A second-year apprentice from Luton who works at Linde Material Handling in Milton Keynes is inspiring other young people to consider an apprenticeship to start their career in engineering.
The apprenticeship programme at Linde Material Handling is a response to the ageing workforce in the engineering sector by shaping the workforce of today.
Linde introduced its apprenticeship programme in 2011 with the aim to recruit and retain young staff to plug the skills gap. To date it has taken on 139 apprentices across the UK.
The apprenticeship programme is UK wide and open to people of all ages, with this year’s applications open until 31st March 2019. Apprentices are taught a broad range of skills and theory, which allows them to gain valuable industry experience, develop their professional and personal skills whilst also gaining a formal qualification.
In the third year of the programme, all apprentices train at the Fork Truck Training Centre in Swindon for five weeks. The centre is the only purpose-built dedicated training centre for the forklift industry.
To date all apprentices that complete the apprenticeship programme have been offered a permanent job at Linde. Zoraiz Mansoor, 18 is in his second year of an apprenticeship at Linde. His role at Linde involves shadowing his mentor with servicing breakdowns and repairs out on the field within the Milton Keynes area. Zoraiz said: “After studying engineering at college, I decided that this was a vocation I wanted to learn more about so I looked into apprenticeships and saw that Linde was recruiting.
“I’m now two years in and I feel I’ve grown in confidence, I love being able to travel around and speak to different customers along with carrying out my day-to-day tasks. “In the future, I would like to work for Linde where I handle more responsibility, deal with customers directly and have the opportunity to further develop my skills.
“It’s been a great opportunity, being able to have the correct training along with receiving advice and gaining experience makes apprentices come away with much more than expertise and skills but by being a valued member of the team.”
Rob Evans, technical training manager at Linde Material Handling, said: “Working with our apprentices is so rewarding as it gives me the opportunity to see them grow from day one into responsible, skilled members of the team.”
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