“Forgemasters is a good example of how having a workforce with the right skills can not only help a company survive adversity, but also thrive and have a successful business,” said the Minister. “I am urging more employers to follow their example and develop apprenticeships through their Sector Skill Councils. Yorkshire is experiencing some serious skills challenges that are hindering the region’s productivity and economic future. Employers need to realise that, by upskilling their workforce, they will experience significant business benefits.”

The Yorkshire and Humberside region has one of the lowest proportions of its workforce educated to degree level, at 26 per cent compared to 20 per cent in the UK overall. In 2005, 22 per cent of employers reported skills problems amongst their current staff – the highest proportion in the UK, where the average is 16 per cent.

Forgemansters looked closely at the number, age, and skills of its workforce and realised that many of its employees were approaching retirement age. If it didn’t act fast, it would not only lose skilled workers – it would lose their skills.

Dr Honeyman said: “We had to act so that our older, experienced workers could teach their skills to young people before they retired. Simply taking youngsters from college or poaching them from other firms wasn’t the answer. We needed to train our own apprentices to work on equipment and technology in this unique business.”

Bringing in 16 to 20 year-old apprentices has had a significant impact on the company’s age structure. Having taken on 21 new apprentices in the last few months alone, it now has more than 60, bringing the average age of the workforce down from 49 to 41.

Dr Honeyman added: “The other key factor in this development is that we took our specific training and skills needs to SEMTA and its subsidiary MetSkill who helped us devise the training exactly tailored to our needs and skill areas.

“We pride ourselves on the fact that 90 per cent of our apprentices go on to earn full time contracts at Forgemasters. Each time we begin a new apprentice recruitment drive we receive lots of applications from highly talented youngsters, all of whom are incredibly motivated and want to work, and with help of the government and organisations like the Sector Skills Development Agency (SSDA), SEMTA and MetSkill, this can continue for many years.”

MetSkill, the strategic skills body for the metals industry, selects and provides training options for its apprentices who can work towards qualifications like NVQs and go on to learn more specialised skills through the BTEC and City and Guilds qualifications combined with a work-based skills programme linked directly to their job.

"A lot of employers don’t see the value of this long-term commitment to skills training and the benefits of working with their Sector Skills Council (SSC) but it is absolutely essential that companies see this. In today's global market we need to have a highly competitive workforce. We face growing competition in our industry from countries like China and India who can undercut us in labour costs but it’s in the high quality, added value areas that we can make a difference,” added Dr Honeyman.