12 | Aycliffe Today Business
Gestamp Tallent Training Controller David Pearson
outside the new Tallent Academy on St Cuthbert’s Way.
GESTAMP TALLENT
INVESTING IN THE
FUTURE WITH ACADEMY
Gestamp Tallent has completed a major redevelopment of the former Sanyo site on Aycliffe
Business Park - transforming the derelict building into a state-of-the-art training facility.
Newton Aycliffe’s biggest firm has invested
heavily in completely rejuvenating the area
and expanding its site across St Cuthbert’s
Way.
Part of the site will be used for
manufacturing, but a huge chunk of it is now
home to the Gestamp Tallent Academy - the
company’s own Centre of Excellence for
plant training needs.
Its purpose-built training centre will
develop existing staff and Apprentices and
will also be used for staff presentations.
It’s yet another example of Gestamp
Tallent’s commitment to Newton Aycliffe
and its people, in creating employment and
nurturing the engineers of tomorrow.
Training Controller David Pearson, who
served his time in the company’s tool room,
told Aycliffe Today: “The ground floor will be
very much an industrial-based training centre
so we can utilise the robots we have there.
“There will be an Apprentice development
centre within the building; here we can
expand on the basic engineering knowledge
they have gained while at college by focusing
on hand skills, drawing electronics and
electrical in a safe environment.
“Equally we’ll also be very close to the
production area of the plant, meaning we
can give people real experience in a real
environment, but without impacting on
production.
“The first floor will be an executive
centre, very much a classroom environment,
with a focus on management and people
development. We have a dedicated IT suite
that employees can use and we’ll have stateof-the-art facilities to give staff presentations
in a much nicer environment.
“We’ve also teamed up with an external
partner who we’ve worked with for a
number of years, Sora Group, who’ll be
working closely with us to make sure all of
the programmes within the plant can be
referenced against nationally-recognised
qualifications.
“In three to four years time I’d like to see
the wider business community on Aycliffe
Business Park and key parts of our supply
chain wanting to come and see this facility
and see how it can benefit their business.
Long term we’ll need it to justify itself and
pay its own way.
”
David admits he was excited when Plant
Director Peter Gallone offered him the site to
relocate the company’s training centre.
He explains: “We’ve had an internal
training centre since the late 1990s in various