"The UK economy desperately needs more home-grown talented engineers and scientists, so that companies like ours can flourish in the future," said managing director Andy Cook.

The Hemel Hempstead-based manufacturer has now launched its own engineering apprenticeship scheme, which will sponsor two school leavers of 17 or under from the next academic year.

FFEI will provide the apprentices with a structured training programme over two years, with day release for formal qualifications. Apprentices will gain experience across the many technical departments within the company and will have access to FFEI’s experienced engineering staff.

In addition, FFEI has become the official SME sponsor of Britain’s latest attempt to break the world land speed record, the Bloodhound Super Sonic Car (SSC), which is designed to reach speeds in excess of 1,000mph.

"The Bloodhound project represents the very best of British engineering, and being a UK company ourselves that constantly pushes the technology boundaries, we have a lot in common with the project," said Cook.

"It is tremendously exciting and we hope it will inspire youngsters to enter the sciences and choose engineering as a career. We are all very proud to be involved with the Bloodhound team."

The Bloodhound SSC team is led by project director Richard Noble OBE and driver Andy Green who previously set the current record of 763.035mph in 1997 with Thrust SSC in 1997. Aside from the many groundbreaking technologies that the project will deliver, the driving force is to inspire future generations' interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

This includes the Bloodhound Education Programme that is being made available to all schools and pupils in primary and secondary education, as well as students in further and higher education. More than 4,900 schools have registered for the project.

For more information on FFEI’s engineering apprenticeship scheme, visit the company’s website; to apply, email HR@ffei.co.uk; to find out more about the Bloodhound SSC project, visit www.bloodhoundssc.com.