A new £1.2 million Advanced Manufacturing & Automation Centre (AMAC) has been officially opened in Blackburn by David Bailey, CEO of the North West Aerospace Alliance, and Edwin Booth, chairman of the Lancashire Enterprise Partnership.

The AMAC is a unique facility including advanced equipment alongside a dynamic team of trainers recruited directly from industry, which enhances the skills of engineers and manufacturers through powerful, bespoke training.

Over the first two years of its operation, the training centre will give more than 250 local people the chance to study for Higher Engineering Apprenticeships and take part in upskilling programmes. Successful apprentices will be given the chance to continue their studies up to degree level.

The £800,000 received from the Lancashire Enterprise Partnership (LEP) has helped the project with the cost of the facility, as part of its £30m Growth Deal Skills Capital Programme to improve the skills of thousands of people in a number of key areas of Lancashire’s economy.

Chair of the LEP’s Growth Deal Management Board, Graham Cowleysaid that the LEP is funding a network of new, modern training facilities all across Lancashire which will improve the employability of thousands of local people over the coming years.

Cowley continued: We have committed to supporting 15 new training facilities via Growth Deal Skills Capital funding, of which the AMAC in Blackburn is the second to be completed.

Along with other training centres we are funding, this new facility will help provide the skilled workforce that Lancashire needs to maintain its position as the UK’s leading region for aerospace and advanced manufacturing for years to come.

Meanwhile, the CEO of training provider Training 2000, Steve Gray, said that the AMAC provides a unique environment in the middle of Lancashire which builds on the country’s rich heritage within the manufacturing and engineering industries.