Aycliffe Today Business PNE1578_AycliffeTodayBusiness_Issue28_WEBhighres | Page 13

The magazine for Aycliffe Business Park | 13
South West Durham
Training chief executive
Lee Childs with the firm’s
higher education and
BTEC co-ordinator Brian
Corker and some of the
learners studying specialist
apprenticeship courses.
Training firm
helping to
produce skills for
future workforces
Major local employers including Hitachi Rail
Europe, Circor Energy and Husqvarna are using
new tailor-made apprenticeship programmes to
help build their future workforces.
By Martin Walker
Newton Aycliffe-based South West Durham
Training (SWDT) is now delivering bespoke
apprenticeship packages to accommodate the
needs of businesses.
SWDT 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: “As part of the changes
to apprenticeships and the levy, the fact
there’s more funding available creates more
opportunities to make them more bespoke.
“We’ve already discovered how we can
adapt and make our apprenticeships more
bespoke, but it also means we can build in
extra training that’s needed for employers.
“For us, 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.”
Some of the learners working with SWDT
include engineering technical support
apprentices Connor Cockfield, 20, from
Spennymoor (with Thorn Lighting), Jack
McKenna, 17, from Spennymoor (Husqvarna)
and Joel McLaren, 18, from Middlesbrough
(Lear).
Others studying engineering technical
support in quality include Callum Atkinson, 19,
from Chilton (Sabre Rail) and Ben Drewett, 17,
from Wingate (Lear).
SWDT is also working closely with Hitachi
Rail, which is building the next generation of
trains at its £82m rail vehicle manufacturing
facility on Aycliffe Business Park, by providing
training, while in December 2014 Hitachi
Rail installed a £1m prototype train at SWDT
to help train up staff before its new factory
opened in September 2015.
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.
Ben said: “While working with Hitachi we
do quality inspection. So as parts come in we
check and inspect them against standards
and either pass or fail them according to the
standards.
“I’m really enjoying it. It’s exciting to be
part of a new company in a new factory.”
Callum added: “When we started with the
company I think there were about 150 people
working there, now there’s more than 900
with more to come. The production has really
ramped up and it’s a really busy factory.”
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.