AN offshore engineering company is building for the future after taking on nine apprentices.

OGN Group says its recruits will study NVQ level three qualifications in fabrication and welding.

Bosses say their four-year learning programme will include practical training at the School of General Engineering, at South Tyneside College, before they join OGN’s Hadrian Yard, in Wallsend, North Tyneside.

They will join an existing team of six apprentices.

David Edwards, OGN’s chief executive, said: “I’m really pleased to expand our apprentice training programmes with the recruitment of these young people.

“They really are the future of our industry and will follow in the footsteps of the platers, welders and other engineers who have built a fantastic reputation for the North-East.”

OGN previously revealed it had won a multi-million-pound North Sea gas contract to support 500 jobs.

It said it would take on about 150 staff to carry out work on an 800-tonne processor.

The project includes making and pre-commissioning a module, incorporating equipment including a primary separator, condensate heater, gas cooler and condensate recycle pumps, which separate fluids and gas extracted from below the seabed.

The module will be attached to an existing platform in the Alder field, about 100 miles off the coast of Scotland.

In November last year, OGN secured a contract with EnQuest to undertake finishing and commissioning works on the EnQuest Producer, a 249m-long floating production, storage and offloading vessel.