Tamas Rieder (left), Service & Aftersales Manager at Landia, with Landia apprentice Will Lewis.

Landia, the leading pump and mixing manufacturer, has welcomed government moves to invest in tens of thousands of new apprenticeships and training opportunities.

At a time when around one million 16-to-24-year-olds are neither working, nor in full-time education or training, Landia believes that its consistent success in developing highly tailored opportunities creates huge benefits for a business and those young people keen to carve out a career.

Speaking for Landia, Tamas Rieder (Service and Aftersales Manager), who steers Landia apprentices through their journey from beginning to end, commented:

“To reap the rewards of seeing homegrown apprentices mature into skilled employees, companies must now take full responsibility and realise that your workforce is only going to be as good as you train them to be.

Arm your apprentices with the proper tools to do the job, encourage them, give them time and proper hands-on experience.

There’s no doubt that this is a long process, but it is very rewarding and totally worth all the effort. It is a big win-win; young new engineers who already have first-class skills and the right attitude towards serving our customers. In addition to our five fully qualified apprentices (three of whom have been Landia for over a decade) our current apprentice, Will Lewis, is soon to complete his first 12 months with us.”

He continued: “Gone are the days when smaller firms would just cash in for free on a flood of new apprentices that came out of the big businesses hungry for work. Those big industry names simply aren't there anymore.

Anything the government can do, as they say, ‘to back the next generation by giving young people more opportunities to learn a trade, earn a wage and achieve and thrive’ should be welcomed.

Successive governments decided that it was far cheaper to import skills than help train our own children, so no wonder we have so many unskilled, unmotivated young people in the UK because nobody has trained them. It is high time to put this right.”