An engineering apprentice attending the South Eastern Regional College (SERC) in Bangor (County Down) has secured a sought-after work placement at Lisburn-based Ad-vance Engineering, which specialises in bespoke injection moulding tools for the plastics manufacturing industry world-wide.

Nathan McCourt, aged 19, is now working as an apprentice machinist at the firm and will do so for the remaining two years of his apprenticeship.

Having initially enrolled to study the Cambridge Technical Diploma in IT after his GCSEs, he progressed to the level-two Traineeship in Engineering.

He hopes to progress to the level-three programme in September.

Nathan said: “Working with Ad-vance Engineering has given me a really sound knowledge in a wide range of areas, which I wouldn’t have had the chance to learn about in my studies. My daily tasks include turning, milling, CNC machine programming and operation, and assembly of tools.”

Samuel Vance, Ad-vance Engineering’s technical director, said: “We are really pleased to work with SERC and offer Nathan the opportunity to gain a real insight into the industry.

“Attracting the right people and developing them within our business is vital for us to achieve our business goals and create a new generation of great engineers who can contribute to the growth of the company.

“Nathan is involved in different areas of the business to give him a thorough understanding of how the company and each department works.”

Applications for full-time courses are now open, and students can apply via the Web site (apply.serc.ac.uk).