MINISTER for Employment Guy Opperman MP praised Warrington-based global engineering solutions company BGEN for their investment in training and apprenticeships during a recent visit to the town.
Warrington South MP Andy Carter was pleased to welcome the Minister to BGEN, a Penketh-headquartered multi-discipline engineering solutions company that operates globally, to see first-hand results of investment in training and apprenticeships taking place in the town. The visit comes as data from the Office for National Statistics shows that Warrington’s unemployment levels have fallen over the past year to 2.3%, far below the UK national rate of 3.7%.
During his visit the Minister met with BGEN’s senior leadership team to discuss their recent achievements and the current challenges the company is facing as it seeks to expand its workforce and global operations. Mr Opperman was also given a tour of the facility, which manufactures electrical panels for the company.
The ministerial visit comes as BGEN has set out to increase its overall workforce from 1,000 to 1,300 employees. The company, which has areas of operation throughout Europe, the Far East and has recently expanded into Africa, offers a range of apprenticeship, trainee and graduate schemes. It also recently launched its women’s forum to attract more women into engineering, and has committed to recruit, retrain and support more female employees.
Robin Whitehead, Chief Executive at BGEN, said: “It was interesting to discuss the challenges and opportunities facing the business with Guy and Andy. We have made a firm commitment to creating a more diverse, equitable and inclusive workplace, and we’re looking forward to welcoming more people into the business to support our existing clients and new service offerings such as net zero engineering.”
Mr Opperman said: “I was delighted to visit BGEN who are providing highly skilled jobs in Warrington South. It was fantastic to visit the team with Andy Carter and have the opportunity to see the skill that goes into their work. BGEN is a local success story – it’s going from strength to strength.”
Mr Carter added: “Over the past few years in Warrington we’ve seen a massive effort towards investing in training and apprenticeships, which not only provide a fantastic route into work and help people to develop new skills but are also a sure-fire way to securing growth. This is evident in the latest employment statistics from the ONS showing that we’re back on parr with pre-pandemic levels. In March I’m looking forward to once again hosting my jobs and apprenticeships fair for local people to see all the excellent opportunities open to them.
“It was a real pleasure to have the Employment Minister come over to the constituency and pay a visit to BGEN, a great employer in Warrington South. As well as providing jobs for over a thousand people, they’re doing excellent work towards helping achieve our net-zero targets and ensuring that recruitment in engineering is better open to women, apprentices and those fresh out of university. I’d like to thank Guy Opperman for taking the time to visit Warrington, and also to BGEN for hosting the Minister and myself.”
