Establishing a successful training academy as part of an ongoing commitment to investment in people and engineering has earned international firm Nylacast a place at the prestigious Plastics Industry Awards.
The company, which specialises in the development of bespoke polymer components and has bases in the UK, USA and South Africa, is in the running for the top prize in the Best Training and Development Programme of the Year.
Nylacast joins other world class companies on the shortlist for the awards in London later this year.
Nylacast invests in people through its Engineering Training Academy, launched last year. It is utilised by young apprentices coming into engineering as well as for upscaling the skills and knowledge of the current workforce. The company, which employs 400 people, believes in rewarding the loyalty of long serving and dedicated employees with structured training programmes and opportunities to further their knowledge and gain qualifications.
In addition to this, Nylacast’s apprenticeship programme, established five years ago, has been extended as part of plans to rapidly expand the business. The number of participants has grown year on year and the company will be recruiting more trainees this summer.
Mussa Mahomed, Nylacast Group CEO, said: “We are so pleased with our training programmes and value all our staff members, so it is great to see we have been recognised by the judges at The Plastics Industry Awards. Each of our employees brings different skills and qualities that we can build on. There is currently a deficit in engineering skills worldwide, and we’re pleased to be able to help fill that gap and show other young people that there are exciting career paths in engineering out there that they might not have considered.”
Nylacast is also working to increase the awareness of engineering in schools, colleges and communities. Ian Mallabone, Group HR & Training Manager said, “These are exciting times at Nylacast. Not only is our Academy used to house our current training and apprenticeship schemes, but importantly it also allows us to expand on our learning and development programmes, both internally and externally, to help bridge the engineering skills gap and help build the engineers of tomorrow. We have state of the art machinery in our production facilities, and our success depends on having high calibre Nylacast engineers to operate and run the technology.”
Nylacast apprentices are trained in mechanical, quality and maintenance engineering, and the firm prides itself on a traditional ethos that sees apprentices learn in a manual machine room as well as a CNC programming room. This allows the trainees to understand the manual process, machine speeds and feeds and the techniques needed to undertake different procedures, before learning how to CNC program the machines to undertake the work.
The company currently has 16 apprentices in its academy with a number of graduated apprentices now in full time employment within the business. Each apprentice has a dedicated mentor with extensive engineering knowledge and experience, there to support them through their journey and learning process.
This engineering apprenticeship equips the students with practical and theoretical knowledge and experience, coupled with formal qualifications including Level 3 NVQs and BTecs.
In January 2015, Nylacast launched its graduate training programme, taking on four engineering graduates to study a four-year course taking in all elements of engineering from design to production and quality.
With a predicted 96,300 new engineers, scientists and technologists needed to replace the retirements in the industry by next year, Nylacast is playing its part in filling the skills gap.
The Plastics Industry Awards, launched in 2001, recognise and celebrate excellence in an increasingly competitive market. The annual awards ceremony is dedicated to rewarding innovation and acknowledges the best companies and people in the plastics market. The ceremony takes place on Friday October 9 at The London Hilton on Park Lane.