The Marches Centre of Manufacturing & Technology officially opened in Shropshire last week. This centre is run by Grainger & Worrall, In-Comm Training, Classic Motor Cars and Salop Design & Engineering and works to provide specialised training to support apprentice engineers in a wide range of areas such as machining, mechatronics and maintenance.
During a talk at the new £4 million Centre, attended by 250 visitors, it was suggested that more firms need to work together in order to nurture the new talent coming into the industry. If the manufacturing industry continues to sit back and wait for others to solve the challenge of the skills gap, ten there is going to be very little change and an increasing mountain of challenges to climb. The Managing Director Matthew Snelson said that teamwork is needed to fix the skills shortage and help to improve the level of skill and productivity seen in the UK manufacturing industry.
By more and more companies nurturing new talent, and flooding the market with this new talented skilled workforce then companies will be able to make sure that there are enough individuals to satisfy the demand for growth expectation in the industry. In areas of the UK such as the West Midlands, it is clear that firms in this industry are now being held back because a lack of key skills in the new-recruit stage as well as the existing workforce.
The newly completed Marches Centre of Manufacturing & Technology features more than £2 million of state-of-the-art equipment which includes dedicated fabrication, foundry, lathe, metrology, milling, robotics and vehicles milling sections allowing expert engineers to train apprentices with the latest technology and allowing trainees an opportunity to new skills to real life manufacturing situations. Employers know the best the difficulties that are faced because of the employment needs of the workforce therefore it is vital that they work together. Projects such as the Marches Centre of Manufacturing & Technology is a great example of how private investment can create an opportunity to develop the next generation of engineers.
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