Apprenticeship gave me the foundations for a successful career in precision engineering
SWDT has been training engineers since its very first intake more than 55 years ago.
As we continue our celebration of #NAW2024, Alex Burkill from the class of 2007 explains how his apprenticeship gave him the foundations for a successful career at Newton Aycliffe precision engineering firm DPE.
“I’ve always enjoyed making things from a very young age, whether it was playing with Lego/Meccano, building model cars/planes or working on pedal bikes and later motorbikes/ cars…I was forever putting something together or taking something apart.
“I’ve never been a particularly academic person and I just ‘plodded on’ through school and college, so an apprenticeship was really a breath of fresh air for me.
“Under the supervision of my instructor/mentor Tony Garnett, I thoroughly enjoyed my time at the training centre and the practical hands-on nature of an apprenticeship really suited me.
“Tony guided us on each of the various units, starting with benchwork and progressing on to milling, turning, CNC machining and CAD. He is a very knowledgeable engineer with a great ability to instruct and explain in a clear and simple manner.
Alex pictured during lathe training at SWDT.
“During my time at SWDT I took part in a three-week apprentice exchange programme in Mulheim, Germany, mentored by Nigel Davison. On this trip I worked with German apprentices from Siemens Energy, visited various large-scale engineering locations and in a team we designed/presented an engineering project.
“I was fortunate enough to be presented with an award for Transnational Apprentice of the Year at the 2008 SWDT presentation day, linked to the Germany trip.”
Alex added: “The skills and knowledge I developed during my time at SWDT gave me great foundations to build upon when entering the second year of my apprenticeship which was carried out on site here at DPE.
“These were further built upon over the next three years on site at DPE, being mentored by the highly skilled, time-served engineers around me. A permanent position was offered to me at the end of the four years, after which I worked as a CNC machinist before progressing to the design office and then on to a senior position in our sales and technical department.
Alex Burkill with Advanced Apprentice – Machining Technician Logan Ashman, 18, from Darlington.
“All of our senior management team started out by serving an engineering apprenticeship, testament to how effective they are.
“Personally, I couldn’t recommend an apprenticeship scheme enough to young people, especially if you are more suited to hands on/practical learning. It’s great to see young people coming through the apprenticeship route.”
DPE (Durham Precision Engineering) was founded in 1985 with five employees and over the past four decades has taken on 31 apprentices, nearly all through SWDT.
Of the current 42 members of staff, five are serving an apprenticeship and ten are ex-apprentices who, like Alex, served their time at DPE.
In his current role as Head of Commercial, Alex is responsible for managing the sales and commercial team which creates, builds and maintains relationships with clients to increase sales revenue.
This entails discussing customer requirements, providing engineering solutions and support, job estimating, supplying designs and schemes, project managing and, if required, providing support on site with installing and running supplied parts.
South West Durham Training is taking part in the 17th annual National Apprenticeship Week (February 5-11), a campaign highlighting the positive impact of apprenticeships on individuals, businesses and the wider economy.
This year’s theme is ‘Skills for Life’ – how apprenticeships can help young people develop the skills and knowledge required for a rewarding career and employers to develop a workforce with future-ready skills.
#NAW2024 #SkillsForLife
