£4m training centre opening to ‘keep learners learning’

A brand new £4m training centre has been opened by the Lord Mayor of Birmingham Muhammad Afzal for apprenticeships and work-based learning provider JTL.

The not-for-profit educational charity has around 8000 learners across the UK who learn traditional trades, in particular electricity, plumbing and heating.

Operating in its own centres, like its new facility in Birmingham, JTL also uses delivery partners such as colleges and businesses for its apprentices.

CEO Jon Graham said the training centre will soon have apprenticeships that will help the drive towards 2050 targets.

He said: “There are 28 million householders in the UK and 26 million of those households have gas central heating.

“There are lots of people that are experts at fitting those. But over the next three to 10 years, we’ve got to replace or upskill all of those people to put something else in our homes.”

With apprenticeships naturally being more hands-on, the pandemic caused a dilemma as to how JTL would engage with its learners.

Graham said: “In the first three to four weeks, we had around 5000 bits of new learning put online for people to look at, but it’s never going to be a substitute.

“If you have to bend a pipe, or if you have to wire something, of course, I can show you a video of how to do that, but not having the practical experience of doing the activity made it much more difficult.

“However, the fact that we were able to keep our learners learning, is a real highlight for us.”

JTL will also be offering pre-apprenticeship programmes called traineeships, where learners who aren’t sure but want to learn more about a sector whilst upskilling their English and Maths are able to do so.

Graham said: “The short programs are around 12 weeks, we put learners with local employers for a few weeks, so they can see what it’s like. We also offer a post-qualification to continue a learners’ professional development.”

Two more centres are set to open later in the year, with a focus on more than 2500 new apprentices this year on JTL’s blended learning.