The Engineering Construction Industry Training Board (ECITB) has awarded £250,000 in Regional Skills Hub funding to a new robotics training facility in West Cumbria.
The Cumbria Robotics Operations Skills Centre (CROSS), which is due to officially open later this year, has been developed to build the robotics-skilled workforce needed to deliver the UK’s nuclear and clean energy ambitions.
Plans for the centre were first announced in April, with the venture involving the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA), the National College for Nuclear and Clean Energy (NCfN&CE), the Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Collaboration (RAICo), Sellafield Ltd and its supply chain, and Lakes College.
The project has already secured £1m in funding from UKAEA through the FOSTER programme, including state-of-the-art equipment for the CROSS facility. The additional ECITB funding, drawn from the industry-led skills body’s investment in Regional Skills Hubs, will support delivery of the hub – including curriculum development, short bite-sized courses and teaching resources – as well as the expansion of technical and sector-relevant content beyond the centre’s initial focus on the nuclear sector.
Andrew Hockey, chief executive of the ECITB, said: “The ECITB is delighted to support this innovative project in Cumbria from our Regional Skills Hub funding, which targets capacity-building projects like this in the UK’s industrial heartlands.
“Industry intelligence shows there is currently a lack of industry-applicable robotics training available for careers in the engineering construction industry.
“A key pillar of the ECITB’s Leading Industry Learning strategy under the Transform pillar is to drive technology adoption through training to allow industry to harness new technologies, including robotics.
“This project and the new, cutting-edge CROSS facility help meet this objective by delivering much-needed robotics training to benefit Sellafield nuclear site and other ECI sectors in the future.
“Our investment and collaboration with project partners positions the ECITB at the heart of emerging ECI robotics modularised training development and roll-out.”
The ECITB’s Regional Skills Hubs funding initiative has committed to invest over £3m to boost training provider capacity and grow new entrant numbers in industrial cluster hot spots and other major engineering construction industry centres at the heart of the UK’s decarbonisation agenda. Grants of between £50,000 and £500,000 are awarded to eligible projects that meet set criteria, including a requirement to match ECITB grant funding from industry partners.
To date, the ECITB has committed £1.6m in funding, which has attracted £14.4m in match funding from industry partners for projects across the North East and Central Scotland, Teesside and Humberside. The Cumbria commitment contributes towards the delivery of robotics training in an area where no such facility currently exists. The centre aims to train 650 learners by 2030.
Lakes College is the lead ECITB-approved training provider for the project, working in collaboration with NCfN&CE, which is leading on the design and development of the CROSS curriculum and will house the new facility at its northern hub based at the college.
Modular training
CROSS will initially support apprenticeship delivery, including a significant first intake from Sellafield Ltd, while also offering modular training routes that allow individuals to develop targeted skills in response to industry demand.
Lakes College is also working with the emerging North-West Clean Energy Technical Excellence College (CE-TEC). The investment marks an early step in the ECITB’s aim to support the CE-TEC’s mission of equipping the engineering construction workforce with the skills needed across Great Britain’s clean energy clusters.
Speaking at the launch of CROSS in April, Kirsty Hewitson, director of RAICo, said: “CROSS represents an important step in how we build the robotics-skilled workforce needed for the UK’s nuclear and clean energy ambitions.
“Alongside advancing robotics and innovation, we must ensure that people have the skills to develop and deploy these technologies and innovations in real-world environments.
“By working in collaboration, we are bringing together industry insight and education expertise to create something both relevant and impactful. CROSS will help embed robotics capability across the workforce, support regional job creation in Cumbria and create new pathways into high-value careers.”
Main image: A learner trying out the robotics training equipment at the facility in West Cumbria. Photo by UKAEA
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