At Dearneside Fabrications, we’ve been investing in apprentices ever since our founding over 30 years ago, onboarding around 2 new apprentices each year.

For us, it’s always been important to foster a strong philosophy of support, education and guidance for our apprentices to lead a successful construction career, be it in fabrication, welding or estimating.

With this week marking 2025’s National Apprenticeship Week, we thought we’d get involved and shine a light on some of our past and present apprentices here at Dearneside. In doing so, we’ll show you just how impactful their apprenticeships have been not only for them in building ‘Skills for Life’, but for our wider team, company culture and economy.

Building successful careers through apprenticeships

Meet Joe, Apprentice Fabricator and Plater

Joe joined Dearneside 3 years ago now, through the apprenticeship programme with AMRC (part of the University of Sheffield), studying welding and fabrication.

As part of our team, Joe is able to learn on-site and in real-time on his apprenticeship, learning not only from his course studies, but from the people who surround him in his day-to-day work.

“Through my apprenticeship, I’ve been massively supported to learn and progress in my job.

With Dearneside, too, it’s been especially nice to have the guidance from those who have been in my position and already completed their apprenticeship here – it’s reassuring to see where I’m progressing to and what’s possible for me to achieve.”

With dedicated apprenticeship mentors here at Dearneside, Joe is able to turn to almost anyone within our team for support. It’s that kind of culture that we believe enables apprenticeships to really thrive.

“All in all, there’s a real community feeling with my apprenticeship – I feel motivated by my colleagues because I know they want to see me succeed, and that makes a huge difference.”

Meet Lewis, previous Apprentice Plater Welder

For Lewis, his apprenticeship didn’t just provide him with important qualifications, but a lifelong career.

Joining the Dearnside team almost 12 years ago now, Lewis has been able to progress his career thanks to his apprenticeship. Completing his plater welder apprenticeship 5 years ago, Lewis has since stayed on with our team and now works as a senior Plater Welder member of our team.

“I joined Dearneside straight from school and haven’t really ever looked back since.

Throughout my apprenticeship here, many years ago now, I was pushed to achieve my absolute potential – my mentors, and the overall team really, had the ambition to want to see me grow. It made it an exciting place to learn and work.”

Constructing a culture of inspiration and support

Listening to the feedback we get from our apprentices like Joe and Lewis, we strongly believe that the success of apprenticeships lies with the employer.

With real interest and investment from across the Dearneside team, our apprentices are truly encouraged to prosper, and putting dedicated apprenticeship mentors in place has been crucial to achieving this.

Our mentors don’t just benefit our apprentices, either. They, too, feel the benefits from the reward and added challenge of taking responsibility for guiding our young apprentices.

Meet Roger and Simon, Apprentice Mentors and Leaders

Since joining the team over 10 years ago, S/S Foreman Roger has been responsible for mentoring over 8 apprentices, including Joe, supporting them throughout their learning.

“I take great pride in looking after the apprentices here at Dearneside. I feel I contribute a lot to the supportive culture here, and feel recognised for it, too.”

– Roger Hardwick, S/S Foreman and Apprentice Mentor

Another important leader in our apprenticeship programmes here at Dearneside is Simon, our Health and Safety Manager. He takes responsibility for recruiting and retaining our apprentices, helping them to find their feet within our team.

“One of the proudest moments in my 13 year career at Dearneside was when one of our apprentices won the 2020 Apprentice of the Year award. Working for an engineering company that really takes the time to invest and celebrate their young team members makes me feel incredibly rewarded.”

– Simon Hill, Health & Safety Manager

In the coming years, we will continue onboarding apprentices, seeing them through their qualifications and their future careers. Without such investment, we truly don’t believe our company would be as successful as it is today.