Ryan Brown

When production operator and team leader Ryan Brown was made redundant by Ford Motor Company’s Bridgend plant due to a product run end, he recognised an opportunity to retrain.

He secured an apprenticeship on Ford’s Electrical Training Programme and now programmes and works with robots, provides breakdown cover and finds ways to save the company money.

Ryan, 26, from Porthcawl, has helped establish an Emerging Technologies Department and is set to save the company £29,340 a year by making a component on a 3D printer. 

Having begun the final year of an Electrical Maintenance Apprenticeship, he aims to complete a HNC in Electrical Engineering at Bridgend College and BEng degree in Manufacturing Systems Engineering at the University of Wales, Trinity St David’s in Swansea next summer.