MD Martin Hodgkinson is pictured here with Arthur

Loyal employee retires after more than 20 years’ service

We said goodbye to Arthur Green at the end of January this year as he retired after more than 20 years’ service with the company.

Arthur worked as a plater in the company’s fabrication division and also operated the press brake from time to time. MD Martin Hodgkinson is pictured here with Arthur after presenting him with a retirement gift and card from everyone in the company.   Martin said that Arthur would be missed by all, although the fabrication shop would be a lot quieter without the sound of Arthur’s hammer.

Apprentice Gains NVQ Level II

Our Machine Shop apprentice, 21 year old Bradley Ellerby, is pictured here receiving his NVQ Level II Engineering Practices certificate from MD Martin Hodgkinson.

Our Machine Shop apprentice, 21 year old Bradley Ellerby, successfully completed his NVQ Level II in Engineering Practices this summer and is pictured here receiving his certificates with MD Martin Hodgkinson.  Bradley joined the company in April 2013 and is training to become a skilled machinist on our manual horizontal borers.  He is to continue his day release college training in September at North Notts college studying NVQ Level III in Mechanical Engineering (Manufacture).

Another new Machine Shop Apprentice

We have recently taken on another apprentice in our Machine Shop in a bid to ensure the skills of our older employees are passed on for the future.

19 year old Bradley Ellerby is the grandson of one of our longest serving machine shop employees and, having always taken a keen interest in what his grandfather does for a living, has been hoping to join us for a while.  He will start his day release college training this coming September at North Notts college in Worksop and will be studying for his NVQ Level 2 in Mechanical Engineering.

Apprentices complete training

Two of our apprentices successfully complete their apprenticeship training.

Two of J P Forrest & Son’s apprentices are pictured here being presented with their NVQ Level 3 certificates by Managing Director Martin Hodgkinson. Matthew Roberts and Liam Crayon, both joined the company shortly after leaving school in 2007, and have now successfully completed their apprenticeship training, Matthew in Fabrication & Welding, and Liam in Mechanical Engineering. Matthew, having received training in all aspects of Fabrication operations, will concentrate on plating, whilst Liam has specialised in horizontal boring.

New Machining Apprentice

In October 2010 we took on another apprentice in our Machine Shop in a bid to ensure that the skills of our current machinists are passed on. We also needed to increase manpower in the Machine Shop to cope with increased workloads due to the acquisition in 2009 of a new large capacity horizontal boring machine.

Terry Morrell completed his NVQ Level 2 in Mechanical Engineering at Brinsworth Training in Rotherham in May 2010, but was unable to progress to Level 3 as he was not in relevant employment. We recently attended an awards evening held at Brinsworth Training, at which Terry was presented with his Level 2 NVQ certificates.

Terry has commenced his on-the-job training with one of our experienced manual Horizontal Borer operators and is currently making excellent progress. Although we usually send our apprentices to North Nottinghamshire College in Worksop, for the sake of continuity Terry will stay with Brinsworth Training for his NVQ Level 3.