Employers invited to exclusive tours at engineering college in Warwick

Employers are being invited to a series of behind-the-scenes tours at a leading regional engineering college to discover how apprenticeships could benefit their business.

Warwick Trident College is hosting exclusive tours for employers of its industry-leading engineering and motor vehicle training facilities every Tuesday morning from June 8.

The Trident Tuesday Tours will run from 8am to 10am and aim to encourage more businesses to consider apprenticeships - ultimately helping the region and country to meet the skills gap in the engineering industry.

Warwick Trident College provides state-of-the-art engineering and motor vehicle workshops and laboratories. This includes an advanced machinery centre and robotic facility, comprehensive vehicle engineering facilities, vehicle diagnostic equipment and a range of premium training vehicles.

The tours will be run by the college’s dedicated engineering team and will run for the foreseeable future.

The new initiative comes after a string of key pledges from Government and the introduction of new legislation through the Skills and Post-16 Bill.

Further Education colleges have been urged to further strengthen partnerships with employers and ensure they are meeting skills needs in key industries.

WCG already has successful apprenticeship programmes in place with Gaydon-based Jaguar Land Rover, BT Fleet,(now named Rivus Fleet Solutions and based in Solihull) Cummins Engines,  Greenmech at Alcester, Pershore-based Downhurst Engineering and many more employers, ranging from major corporations to small businesses.

Skills shortages continue in key UK engineering sectors as they rapidly expand, especially in construction, ICT and manufacturing.

Warwick Trident College is hoping to guide employers to see apprenticeships as a viable option to develop highly-skilled individuals and recruit a sufficient number of employees to drive their businesses forward in the wake of the pandemic.

Alan May, Director of Engineering Apprenticeships at Warwick Trident College, said: “Apprentices can be invaluable to any organisation and that is truer than ever before in the post-pandemic world – especially in engineering where the industry is constantly facing a skills shortage.

“Recent announcements from Government have shown the national commitment to bringing through skilled individuals to work in key industries, and we’re committed to supporting that in the Midlands where engineering is a crucial sector.

“Any employers joining us for one of our new Tuesday tours will be able to quiz our experts on how apprentices can make a difference to a business and how to fund staff development through the apprenticeship route.

“We’re not putting an end date on these tours as we want to give as many employers as possible the chance to join us one of the mornings to see our state-of-the-art facilities, and explore how apprenticeships could support their business.”