A new academy has opened in the Black Country to train the next generation of tool makers following a £1 million investment.
Aldridge-based training provider In-Comm Training has teamed up with historic Birmingham precision stamping and pressings firm Brandauer to launch the facility at the former's base, said to be the first of its kind in the UK.
Brandauer has helped to develop a course syllabus for the facility which will be used to produce complex tooling and train the toolmakers and designers of the future.
Called the Precision Tooling Academy, it is hoped it will address a chronic lack of skilled staff in this field by upskilling qualified engineers who are looking to diversify their skills and also offering apprenticeships to people new to the industry.
In the first 12 months of its operation, up to 35 staff are expected to use the training centre to learn on live tooling projects that will be producing hundreds of thousands of parts every week.
Gareth Jones, managing director at In-Comm Training, said: "We have always placed employers at the heart of our approach to skills and, through our close relationship with Brandauer, identified a real demand to create and upskill engineers into world-class toolmakers.
"Lots of conversations turned into a rough plan to create an advanced training academy that is embedded into a live commercial toolroom.
"This would serve two purposes - provide the best possible hands-on practical and theoretical training while also giving the precision stamping specialist additional capacity to meet the growing global demand for more UK-made tools.
"This isn't just a ground-breaking project for our two businesses but for manufacturing as a whole. Our approach is all about bringing industry and training specialists together to ensure we deliver current and future skills."
Brandauer's chief executive Rowan Crozier added: "This is a real industry collaboration featuring some of the best names in training, toolmaking and tool design.
"We are talking about one of the great manufacturing disciplines and we're in a real pinch point now where a lot of the skills could be lost forever with people retiring.
"This academy will begin to address this issue as well as give us additional toolroom capacity to produce commercial tools that will help us grow.
"Exchange rates are already boosting a recent reshoring trend that has seen us win new tooling projects back from China and other low-cost countries."
