ONE of the first young women to be given an apprenticeship at the world-famous Cammell Laird shipyard is among the latest group to be taken on.

The relaunched Merseyside shipyard is strengthening its workforce with the recruitment of 20 young apprentices.

The recruits, aged between 17 and 20, are all from Merseyside and take the total number of apprentices in training at Cammell Laird to 49.

The group includes the first female apprentice at the shipyard for seven years.

Lacie Cadden, 17, from Moreton, is training to be a mechanical fitter specialising in working on ships’ engines.

At the end of her first week in her new job at the world-famous shipyard, Lacie said it had been less scary than she expected.

She added: “Because it’s the first week, we started off being shown around and what we will be working on, and began by making tools we will use in the future.

“Later, we will get to work on bigger projects such as valves and pumps for the ships.

“I imagined it would be different, and thought it would be a much scarier environment, but it’s not – we went on a tour of the ships and really enjoyed it.”

By the end of her apprenticeship, Lacie hopes to become a qualified mechanical engineer.

Last month, the firm relaunched the shipyard as Cammell Laird, bringing the world-famous name “back home”.

The yard had been trading as Northwestern Shiprepairers and Shipbuilders since 2001, but, having established itself as one of the leading ship repair, conversion and military refit companies in Europe, managing director John Syvret said the business had enough substance to justify bringing back the illustrious Cammell Laird name.