A £4 million ‘state of the art’ training hub was officially opened earlier this month, with bosses urging other manufacturers to step forward to help address the current skills shortage.

The Marches Centre of Manufacturing & Technology (MCMT) (www.mcmt.co.uk)— run by a consortium of Classic Motor Cars, Grainger & Worrall, In-Comm Training and Salop Design & Engineering — was unveiled in front of 250 people, with many delegates receiving their first glimpse of the impressive 36,000ft² facility.

Managing director Matthew Snelson used the event to issue a rallying call for more firms to work together in a bid to stop ‘cannibalising’ the pool of industry talent in the UK.

He believes the MCMT offers a perfect blueprint for other companies to follow, after it secured £1.9 million of Government Growth Deal funding via the Marches Local Enterprise Partnership and backing from Shropshire Council to create specialist training opportunities for apprentices and existing workers.

He said: “If we continue to sit back and wait for others to solve the skills gap, then we’re going to fall short of where we need to be in terms of skills and productivity in UK manufacturing.

"We need to flood the market with new talent and ensure that there are enough individuals to satisfy the growth expectations of industry.

"You only have to look at the West Midlands to see how firms are being held back due to a lack of key skills, both at the new recruits stage and with their existing workforces.

"We have an urgent need for more skilled labour and that is where we come in — by creating a dedicated centre that will deliver more than ‘2020 learning opportunities by 2020’.”

The MCMT has so far recruited 21 apprentices for ‘trailblazer’ apprenticeships in machining, technical support, mechatronics, maintenance and light vehicles, and eight local employers are already sending individuals to the centre, where they will spend five days a week — for 18 months — learning from expert trainers on technology that few of their peers will have access to.

Future plans include the launch of a heritage engineering apprenticeship to support the classic vehicle, marine, stream and aerospace sectors, plus the roll-out of incubation space and the MCMT Engineering Club.

In addition to the LEP backing, the Marches Centre of Manufacturing & Technology has received funding from a Marches redundant-building grant and the European Regional Development Fund, as well as industry backing from Engineering Technology Group, Filtermist, Halter, Hexagon Metrology, Mastercam and others.