REDDITCH received a Royal visitor on Thursday as the Duke of Kent came to open a new engineering training academy in the town.
His Royal Highness the Duke of Kent cut the ribbon at the new Heartbeat UK training academy in Lakeside, a centre which aims to give unemployed people the skills they need to get on the jobs ladder.
Three generations of the Stubbings family that owns design and manufacturing company Heartbeat welcomed the Duke to the Arthur Street site to show him the facilities, including 95-year-old Audrey Stubbings, who was a spring-maker in her youth and is a founder member of Heartbeat.
During his visit, the Queen’s first cousin was also given the chance to meet some of the apprentices working on site including budding welder Dan Seears.
Dan, aged 25, is about to embark on a welding apprenticeship and is excited about the opportunities ahead of him.
“I had just finished a college course in bike mechanics and could see how difficult it was to get into that area as a career path so I knew I needed to try something else,” he said.
“Heartbeat have given me an incredible opportunity and I can’t thank them enough. To be one of the first apprentice welders at the Heartbeat Academy is a great privilege.
“I already knew I had a knack for welding, but to be able to learn, do something practical and earn all at the same time is amazing.”
Dan will be with the academy for two full years starting in September and has already begun some preliminary training this year.
He added: “To meet a member of the Royal family has been a very unexpected honour too – it’s not everyday you get called off the welding bench to shake hands with a Duke.”
Alongside an £83,000 grant from Worcestershire Local Enterprise Partnership Heartbeat has invested £250,000 in the academy, which has a pre-employment training programme for up to 40 learners covering skills including carpentry, shop fitting, warehouse and logistics training, engineering, fabrication and welding.
James Pritchard, group managing director said: “We recognised a real skills gap in this country, so we are very keen to play our part in helping the next generation of engineers and manufacturers receive the tailored training, as well as gain the right attitudes and personal skills they need to begin a sustainable career.
“We are thrilled that the Duke of Kent took time to officially launch our new academy, because for us, it is a way of celebrating the heritage of manufacturing in the region.”
The academy has been supported by the Job Centre and is also working with charities, ex-offender organisations, and drug rehabilitation centres to recruit learners with a desire for the training and apprenticeship programme.
