Technical and Professional Skills Centre at Stansted Airport

Stansted and Harlow, supported by Essex County Council, propose to develop and deliver a Technical and Professional Skills Centre at the airport. The boards of both organisations, including the College Principal and CEO of Stansted Airport, have already approved the project.

The centre will:

• provide training opportunities to meet skills gaps in STEM, aircraft maintenance engineering; operational and plant engineering; logistics; supply chain management; asset management; higher-level customer care service industries and the visitor economy
• focus particularly on pre-apprenticeship study programmes, apprenticeships and higher-level qualifications, bridging acknowledged technical skills gaps from level 3 to 5
• focus on areas that match broader and growing skills needs of the Airport,including the M11 Corridor and Harlow Enterprise Zone.

Harlow College, with Anglia Ruskin, has already surveyed airport-based employers to establish demand and support. It is developing a curriculum model with businesses such as Ryanair, Stansted Engineering, and Harrods Aviation that support pathways into engineering. A review of STEM provision offered by local schools and providers is complete; its findings will inform the curriculum structure and design of the proposed centre. The college acknowledges a need to focus curriculum design across three broad areas of delivery, relevant to the major functions and career opportunities across the airport:

• Engineering and aerospace
• Business, logistics and finance
• Hospitality and services industries

Positive impact

The primary positive impact of the Technical and Professional Skills Centre at Stansted Airport will be the support for local young people to gain sustainable employment at the airport with relevant skills and the chance to gain further skills. The modelling approach taken is based on:

• job vacancy information from the airport and subcontractors working for the airport
• the organisational needs analysis of 9 large employers at the airport, representing all skill areas that the College will support, demonstrate that the challenges of staff recruitment with advertised posts being vacant for a period in excess of six months, difficulty in recruiting and sourcing the right training for both engineering positions and hospitality services and has been a common factor across many of the organisations
• Harlow College data analysis of learner achievement for the subject areas concerned

£579m of investment to East Sussex, Essex, Kent, Medway, Southend and Thurrock

In total the SELEP Growth Deal with Government has brought £579m of investment to East Sussex, Essex, Kent, Medway, Southend and Thurrock. Over the lifetime of the Growth Deal (2015-2021) we aim to deliver 78,000 jobs and 29,000 homes across the SELEP area, with the Deal set to attract a further £960m of investment into the South East over the six year period.

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