Norbord is pleased to introduce the latest recruits to the company’s engineering graduate scheme. Andrew Chapman, Grant McEwan, Deborah Ayebare and Luca Micheletti joined the scheme on October 19, 2020 and are based at Norbord’s plants in Cowie, South Molton and Inverness.
Andrew Chapman says he has “already been exposed to a wealth of different areas within the business giving me a good understanding of the processes and the company as a whole”.
“So far, my initial perceptions have been upheld and exceeded,” continued Mr Chapman. “Being based at the Cowie site, my central focus has been the development of reliability centred maintenance practices. To that end I have been involved in analysing historical data to develop a clearer understanding of asset performance, creating a digital archive of asset information and developing asset condition monitoring processes.
“Following that, I am working with colleagues across multiple areas of the business to create life plans for each of the assets within the manufacturing process.
“Through the graduate scheme, I’ve also had the opportunity to work with the group engineering team. This has been a great eye-opener for me and it has allowed me to work on projects that have the potential to positively impact all sites across the group. My experience in fields such as industrial automation and CAD meant that I could contribute to these projects effectively; a bonus as these are areas still relatively new to the business.”
Mr Chapman’s positive sentiments are echoed by his fellow graduates who also say they have been made to feel very welcome by their new colleagues across the company and already feel very much part of the Norbord family.
For all the new recruits, the Norbord scheme is a continuation of their engineering training gained at university and they bring with them individual skills which will be put to good use.
While Grant McEwan brings an analytical approach to solving problems enjoying “data analysis and finding ways to deconstruct and organise large data sets”, Luca Micheletti favours 3D software packages to model and simulate real life problems. Deborah Ayebare has a creative approach to tackling issues and Andrew Chapman feels that, being new to the business, he can “look at problems from a fresh perspective without being biased by what has been done historically”.
Norbord is proud of its history of training for young people and has run apprenticeship schemes for 40 years. The engineering graduate scheme was introduced eight years ago when it evolved from the regular summer work experience placements offered to students.
Norbord currently gives places to an average of five graduates every year, limited only by the number of applicants. Although the graduate programme is currently just for the engineering sector, Norbord is considering opening the scheme up to other graduates and offering HR, business and marketing opportunities.
Andrew Taylor, group process and engineering manager at Norbord, is one of the graduate mentors and knows the importance of graduate schemes.
“It’s a real pleasure to be able to support and mentor the introduction and development of our recent engineering graduate intake,” he said. “I started my career in the wood panels industry some 25 years ago, as a graduate process engineer and know just how beneficial to my own development and experience this opportunity was.”
“The reason people join us is that they are given the opportunity to be hands-on and fully integrated into the business from day one,” said Carol Brown, Norbord’s group HR manager. “Graduates get exposed to most parts of the business. Their opinions are taken on board and they are very much part of the Norbord family.”
