Elddis's First Champion Apprentice

Elddis Ltd has awarded its first qualification through its Apprenticeship Scheme. John Paul Devanney aged 21, joined the scheme when he was sixteen and has been awarded a Manufacturing Engineering Apprenticeship in conjunction with TDR Training and Derwentside College.

Gary Jones, General Manager at Elddis is delighted to see the rewards of the scheme

‘We started the apprenticeship scheme five years ago to give school leavers the opportunity to train in manufacturing. Through partnerships with TDR Training and Derwentside College the apprenticeship now offers a recognised qualification. The scheme also aims to promote business awareness giving them skills to be promoted to team leaders and managers within Elddis’.

As well as being the first to graduate from the scheme John Paul is also the first apprentice to be appointed as a ‘5S Kaizen Champion’. Kaizen translates into ‘change for the good’ and is a Japanese method of workplace organisation. This qualifies John Paul to train other employees throughout the business in Kaizen techniques such as 5S.

Elddis is committed to continuous improvement and Kaizen is seen as the foundation of this business strategy. Derek Mullen, Change Agent at Elddis says:

“We have implemented Kaizen techniques throughout the organisation to improve our processes and the quality of our products. It’s great that our apprentices are adopting the Kaizen culture, they are a credit to the company”.

Published: 17/04/2008