EVENTS
Panellists- from left, Neil Young( Teesside Freeport), Andrew Mills( ITS), Zoe Lewis( Middlesbrough College Group) and Martin Liddle( CF Fertilisers). PICTURES: CHRIS BOOTH
Tees Business LIVE: February 12, 2026
THE CURVE, TEESSIDE UNIVERSITY
INVEST IN THE FUTURE
Tees firms urged to‘ spread the word and take on apprentices’
A
rallying call to employ apprentices was made after the latest Tees Business LIVE event heard that only
20 % of businesses currently have them. The sobering statistic was given by Middlesbrough College Group CEO and principal Zoe Lewis CBE – one of a fourstrong panel debating the current state of the UK apprenticeship system under the title of Apprenticeships: Hype or Hope?
Guests gathered at The Curve, the flagship events venue at Teesside University, for an event organised by Tees Business in conjunction with the North East Chamber of Commerce, and which coincided with National Apprenticeships Week.
The panel – Zoe Lewis, CF Fertilisers’ general manager Martin Liddle, Industrial Technology Systems CEO Andrew Mills and Teesside Freeport skills and workforce development manager Neil Young – discussed the merits and pitfalls of the current apprenticeships system.
And while sympathising particularly with SMEs trying to juggle the demands of growing their businesses with the complexities of the system, Zoe – whose college group currently has around 2,000 apprentices in learning across the North- East – felt more firms should look to take apprentices on.
She said:“ One in five businesses take apprentices – we’ d love that to be four out of five, so we need to flip the narrative.
12 | Tees Business
“ It should be seen as an investment and not a cost. In the first year, it might be a bit of a cost. Second year, it’ ll probably at least break even. And third year, they’ re bringing in a lot of money. So if you can hold your nerve, it absolutely pays back in bucket loads.”
Martin Liddle said apprenticeships for CF Fertilisers were“ part of our DNA”, with thousands offered over the years and many current managers having gone down that route.
But he admitted that with CF now employing 137 manufacturing people on Teesside, rather than the thousands once employed by ICI, he had wondered if they’ d“ bitten off more than we could chew” by having apprentices.
He explained:“ Every hour that we are asking a mentor or supervisor to invest in that apprentice is time away from something else they would be doing, and with it being a small team, that has a big impact and is a big ask on those employees.
“ But the fact that it’ s a business built with apprentices really gives a commitment back to them- it wants to have apprentices and continue that legacy. So when we’ re talking about apprentices, it’ s not something we talk about as a modern HR initiative that we’ re trying to kick-off – it’ s really building on 70 years of history.”
Andrew Mills said ITS had broadened its apprenticeship intake to include such roles as business admin and finance, rather than just the more traditional engineering and software development roles.
He added:“ We want to be sustainable and robust, so we need to be pushing early-stage career people through the organisation.”
And Neil Young felt it was encouraging that the first two main occupiers of the Teesworks site, SeAH Wind and Net Zero Teesside, had both shown commitment to apprentices.“ It’ s really good and they are buying into what we all want for the area,” he said. > The meeting also featured Tees Business director Dave Allan in discussion with his colleagues, Middlesbrough College Apprentice of the year Millie Smith and current admin apprentice Shane Hopson. Pictured below during their chat, both spoke proudly about how apprenticeships had changed the trajectory of their careers.
Tees Business LIVE events are organised by Tees Business in partnership with series associate North East Chamber of Commerce.