John Guest, specialists in push-fit piping, are sending final year apprentices to Arburg’s factory in Lossburg for four weeks to learn about how the plastic injection moulding machines they use every day are made. In return, Arburg apprentices will visit John Guest’s site in the UK to understand how the company uses Arburg machinery to manufacture its range of innovative push-fit fittings. The companies hope the programme will become the first of many similar schemes between the two companies across the continent, as they look to trade skills throughout Europe.
The two companies first collaborated in 1982, with John Guest having bought over 150 Arburg plastic injection moulding machines in that time – more than any other UK manufacturer. John Guest has had an active engineering apprentice scheme since 1990, and started a specialist injection moulding apprenticeship in 2015. Arburg also have a long history of apprentices: the company’s previous managing director, Herbert Kraibühler, joined the company as an apprentice in 1964.
“As well as technical knowledge, we believe the greatest gains for the apprentices will come from less obvious areas,” said Darryl Sheldon, apprenticeships co-ordinator at John Guest. “They will be working in a company and a country with different cultures, as part of different teams, which speak a different language. For many, this will be their first extended visit away from friends and family in a work environment so it will contribute a lot to their growth and professional development.”
