Anca — a privately owned global exporter of advanced grinding technology headquartered in Melbourne (Australia) — was struggling to recruit young engineers and trades people to join its team.
With over 1,000 employees around the world, a turnover of $250 million and being the dominant player in its sector, finding skilled people was becoming a major issue.
In response, Anca decided to train its own; in January 2011, it established an apprenticeship programme that has been successfully training highly skilled technicians since.
Set up by the company’s co-founder Pat McCluskey, the programme has been designed to offer participants a range of technical training paths in CNC machining, machine building, fault finding and analytical skills, machine commissioning and customer service.
Anca (
www.anca.com.au) currently has 15apprentices and recently celebrated the graduation of four of these from the programme.
Commissioning technician Daniel Shepley graduated from the Anca Apprentice 2019 programme last month and won the company’s Apprentice of the Year award.
He said: “My proudest achievement over the time of my apprenticeship was probably the first time I was sent overseas — to Weinheim, Germany — for three months, to support Anca’s German branch.
“It was a challenge working on some unfamiliar tasks, but I learned lots and was happy with the job I did.
"Now that I have finished my apprenticeship, I want to continue to work in areas of the business that will allow me to continue to learn as much as I can.
“I am currently working in the commissioning department and plan to start my advanced diploma in mechatronics at night school.”
Apprentice Master Stuart Gurney said: “Anca has a proud history of investing in its people to develop a highly skilled and engaged workforce.
“My passion is helping the next generation of talent to enter the fascinating world of CNC grinding.
“Far from just being a manufacturing company, we sell 99% of our product overseas and compete with German, Swiss, Japanese and US competitors successfully.”