JFN Celebrates National Apprenticeship Week 2022

After spotting a gap in the market, the Lakes College have developed a new apprenticeship scheme that will help to nurture and develop JFN EHSQ (Environmental, Health, Safety, and Quality) industry leaders of the future.

So impressed were the team at JFN with the scheme, and the quality of the budding EHSQ engineers, instead of a single apprentice, JFN recruited two and is supporting them in their journey to become fully fledged EHSQ Engineers.

To find out more about this collaboration, we spoke to those involved in this exciting new project, Ryan Groggins EHSQ Manager for the JFN engineering facility at Egremont and lead mentor for the apprentices and both EHSQ apprentices, Alice Cookson and Ella Dixon. As part of JFN’s continued development of its EHSQ capability, Ryan reached out to Lakes College to see how their new Level 4 Quality Practitioner Apprenticeship could support with developing new talent.

Ryan said, “In EHSQ there are very few industries that combine both health & safety and quality, so when looking at how I could recruit a readymade EHSQ Engineer I knew that this would be very difficult.

I have always been a huge supporter for developing and mentoring younger personnel and, when I saw that the College were starting a Quality Practitioner course; I had a light bulb moment that I could recruit one apprentice who would be fresh and be able to mould them into an EHSQ engineer.

JFN has not previously had a EHSQ engineer apprentice but, due to the excellent calibre that was found by LCWC, I succeeded in bring 2 apprentices (with the support of Gareth Purdy & Paul Crewdson. The collaboration we have held with the college and the close-working has been very pleasing, to know that the Quality apprentices are gaining a great understanding into the work of Quality and EHSQ.”

Reflecting on her time so far, Alice Cookson said: “This EHSQ based apprenticeship involves knowing a lot about your business and how quality affects its success. The course teaches you how to analyse your own business to understand how using quality can improve or what it is currently lacking. We also learn about other subjects such as: customer needs, business operations, commercial requirements, and contracts.

Being an apprentice is good as it presents opportunities to excel faster in the workplace whilst still learning compared to alternative routes…. and is a great way to start a successful career and have opportunities you never would have had.”

After having looked at both university and apprenticeships as possible next steps in her education Ella Dixon felt that an apprenticeship was the right choice for her: “After weighing out both advantages and disadvantages for both university and an apprenticeship, I decided to apply for an apprenticeship… As I am gaining experience in the working environment, towards the job I aspire to be doing in the future.

By being an apprentice, I am receiving all the help and guidance I need through both the mentors and managers at James Fisher Nuclear and Lakes College.

So far, the most memorable moment of my apprenticeship is not only meeting new people, who have all been lovely but also being able to visit different sites with different team members. I have now visited two different JFN sites, Malton and Winfrith, which helped me gain more understanding of the company and I found it interesting to see how each site is so different to others.”

JFN will soon be publishing a new Apprentice and Graduate programme, which will provide a new structure to improve how we develop and nurture our apprentices and graduates. As part of this, in line with JFN’s new Social Value Plan, all apprentices and graduates will be strongly encouraged to become STEM ambassadors to share their learning and further enable our engagement with our future workforce. JFN will also be encouraging some senior engineers to take up a STEM ambassadorship to pass on their knowledge and experience to help support and coach our younger apprentices and graduates in their careers.

Alice Cookson (Left) Ella Dixon (Right)