Head start for apprentices

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L_R: Budding engineers Nathan Gay, Daniel Smith and Aaron Houston will help to make precise plastic parts for the pharmaceutical industry
L-R: Nathan Gay, Daniel Smith and Aaron Houston will make precise plastic parts for the pharmaceutical industry

Three apprentice engineers from St Austell have gained a head start on life at new employer Polymermedics – by joining the company weeks in advance of their new course.

The early start gave former Penrice students Nathan Gay, Aaron Houston and Daniel Smith a chance to settle in and even take part in the high-tech manufacturer’s team building away day.

Alongside their studies at Cornwall College, the young engineers will spend three days a week learning technical skills with Polymermedics, which makes billions of precise plastic parts for the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries.

The company hopes that creating quality jobs and investing in local skills will help to bring through a new generation of young, Cornish engineering talent.

Polymermedics operations director, David Yallop, said: “The guys have been settling in really well — they’ve joined us on our company away day, and it already feels like they’re part of the family here.

“Our challenge is always to find really good people. After all, they’re going to be working with some very high tech equipment, to extremely fine specifications; the parts we mould are used in medicine, so we can’t make mistakes.

“We’re making a significant investment in developing new talent, and we hope it shows high-precision manufacturing is alive and well in Cornwall.”

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