Bridgnorth’s new £4 million training centre, the Marches Centre for Manufacturing and Technology, was opened officially by local MP Philip Dunne on Friday 10th November.
The start-of-the-art centre on the Stanmore Industrial Estate, Bridgnorth, provides vocational training for up to 40 apprentices. It is equipped with more than £2m of cutting-edge equipment, including dedicated fabrication, foundry, lathe, metrology, milling, robotics and vehicle trimming sections.
Three Shropshire engineering businesses and a training provider formed a partnership two years ago, which secured funding from the Marches Local Enterprise Partnership and Growth Hub, to establish a brand new £4m bespoke training centre in South Shropshire.
Mr Dunne said: “I was honoured to be able to launch the first automatic machine tooled cutting machine to carve the MCMT logo into an aluminium plate and to speak at the official opening. This is outstanding resource for South Shropshire, providing state-of-the-art engineering equipment to train young people to become the highly skilled engineers and product designers of the future.
The centre is an excellent example of local private sector employers, supported by the Marches LEP, Shropshire Council and central government, investing in skills through apprenticeships for local school leavers to help sustain high quality engineering businesses in Shropshire for generations to come.”
The Centre received praise from the Minister, Jake Berry MP, when he visited earlier this year, saying it could provide a template for rest of the country.