£5m funding to close manufacturing skills gap

MTC chief executive Clive Hickman and Lloyds Banking Group chief executive António Horta-Osório flanked by MTC apprentices

The Advanced Manufacturing Training Centre has secured £5m funding after it renewed its sponsorship agreement with Lloyds Bank.

The five-year extension will support around 3,500 manufacturing apprentices, graduates and engineers by 2024.

The Lloyds Bank Advanced Manufacturing Training Centre was launched in 2015 and gives apprentices a range of training and experience of real-life projects. It is located on the Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC) campus in Ansty, Coventry.

MTC chief executive Dr Clive Hickman said: “The skills shortage has been an ongoing issue for manufacturing. Since the AMTC was established hundreds of apprentices and engineers have been trained and up-skilled, and are now working in the aerospace, automotive, defence, medical and process industries, filling vital roles.

“The training centre is developing vital skills which are seeding industry in the region and far beyond, bringing on the next generation of manufacturing engineers and technicians.”

The MTC was founded by the Birmingham, Loughborough and Nottingham univesrities, and TWI, to bridge the gap between university-based research and the development of innovative manufacturing solutions

António Horta-Osório, chief executive of Lloyds Banking Group said: “The apprentices and skilled engineers who emerge from these world class training facilities play a central role in helping to drive up the productivity of the nation.

“They will be part of broader efforts to rebalance our economy – a more dynamic, open economy that is backed up by long term investment in infrastructure, skills, science and the latest technology.”

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