Six young people are looking forward to a rewarding career in engineering after successfully completing a four-year apprenticeship scheme at Briggs Equipment.

The Cannock-based company employs approximately 700 people with 350 of those in its engineering team. This year, it welcomes Thomas Wood, Liam Parsons, Ryan Matthews, Matthew Shaw, Stephen Grant and Matthew Molyneux after they achieved their National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) level 3 in Engineering.

Dean Mansell, Briggs Equipment's Engineering Standards Manager, explains: "Each year, our apprentices are exposed to a vast amount of experience from hands-on practical work through to classroom-based learning at college where they benefit from the theory behind forklift truck engineering."

The first year of the apprenticeship scheme focuses on inducting students to their roles in either Briggs' workshop or out in the field where they gain general, all-round engineering knowledge. During the second year, they are assigned practical tasks including carrying out supervised routine service and maintenance work, which provides more hands-on experience.

Apprentices are placed permanently in their specific field throughout their third and fourth years to work independently but with guidance from experienced colleagues as they develop into fully qualified engineers.

Gavin Wickham, Briggs' Operations Director, added: "Engineering offers a really rewarding career and is vital to the success of a business such as ours. Having come from an engineering background I know first-hand that engineering can open many doors as a career."

Briggs' apprenticeship programme is an integral part of the business. Its engineers receive first-class training to develop their careers in a world-class company. Briggs welcomes all applications from existing engineers and people who are interested in its apprenticeship scheme.

As a leading forklift service provider and sole distributor in Great Britain of Yale Europe Materials Handling products, Briggs invests heavily in its apprenticeship programme to assist those interested in becoming fully qualified engineers with the prospect of employment upon successful completion.