Eco-consiousness might seem a strange source of opportunity for aspiring young mechanical engineers today. But just as the decline of Britain’s manufacturing industry has made it more difficult to find traditional apprentice schemes, the thriving alternative sector is fast making up the difference.

As Jacqui Wordsworth says: “It doesn’t matter whether you are building a car or a wind turbine, the skills are the same. You still need engineers.”

Wordsworth is external programmes director at the Centre for Engineering and Manufacturing Excellence, which trains more than 100 apprentices a year and works with local companies and schools to promote engineering as a career.

“We work with 14 schools in the area and see about 400 to 500 children each year,” she says. “The youngest are in Year 8, with the bulk coming in Years 10 and 11. We also have teacher-development programmes and we talk to the parents because, after all, these are the adults who are the key influences on their children’s career choices.”

Based just down the road from the Ford plant in Dagen-ham, the centre has strong established links with the local engineering industry, but is always keen to build more.

Through the Gateway for Skills programme, run in partnership with the London Development Agency (LDA), the centre fosters links between schools and local companies using a range of activities, including visits for young people to local companies, taster engineering days, careers talks and Saturday engineering clubs.

“Companies like Ford will always run apprentice programmes,” she says. “But we are keen to encourage the smaller companies to follow suit. We have a lot of companies in the area building everything from bathroom fittings to magnets for mobile phones, plus a lot of eco-friendly companies on the LDA sustainable industries park. In the past a lot of them have been quite reluctant to take on young people, but we have worked hard to persuade them and quite often, once they have taken on one apprentice, they come back for more.”

One employer that needs no persuasion on the value of apprenticeships is MBDA, the guided missiles manufacturer. The company runs a number of recruitment programmes to attract young people to its apprentice scheme and also sends apprentices into schools as ambassadors.

Anna Marsden who is in her fourth year as an MBDA apprentice, is hoping to go on to a degree course at university once she has completed her EngTech qualification.

“The apprenticeship has been great because you get hands-on experience and you earn as you learn,” she says.

As an MBDA ambassador, Marsden also visits local schools seeking to inspire the apprentices of the future.

“We go into schools and tell them about ourselves and what we do and then organise various activities with them. We play games like making egg cups, team-building exercises, that sort of thing. When we first get there a lot of them aren’t really that bothered. But then they really get into it.”

Martin Peart, the head of engineering at South Downs College, Hampshire, can also testify to the benefits of promoting links with industry. In partnership with Portsmouth Engineering Training Association, the college has made a determined effort over the past two or three years to work with local businesses to build apprenticeship schemes.

“This has underpinned a lot of growth,” he says. “This year we are looking at an upturn in students on our BTech national diplomas of about 30 per cent and student destinations are very encouraging. Of the students on level 3 courses 42 per cent go on to university and 34 per cent go into local industry.”

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