The hi-tech Apprentice Development Centre at Toyota Manufacturing UK has hosted visits by a Government Minister and the Skills and Employment Commission of D2N2 – the Local Enterprise Partnership for Derby, Derbyshire, Nottingham and Nottinghamshire – in the same week.
Skills Minister Nick Boles visited the Centre at the Burnaston car plant, in Derbyshire, yesterday (March 11), to highlight the company’s groundbreaking work in developing skills and career prospects; as part of events to mark National Apprenticeship Week. Toyota is at the forefront of the UK’s new Trailblazers for apprenticeships.
Members of D2N2’s Skills and Employment Commission had preceded the Minister’s visit by 24 hours, also touring the Apprentice Development Centre and other parts of the car plant. D2N2 held a meeting on Tuesday (March 10) at the Burnaston plant as part of its work to promote skills in its area, through its ‘Skills for Growth Strategy’, for economic growth and workforce development. The Local Enterprise Partnership has a target to create 55,000 new jobs in its area in ten years (by 2023).
Apprentices Working at Toyota’s Apprenticeship Development Centre
In time for National Apprenticeship Week, D2N2 has just this week also finalised its Provider Charter, following a month-long consultation with education and training providers across Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, which sets out how providers can work more closely with employers, to meet their needs and put them at the heart of training and skills.
Paul Eeles – Chief Executive of EMFEC (East Midlands Further Education Council) and Chair of the D2N2 Local Enterprise Partnership’s Provider Advisory Board, a strategic group helping D2N2 deliver its Skills for Growth Strategy – said: “This Charter, shaped by the views and opinions of local stakeholders and providers, will help to realise D2N2’s ambition of creating 55,000 new jobs by 2023.”
To learn more about D2N2’s work on skills and apprenticeship development in its area see website www.d2n2lep.org/skills