A £1m skills academy designed to train the battery engineers of tomorrow has been launched in the North East.
The National Battery Training & Skills Academy has launched at New College Durham, in collaboration with Newcastle University, and will initially support battery manufacturer AESC at its forthcoming second gigafactory on Wearside. The Nissan, BMW and Mercedes supplier has provided much of the high tech equipment for the academy's hands-on learning facilities - including machinery from its original gigafactory.
A significant portion of the funding for the facility has come from the £610m Faraday Battery Challenge - a º£½ÇÊÓƵ Research and Innovation scheme delivered by Innovate º£½ÇÊÓƵ with aims to build up the º£½ÇÊÓƵ battery industry. The academy provides learners with access to battery production, storage and power deployment facilities and has so far been used to upskill some of the AESC workforce in areas such as battery fundamentals, project management and leadership.
Among the business, education and civic leaders gathered at New College Durham's Framwellgate Moor campus for the opening of the academy were representatives from Bridgwater and Taunton College in Somerset, which is working with JLR supplier Agratas as it gears up launch what will become the country's largest car battery gigafactory near Bridgwater.
Andy Broadbent, principal and chief executive of New College Durham said: "With the correct levels of research and training, electric vehicles and the EV battery environment can provide huge opportunities for innovation, and growth particularly here in the North East. It is our aim to ensure that students at the National Battery Training & Skills Academy not only make themselves more employable in this growing industry, but that they strive to seek innovative solutions to any problems they encounter.
"I am immensely proud that, through partnership working with Newcastle University, New College Durham is now well positioned to play a leading role in generating innovative and sustainable technologies.â€
Jeff Pratt, head of º£½ÇÊÓƵ operations at AESC, gave a speech at the Academy opening in which he said the firm's opening of the º£½ÇÊÓƵ's first car battery gigafactory at Sunderland in 2012 had helped to take the º£½ÇÊÓƵ automotive industry in an entirely new direction. He said: "At that time, although we had support from colleagues in Japan, there was no roadmap, no instructions and no information on how to build EV factories in Europe. So we were taking a huge leap into the unknown and learning as we went along.
"15 years and more than 50 million cells later, we're now at the cusp of a second level of investment. As the EV business really industrialises and picks up, AESC in Sunderland is at the heart of this again. We're investing over £1bn in construction of a second plant which will deliver an eight fold increase in manufacturing capacity for the º£½ÇÊÓƵ.
"To achieve this we've got to grow the workforce from 250 when we started - it's higher than that now - up to over 1,000 staff. We'll exceed 1,000 staff significantly as we enter full production. This will also create high value manufacturing jobs in the supply chain.
"This new generation of battery manufacturers will have advantages that we didn't dream of back in 2010. They will benefit from the hard won experience that we've gained producing millions of battery cells in the North East of England. AESC workforce at Sunderland is one of the most experienced workforces in Europe in terms of battery manufacturing and I'm delighted the partnership with New College Durham and Newcastle University will see us share this experience with the talent coming in to the industry."
Kim McGuinness, North East Mayor, said: "This new academy is not just about training and education, it is about shaping the future of the North East economy and opportunities that really create for local people and the next generation growing up in this region. This academy will be at the heart of our region's thriving manufacturing sector and we're on the cusp now of presenting a growth plan to Government - which is the agreed way that regions are working with Number 10 and Treasury to leverage investment and grow our region economy. This - advanced manufacturing and battery manufacturing - is central to that plan."
