EMPLOYMENT and Learning Minister, Dr Stephen Farry met with ApprenticeshipsNI participants at the Northern Ireland Electricity (NIE) Training Centre.
The Minister said: “It is important to remember that without the involvement of employers there would be no apprentices. I would therefore like to congratulate NIE who, despite the economic challenges we face, continue to invest in training and skills in preparation for the opportunities which lie ahead.
“Employers understand the benefits that apprentices bring to their business with increased productivity, improved competitiveness and a competent work-force. We need to continue to get the message out to all our employers that apprenticeships can help businesses across all sectors by offering a route to harness fresh new talent or indeed train an existing employee.
“I have recently launched a campaign which endeavours to build on our previous promotions, to engage with and motivate more employers to avail of the benefits of taking on apprentices,” he continued.
Minister Farry also offered his Department’s support for NIE’s Apprentice Graduate Scholarship Programme which will see two recently qualified NIE apprentices per year being offered the opportunity to apply to undertake and complete a BEng or MEng which will be sponsored by NIE. Gordon Parkes, Human Resources Director at NIE said: “We need to recruit a significant number of graduate engineers to work on the electricity grid over the next decade. The Apprentice to Graduate programme is an important strategic initiative for NIE and we would encourage other employers to consider something similar.
“The high standard of our apprentices facilitates this programme, and by sponsoring apprentices to become graduate engineers we offer development opportunities to highly skilled and motivated employees who will already have a broad level of practical experience as NIE apprentices.”