Member Article

Over 1,000 apply for Siemens’ apprenticeships as Newcastle operations set for £4 million investment

Around 1,000 young hopefuls have applied for 20 Siemens apprenticeships in the North East, the boss of the firm’s successful energy services training operation has revealed.

Speaking to Bdaily during National Apprenticeship Week, Mark Armstrong, himself a former apprentice, said Siemens’ regional operation is going from strength to strength - and £4 million of investment in the Newcastle operations will take place over the next year.

The next generation of wind turbine technology requires new skills and safety competencies, and Siemens are positioning themselves to provide such training.

The firm say the latest raft of applications is testament to the young people’s enthusiasm for engineering and wants to expose more primary and secondary school pupils to careers in the sector.

Last year, the energy giant’s training operations at the former CA Parsons Works in Heaton provided over 120,000 hours worth of training for Siemens’ clients and workforce around the world.

Mark said: “I started in 1979 as a 16-year-old and I’ve had various different roles in operational management. My legacy will be the people that we bring through the training centre and there is no greater pride than seeing young people, and experienced technicians being upskilled.

“70% of the senior management team were apprentices, and we take great pride in making that known to our youngest apprentices.

“It inspires them to think they can be head of sales, or head of operations, because the person currently in that role was once at their level.”

Siemens training centre at CA Parsons Works

Mark explains that balancing the number of apprentices with experienced personnel in the field is crucial to making the business work.

Siemens also have training bases in Orlando in the US, Germany and Denmark - all managed to make sure there are global-standard skills.

Mark added: “There is a challenge because we need standardised skills across the board, but there does need to be some regional variation.

“Working under the UK’s Health and Safety Executive guidelines can be quite different to the equivalent in another country. We have to make sure that we’re constantly working towards the highest specifications, to give our customers the confidence that their machinery is in competent hands.”

The Newcastle training centre aims to create its future waves of apprentices by working with local primary and secondary schools to inspire pupils to take STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) subjects.

Mark Armstrong, general manager of Siemens’ Energy Service Training Centre

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Keighley .