Q&A with apprenticeship partner, Copper Alloys

Q. How many apprentices do you currently employ?

A. We are actually currently recruiting our first commercial apprentice through Newcastle and Stafford Colleges Group, which is now live. Historically, we have employed graduate apprentices, but we feel that this is the right time to take on apprentices in other areas of the business.

Q. Typically, what kind of roles are available to apprentices?

A. We employ staff within a range of business functions, where apprentices will be able to gain a varied skill-set. These include the commercial team, sales, marketing, business administration, production and finance. There are lots of interesting projects to get involved in and to gain rounded experience within this team.

Q. What training opportunities are on offer to your apprentices?

A. We are offer a class-leading professional training programme alongside our successful mentorship initiative. We actively encourage all employees to engage in ongoing professional development and this is also open to apprentices.

Q. Are there any benefits that apprentices receive as employees?

A. We are pleased to offer apprentices upper quartile earnings, a company bonus scheme and a competitive pension scheme.

Q. What can an apprentice expect to earn?

A. We offer apprentices a highly competitive package of incentives and we pay our apprentices above the minimum wage. Our current Commercial Apprentice vacancy has a weekly wage of £129.00 per week.

Q. What do you look for when recruiting an apprentice?

A. It is really important to us that candidates come across as engaging, and so at interview stage, we are keen for them to ask questions, show active listening skills, display clarity of thought and clear speech as they will often being liaising with customers and suppliers.

Q. How can apprenticeships progress within your business on completion of their apprenticeship?

A. There are lots of opportunities available at Copper Alloys for committed apprentices to develop and grow into experts in their chosen field. We truly value apprentices and see them as the future of our business. We are really excited to see our apprenticeship opportunities develop over the next few years.

Visit nscg.ac.uk/startnow for more information on our current vacancies in the Engineering sector.