DCG Success Stories

Attending Derby College Group’s Get Hired event has worked out well for former advanced manufacturing student Pavel Kimbaras and design-led manufacturer we.are.sdi.

Pavel has secured a Level 2 welding apprenticeship with the Leicestershire-based business, while we.are.sdi and the College have forged a new apprentice training relationship. 

Eighteen-year-old Pavel was advised by his college careers teacher to attend the event and, by going along, met his new employer who was recruiting at the Roundhouse for the first time.

Nathan Cotton, prototype manager at we.are.sdi, said: 

“We found out that Derby College delivers apprenticeships when one of our design team colleagues applied for a course there.  

“We were looking for a welding apprentice, so we took a recruitment stand at Get Hired. We met Pavel, who really impressed us, so we offered him an initial trial.  

“That worked out well and resulted in us taking him on as a welding apprentice in August.  

“I’m supervising Pavel and he’s doing really well.”

The engineering and manufacturing company, we.are.sdi, employs more than 100 people at its rurally based premises in Copt Oak near Loughborough.

It specialises in the design and manufacture of imaginative point-of-sale displays for the retail and hospitality markets at home and overseas.

UK household name retailers such as Boots, Marks and Spencer, Tesco and Harrods are among its customers.

Pavel, who previously gained a distinction in his Level 3 BTEC and took Further Maths while at college, has always wanted to go into some form of manufacturing.

He said:

“It’s been my dream to do something in engineering. I’ve been interested in it since I was young and took engineering at GCSE at school.

“I’m really enjoying my apprenticeship – the shop floor side and doing day release at the Roundhouse.”