The Manufacturing Technology Centre is investing in the future of engineering

Take a look at some of the good things that are happening at the Manufacturing Technology Centre

With our support, MTC Training has expanded its specialist training programmes in an effort to close the skills gap. 

The Manufacturing Technology Centre's story

The Manufacturing Technology Centre provides integrated manufacturing system solutions for customers large and small. 

“Automation and robotics brings huge business benefits,” notes Ken Young, Chief Technical Officer at the Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC). Yet he stresses that “technology is useless without skilled people to implement it.”

The MTC was established in 2010 as an independent research and technology organisation with the objective of closing the gap between academia and industry – often referred to as the ‘bridge of opportunity’.

MTC Training arrived soon after. MTC Training seeks to remedy the skills gap in engineering by inspiring individuals and companies to drive advances in technology. In practice this means providing training not only on current technologies but tomorrow’s technologies too.

The training facility initially catered to the aerospace sector but has since expanded to cover almost every sector, with two training centres in Coventry and Oxford currently in operation and plans to open more in the future. 

A support network

Lloyds Bank funding has helped MTC Training add technical lectures, guest speakers and a future skills programme to its roster. The skills programme prepares apprentices for the use of new technology and their future careers. 

“The funding has allowed us to teach advanced topics that are not adequately covered in the standard apprenticeship curriculum. Additionally, our excellent low apprentice-to-trainer ratio of 1:12 in practical sessions ensures that each apprentice gets their own machine to use and sufficient attention from the trainers.” 

Charlotte Swain, Deputy Director of Training Delivery , MTC Training

She notes that the backing will also allow the company to provide apprenticeship support to SMEs and offer a salary support scheme of up to £4,200 to smaller businesses that release their apprentices for 12 months to complete year one of the apprenticeship. This will help to offset the cost of hiring an apprentice and ensure that smaller businesses can benefit from apprenticeships without it being a detriment to their operations. 

Closing the skills gap

MTC Training are not short of plaudits: Ofsted recently reported that “apprentices at MTC Training work effectively in a culture of high expectations and professionalism fostered by their trainers.”  Excellent standards resulted in Ofsted awarding MTC Training the grade of Good with outstanding features.

Theirs is a valuable enterprise and one to be modelled if steady, UK-wide, progress in the STEM disciplines is to be achieved. Indeed, manufacturing organisations will need to allocate more investment to skills, education and training programmes, particularly for engineering. While funding may be limited, focusing on the quality of training can have a greater impact in the long run. Over the longer term there is a different but complementary challenge. 

Ken Young, Chief Technical Officer at MTC, says: “Sustainability and achieving net zero is a real opportunity for society. If primary and secondary education teaches people that it's engineering and science that will solve societal problems, it will encourage more people to pursue careers in those fields.” 

In the past, many people had the perception that engineering was only about making cars, but making a sustainable world is a more attractive option for a diverse group of people. “And by emphasising the transformational benefits of automation,” he says “as well as the skills and system integration solutions needed to enable adoption, we can help inspire young people to pursue careers that will solve these problems.”

“Sustainability and achieving net zero is a real opportunity for society. If primary and secondary education teaches people that it's engineering and science that will solve societal problems, it will encourage more people to pursue careers in those fields.”  

Ken Young,  Chief Technical Officer, MTC

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