Congratulations to the group of apprentices at Wilton Engineering who passed their welding qualification in three months, allowing them to join the company’s workforce on the shop floor.
The five brilliant apprentices are Taylor Storey, 19, Anthony Davies, 17, Jamie Hutchinson, 28, Jake Churchill, 24 and Alex Singleton, 17.
They are part of Wilton’s first batch of 2023 intake to its in-house apprenticeship academy and have spent the past 14 weeks gaining fabrication skills in the dedicated training facility.
Having completed the level 2 City & Guilds diploma in fabrication and welding as part of their apprenticeship, they will continue to develop their skills contributing to Wilton’s major fabrication projects for customers in the defence and offshore industries.
View the plate and pipe welder apprenticeship profiles
This apprentice cohort is a mixture of students taking up the vocational route to a career from school along with others who have been drawn to it from other routes, including one ex-serviceman, Jamie Hutchinson.
From its extensive 112-acre site on the banks of the River Tees, which straddles Port Clarence and Haverton Hill, Wilton has an extensive order book of projects for the design, manufacture, blasting and painting of large modular complex steel structures, primarily for the Offshore Oil and Gas and UK defence sectors.
It’s open to both attracting and training talent to help it meet this demand for its services—and apprenticeships are key.
Wilton opened its apprenticeship academy in 2022 with a cohort of 30 apprentices whose ages ranged from 16 to 32. The company also offered apprenticeship opportunities to existing employees looking to upskill or retrain, with a pair of places taken by labourers from the site.
Bill Scott OBE DL, chief executive of Wilton, had this to say about the achievements of the five current apprentices and future recruitment plans: “I am exceptionally proud of our apprentices who are showing great dedication and passion for their training.
“To have our first group sail through their welding qualifications is fantastic and also an important milestone in their training. It means they can spend more time on the shop floor working alongside their colleagues gaining invaluable experience working on some impressive, large and complex projects.”
Scott continued: “We’re looking forward to welcoming our next intake of apprentices into the academy soon, which will help maintain the drum beat of apprentices each year feeding the next generation with highly skilled people within our organisation.
“We are taking a holistic approach to apprenticeships and are supplementing our trade apprentices with degree level design, accounting and trainee project controls engineers to strengthen our workforce across the business for the long-term.”
Visit the vacancies section on Wilton’s website to see what possible careers could await you at the company once you’ve undertaken an apprenticeship there.
