It’s job swap day for apprentices

Apprentices from two of the largest employers in Sudbury swapped jobs for the day as part of National Apprentice Week.

Lewis Drew, an apprentice at Mel Aviation, and Samuel Osborne, an apprentice at Delphi Diesel Systems, swapped roles on Tuesday.

The job-swap was arranged to give the apprentices an insight into the way other businesses in the engineering and technology sector work and to broaden their experiences.

To give even more apprentices a chance to see different working environments, a group of eight young staff from Delphi visited Mel Aviation on Monday for an introduction to the company. Tomorrow, Mel Aviation apprentices will visit Delphi.

The swap is just one of the initiatives encouraged by the Skills Funding Agency, which organised hundreds of events and activities throughout the week across England.

Managing director Gary Harvey, who started out as an apprentice at Mel Aviation himself, said: “Over the past decades, there has been a focus on sending a lot more young people to university, but now there is a renewed effort to promote apprenticeships, as we see graduates struggling to find work.

“Apprenticeships offer an alternative route to people who are keen to succeed but are unsure about university as an option.

“People who were my apprentices 20 years ago are still in the business, and pretty much all of our management team started off on the shop floor.”

“We are happy to be raising the profile of apprenticeships and celebrating the important role they have in equipping people of all ages with the skills that they need to prosper in their careers.”