Training Centre apprentices centre stage at 'Boeing Sheffield' ground-breaking event
Seventeen young apprentices from across the region found themselves centre stage when Boeing bosses flew to Sheffield for a ground-breaking event to signal the construction of their first ever production plant in Europe.
The youngsters – all apprentices with the AMRC Training Centre – have been taken on by Boeing who will train them as part of the first cohort of workers to run a new state-of-the-art factory that will build vital components for Boeing’s Next-Generation 737, 737 MAX and 777 aeroplanes.
Kimberly Smith, Vice President and General Manager of Boeing Fabrication, told a packed gathering of industrial and political figures at the AMRC’s Factory 2050 of the company’s vision for the future of what will be called Boeing Sheffield.
The new 6,200-square metre facility, due to open in late 2018, will produce as many as 8,000 components per month that will be shipped to Boeing Portland, another Boeing Fabrication site in Oregon, U.S.A., to be assembled into actuation systems.
Kimberly invited the apprentices, sitting in the front rows of the event, to stand and receive a round of applause from the audience. They then took part in the official ground-breaking ceremony on the old Sheffield airport site in front of TV news cameras and photographers.
Adrian Allen, co-founder of the AMRC, said the event was the culmination of a dream that one day Sheffield would be home to a Boeing production plant that would employ talented local youngsters.
The Sheffield facility will initially employ 30 people on opening, growing to more than 50 employees. This includes 19 manufacturing apprentices, who have already been recruited and are being trained at the AMRC Training Centre.
Sir Michael Arthur, President of Boeing Europe and Managing Director of Boeing UK and Ireland, said the company was proud to celebrate the ground-breaking of Boeing Sheffield and welcome more employees to the company - seven months after it announced its intention to build the factory.
