College Celebrates a Successful First Year for Plastics Training Centre
City of Wolverhampton College is celebrating a successful first year for its plastics training venture.
The college acquired the assets and IP of Telford provider Polymer Training Limited (PTL) in December, after it went into administration. These included a wide range of resources, notably injection moulding and blow moulding machines and all of its training materials.
A new training academy swiftly followed in April 2010. The college extended its Stafford Park Campus in Telford to form the Polymer Training and Innovation Centre, (PTIC) which provides technical training, education services and consultancy.
Since then, the training centre has gone from strength to strength, being accredited as the first National Skills Academy for the Polymer Industry and attracting big name clients including Unilever, Honda, BPI, RPC and Calsonic.
Companies across the country have also pledged their support to the new centre, with £120,000 worth of sponsorship secured from multinational companies such as Unilever, Total Petrochemicals, Summit Systems and Formech.
College Director Georgina Parker, who led on the acquisition, said: “The PTIC has surpassed all our expectations and we have been delighted with the response from employers across the country.
“In the last eight months, we have provided technical training courses to more than 85 employers, along with delivering 130 Polymer NVQs under the Train to Gain programme.
“Next year, we plan to build on our success by applying for Part B of the Training Quality Standard in Polymer and Engineering, as an endorsement of the high quality service we provide to businesses.”
For more information about PTIC, please ring the Telford Campus on 01952 610101.