms such as relays and fuses”.

For Small to Medium Enterprises’ (SME’s) such as Krueger taking on an apprentice can seem like a difficult step to take but with support from the Shipwrights it is straight forward and rewarding. You get out of apprentice training what you put in and Kruger are certainly putting in plenty as Owen says; “At Krueger the atmosphere is really good, the people I work with are amazing. They are really helpful with everything and are always there for me if I need it. As we are quite a small business of only 7 employee’s we get to know each other really well and we all get on so well together”.

To find out more about the Shipwrights’ Apprenticeship Scheme please click here and to see an apprentice being supported by the Scheme in action tune in to ITV 1 at 20:00 this evening, 14 March, as Blyth Tall Ship appear on Robson Green’s Tales from Northumberland. Keep your eyes peeled this week for further news from our funded companies and for news on the 2016 Shipwrights’ Lectures being released this week.


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