UK National College for Motorsport on track
Britain's new National College for Motorsport, the first Centre of Vocational Excellence ('CoVE') for the motorsport and performance engineering industries, has now received £950,000 of public funding and appointed Eric Newell as its director, based at Tresham Institute. The initiative, currently involving Tresham and two other colleges in the UK's 'Motorsport Valley', will offer apprentice-type training courses for motorsport mechanics
The National College for Motorsport was created on the initiative of , one of the UK motorsport trade associations. In June, the three colleges made a successful joint application for 'CoVE' status to the Learning Skills Council. Milton Keynes College, Oxford & Cherwell College and Tresham Institute then became eligible to receive funding to upgrade their specialist resources, to update staff knowledge and to develop innovative methods of improving trainee success rates. Oxford & Cherwell is a recent amalgamation of the former Rycotewood College (one of the pioneers of specific motorsport engineering education), North Oxfordshire College and Oxford College of Further Education.
Funding is being made available by the East Midlands Development Agency and the South East England Development Agency.
"The aim is to combine the colleges' individual expertise to provide comprehensive coverage of skill shortages currently being experienced in the motorsport industry," noted Tresham's deputy principal, Caroline Wilkinson.
A state-of-the-art, 18,000sq.ft technician training centre is currently being created for the use of the NCM at the BRDC's Silverstone circuit, and there are also plans for facilities at Rockingham Motor Speedway, which is local to Tresham. Other colleges will become involved in the programme in the near future.
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