TTE Technical Training Group is offering a helping hand to students on the verge of making crucial career decisions with an invitation to an open day on its Tees Valley Production Technicians Programme (TVPT).
The event, now in its fifth year, is aimed at 16-21-year-olds and is designed to inform them about the many career opportunities that exist in the oil and gas, engineering and process industries.
The day provides an in-depth introduction to the apprenticeship programme as a vocational route to both a higher education and a good job.
This year sees the graduation of the very first group of students to finish the four-year TVPT programme which is sponsored by several leading companies including BASF, SembCorp Utilities, Huntsman and Dow.
All of these students have been offered full-time employment by sponsor companies and, while salaries will vary from company to company, a process technician can expect a starting salary of about £25,000 a year with opportunities to earn more once fully trained.
If they work their way up to an engineer's position a salary of up to £40,000-plus can be reasonably expected.
Keith Hunter, TTE managing director, said: "The principle idea behind the TVPT programme is to provide not only a high standard of educational excellence but to give real hands-on experience."
William Cheng, is a graduate of the course, who joined in 2004 and works for Sabic.
He said: "I've really enjoyed the course because it's given me the right balance of technical education and training and real job working experience.
"I'd been involved with TTE from school while working to get my GCSE in Engineering and given my predicted grades I was invited to an interview for the TVPT programme.
"I've learned a great deal over the four years, with the programme allowing me to work under supervision in the workplace on the job itself. Over the four years of the course I've also been able to develop a lot of transferable skills which will be good for me in the future."
William added: "Working for Sabic also allows me to carry on with my education. They are very keen to develop people and I'm studying for my Foundation Degree on a day release basis."
George Ritche, of Sembcorp Utilities UK, representing the 11 sponsor companies and the North East Process Industries Cluster (NEPIC), which supports the programme, said: "The programme has proved a major success in its first four years and is aimed at equipping talented young people with the flexible and transferrable skills - combining practical and technical training in process technology with a range of engineering and process skills - required to run process plants on Teesside in the future."
The open day will take place on August 14 at TTE at South Bank, and will comprise two sessions from 10am-12noon and 1pm-3pm.
Anyone interested in attending or more information should contact Graham Plant on 01642 770301 or email recruitmentinfo@tte.co.uk or check out the website www.tte.co.uk
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The Tees Valley Process Technician Apprenticeship is a great way to start a career in the Process Sector. It is also an specially good example of the alternative route to professional qualifications at graduate level without going to university, as I am sure a number of the Technicians qualifying from this fantastic apprenticeship will go on to foundation and full degrees in their chosen subjects. Yes the Apprenticeship route to a great career is still open to talented young people
I know that the folks that choose this “vocational� route to professional qualifications are not disenfranchised by their choice. In fact quite the opposite, the people who take the apprenticeship route, then work steadily on to achieve a degree while working, are highly prized by the companies that they work for. A number of the top managers around Teesside have taken this route – including Paul Booth at SABIC, Gary Conroy at Artenius, George Ritchie at Sembcorp and dare I say it myself. The Apprenticeship route to a great career is alive and kicking, so well done to those young people at TTE who are qualifying this year from this and all the other Apprenticeship courses on offer there. They are the people who will ensure the prosperity of the Tees Valley into the future.
There is information about routes to an apprenticeship and other qualifications suitable for the chemical, pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, and its engineering supply chain, on the Q&A area of the NEPIC web site - www.nepic.co.uk. There are also two down-loadable films that describe these careers on the same site.