Harland & Wolff, which rescued the Arnish shipyard on Lewis from administration earlier this year, has welcomed its first batch of new apprentices.
The company, whose name is famous for having built the fateful Titanic at its yard in Belfast, welcomed the five new recruits on its apprentice induction day earlier this week.
The firm is owned by London-listed Infrastrata, which has set sail on an acquisition spree since it’s 2019 buyout of the historic shipbuilder in Belfast, one of Europe’s largest heavy engineering facilities, with deep water access, two of Europe’s largest drydocks and vast fabrication halls. Harland & Wolff had also fallen into administration when it was acquired.
In February, Infrastrata snapped up the assets of Burntisland Fabrication at Arnish and Methil in a £850,000 deal. Its owner had collapsed after failing to win a contract to fabricate windfarm jackets for the Neart na Gaoithe (NnG) offshore wind farm.
However, Harland & Wolff was successful in a bid to manufacturer jackets for NnG for contractor Saipem a few months later. The company said the two sites in Scotland focus on fabrication work within the renewable, oil and gas and defence sectors.
On Tuesday the apprentices, who will study with Lews Castle College alongside their training, took a tour of the site and learned more about the firm’s history.
Albert Allan, general manager at Harland & Wolff (Arnish) said the new recruits had the opportunity for “high quality employment and green jobs”.
He said: ‘We are delighted to welcome our first tranche of apprentices on site and to the Harland & Wolff Group.
“The apprentices will be working on projects across our five markets, including energy and renewables, contributing to net zero infrastructure and green shipbuilding.
“This unique scheme offers our apprentices practical on-the-job training, one to one mentoring alongside our experienced workforce, state of the art fabrication facilities and the opportunity to earn while you learn.”