New facility at Southampton City College set to boost aluminium boat building industry
The Rt Hon John Denham, MP for Southampton Itchen and Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, opened a new aluminium welding facility at Southampton City College last month. The facility, located within City Welding School on the main campus, is set to benefit the south coast’s boat building industry, where a shortage of skilled aluminium welders has been an issue for some time.
City College will now be offering a completely new welding course, which is the first of its kind in the Solent region. The aluminium welding course is unique as the methodologies will be taught for plating in excess of 40mm in thickness which will require modern techniques being taught to ensure full penetration welds.
The course was established in a partnership between City College and south coast boat builders to cater for local demand for specialised skills in the aluminium boat building industry. The 16 week aluminium welding course was set up to provide employers with a highly-qualified workforce of welders trained in the most relevant and technologically up-to-date skills. City College worked in conjunction with companies such as South Boats on the Isle of Wight, Palmer Johnson Yachts and Burgess Marine in Dover to develop the course, which will provide students with their codification examination (Lloyds & DNV). Such is the demand that the 16 week courses will run back-to-back throughout the year.
The Learning and Skills Council (LSC), supported the college in the development of the £48,000 facility. It features 6 aluminium and 12 ferrous welding machines, one of which was generously donated by Hampshire Welding Limited.
Principal and CEO of City College, Lindsey Noble, said: "The boat building industry is a major part of the south's economy. The students of today will be the boat builders of tomorrow and we want to make sure they are armed with all the relevant skills to help them succeed.
"It is our aim as a college to provide learners with the skills they need for the future, in areas where jobs are available, and the opening of City Welding School is another way to help us achieve our mission. Not only this, but the new aluminium welding course will allow us to help employees already working for the south's aluminium boat building companies to widen their existing skills and help their companies to compete globally."
City College has strong links with the marine industry as it teaches marine engineering disciplines at its waterside Maritime Technology Centre in Woolston and its main campus in St Mary Street. Since 2005, the MTC has trained more than 1,000 people in engineering, marine composites and boat building.
For further information contact Ken Cast, Marine Skills Manager, email kc@southampton-city.ac.uk or call 02380 724722
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