Multi-million-pound boost from Lloyds for manufacturing centre to build skills for UK economy

A Coventry manufacturing centre specialising in training and R&D has secured a multi-million-pound sponsorship deal to continue to deliver advanced skills in the sector.

Lloyds Bank will continue to provide the Advanced Manufacturing Training Centre (AMTC) £1 million per year before 2030 as it extends its support for the centre and wider UK manufacturing sector. This brings Lloyds Bank’s total sponsorship of the AMTC to £15 million.

The AMTC has already trained more than 2,500 engineers, graduates and apprentices during the initial eight years of Lloyds Bank’s support, a figure set to rise to more than 5,000 by 2030.

The extended partnership will also see the delivery of a new ‘step on, step off’ pathway, where manufacturers can send colleagues for training at different points in their career, facilitated by higher education providers including BPP university. The partnership also includes a new sustainability proposition to support manufacturers to understand where their opportunities to either start or accelerate their journey to Net Zero.

Clive Hickman OBE, CEO at the MTC, said: “We’ve bridged the gap between industry and academia at the MTC for more than a decade, and the support from Lloyds Bank has been integral to the success we’ve had. The extension of this partnership and the increase in funding will mean we can deliver more apprenticeships and training that will enable the UK to maintain its position as a global manufacturing leader.”

The sponsorship was announced at a Midlands Growth Meeting this week in Birmingham hosted by Elyn Corfield, CEO for Business & Commercial Banking at Lloyds Banking Group.

Elyn said: “Finance represents only a part of the equation when manufacturers are investing in advanced technologies and solutions. They also need the skills to implement and manage changes to successfully reap the rewards these technologies can offer.

“The MTC is right in the heartland of the UK’s manufacturing industry and its training programmes will be vital if the sector is to overcome challenges like decarbonisation and the productivity puzzle, all while becoming more globally competitive.”

Tyler Gillespie, a current MTC apprentice working for Technoset, said: “Automation and low carbon technologies are rapidly evolving manufacturing in the UK, but many of these changes aren’t plug-and-play and require entire processes to be re-evaluated. The teaching from the AMTC will help me implement these critical new ways of working in our business.”

An SME Support Service provided by the MTC and Lloyds Bank partnership will continue to assist smaller companies to future-proof their businesses and workforces, while it will also work with larger corporations to help transform the SMEs in their supply chains.  Around 500 businesses introduced to the MTC have taken advantage of the support service to date, including 100 that have utilised the extended Manufacturing Support Service to embed innovation and new ways of working into their operations.

The service has delivered around £5 million in additional benefits to businesses through increased revenues, reduced costs and profit growth. In future, the service will include a sustainability review proposition to complement existing support, as well as expanded support on digital transformation.

As part of its commitment to supporting the manufacturing sector, Lloyds Bank in partnership with the MTC will run a CPD education programme for its colleagues to develop their manufacturing expertise even further. Dave Atkinson, Lloyds Bank’s regional director and UK head of manufacturing will also take up a non-executive observer position on the Advanced Manufacturing Training Centre board.