Aware of the imminent skills shortage within the GRP and composites industry, Poole-based Norco decided to start in-house training and thereby ensure the company could continue to run at full production capacity and meet its customers’ schedules. Using its own skilled employees, Norco’s training programme is based on a ‘more traditional mentor and trainee approach’, the primary objective being to get a ‘high level of training in a short timescale’.

Norco has updated its laminating and finishing training schedules to accommodate the company’s trainee and business needs, which means that once a trainee has reached a certain level on their schedule, they progress from the training centre to a small-boat production line, where they buddy-up with a mentor to gain experience in the basic processes required to build most GRP structures. Among other skills, trainees gain experience in gel coat application, CSM consolidation, fabric consolidation, and core bonding.

The trainees spend around 20 weeks on the small-boat production line, after which they are transferred to the company’s ‘skills matrix’ for further training and monitoring of their progress.