Last year I had the opportunity to visit the remarkable Manufacturing Technology Centre in Coventry. The MTC is a huge, state-of-the-art set of facilities dedicated to showcasing the very best of today's manufacturing technologies.

MTC is supported by the Government, and by dozens of the best global technology and engineering companies, from ABB and Bosch to Makita, Meggitt and Renishaw to Rolls-Royce and Siemens. It gives them a unique opportunity to demonstrate innovative processes and technologies, and develop them in partnership.

As I walked around, I had the chance to see some extraordinary machines. I manipulated the latest generation of robotic hands, used to work remotely with dangerous materials. I saw the way MTC was able to combine different laser-related technologies from countries as distant as Switzerland, Brazil and Japan. I watched some of the biggest and best 3-D additive manufacturing machines available anywhere in the world at work.

So you can imagine my feelings of delight last week when MTC and our own new university project NMITE announced a new joint venture, to be based at NMITE's superb Centre for Automated Manufacturing at Skylon Park in Rotherwas. The Centre's mission is to support the growth of a modern, productive, sustainable and competitive regional manufacturing industry across the Marches, helping local companies to scale up, automate and re-skill in an affordable way.

MTC@NMITE, as it is known, will feature a range of advanced manufacturing technologies and machines on the Skylon Park campus, with three key goals. First, it will train students at NMITE, so that the students have hands-on access to the latest in manufacturing equipment and techniques, building their skills and expertise. 

Secondly, MTC@NMITE will offer training to local manufactured engineering and tech businesses seeking to upgrade their skills. And finally, it will also work with local businesses in transferring and adopting knowledge to boost their own manufacturing productivity and sustainability, in Herefordshire and across the West Midlands and the South-West.

Showcasing MTC's technology, giving NMITE students cutting-edge skills, boosting local tech and engineering businesses, putting Herefordshire on the national map... coming on top of the news that half of NMITE's 2024 graduates have already received conditional job offers at great local companies, this marks another terrific step forward.

So:  if you're a young person wanting a great tech and engineering education, or a company wanting skilled expertise on new technologies, why not check out https://www.the-mtc.org, or email MTC@NMITE via information@nmite.ac.uk?

First published in the Hereford Times.