440 apprenticeships and 26 new jobs at Kirklees College

The college has received £3.1m which will help create a specialist process manufacturing training centre to train apprentices and provide higher skills training for process manufacturing industries.

The funding has come from the government’s Local Growth Deal via the Leeds City Region Enterprise Partnership. The project has been supported by a wide range of employers including Syngenta and Nufarm.

The centre will be built next to the college’s engineering centre in Turnbridge Road, Huddersfield. The project will create 440 new apprenticeships and 26 new jobs including construction workers, technicians, teaching and admin staff. It will take 800 additional new learners over a period of four years.

Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith visited the college’s engineering centre in St Andrew’s Road last week. He said: “It is great that Kirklees College are benefitting from £3.1 million to build on the brilliant work they are already doing to boost engineering skills and training for young people in the area.”

Tom Fox, 20, of Mirfield, is an apprentice at the college. He said: “Engineering is quite big around this area. I work for a small company and because the average age of engineers is quite high, there are plenty of opportunities for apprentices to replace those who retire.

“The new centre will mean that the range of apprenticeships will increase, which is great.”