The Hadley Group is one of Europe’s largest privately owned cold rolled steel manufacturers and has been at the forefront of new innovations for the past 40 years.

Operating from purpose built premises in the United Kingdom, Dubai, Germany and Thailand, the Hadley Group employs around 450 workers and have in fact been training apprentices for the last 30 years.

Hiring one or two new apprentices each year, the Hadley Group has a rich heritage in growing its own talent and even some of the company’s senior directors and technical managers came through the scheme.

Christopher Sweet began his apprenticeship at the Hadley Group nine years ago and is today recognised as one of the company’s most talented Design & Development Engineers. We caught up with Chris to discover more about his journey.

Great to meet you Chris. So how did your apprenticeship begin?

I left school in 2001 and was particularly interested in looking for an apprenticeship that would lead me into design. I initially saw an advert in the local paper for an employer-led engineering training organisation and attended an interview where they offered me a place at their facility. Whilst working towards my Performing Engineering Operations qualification, I got an interview with the Hadley Group and was again successful in my application and offered a placement on their Advanced Apprenticeship Scheme.

Which is of course a fantastic achievement, especially as they’ve been training apprentices for the last 30 years.

Correct. It’s a five year scheme with the possibility of a permanent work placement at the end. For the next nine months I worked towards my NVQ level 2 in Performing Engineering Operations whilst being employed by the Hadley Group and then entered the workplace. For the next two years I took up different placements within the organisation such as product development, database CAD and the tooling room. This gave me the basic understanding of how all aspects of the group work together to become a profitable business.

So did that mark the end of your academic education?

No, not at all. I was released one day a week to attend college in order to obtain more qualifications. My first two years at college were spent achieving my B-Tech National Certificate in Mechanical Engineering and I also went on to complete my Higher National Certificate.

That’s really impressive. Fast-forward five years, what happened when you completed your apprenticeship? Well I was then offered a job in the design office as a Trainee Design & Development Engineer. A specific training plan was then setup for me over the next two years with a goal at the end for me to become a full Design & Development Engineer.

And that is of course something that you achieved.

Yes. Over the last three years I’ve been working as a fully trained engineer and have designed a vast range of tooling to produce different products. The Hadley Group has continued their support by investing in new equipment, technologies and training, thus enabling the company and myself to stay ahead of our competitors.

So an apprenticeship is something that you’d recommend?

My apprenticeship gave me valuable hands on experience at work whilst still allowing me to follow further education and acquire new qualifications. This I feel makes me more attractive to employers and may give me the edge over any fellow competitors applying for jobs.

Sound advice. Thanks for your time Chris. Chris is just one talented apprentice that the Hadley Group has produced. Today, the group works with EEF and sends all of its technical apprentices to our Skills Training Centre. We also help them during the recruitment and selection process to ensure they employ more people like Chris and continually support them in the development of their engineers.

If you’d like to discover how we can help you source and create talent like Chris, get in touch with our team of advisors.