Oxford Advanced Skills is set to help resolve the skills shortages facing high technology and engineering companies in Oxfordshire.
The new centre, which will eventually train 125 young people a year, is a joint venture between the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) and the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC). Leading training provider JTL has been appointed to manage the centre commencing from September 2016.
Oxford Advanced Skills, under the leadership of project sponsor David Martin – an ex-UKAEA apprentice himself – will raise the quality and standard of local apprenticeships through employer-led training. The new centre will provide employers in Oxfordshire’s high tech sector with ‘work-ready’ trainees, apprentice engineers and lab technicians by giving apprentices skills and self-discipline through training in the workplace. The centre delivers added value by working closely with local companies, enabling them to directly input into the qualification to ensure the training provides the apprentices that local businesses need. As a not-for-profit endeavour, all funds will be invested to deliver training and to ensure quality.
If you would like further details of the centre, or if you are a high technology business operating in the area that wants to get involved, or if you are interested in applying for an apprenticeship at the new facility, contact Stephen Hall, Oxford Advanced Skills Project Leader, at stephen.hall@ukaea.uk or call JTL customer services on 0800 085 2308.
Jon Graham is JTL’s Chief Executive:
“These are really exciting times for apprentices in the Oxford area. We have been working in Oxfordshire for many years but decided recently that in order to be able to provide the quality of training that young people deserved we needed to launch our own training facilities, which we have now achieved with our premises at Culham.
Through the work we do there and what UKAEA have seen while on site, it became obvious that there was an opportunity to expand our remit and join with UKAEA to develop this new facility, targeting exceptional young people who are needed by high technology companies operating in Oxford and the Thames Valley.”