HCM Engineering has retained Gold ‘Excellent Employer’ status in the Next Gen Makers Engineering Apprenticeships

West Midlands toolmaking firm HCM Engineering has retained Gold ‘Excellent Employer’ status in the Next Gen Makers Engineering Apprenticeships: Employer Accreditation, recognising a family business whose commitment to apprentices stretches back more than four decades.
The news lands alongside two individual milestones. Apprentice Jamie Beddall has officially completed his apprenticeship after almost five years with the company, while Jack Gleadow has successfully finished the second year of his own training programme.
Established in 1969 and based in Stourbridge, HCM Engineering employs 17 people and designs and manufactures precision die-cast tooling for customers including Lotus, Aston Martin, McLaren and Mercedes.
Today, three-quarters of its workforce have come through the
company’s own apprenticeship scheme, a figure that reflects just
how embedded training is within the business.
A recognition built on apprentice experience
The Next Gen Makers Engineering Apprenticeships: Employer
Accreditation, backed by strategic partner and national
manufacturing body Make UK, is grounded in the direct experience
of current apprentices rather than policy documents alone.
Gold ‘Excellent Employer’ status, HCM’s tier of recognition, is
reserved for employers who consistently deliver a high standard of
apprentice support and development. HCM retaining that status for
a second time shows this is a sustained commitment, not a one-off
achievement.
A family business, not just a family name
For HCM, apprenticeships sit at the heart of a wider culture of family
ownership. Managing Director Mike Hanson explains:
“Our apprenticeship scheme has always been about more than just
qualifications. It’s about building careers, developing talent and
investing in the future of our industry — something that’s been part
of the fabric of this family business since the early 1980s.
“It genuinely takes a team, and our mentors, managers and
colleagues all play their part in making it happen.
“We are acutely aware of the national engineering skills shortage
affecting the industry, but due to our long-term commitment to
growing our own talent, we are simply not impacted by this in the
same way that other engineering firms are. This is of huge benefit to
the business.”
What this means for other engineering employers
HCM’s story offers a clear lesson for engineering and manufacturing
employers across England:
• Consistency builds credibility. Sustaining an apprenticeship
culture over decades, not campaigns, is what earns lasting Gold
recognition.
• Culture shapes outcomes. A genuine family atmosphere,
embedded from ownership down, gives apprentices reasons to stay,
progress and eventually help train the next generation themselves.
HCM Engineering’s continued Gold ‘Excellent Employer’ status is a
strong example of what is possible when apprenticeship investment
becomes part of a company’s identity rather than a policy on a shelf
or CSR activity.
With a team of just 17, HCM also proves that company size is no
barrier to running apprenticeships well. It is a welcome reminder
that accreditation rewards consistency as much as ambition.
Find out how the Best Practice Programme can help your business
build a stronger apprenticeship scheme, or how your business could
get recognised with the Engineering Apprenticeships: Employer
Accreditation.