James Ashby, Technical Manager at Liberty Powder Metals Ltd, is investing in new staff through apprenticeships with TTE. Joanna McCourt, apprentice at Liberty Powder Metals Ltd, is on our Laboratory Technician Apprenticeship, that has recently been accredited by the Royal Society of Chemistry. This apprenticeship is the only accredited programme in the North East. James spoke to us about his experience working with TTE as an apprenticeship provider, including his feeling around the recent accreditation.
“We found out about TTE as an apprenticeship provider through word-of-mouth, since Liberty Powder Metals Ltd are currently based on the site of the Materials Processing Institute, existing networks within the site told us about TTE. Plus, we can see TTE from our back window!
It was a no brainer to work with TTE as a provider. It made sense both geographically, and because of the qualifications and facilities TTE can offer. The equipment and processes we use on site to inspect our products are not wide-spread, so it was not possible to find someone with specific experience. Therefore, it was vital we had a partner we could work with to develop the expertise we needed in a way we could guide to meet the goals of our business.
As we are a new start-up company and having such a small team means we have limited internal experience to develop staff on our own. Going down the apprenticeship route has helped us develop the skills and knowledge we need, and this gets baked into our ways of working so that we can pass on this learning to other staff.
The Royal Society of Chemistry accreditation gives us additional reassurance that the training offered by TTE is of a high standard. It also supports future opportunities for the both the apprentice and the company by getting involved with the RSC, which is great. Our intention is always to take on apprentices as full-time employees, and this accreditation further assures they will be a huge benefit to our evolving workforce.
I would recommend this apprenticeship scheme to other companies based on both our own experience with TTE and the standard of teaching that the accreditation guarantees. Working with TTE has been a seamless process. They have been very helpful in walking us through the full process up front, and continue to make sure everything is on track with regular check-ins.”