A new fleet of electric, hybrid and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles now provides Nottingham College with all it needs to train and develop automotive technicians to meet the skills needs of the future.
With Government funding of some £400,000, the college is developing a brand-new facility specialising in the decarbonisation of vehicles.
The College’s EMTEC Centre, operating from its Ruddington campus is already home to its commercial and automotive employer services offer, providing specialist automotive training to some 735 apprentices through partnerships with internationally renowned automotive brands including Hyundai, Genesis, Ssang Yong and more.
Now, the centre will expand further to offer specialist training utilising a new fleet including two brand new Hyundai Ionic 5 Electric Vehicles, a new Zero SR-F EV Motorcycle, provided by Pidcock Motorcycles, and two brand new Mirai Generation 1 and Generation 2 Hydrogen Fuel Cell cars provided by Toyota.
These new vehicles will significantly increase the centre’s capacity to meet the surging demand for highly skilled, trained automotive technicians and EV specialists to help repair, service and maintain the more than 1.2 million electric and hybrid plug-in cars on our roads.
The purchase of the two new hydrogen fuel cell cars enables us to get way ahead of the curve as a state-of-the-art training provider in this fast-paced and ever-evolving sector with new technologies changing the face of the automotive industry all the time.
Janet Smith is Nottingham College’s Principal and CEO and a vocal supporter of Nottingham’s bid to become carbon-neutral by 2028.
She said:
“Nottingham College can play a huge role in helping our city achieve its goals around carbon emission reduction.
“As a college, we have made a similar pledge to pursue a net zero goal by 2030 and importantly, our role as skills provider means that we can support our wider economy to develop green jobs, incorporate green technologies and welcome green companies into our region.
This expanded offering at our Ruddington site paves the way for our ambitions to develop a specialist green skills centre catering to many different sectors. To expand our automotive curriculum to provide the skills infrastructure needed to support the continued roll-out of EV and other green vehicle technology is a crucial step on this journey.”
Our apprenticeship programmes will be enhanced to include training utilising these new vehicles and commercial training packages are being developed to cater for the needs of those technicians and automotive specialists already in the industry.
