Emerson and Renwick currently has six paid apprentices and is looking to recruit at least three more.

E+R is a world-leading maker of roll-to-roll printing, coating, forming and vacuum machinery for purposes including wallpaper, automotive heat exchanger and battery manufacture. The company enables numerous customers in a range of industries across the world to enhance their capabilities and productivity, through its expertise in engineering, technology, and processes.

Founded in 1918 and now employing over 170 people, E+R has additional sites in the USA, India, and China. Its operations are at the forefront of the UK’s quest to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

E+R’s fully funded apprenticeship scheme, established in 1981, lasts four years and involves members obtaining qualifications tailored to their posts. These can include City & Guilds accreditations, Higher National Certificates and Diplomas, plus the BTEC qualifications overseen by the Business & Technology Education Council.
The company’s apprentices spend an initial year attending Burnley College or Blackburn-based provider Training 2000, part of the University of Central Lancashire, full-time. They then spend a similar period combining their work with day-release study and two years undergoing on-the-job training.

E+R currently offers apprenticeships across its engineering operations, in areas including mechanical fitting, electrical fitting and machining, and is exploring extending its successful scheme into other areas of its business, such as project management and human resources.

The company also makes available two-year advanced apprenticeships, generally regarded as equivalent to two A-levels, to recruits with at least five GCSE passes at the required grades.

From this page, you can view video interviews with three former E+R apprentices, with varying degrees of experience, who are enjoying successful careers in the business.
One of them, Toby Walsh, 23, who joined the company only five-and-a-half years ago, has already been promoted to assembly chargehand and is on course for a rapid further elevation to team leader. His career has featured visits to customers in the USA, to install machinery.

Another former E+R apprentice to have been upgraded to an elevated role recently is Jimmy Andrew, 24, who has become a team leader. Other former apprentices at advanced levels with the company include senior managers in areas such as planning, quality and safety.

E+R managing director Ben Clements said: “We have a long history of bringing talented young engineers into our business, developing them, and pushing them through the ranks quickly. That process delivers significant advantages both to our company and the apprentices concerned.
“We gain because young engineers help bring additional enthusiasm and new perspectives to our business, and our customers appreciate the fact that we’re constantly striving to make outstanding, properly trained emerging talent available to them.“Apart from the fact that we fund their training, the youngsters benefit as some other providers of advanced engineering apprenticeships locally are much larger organisations, where recruits receive much less individual attention and development. There, progression to team leader, for example, can easily take 10 to 15 years.

“In addition to the prospect of first-class free training and rapid advancement, we also find today’s young people are increasingly attracted to us because of the ground-breaking work we do on the zero-carbon agenda.”E+R has been in the vanguard of developing low-carbon solutions for a range of manufacturing processes for more than a decade. This activity is aided by the scientists in its in-house technology centre, who often work on game-changing projects with outside institutions, including leading companies and universities.

E+R last year became one of seven world-leading UK-based organisations, including Oxford University, advanced materials manufacturer Johnson Matthey and electric vehicle battery maker Britishvolt, which agreed to collaborate in a ground-breaking project. This is being conducted under the auspices of the globally renowned Faraday Institution, the UK’s flagship research body for battery science and technology.

These partners are aiming to develop leading-edge prototype solid-state battery technology for automotive applications. Solid-state batteries contrast with lithium-ion and other types, which contain liquid or polymer gel electrolytes, and could transform the UK’s quest to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, through electrifying transport and devices.

E+R previously signed the Pledge to Net Zero and therefore committed to taking a leadership role in delivering UK greenhouse gas emissions in line with a temperature rise of well below two degrees Celsius. The company did this well before it again emphasised its commitment by attending COP 26, the United Nations climate change conference in Glasgow during November 2021.

Anyone wanting to apply for an E+R apprenticeship or seeking further details of the scheme should contact Claire Biggs, the company’s HR and Payroll Manager, on 01254 872727 or via hr@eandr.com.