Automotive and engineering training centre launched

His Royal Highness The Duke of Kent KG KCVO officially opened the new £14 million Castle College Highfields Automotive & Engineering Training Centre and Toyota Academy. Located on Nottingham Science Park, and delivered by the sustainable regeneration development company, Blueprint, the state-of-the-art ‘eco-building’ will provide specialist vocational training to further develop the region’s automotive retail, manufacturing and engineering sector base.

The new purpose-built Centre will deliver a range of training programmes, based on Toyota’s world class best practice, for Castle College students, 14-16 year olds in partnership with local schools, post -16 trainees as part of the Toyota Technical Education Programme (T-TEP). Up to 600 students and apprentices will use the Centre each year.

Toyota’s Academy will deliver training programmes for 350 apprentices for its Toyota and Lexus national Retail networks, as well as 60 manufacturing engineering apprentices for its manufacturing plants in Burnaston, Derbyshire and Deeside, North Wales. The company will support the centre by supplying training materials, equipment, vehicles and will also share developments in new technology and teaching practices.

The Centre has been funded by a regional project partnership including East Midlands Development Agency (emda), Learning and Skills Council Nottinghamshire (LSC) and Nottingham City Council with support from Castle College.

Built around a central hub the 6,600-square metre (71,000 square-foot) Centre has nine fully fitted workshops, a body repair workshop, a car showroom, high specification learning resource centre and a restaurant.

This innovative collaboration between industry and education will fill a sector skills gap that was identified by Toyota, Castle College and the project partners all of whom recognised the importance of the Centre in helping to further develop the region’s automotive retail, manufacturing and engineering sector base.

Speaking at the official launch ceremony Nick Lewis, Principal and Chief Executive Officer, Castle College said: “Our vision for Castle College is to become a leading strategic partner in Nottingham for the delivery of high quality learning, which meets the needs of the local economy. We aim to provide the support and opportunity for students to acquire economically valuable skills, which maximises their employability.

“We challenge our students and staff to aspire to excellence. Working alongside the world class brand of Toyota here at Highfields clearly demonstrates we are making progress on our journey to excellence.”
Our innovative partnership is forging greater links between education and industry offering exciting and engaging new opportunities like the new diploma in engineering.”

Speaking on behalf of Toyota, Miguel Fonseca, Managing Director of Toyota (GB) PLC, said: “As a global company we have a global responsibility to create sustainable business that respects society, customers, employees, business partners and the environment. This Centre combines Toyota’s commitment to skills, environmental leadership and our commitment to corporate citizenship, in particular in the East Midlands region.

“Our Academy will ensure that all our apprentices maximise their talents and abilities in pursuit of success, to ensure we deliver our customers excellent levels of satisfaction.”

Jeff Moore, Chief Executive of East Midlands Development Agency, said: “This is a fantastic facility that not only embraces best practice in sustainable construction, it also offers a unique way of bringing together training opportunities and supportive learning accommodation to help develop the region’s future workforce.

“emda is delighted to have contributed over £8 million to the overall development costs, which reflects our commitment to raising the skills levels of young people. This is particularly important for high value sectors like the automotive service market because they are likely to make the greatest contribution to the regional economy, enabling the East Midlands to flourish and prosper.”

The Centre will cater for school, college and HE students from the East Midlands area training for careers in the automotive and engineering industry. Students aged from 14 to 16 years old may spend one day a week at the Centre whilst full time college students will access the specialist facilities as part of automotive, engineering and auto-sport options.

With its futuristic design, environmentally-friendly materials and high tech specification, the landmark building replaces a vacant overgrown former household refuse tip with a fully landscaped environment designed to take advantage of existing natural watercourses and drainage.

The extension created to Nottingham Science Park will be one of the most environmentally designed and one of the first green science parks in the UK. The Centre, constructed by Nottingham-based construction company Morgan Ashurst, has a brown ‘sedium’ roofs to attract wildlife, and uses carbon neutral fuel. The site’s green spaces, open to the public, are designed to provide a clean and healthy atmosphere and will include a boardwalk connecting with the adjacent nature reserve and the university lake, and a wildflower meadow.

The building provides a high quality, publicly accessible open space adjacent to existing public transport facilities and the proposed phase 2 of the Greater Nottingham tram system.