Frip Finishing invests in training for the future
Frip Finishing is creating four more apprenticeship opportunities this year, as well as investing in a further two apprentices in production administration.
The company, which employs 70 people, operates out of five locations around the UK and of the four apprenticeships available, those in Glasgow and Manchester have already been filled. The new apprentices will join the four who started their training in 2016 and the company already has plans to take on four additional trainees in 2018.
A growing number of manufacturers of consumer products are using print and packaging finishing processes to make their products stand out on supermarket shelves; this is creating opportunities for Frip Finishing to grow the business which, in turn, has generated the need for significant investment in training.
Group managing director Leslie Gibson is mindful that post-Brexit, the UK may experience a decline in the labour pool and sees the creation of apprentices as the way to ensure a continuation of suitably trained men and women who will take the company into the future.
“It is important to take on young talent now,” he says. “With good skills in Maths and English, our apprentices will be trained to the high standards required by Frip Finishing.”
The end goal is to achieve an NVQ Level 3 in print finishing, which will take between 18 and 30 months and cover a range of skills, including coatings, lamination and foil blocking, that are essential to work competently in this industry. A number of written and online assignments need to be completed and trainees are constantly reviewed by the British Printing Industries Federation [BPIF] training co-ordinators who act as mentors to the apprentices through the training period.
