Local MP for Birmingham Ladywood – Shabana Mahmood – today opened the £160,000 extension to the heating and plumbing workshops at the JTL Centre of Excellence in Birmingham.
The centre in Mill Street near the city centre, which opened in October 2014 representing an investment of more than £2 million by the charitable training company, goes from strength to strength providing training opportunities for young people across Birmingham and the West Midlands.
In particular it is providing a range of apprenticeship opportunities in conjunction with local employers in the electrical and heating and plumbing sectors and has been the focal point for the provision of Traineeships, offering young people who can't make the qualifications for apprenticeships immediately, the chance to get some work experience and to learn the basic skills of a trade to see if this is the way forward for their careers.
The Centre was opened by Sir Albert Bore, the Leader of Birmingham City Council, and The Lord Mayor of Birmingham Cllr Mike Leddy late last year and was intended to provide a training base for up to 144 apprentices at any one time across the different building services engineering and facilities management disciplines, as well as being home to a range of top-up training and professional development courses for those already working in the professions.
The success of the Centre has already seen the requirement to extend the facilities and it will now be able to offer more places by raising the training groups from three to four, as well as better supporting the development of current apprentices and those on traineeship programmes.
The extension houses a significant investment in renewable technologies with an air source heat pump and solar PV equipment now available for trainees to work on during their training time at the centre. In total the charitable company has invested a further £30,000 in equipment at the centre, highlighting its commitment to apprenticeships and traineeships in Birmingham and the West Midlands region.
