Multi-disciplinary engineering firm adi Group is celebrating the beginning of yet another year of its pioneering pre-apprenticeship scheme, whose aim is to lead talented young individuals towards a rewarding engineering career.

The programme is now in its seventh year, with the business soon to welcome a new wave of future engineers from years 10 and 11, allowing them to develop core engineering skills with a hands-on approach over a two-year span.

The company has made it a vital part of its business strategy to build platforms to empower and upskill young individuals, and also provides several apprenticeship schemes as a natural progression path for its young pre-apprentices.

Alan Lusty, CEO of adi Group, who started out as an apprentice himself, is keen to highlight the vital role pre-apprenticeships play in the current job market: “As a company, we prioritise the development of the younger generation through our pre-apprenticeship programmes,” he said.

“Not everyone understands the benefits that come from routes that differ from more traditional academia, and we’ve made it our mission to challenge those beliefs, and prove just how valuable and effective they can be.”

As a business with a strong commitment to social responsibility, adi Group aims to help close the widening STEM skills gap, showcasing why there’s a need to increase accessibility to the profession through different routes.

Through the scheme, adi is also inspiring other businesses to create similar opportunities, contributing to dispelling outdated myths about engineering, which are a significant obstacle to those who may be considering engineering as a career.

Spending half a day per week within the adi headquarters, the young students learn a range of valuable hands-on core skills from in-house mentors, all while experiencing a real-world work environment.

Rewarding students with a formal Engineering and Learning (EAL) accredited qualification, the programme opens doors for the youngsters completing it, allowing them to more easily move to the next step of their careers, which often involves pursuing a full-time apprenticeship.

James Sopwith, group strategic account director heading up the pre-apprenticeship scheme at adi, said of the programme’s ongoing success: “I am incredibly proud of all the young pre-apprentices that graduated this year and the ones who’ll soon be embarking on this rewarding, inspiring journey,” he commented.

“We believe offering access to these opportunities from a young age is making a difference, particularly when it comes to young people with limited opportunities who may not have been able to access the sector in other ways. We look forward to yet another successful year.”

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