£1m training centre set to open

A specialist training centre that is set to provide repairs and maintenance skills to people across the north of England will open in Rotherham later this month.

Property solutions provider Fortem has invested £1m into the Northern 4Life Academy, where it will train more than 2,500 individuals each year, including more than 300 members of local communities in Rotherham and across the north of England.

The new centre is part of Fortem’s ‘growing our own’ initiative, through which it recruits individuals based on their attitudes and behaviours, and then provides the training and support they need to build long-term careers with the organisation.

Fortem have delivered repairs, maintenance and voids services to Rotherham Council’s housing tenants for almost a decade, and the opening of The Northern 4Life Academy demonstrates their on-going commitment to investing in the town and its communities.

The training centre will feature professional repairs and maintenance training bays including multi-trade, wet trades, , electrical, roofing, plumbing  and fire prevention, as well as classrooms with industry leading technology.

This is the second academy launched by Fortem, which successfully opened its Midlands 4Life Academy, located in Aston, Birmingham, in 2013. The Midlands centre provided training to over 6,800 attendees last year, with more than half (52%) of the courses delivered by Fortem’s own internal experts.

Ann-Marie Steele, Head of Academies & Learning at Fortem, said: “Our 4life Academies offer industry-leading training and play a key role in enabling Fortem, our clients and our supply chain to meet future service needs and continued growth. By thinking differently and challenging the way we deliver training and learning, we want to inspire people to achieve their full potential.

“A second Academy running alongside our existing one will enable us to deliver more training, to more people, reaching and leaving a legacy in even more of the communities we work in.”

Andrew Exley, Managing Director of Scarbrook Plumbing and Heating and Scarbook Electrical, based in Doncaster, said: “Fortem’s partnership approach can be best demonstrated by the support we received from the team at the organisation’s Midlands 4Life Academy. It has not only delivered training courses to improve our staff, but also helped us find quality candidates for apprenticeships.”

Fortem’s Northern Academy will be operational from September, with an official launch on 3 October.