Caparo Atlas Fastenings opens “engineering apprenticeship” Training School
Caparo plc, chaired and founded in the UK by Lord Paul of Marylebone, is delighted to announce that on September 7th 2007 the Caparo Atlas Fastenings (CAF) Training School was officially opened.
The new training school, based at the company’s facility in Darlaston, is a reflection of the company’s confidence in future growth and reverses the decline in recent years of engineering apprenticeship schemes. The new school already has 5 apprentices in place.
Ian Clarke, Managing Director of CAF said, “The youngsters are all drawn from local schools around Darlaston and this is one way we can repay our workforce who have supported the Company through a period of great change. The development of the training school is actually a direct result of requests from our workforce. The demography of the skilled machine setters is heavily weighted towards people who are due to retire in the next 5 to 10 years and concern was expressed as to the lack of young people entering the trade”. Caparo Atlas Fastenings, which employs 285 people, is part of Caparo Vehicle Products, a grouping of Tier 1 component design, engineering and manufacturing companies providing advanced solutions to the automotive, aerospace, military and motor sport markets.CAF is the UK’s largest manufacturer of threaded cold forged fasteners and have manufactured forged components at the Darlaston site for over 100 years.
The school is set to lead future generations into manufacturing and will focus on training apprentices in a multitude of disciplines.
The school has its own dedicated Training Manager and CAF are developing an NVQ programme in the principles of Cold Forming and Setting. The aim is to put the word “pride” back into West Midlands manufacturing. In addition to the new training school Caparo’s latest investment; a new 1250 Parts Former has started production. “This machine signals a new direction for Caparo. Following extensive research we identified a gap in the market that our technical engineers can now exploit”, said Gillian Bailey, Director of Engineering.
The 1250 increases CAF’s male fixing manufacturing capability from 24mm in diameter to 33mm. Ian Clarke, Managing Director confirms, “The additional benefit of the machine is that it opens up the potential for CAF to manufacture other parts, other than fasteners, which means further growth, something not often associated to manufacturing in the West Midlands!