New skills centre for South East

Posted on 3 Nov 2008 by The Manufacturer

The University of Greenwich (UoG) has become the latest academic institution to take a hand in vocational skills to aid manufacturing as a regional training centre opens up on campus.

The centre at the university in Medway, Kent, will help South-East manufacturers teach staff innovative new production techniques and implement automation as well as offering them access to cutting-edge technology.

The initiative is born out of collaboration between the University and Renishaw – the British-born, world-based FTSE 250 engineering firm.

“The benefits of the Renishaw Centre will be seen across the region through better skills, increased high technology manufacturing capacity, enhanced productivity and faster innovation, giving more competitive edge,” said UoG Pro Vice Chancellor, Professor Tom Barnes.

Reinshaw’s UK general manager, Marc Saunders, added: “We have distilled our years of accumulated manufacturing knowledge into training material that will help companies to develop their own robust, automated processes to compete globally.”

The centre was opened by the UK Minister for the South East, Jonathan Shaw MP. He said: “Partnerships between universities and business are critical to give the manufacturing sector the skills and knowledge to compete in a challenging market.

“The Renishaw Centre is an excellent example of collaboration to meet this challenge. It exemplifies the best of what the talent and facilities in our universities, working in partnership with a world class British company, has to offer the wider community.”

Pictured: (left to right), Marc Saunders, Renishaw’s UK General Manager, with Jonathon Shaw MP, Minister for the South East and Professor Tom Barnes, Pro Vice-Chancellor at the University of Greenwich.