10 NEWS DOVE ENGINEERING CENTRE New apprentice centre can play lead role for industry


A unique ‘hi-tech’ training facility is expected to play a key role in bridging a skills gap within the engineering industry. The £1.2 million Dove Engineering Centre delivers top-quality apprenticeship training for leading businesses. More than 160 students made up the initial intake in September at the new facility, which is part of the successful JCB Academy.


And director of apprenticeships Jim Bailey is convinced it can help to address a shortage of skilled technicians across the UK.


He said: “There’s a massive skills gap within the engineering sector in this country and it has left businesses in all kinds of industries struggling to recruit properly-trained staff. “There’s a real lack of people coming through with the depth of knowledge of modern techniques and practices that companies in all sorts of sectors need. “One of the reasons the Centre was set up was to help to address that situation by providing a clear link between education and the world of employment.” Helping the entire engineering sector was the over-riding vision of JCB Chairman Lord Anthony Bamford, who formally opened the Centre – housed in the former Dove First School in Rocester, Staffordshire – in September.


The school closed in July last year and the building, along with associated land, was purchased by JCB.


An extension was added as part of conversion work funded by the Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire Local Enterprise Partnership and the building was transformed into a dedicated and purpose-designed amenity featuring modern facilities and cutting-edge technology.


WELDING WORLD MAGAZINE | ISSUE 02 | APRIL 2018


A mechatronics suite features a hi-tech rig that replicates an entire manufacturing system along with a host of hydraulic and pneumatic equipment while, in another area, students undertake projects using computer aided design.


The metrology department houses a co- ordinate measurement machine alongside a range of other industrial measuring tools, while there’s also a drafting room containing 15 drawing stations and a science lab geared towards the study of engineering principles.


The Centre, which has also been fitted out with its own canteen, delivers largely academic education for young engineers, while apprentices receive technical tuition in workshops at the main Academy site nearby.


The facility has its own fitting room alongside machine, welding and electrical workshops – each featuring the latest equipment.


Employers use the Centre to equip their own apprentices with the latest skills and the facility, which has a capacity to admit 200 students over the age of 16 a year, welcomed an initial intake of 161 – with an average age of 22. Almost 50 per cent come from Stoke-


on-Trent and Staffordshire and 32 per cent from Derbyshire or Nottinghamshire.


Each apprentice, recruited by employers themselves, will attend four days a week for the first 12 months of apprentice programmes which could last three years, depending on which course they take.


Craft courses, including welding and fabrication, last for 18 months while the Technician pathway, for potential electrical and mechanical engineers and those aiming for roles in design, quality or maintenance for example, is a three- year cycle.


TRANSFORMER CAR Exciting welding project is exhibit at new gallery opening


An artist who learned how to weld in order to complete a work with his father has seen his piece go on show recently at the opening of a gallery. Hetain Patel created


Fiesta Transformer using as inspiration his first car, a 1988 Ford Fiesta gifted to him by his father as he turned 17.


Born in the UK to immigrant Indian parents, the passing of a car


between generations provided him with his first taste of independence. In this work, Patel turned his hand to a newly acquired 1988 Ford Fiesta of the same specifications as the original car to create his first sculpture. Manufactured in England, this car stands as a symbol of working class Britain, a native body, albeit here a car body.


“I made the sculpture with my dad over a period of three or four months. I was really keen to spend time with him


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