Leading North East-based paint manufacturer, AkzoNobel, has joined forces with Northumberland College in order to upskill its workforce.
Having already created over 160 highly-skilled jobs as well as over 100 more in the local supply chain since opening in 2017, AkzoNobel wanted to continue the development of its team now that its state-of-the-art manufacturing unit in Ashington is in full production by introducing an apprenticeship scheme.
After looking at the different training programmes available locally, it became apparent to AkzoNobel that there was nothing currently on the market that matched the levels of automation that are built into the £100 million Ashington site.
The company approached Northumberland College about the possibility of creating a bespoke programme which would cater to the site’s unique training needs.
“AkzoNobel and Northumberland College have worked in collaboration to develop what we believe to be an apprenticeship scheme that will support future manufacturing excellence in our state-of-theart facility,” said Jeff Hope, head of manufacturing unit at AkzoNobel Ashington.
“Creation of the bespoke scheme involved consultation from the very early stages between our on-site engineers and the lecturers and staff at the college who brought much creativity and enthusiasm for the scheme to the site.
“We have been able to design an apprenticeship scheme that has incorporated learning about our site-specific processes as part of the curriculum delivered by the college to ensure that our employees have all of the knowledge and skills they need to succeed in their roles.”
The AkzoNobel apprenticeship programme has been developed in partnership with Northumberland College as part of a new apprenticeship standard. The standard has been brought in to help colleges across the country to develop new delivery structures for vocational courses which take into account the needs of local businesses to create programmes which are targeted specifically to employers’ needs.
Sara Sawyer, business development manager at Northumberland College, added: “We were delighted to work alongside staff at AkzoNobel to develop a course suitable for their process operators and flexible enough to work around their current operations. We hope that this is the start of a long and productive working relationship.”
For more information about AkzoNobel, visit www.akzonobel.com or for more information about Northumberland College, visit www.northumberland.ac.uk
