Tees Business #4 | Page 28

28 | Tees Business Apprentice integration Of Applied Integration’s 35-strong team, six are now apprentices – that’s an impressive 17% of the workforce. Future leaders – Applied Integration director Garry Lofthouse (centre) with, from left, apprentices Craig McEvoy, Lucy Phenix, Hayden Cartwright, Conner Harvey, Jordan Wales and Jack Gould. OUR TEAM OF THE FUTURE D irectors at Applied Integration say the company’s six apprentices can follow in their footsteps by becoming the Teesside firm’s leaders of the future. With three of the Stokesley company’s four directors having started their working lives as apprentices, they recently took their apprenticeship numbers to six. New recruits Jack Gould and Hayden Cartwright have joined talented trainee engineers Jordan Wales, Craig McEvoy, Conner Harvey and Lucy Phenix on Applied Integration’s apprenticeship programme. Applied Integration director Lee Raywood, who began his career as a multi-skilled apprentice with IMS Lycrete in the early 1990s, says the company is investing in its long-term future. “We’re employing an active role in looking towards the future by taking on the brightest prospects from the local area. “Talented young people are the future of our industry and our business, so by ensuring that a steady stream of talented, well trained individuals pass through our doors, we’re laying the foundations for sustainable growth for years to come. “We ultimately want to create a production line of talented, motivated and qualified engineers for our business. “We want to encourage local talent to come into the engineering industry and develop what can be an exciting, Applied Integration’s six-strong team of apprentices in instrumentation and controls are: challenging and lucrative career. While graduate recruitment remains critical for a business such as ours, apprenticeships are an excellent alternative to the traditional route into engineering of attending university.” Fellow director Garry Lofthouse, himself a former apprentice instrument technician with ICI, added: “Our latest apprentices have been taken on as they have shown all the characteristics required to be a successful member of our team. “As well as passing the aptitude tests with flying colours, both Jack and Hayden are ambitious, intelligent, willing to learn and, most importantly of all, they both show the desire necessary in order to build a career within the automation and controls industry. “Our third year apprentices are now getting involved in commissioning and project work, which is fantastic for them and highlights for all six of our apprentices the potentially exciting careers they have ahead o