A GROUP of apprentices left with an uncertain future when their employer went into administration have secured placements with the company’s new owner.

Lotte Chemical UK (LCUK) has taken on nine apprentices at its Wilton base.

The company, a subsiduary of Korean firm KP Chemical, bought the former Artenius plant in January after its previous owner, La Seda De Barcelona, placed the facility in administration, in July 2009.

Five of the apprentices lost their placements when 200 workers were made redundant from the plant a year ago and have since been on skills programmes at Middlesbrough-based training charity the TTE Technical Training Group.

TTE has been lobbying local businesses to find placements for apprentices who have been made redundant or who are at risk of being made redundant.

As part of the £60m Tees Valley Industrial Programme, more than £2.1m is being offered to local employers who can provide work placements.

The group of chemical, mechanical, instrumentation and electrical apprentices will begin their two-year placement at LCUK later this month.

In addition to the nine trainees, LCUK has employed two recentlygraduated TTE apprentices who had also previously been sponsored by Artenius.

Sam Heywood and Carl Melling completed their apprenticeships with TTE after their sponsorship ended and have now landed permanent contracts with Lotte Chemical UK Ltd.

Stephen Trillo, human resources manager at LCUK, said: “We need to attract good young people into our industry.”