St Helens will be home to the Arriva training academy which will take in
engineering apprentices from the North West & Wales
Arriva opened the doors to a brand new in-house training academy for engineering apprentices in St Helens on Friday 9th June.
The new academy will see between 5 and 10 new apprentices per year join Arriva’s current apprentices taking on the four year scheme which combines classroom based theory training, with practical on-site training at depots across the North West and North Wales.
For over twenty years Arriva has operated a successful apprenticeship scheme which has seen students undertake training in various colleges across the country.
Now in a collaborative approach with the S&B Automotive Academy ltd college, the new academy aims to bring all training to one central learning environment.
Michelle Drummond, HR Business Partner at Arriva North West and Wales
commented: “After running a successful apprenticeship scheme for over twenty years, we hope that centralising all training in our St Helens academy will help us develop more future managers whilst making our apprenticeship scheme even more successful.”
Upon completing the course all students will be fully qualified in their chosen discipline of either electrical, mechanical or coachbuilding engineering, where they will also be encouraged and mentored to apply for the vacancies that arise in their chosen area of expertise.
Many students from the apprenticeship scheme have since gone on to become engineering managers within the company. Dave Smith, fleet engineer and manager of the training programme started out as an apprentice commented;
“The North West Training academy is a great place for those looking to embark on a successful career as an engineer. Arriva has worked closely with S&B Automotive to provide a training course that is tailored specifically to help students attain a fully certified PCV qualification, something which will stand them in good stead to help them hit the
ground running once qualified.”
The academy situated on Jackson Street in St Helens, has been re-developed from part of Arriva’s St Helens garage and will have two classrooms that can hold up to 20 students, a Practical Room with state of the art equipment, IT Suite and kitchen.