Aycliffe Today Business Aycliffe Today Business Issue 29 | Page 16

The magazine for Aycliffe Business Park | 17
South West Durham Training
chief executive Lee Childs with
Hitachi Rail Europe’s learning
and development manager
Kendra Stonehouse.
Hitachi Rail skills on
track thanks to Aycliffe
training provider
Hitachi Rail Europe says it hasn’t struggled to recruit skilled people at its new train
assembling factory – thanks to the support of local training providers.
By Martin Walker
The Japanese manufacturer, which opened
its new rail facility in September 2015, has
already taken on more than 1,000 people at
its £82m site on Aycliffe Business Park.
Fifty-seven of those have been new
apprenticeship roles, with 10 of them being
trained by 50-year-old neighbours South
West Durham Training (SWDT).
SWDT has been working closely with
Hitachi Rail for the last three years, while in
December 2014 Hitachi Rail installed a £1m
prototype train at SWDT to help train up staff
before its new factory opened.
Hitachi’s learning and development
manager Kendra Stonehouse said: “Our
relationship with South West Durham hasn’t
just been around apprenticeships, because
all of our core team have done a lot of their
training here as well.
“It’s about making sure there’s a mix
in terms of our workforce and that we’re
working with our local training providers.”
Stonehouse, who joined Hitachi from
Redcar-based Tata Steel in April 2015,
attended an event at SWDT to talk to local
businesses about the benefits of taking on
apprentices, and making best use of the
new apprenticeship levy system.
She added: “As a large employer we do
pay into the apprenticeship levy pot and
we’re trying to be more creative in how that
will work for the business.
“We’re trying to bring more young
people in, but as integral parts of t he team
we already have in place. We have a lot
of skilled and semi-skilled people who’ve
joined the company and this is about giving
them opportunities to develop, as well as
recruiting apprentices.
“But we’ve been fortunate, in that we’ve
already employed 1,000 people and it hasn’t
been too difficult to get the right skills.”
Of the 1,000 people Hitachi Rail has
employed so far, the majority of them have
come from within a 30-mile radius of its
Aycliffe site.
They include Callum Worrall and Ben
Butler, both 21 and from Darlington, have
been with Hitachi since September 2015
while studying quality engineering technical
support with SWDT.
SWDT is now delivering bespoke
apprenticeship packages to accommodate
the needs of businesses, and says changes
to the way apprenticeships are funded,
and the apprenticeship levy, have created
new opportunities to deliver a variety of
programmes involving a range of different
modules, as opposed to the standard,
inflexible apprenticeship framework
previously on offer.
The Aycliffe training provider – which
celebrates its 50th year later this year – is
now working with the likes of neighbouring
train manufacturer Hitachi Rail and
lawnmower maker Husqvarna, Richmond-
based Pipeline Engineering, which is part of
the multi-national Circor Group, and Aycliffe-
based rail component maker Sabre Rail.
Chief executive Lee Childs, an engineer
from Shildon who served his time with
SWDT 17 years ago, said: “The levy gives
us more flexibility to get the most out of the
funding available.
“There are gaps in apprenticeships
that we’ve recognised, such as quality
engineering. They’re very difficult to recruit
without paying over the odds.
“But we’re also training apprentices in
engineering with modules in purchasing,
procurement, quality assurance and
business improvement techniques, for
example.
“It’s about making it more bespoke
for employers, rather than sticking to
the inflexible models, and these courses
will eventually help to plug gaps in the
engineering industry.”
SWDT, a subsidiary of Bishop Auckland
College which employs 27 staff, also works
with 3M, Cummins, Nifco, GSK, Mech Tool
Engineering and Ebac among others, and
has more than 300 learners on its books.
The training provider is due to celebrate its
fifth decade in operation towards the end of
the year.
Find out more about SWDT at
www.swdt.co.uk or call 01325 313194.