An Irvine-based company hired 64 employees last year and now plan to look for more locals with transferable skills in 2023.

Science and technology company Merck took on the new employees through their recruitment drive and trained them through their six-week-long practical Learning Academy.

Initially looking to hire 52 people, the company ended up hiring 12 more due to the impressive pool of local talent - with more than 90 per cent of new employees being from Ayrshire.

New recruit Scott, who works as an operations technician, said: “I was years in social care before I came here.

“I was wanting something new because I was working from home and was missing being out in the workforce.

“It’s been dead easy to transition – I was surprised at how easy it was.

“There’s actually a lot of transferrable skills from my last job because I actually did a lot of technical work on systems when I was a carer.

“It’s good here – they’re a good bunch of folks.”

New employees are trained through real life experiments which show practices that take place in the factory and through virtual reality for training in dangerous processes.

The Learning Academy takes on small groups with about 10 recruits training together over the six weeks.

It is also being used to retrain workers who were brought in during the pandemic.

Operations technician Sharon, who was also hired during the recruitment drive, said: “I had two full time jobs – one was in Tesco in Irvine – and I decided it was time for a change.

“The academy just came up at the right time for me.

“It had been a long time since I had an interview so it was really nerve wracking.

“The Learning Academy was really good and having 10 or 11 people in the same boat as me was really helpful when I started.”

While there are no job opportunities open at the Irvine site at the moment, Merck is planning on hiring more people and continuing their Learning Academy programme throughout 2023.

Site manager Kelly Foster, who is originally from Missouri, has worked for the company for more than 30 years, gaining her first job in the industry as a production scientist on one of the company’s American sites.

Coming to Scotland to take up the new role a year ago, Kelly hopes she can make the Irvine site a welcoming one and encourage people of all backgrounds to become interested in chemistry.

Alongside the recruitment drive and Learning Academy, part of this plan included touring their Curiosity Cube – which allows kids to try experiments - around Ayrshire schools last year.

Kelly said: “When I came up through university – I have a bachelors in chemistry – I started to realise how few women were in science.

“A lot of the time girls can be more hesitant to get into science, but we want to make sure everyone has that chance.

“Our school outreach programme makes sure we encourage women and girls to get involved.

“When we take the Curiosity Cube to schools, we see so many young kids interested in the activities.

“To get kids excited about science was a proud moment.”

The Curiosity Cube will tour Ayrshire schools again in 2023 with dates and locations to be announced.

To learn more about Merck and see what jobs are available, visit their website: www.merckgroup.com/uk-en.