Three years ago The Engineering Training Council (ETC) was instrumental in forming a Sector Strategy Group with the aim of improving maintenance provision. The Group is made up of local businesses and training providers that have a maintenance or training focus. Together they are trying to improve the standards of machine maintenance across N Ireland through best practice strategies.
The Sector Strategy Group had concerns at the existing standard of training and was keen to up-skill maintenance staff to meet the new, more demanding standards. In addition, businesses were finding that they had to send staff to the UK for training as it was unavailable in Northern Ireland. Obviously this is a very costly exercise especially when you factor in the absence of skilled personnel from the plant for prolonged periods.
The ETC looked towards the Further Education sector for help and advice in developing a relevant training programme. The South Eastern Regional College's Bangor campus Technology and Innovation Centre was one of a number of partners selected by the ETC because of their Centre of Excellence for Manufacturing Engineering. The college was ideally positioned to deliver exactly what was required by the industry and invested in a specially designed and fully equipped SMC Pneumatic Suite fully integrated with PLC (Programme Logical Control) on which the trainees could practice their new skills, which was ideal for business and the trainees.
A number of different certified courses are available, each tailor-made to the individual requirements of each business and to date some 100 trainees have benefited from this training.
Brian said, “The Engineering Training Council is acutely aware of the need in N Ireland industry for effective PLC training and development at a time when plants are increasingly becoming more and more automated. Maintenance in general is struggling to effectively maintain and improve PLC which is having a negative impact on company performance and growth.
The Engineering Training Council welcomed the establishment of a purpose built PLC and Pneumatic suite within the Centre of Excellence at Bangor campus to deliver a high standard of tuition in these key areas of engineering maintenance. We are entirely satisfied that this provision with highly skilled and experienced staff is exactly what’s required to deliver quality training and development in this key discipline.”