Airbus Broughton welcomes largest intake of apprentices in years

Airbus has welcomed its largest number of apprentices in decades as 140 budding engineer and support-function apprentices began their journey at the aerospace giant’s Broughton site.

It is believed the number also represents the largest single-site intake of apprentices in one cohort by any organisation in Wales this year and includes 100 ‘craft’ and 40 undergraduate apprenticeships. In addition, 10 graduate trainees started at the plant last week.

New craft apprentice Kara Wright, 16, from Wrexham, left school this summer with an impressive 11 GCSEs, including Engineering, and was thrilled when she was accepted on to the apprenticeship programme. She said: “Airbus has a great reputation as an employer and I’d always wanted a hands-on job rather than be based in an office.

“I’m proud at how far I’ve already come since passing my GCSEs – becoming an apprentice while completing a NVQ.

“I’d love to pursue a career with Airbus, travel to the many different sites across the world, and maybe end up in a management role eventually.”

Paul McKinlay, Airbus Senior Vice President and Head of Broughton Plant, said: “Airbus apprenticeships have proven to be a highly successful springboard for those wishing to pursue a career in the thriving aerospace and aviation sectors.

“Of course, we as a company benefit too by having the opportunity to work with and develop the next generation of engineering and support-function talent and we hope many of the apprentices joining us today will go on to have long and successful careers at Airbus.”

Gavin Jones, Head of Early Careers at Airbus in the UK, added: “An apprenticeship at Airbus offers paid on-the-job training and invaluable work experience, all while still being able to further your education to either national diploma or university degree level.

“The value of our apprenticeship programme speaks for itself with so many going on to extremely successful careers in aerospace and aviation. Indeed, many of Airbus’s current senior managers started their careers through our apprenticeship programme.”