Apprentices at work at the MTC
The Coventry-based Advanced Manufacturing Training Centre has partnered with Lloyds Bank to offer financial support to recruit and train badly-needed manufacturing apprentices.
Lloyds Bank already supports apprenticeship training at the AMTC with £10 million funding over 10 years. Now Lloyds is partnering with the AMTC – based on the Manufacturing Technology Centre campus at Ansty Park – to release millions more in funding through the Apprenticeship Levy Transfer Scheme.
The move will allow small and medium-sized businesses to take on apprentices, fully-funded by the Apprenticeship Levy scheme and Lloyds Banking Group’s unspent levy, releasing valuable funds to encourage SMEs to take on more apprentices.
Lloyds has committed to supporting apprenticeships with £9 million from its Apprenticeship Levy fund. The group is initially partnering with the AMTC and the West Midlands Combined Authority. Through this initiative small and medium high-value manufacturing companies can access levy funding to expand their businesses through apprenticeships.
The AMTC already offers employers the chance to use their Apprenticeship Levy to fund engineering apprentices who will get training in product design, development and manufacturing, including the latest emerging technologies in the MTC’s industry-leading Advanced Manufacturing Training Centre.
The AMTC’s managing director Paul Rowlett welcomed the new funding initiative.
“We are really excited by this new strategic partnership between the AMTC, Lloyds Banking Group, the West Midlands Combined Authority and the Education and Skills Funding Agency. We have been working collaboratively with our partners for the past few months to successfully deliver this critical initiative,” he said.
He added, “This will enable the AMTC to fully support SME employers with access to funding, enabling them to source and train new apprentices in their businesses. Access to Apprenticeship Levy Transfer funding has come at exactly the right time to help our small and medium sized manufacturing businesses further develop their workforce to cope with the challenges ahead.
“The AMTC is already in dialogue with our SME employer base to make them aware of this great news and we feel confident that we will see rising demand for new apprenticeship starts over the following months.”
David Atkinson, UK Head of Manufacturing for Lloyds Bank which supports the AMTC said, “Supporting the manufacturing sector through apprenticeships is vital to deliver much-needed skills and technologies of the future. That’s why we’re proud to give this extra support to the AMTC as part of our ambition to help Britain prosper so that young people and the manufacturing industry can benefit from state-of-the-art training and expertise.”
The MTC was founded by the University of Birmingham, Loughborough University, the University of Nottingham and TWI Ltd. The MTC’s industrial members include some of the UK’s major global manufacturers.
The MTC aims to provide a competitive environment to bridge the gap between university-based research and the development of innovative manufacturing solutions, in line with the Government’s manufacturing strategy. The MTC is part the High Value Manufacturing Catapult, supported by Innovate UK.
The AMTC is a subsidiary of the MTC set up in 2014 to address the growing skills gap evident across the advanced manufacturing sector.
