A HAMPSHIRE aviation company has suspended its apprenticeship scheme for the first time in 75 years, blaming a drop in workload.

The decision came after Vector Aerospace, which runs the Fleetlands site at Gosport, failed to win a contract to upgrade Chinook helicopters.

The factory usually takes in an annual intake of around eight apprentices on a three-year work experience programme offering training in the maintenance and repair of helicopters. This will not happen in 2017.

A spokesman for Canadian Vector, which bought the site from the Ministry of Defence in 2008, said it was "fully committed to our current apprentices" and would review the training programme in the coming year.

The firm had been hoping to secure a contract to upgrade the Ministry of Defence fleet of 60 Chinook helicopter with a Digital Automatic Flight Control System (DAFCS).

However, Boeing Defence UK, which has around 200 staff based at Fleetlands and others in the north of the county at Odiham, opted to carry out the modifications in-house.

Steve Burnell, managing director of Aircraft Support Boeing, said the decision not to award Vector the contract came after a "long and detailed study on the grounds of cost".

A spokesman for Vector said: “Approximately 60 of Vector’s 800 UK employees are impacted by this decision.

"Since June 16, Vector Aerospace has been in full consultation with its employees, the recognised trade union Unite, and Boeing Defence UK regarding a TUPE (Transfer of Undertakings – Protection of Employment) transfer of these employees to Boeing Defence UK. “ He said Vector continues to provide routine maintenance of the Royal Air Force’s fleet of 60 Chinooks.

The Fleetlands site, which employs 800 people, has seen its workload shrink in recent years after the Ministry of Defence’s Sea King and Lynx helicopters were taken out of service.

However as defence contracts have ended it has sought to gain more customers from the civil helicopter sector. Helicopter maintenance still accounts for the work carried out by 60 per cent of the Fleetlands workforces with the rest employed in aeroplane engine repairs.

Fleetlands opened in 1940 to repair and overhaul naval fixed-wing aircraft, including the Hawker Sea Fury and Supermarine Seafire – the naval variant of the Spitfire.