Pictured at the launch of the new Magellan Academy which took place at SERC’s new SPACE campus in Bangor are Magellan representatives Alana Colenso HR Manager, Neil Taggart Operations Manager, Jason Latimer Apprentice Lead and SERCs Director of Curriculum and Information Services Dr Michael Malone and Head of School for Computing and Engineering Trevor Breadon.

Magellan Aerospace (Greyabbey) Limited is proud to launch the new Magellan Academy, with support from South Eastern Regional College. The Magellan Academy will run a bespoke training package suited to the needs of the business and will be delivered at the Colleges state of the art SPACE building in Bangor. The Academy will commence for the successful candidates in September 2016.

The UK has long been a leader in offering structured apprenticeship programmes to youth as an option to learn a skill or trade. It has been a time-honoured way to pass valuable skills from one generation to the next.

Magellan Aerospace (UK) Ltd (“Magellan”) partakes in this UK time-honoured tradition, annually recruiting trainees into the organisation through a number of different channels including its successful Apprenticeship Programme. The goal of the programme is to “grow our own” skilled workforce through full time study, day release and on the job training, with continual assessment through quality gateways.

The Apprenticeship Programme is a four year curriculum. The first year is spent full time at the Magellan Academy at SERC Bangor where apprentices complete a Level 2 NVQ and a Level 3 Technical Certificate. In the second and third year, apprentices complete the Level 3 NVQ through day release to the Magellan Academy and also spend four days a week in the workplace gaining hands on experience. Through a rotation plan, apprentices gain experience on different machines with different size materials / technical data. The fourth year is the improver year where apprentices can perfect their skills and fully integrate into their field of study. This also gives the Company an opportunity to evaluate the apprentices in full time employment.

Team building events are an extremely important part of the Apprenticeship Programme. They allow apprentices to come together to share knowledge and solve problems. They are expected to participate in competitions and challenges through colleges, university and sector skills events. In addition, apprentices contribute to the continuous improvement process of the Apprenticeship Programme.

Magellan Greyabbey plans to train several apprentices as STEM Ambassadors to encourage young people to consider STEM careers and qualifications in our industry and sustain our annual recruitment campaign.