Championing Engineers of the Future at Orthoplastics

For the last 10 years, Orthoplastics has successfully supported and nurtured the engineering future with its apprenticeship program. Over that decade, 21 apprentices have successfully completed an apprenticeship with and over 70% remain working with the company today.

The Orthoplastics apprenticeship program is offered to candidates through our partnership with Burnley College, a leading college not only in the North of England but across the whole country.

Our apprenticeship program currently takes the apprentice through the first year of off-the-job training, which is fully supported by Burnley College. Apprentices come back on-site during annual leave from the college, before beginning their full on-site training in year 2.

Once back on site in years 2, 3 and 4 they begin a full training program where they have the opportunity to learn all aspects of component machining, including how to program the machines, develop their engineering drawing skills and hone their expertise on our product offering.

The Orthoplastics apprenticeship program 2023

The minimum entry requirement for our apprenticeship program is students who are on target to receive at least a GCSE grade of 4 and above in four subjects including Maths, English and Science.

Successful applicants are invited to attend the first stage interview where they have the opportunity to take a tour of the facilities. During stage 1 we conducted a standard interview to help us find out more about the applicants, why they want to join Orthoplastics and their ambitions for the future.

From the stage 1 interviews, a shortlist of apprentices is created, with a view to making a conditional offer to become an Orthoplastics apprentice. To help us recruit the right candidates for our apprenticeship program, we invited the shortlisted candidates to attend a half-day session with the shift supervisor in the machine shop to give them a better feel for what they will be doing throughout the apprenticeship and to help them decide if engineering is the right career for them.

From this stage, we will shortlist the candidates further and invite the successful applicants to a more in-depth tour of the facilities and further conversations to ensure that there is a good fit between the candidate and Orthoplastics.

We are pleased to share that we have now concluded our Apprenticeship intake for 2023 where we have made six conditional offers, all of which have been accepted.

Orthoplastics apprenticeships success stories

One of our success stories from the apprenticeship program is an individual that joined the company as an apprentice in 2017, and through hard work, dedication and support from Orthoplastics has experienced a quick progression through the business and is now part of the new product introduction team.

We are also incredibly proud that one of our female apprentices was awarded Apprentice of the Year 2023 by Burnley College. She is about to progress to her second year of the program and has a bright future in engineering ahead of her.



Speaking about the apprenticeship program, Danny Rhodes, General Manager at Orthoplastics said: “We are proud to support the local community with our apprenticeship program and provide unique opportunities for young adults. Our program enables us to work with and shape the apprentices into becoming the future engineers of Orthoplastics.

There are many avenues for the apprentices to progress into post their apprenticeship and we will continue to work with the apprentice to invest and support their future within the company.“

We look forward to welcoming the next intake of apprentices in September and continue to support our current apprentices as they progress through the program.