Plans for £14m hub to train apprentices

Negotiations are underway to create a £14m Advanced Manufacturing Institute Training Centre at the AMP in Rotherham to give 16-year-olds the opportunity to have apprenticeship training and study for a degree before possibly moving on to a Masters or PhD.

Former Sheffield Central Labour MP Richard Caborn announced the plans at the 375th Cutlers’ Feast in Sheffield last night.

He told the audience that negotiations were “well advanced” and that Business Secretary Vince Cable had supported the scheme “in principle” when he briefed him on the plans, which still have to go through the planning process.

“We hope in the near future to have an intake of around 200 per year which will start addressing the concerns about the lack of high quality skilled labour,” he said.

He told the Yorkshire Post he hoped the scheme, which could be fully operational in two years, would receive financial support through European funding and the Regional Growth Fund.

It is backed by manufacturers including Rolls Royce, Davy Markham, Sheffield Forgemasters and BAE Systems.

Mr Caborn, who started his career with an engineering apprenticeship at the age of 15, said: “The city and this region has a major role to play in rebalancing the economy of the nation, if we are serious about placing manufacturing and wealth creation then we all have our part to play and that is including Whitehall and Westminster, who should no longer be paying lip service, but investing in the decision makers that can make that happen.”

He added: “I want more 16-year-olds walking through the gates of the manufacturing companies up and down this land starting quality engineering apprenticeships and being as inspired as I was all those years ago.”

The Cutlers’ Feast is recognised as an opportunity to showcase the region as a centre for modern, effective and efficient manufacturing using both innovation and technology.

During his speech, Mr Caborn also spoke about the £80m government loan awarded to a South Yorkshire engineering firm to build nuclear parts that was cancelled by the Coalition Government last year.

“Vince Cable and Nick Clegg should have been more politically astute and I am sure if they could re-run history they would make a different decision,” he said.

“But the Civil Service and particularly the Treasury, opposed the investment from day one, and I can say this with some personal experience, and an incoming government would have been briefed and incoming ministers advised to that end.”

Mr Caborn said the recent announcement by Rolls Royce to locate two new factories on the AMP with a third site reserved for suppliers, was a real testimony of the AMP’s success over the last 10 years.

“This continues to strengthen the city’s strong relationship with Rolls Royce, one that goes back many years to the development of the RB211 – possibly the most advanced aerospace engine in the world, but one that would not have got off the ground had it not been for the materials and engineering skills of Sheffield,” he said.

Mr Caborn also praised the development of carbon fibre composite materials, which are being used to build lighter aircraft. “The University of Sheffield has demonstrated that application of composites leads to higher savings in harmful emissions and fuel consumption, rendering them a necessary future material in civil aviation,” he said.

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