Jasmine's journey has been both challenging and rewarding, leading her to discover new skills, win the Engineering Trust’s Apprentice of the Year award, and gain a deeper understanding of her strengths and interests in the engineering field.

Oliver Harris shares his journey from discovering the Norbar apprenticeship during his school's careers week to becoming a second-year CNC machinist apprentice.

"Forging Futures: The Norbar Legacy of Excellence in Apprenticeships"

When I was growing up I wanted to become a doctor or physiotherapist. I never would have thought that my path would take me to an exciting management role in a business manufacturing and selling Torque Tools. In looking back...

As I have said previously, the thing I enjoy most about my role at Norbar is that no two days are ever the same. A classic example of this came up recently. Our Norbar EvoTorque® tools carry Network Rail Approval. We were contacted by a Network Rail depot asking for details of the tool which I duly gave, as I always do, I offered to visit site for a full demonstration of the tool. After all you don’t buy a car just because it looks good in the brochure and because the manufacturer tell...

At the end of September, I’d been to visit customers in Dubai and Qatar; this time I was going to man the Norbar stand at ADIPEC, which is held in Abu Dhabi, the federal capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Then I had lined up five days working with customers in northern Oman.

As a Technical Support Engineer at Norbar Torque Tools it’s my job to be the face of Norbar. This includes specifying the correct tool for a particular task, product demonstrations, looking at difficult applications and liaising with the special projects team to come up with a bespoke solution. As well as training on the correct usage of a tool, that could be anything from a torque wrench, powered torque multiplier to a torque wrench calibrator.

31 years of service is not extraordinary by Norbar standards; in the last twelve months two staff with over 50 years each have retired. But, even looking back on my relatively modest 31 years it is astonishing how much has changed.

In National Apprenticeship Week we ran for the second time our virtual apprenticeship information evenings.

My review of 2020 reflected that 2020 had been the most extraordinary year that I could recall – surely 2021 would be better with Covid receding and the world getting back to normal?