A Blaenavon business will soon be welcoming its first crop of graduates as part of a new two-year training scheme.
The graduates have taken their first steps in a career with the Doncasters Group, an international manufacturer of precision components for the aerospace, industrial gas turbine, specialist automotive, medical orthopaedic and petrochemical markets.
More than £6.5 million has been invested at Doncasters Blaenavon to create a centre of excellence for forging engine blades and casings.
Launched earlier this year, the graduate scheme attracted more than 400 applications for the placements and eight recruits have been selected following two intensive assessment days.
Each graduate on the scheme will be equipped with a broad range of knowledge. They will take on four, six-month projects in disciplines such as manufacturing and engineering at a number of Doncasters' businesses, including Doncasters Blaenavon.
Trainees will gain hands on experience of working on individual sites, while still benefiting from the resources of a global company.
Eric Lewis, CEO of the Doncasters Group, said: "We are committed to developing graduates into Doncasters' business leaders of the future.
"This challenging and diverse graduate scheme offers trainees, dependent on their skill set, career development in almost any direction and will allow them to acquire all the skills needed to make a difference to the business."
James Clark, an engineering graduate working for Doncasters, said: "As a graduate mechanical engineer, I was very keen to move into a highly specialised industry.
"Within weeks of joining Doncasters I was partnered with an experienced product development engineer, my mentor, and began working on real engineering projects.
"The company saw the potential for me to get some hands on fast track learning through a multi-million pound project which had been running since 2004. It was very easy to fit in as part of the team."
Doncasters is also investing in existing staff throughout the organisation, from shop floor staff and managers through to senior executives.
The company has a four-tiered system of management training courses aimed at managers at different levels of seniority.
This includes external training at Cranfield University.
Furthermore, Doncasters is developing its culture of Kaizen Karate and Six Sigma techniques by training staff across the organisation to be Kaizen Green Belts.
More than 500 employees in both manufacturing and commercial roles have been trained to date.
Mr Lewis added: "We are continuing to build on our strong foundations by sharing knowledge and expertise across the business.
"Doncasters has an extremely enviable reputation in the industry as a result of many years of investing in product development, leading edge integrated solutions for customers and, above all else, our workforce which can be considered in many cases as amongst the most skilled in the world."
First published on the Free Press website|