Our Winsford campus was transformed during the summer of 2020 and now includes a centre of excellence for advanced manufacturing and engineering, thanks to funding from Cheshire and Warrington Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) and support from local employers.
The new Advanced Manufacturing & Engineering Training (AMET) Centre was awarded £656,000 from the LEP’s Local Growth Fund and looks to serve the region as a specialist centre for materials measurement, testing and analysis and enhance the provision of digital and manufacturing skills training across Cheshire and Warrington.
The initial stage of the project saw the transformation of our Winsford campus with specialist engineering and manufacturing equipment being installed in August 2020, enabling students to study a new selection of courses from September 2020.
Moving forward, the campus will house additional equipment to support the skills required for smarter manufacturing techniques and accelerate the adoption and use of Industrial Digital Technologies (IDTs) such as robotics, industrial control and digital intelligence which, in turn, will enable cross-sector collaboration and raise productivity and competitiveness.
Local employers have highlighted their aspiration to digitalise manufacturing processes and upskill their employees in parallel. The Winsford campus will look to support this aspiration locally, with the Warrington campus set to support employers further afield.
The investment from the LEP will ensure the facilities and curriculum across both college sites in Winsford and Warrington are in line with local employer demand within the manufacturing and engineering sectors. With a strong focus on Metallurgy within the Winsford campus and on Mechatronics and Metrology at the Warrington campus.
As part of a five-year plan, the centres across both campuses will be equipped with specialist equipment which will enable businesses to transform their business practices at a faster pace and through cross-sector collaboration. The ‘core’ equipment will mirror and augment workplace manufacturing and engineering practises and processes.
These curriculum has been developed in line with demand from local advanced manufacturing and engineering businesses located in and around the town.
Applications are now open for September 2021. You can submit an application here.
You can also register for our apprenticeship programme by contacting our Apprenticeship Matching Service team at: apprenticeships@wvr.ac.uk.
