The expansion of a local Non-Destructive Testing company has created six jobs for young apprentices in the Deeside area.

A combination of factors has led to a growing gap between the skills required by employers and the skillset of available candidates.

According to a recent survey by North Wales regional Skills Partnership, 81% of employers across all sectors are struggling to fill vacancies at the moment.

When faced with the challenge of increased service demand and poor candidate selection, NDT Group Ltd chose to partner with Skills UK to train young people from Deeside themselves to develop the employees they needed.

Making the most of development grants given by the Welsh Government during the coronavirus pandemic, the entrepreneur-minded Non-Destructive Testing company used its own technicians to build a radiography bay inside its warehouse, molding every brick themselves.

The bay allowed the company to offer onsite radiographic inspection for factories and powerplants across the region.

The apprentices were brought on to fulfill the demand for the new onsite services.

More: North Wales recruitment shortage reaching 'critical point'

To give local people the opportunity to fill the new roles, the apprenticeships were all advertised through the Deeside College job shop.

Such was the success of the scheme that the company has grown and been able to take on four other apprentices.

In total, five of the apprentices had all trained at Deeside College after leaving school to pursue engineering and manufacturing careers.

Speaking about the scheme, managing director, Matthew Conway said: “The success of the apprenticeship scheme has really helped us develop a vision for NDT Group to become a major local employer.

"We [the directors] were all brought up and educated on Deeside, and we want to provide pathways that allow young people to develop skills and build a future.”

• NDT Group provides both conventional and specialist non-destructive testing services to companies in the petrochemical, nuclear, pharmaceutical, and renewable energy around the world.

Its combination of onsite and in-house testing services provides a responsive service that helps companies reduce operational disruption.