Copyright expressandstar
Employee numbers at PTS Group, on Common Road Industrial Estate in Stafford, have doubled in recent years with the firm boasting a figure of 99 per cent of its technical staff being taken on locally. The family-owned business specialises in what is known as 'non-destructive testing' which uses techniques to assess the properties and integrity of materials, components or systems.It works in fields such as radiography, oil and gas and construction, with clients in the UK and Europe. It says its recruitment policy has encouraged young talent with little or no experience within the industry to take steps along a career path with the firm. Technical Director Steve Baldwin said: "We have come a long way since the company launched by my father in 1995 but our commitment to excellence is the same today as it has always been and our ongoing success is down to an ever-growing client base and our amazing staff that look after them so well. "We have a long-held reputation for giving youth a chance with a focussed commitment on locally sourced recruitment, in and immediately around our home base of Stafford. "This is borne out by the fact that 99 per cent of our technical staff are from the local area. "Most were unsure about a career path, working as delivery drivers or in pubs for example, and did not even know that they could do an engineering career until they started at PTS Group."They came in with no experience but are now going on to have fantastic careers." Two of the company's directors are brothers Adam and Mark Bates who went on to study for degrees after joining the business before working up to board level. Their cousins Matt and Tom Bates, respectively radiography supervisor and NDT engineer, and another NDT engineer Rob Spruce are three more examples of staff who have worked their way up from ground level. Although PTS Group does not run an apprenticeship scheme, it has an in-house training system which sees trainees sent to Sheffield to obtain recognised industry certification qualifications. One young employee who has attended the in-house training programme is Guy Bailey. After dropping out of his English studies at university, he was taken on by the firm after completing some work experience and is now an NDT engineer. He said: "There is an awful lot of advice offered when you are close to leaving school but it is hard to process all that information, particularly, as in my case, when there was nothing really clear in my own mind about what I wanted to do. "I decided to go to university to take English but was never totally convinced about what that path would lead to so ultimately dropped out."I live locally and was given the opportunity to go along for some work experience at PTS Group. "It opened up a whole new idea of what the future could hold and even though it was just a week, I knew it was something that I would like to pursue."
