FLAKT Woods, the Colchester engineering company specialising in airflow products, has taken on four new apprentices as part of a growing programme.

Helen Gilfillan, the firm’s HR director, said the apprenticeship system had been a great success story for the firm.
She said: “We recently counted the number of current employees who have gone through the company’s apprenticeship scheme. Out of 310 employees, a total of 46 had passed through the scheme with a combined total of 946 years’ service.”
The firm’s apprenticeship scheme has a long history of investing in the town’s school leavers.
Apprentices combine formal classroom training with hands-on vital work experience.
Helen added: ‘The apprenticeship scheme is very important to Flakt Woods and enables the company to provide training and development to the apprentices utilising the in-house expertise of ex-apprentices.
“The apprentices will spend a few months within each department, such as shop floor, manufacturing services support, sales, purchasing, IT and quality to name a few. This gives them a unique opportunity of providing an insight into the overall organisation.”
The HR department compiles training plans that incorporate vocational training, on-the-job training and day release with the support of the Colchester Institute.