COMPETITION is fierce for the chance to become an apprentice at a major Oxfordshire manufacturer.

This year Siemens Magnet Technology, based in Eynsham, received more than 80 applications for places on its engineering programme.

The business, which employs about 400 staff, restarted its apprenticeship scheme two years ago and this year doubled its intake from two to four.

Reece Hill and Henry Pickford are the first two students to graduate from the scheme and next month will start working at the plant which makes the magnets for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners used in hospitals around the world.

Mr Hill, 18, a former pupil of Bartholomew School in Eynsham, said: “It has been really interesting and given me a range of practical skills.

“I joined straight from school — I had always wanted to be an engineer since Year 10.”

Business excellence manager Andy Duval said: “We started again because we realised the population was ageing and there is a need for skilled people to build the products.”