by Rachael McCorriston
On 13 December, a Skillman Capacity Building event took place at BMet’s Educational Business Partnership Centre on Jaguar Land Rover’s Castle Bromwich site in the West Midlands. More than 20 delegates from across global industry and the further education including, universities specialist and strategically important Caterpult Centres, leading car manufacturers such as Toyota & Bentley and members of JLR supply chain.
The aims of the event were twofold; firstly, it was designed to up-skill and inform those associated partners and members of JLR’s supply chain who have been engaged with the project from the start. Rita Davey opened the event and thanked a wide range of exciting delegates for attending. Paula Cresswell from BMET – the Skillman project’s Further Education partner in the UK – trained delegates on the moodle and explained how to use it effectively to support training on robotics and automation
with the support of the free materials which are available for download from the project’s website. Secondly, representatives from the project’s UK delivery team disseminated project results and talked to delegates from a number of further education establishments, including Solihull and Walsall College and also from other major automotive companies including Toyota and BMW who were present to register as associated partners and to find out more about how they could access and benefit from the project and its outputs, including the project’s Observatories and its free teaching materials on robotics as well as on digitalisation as the sector moves towards the challenges posed by Industry 4.0.
Gordon Thompson from EEF and Mike Bonham from BMET who were both directly involved in the delivery of the piloting sessions to supply chain companies gave presentations on the training units and explained content to those present. Darren Clements from the JLR delivery team talked through the opportunities for industry that the project offered, focusing particularly on how useful the project was for collaborative robot working. Finally, David Morgan presented the qualification to the group and how it
can be accessed – it has now received Uk national and EQF approval and is ready for roll-out in centres across the European Union. All in all, delegates were impressed and happy with the project. It was clear from the event that the project is relevant, focused and meets industry needs as it looks to address skills gaps and challenges in the 21st Century world of the Advanced Manufacturing for Transport sector.
