Empower is investing £1.5m in a new training complex, and has acquired a purpose-built 20,000 sq ft facility in Castle Donington. The company will relocate its mechanical, electrical and control and instrumentation workshops to the new centre while also developing a further ten classrooms and upgrading its fabrication and welding facilities.
“We are helping the engineering sector combat a skills shortage which exists across several disciplines, as well as plan its future workforce,” says Empower's finance director David Jackson.
“In the past couple of years have seen our apprentice trainee numbers rise from seven to 170 with a projected increase to 250 next year.”
The facility is scheduled to open in late July, enjoys better rail and air connections and is easily accessible from the Midlands motorway network. The new training complex will be known as the Empower Engineering Academy (East Midlands).
Empower will rename its existing Ratcliffe-on-Soar facility the Empower International Energy Academy, as it continues to build international and conference business opportunities.
