£2.5m investment to boost new employment skills across Shropshire
New training centres are to open and new initiatives launched across Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin and Herefordshire over the coming weeks as part of a £2.5 million package to boost skills in the manufacturing, engineering and construction sectors.
The Government’s Net Zero Growth Plan predicts hundreds of thousands of new job opportunities in the coming years in areas such as heat pump installation and solar panel maintenance, as well as electric vehicle manufacturing and environmental consultancy.
To address staff and skills shortages in these areas, funding from the Government’s Local Skills Improvement Fund (LSIF) has been supplied to the Marches Education Partnership, with a particular focus on ‘green’ technologies.
The partnership consists of Herefordshire, Ludlow and North Shropshire College, Shrewsbury College and Telford College, working with local training providers Herefordshire and Worcestershire Group Training Association, In-Comm Training and SBC Training Services, and supported by Telford & Wrekin Council.
The money has been spent on new equipment and technology and the creation of 14 new training centres, which will deliver new courses and teaching facilities, including workshops and refurbished classrooms fitted out with industry-standard equipment, working closely with local employers.
The courses address specific skills needs identified as priority sectors for the Marches in the Local Skills Improvement Plan (LSIP), produced for the region by Shropshire Chamber of Commerce.
Projects coming on stream from the partners over the coming weeks include Herefordshire Ludlow and North Shropshire College making significant progress in the Engineering and Construction sectors, highlighted by the advancement of its automation facilities, with PLCs CNC lathes and mills, and extensive cyber-physical systems.
Shrewsbury College will be opening its new advanced fabrication and welding facility this month, complete with the very latest in robotic welding, laser cutters, and CNC press brakes.
Telford College is launching 16 short courses, and engineers from local employers Muller and Denso engineers have begun sampling modules which focus on printed circuit board design and repair and micro soldering techniques.
Herefordshire and Worcestershire Group Training Association has already opened a new Automation Workshop to host new training programmes, beginning this autumn with Introduction to Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC), Advanced PLC and Introduction to Robotics courses. Engineering apprentices will also use the new workshop.
And In-Comm Training is officially launching a state-of-the-art automation cell on at its technical academy in Telford. The £200,000 investment will feature a 6-axis ABB Industrial robot and bespoke conveyor system, recreating a real-world manufacturing line that will give learners access to component nesting and sensing, robotic operation, PLC programming and interfacing systems. The Level 3 and Level 4 modular courses introduce staff to new technologies and help them gain technical skills to boost productivity.
