New £25M BAE Apprentice Training Facility announced

BAE Systems has announced the construction of a new training facility to provide a bespoke learning environment for apprentices currently in training.

Around 1,000 craft and technical apprentices currently will benefit from the new £25M Apprentice Training Facility at Barrow-in-Furness.

The facility is expected to open in 2018 and will include a teaching block, classrooms, offices, craft workshops and welfare facilities.

It will also include to-scale ‘submarine mock-up sections’ which will allow apprentices to gain hands-on experience in a controlled environment and help them develop skills working to the tolerances required to build submarines.

The Defence Secretary, Sir Michael Fallon, marked the announcement by visiting apprentices working in a range of areas and taking a look around the Devonshire Dock Hall where Audacious, Anson and Agamemnon, the fourth, fifth and sixth of seven Astute class nuclear-powered submarines, are being built.

Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon said: “This investment demonstrates the benefits that our growing defence budget brings for highly skilled jobs in the North West and across the country.

“It will ensure we have people with the skills necessary to deliver one of the most complex programmes in the world that will help modernise our fleet of nuclear submarines.”

The apprentices at BAE already currently work on the Astute Submarines, as well the Dreadnought Programme, the new fleet of four Dreadnought Ballistic Missile submarines that will carry the UK’s nuclear deterrent.

Tony Johns, Managing Director of BAE Systems Submarines, said: “The design and build of a nuclear-powered submarine is one of the world’s most complex and technically demanding engineering challenges.

“It’s vital we have right people with the right skills to deliver these programmes and this investment underlines our commitment to the future. The new facility will provide a modern learning environment to supplement the training our apprentices already receive.”

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