Not just engineering training and apprenticeships, but professional services too – across North Yorks
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This North Yorkshire training provider, and proud category sponsor of the North Yorkshire Apprenticeship Awards 2026, takes apprentice training to the next level.
Derwent Training: Empowering North Yorkshire’s Workforce
Derwent Training offer Apprenticeships in Professional Services and Engineering covering a wide range of pathways.
Based at their training centre in Malton, North Yorkshire, they deliver high-calibre qualifications that are both relevant and useful to those undertaking them. These qualifications across both sectors range from Level 2 to Level 5, which offers employers a level of training that equates to many of the roles within their organisation.
Professional Services cover Customer Service, Business Administrator, Improvement Technician, Associate Project Manager, and Improvement Specialist. Their Engineering department offers specialized pathways including Welder, Metal Fabricator, Machining Technician, Mechatronics Maintenance Technician, Engineering and Manufacturing Support Technician and Engineering Manufacturing Technician.
The training model helps succession planning for employers, so businesses have the skills they need to lead, manage, and grow, while employees get the support and training, they need to progress their careers.
As Business Support Officer Charlie Curless explained: “Apprentices are with us for a reasonable length of time, ranging from 12-42 months depending on the pathway. They then have the opportunity to progress onto a higher level.
Charlie went on to add: “As apprentices can spend up to four years from starting with us to completing their apprenticeship on the engineering side, we got thinking... what support can we offer them down the line? This is where the Professional Services come in.”
Whilst Derwent Training is renowned for its technical expertise, the Professional Service Apprenticeships transcend sector boundaries and are applicable to any business. This puts Derwent Training in a position to assist not only ex-engineering apprentices but also other employees in companies from different sectors with a specific training need.
Creating assets not distractions
Charlie says the ethos of this developmental training is to create assets not distractions. Typically, apprentices on the Professional Services side spend one day a month in person at Derwent Training's facility, with the remainder delivered remotely and supported by their trainers. Engineering apprentices, on the other hand, spend one day a week at the training centre with the remaining work hours spent putting the knowledge they gain directly onto the shop floor.
The courses are open, not just to those who have already gone through a Derwent Training apprenticeship, but to anyone in the region who is looking for some professional development. They may already be in a support role or looking to make that next step into project or improvement specialisms, or you might be an employer who recognises some skills gaps in your workforce as experienced staff retire or move on. Creating your own assets through training is often a much easier task than searching for a replacement.
“We are happy to speak to employers, prospective apprentices and employees to give information, advice and guidance.”
About Derwent Training
Derwent Training is an independent training provider established in 1988. While they have grown significantly from those early days to a business which now works with over 70 employers across the North Yorkshire region, they remain deeply committed to those strong roots. Their reach now covers a broad patch from Whitby, Scarborough and Bridlington down to York and Selby, and across from Harrogate and Knaresborough.
As well as apprenticeships they also offer online CPD courses aimed at people who want to upskill or employees who want to develop in their roles.
They are also a not-for-profit charity, meaning they are able to plough any revenue made back into the business, providing better facilities, resources and equipment for the apprentices studying there.
Any employer is welcome to approach Derwent Training for help taking on an apprentice. Although they are not an agency, they frequently post vacancies on behalf of their partner employers before screening all applicants directly, assessing their eligibility for the roles applied for. This helps to match the right potential candidates with the right employers. Derwent Training is rated ‘good’ by Ofsted, and has a 75 per cent achievement rate for all its apprenticeships – 13.5 percent above the national average.
Derwent Training are here to provide ‘training for you’. Helping you, or your business, get the training it needs and explaining how the funding applies to you.