Member Article

North East England Industrial green renaissance supported by large-scale free training for businesses

A large-scale package of funded renewable energy training has begun in North East England, to grow the local economy by upskilling regional businesses, allowing them to grow and diversity.

Training includes industry standard courses on the installation and maintenance of technologies (photovoltaics, solar thermal, heat pump and biomass), introductions to technologies, and community energy courses.

The courses are offered to small-medium sized businesses (<250 employees) and sole traders.

In recent times, North East England has reinvented itself as a core area for a number of sectors, including high value manufacturing, research and development, software and renewable energy.

Already North East England is host to a range of world leading low carbon organisations and facilities, including offshore renewable energy testing facilities, Nissan’s electric vehicle manufacturing facility, and the majority of solar photovoltaic manufacturing in the UK via Solar Capture Technologies and Romag.

This large training programme will help ensure that regional businesses can take full advantage of renewable and low carbon technologies, and thus grow the local economy further.

Renewable energy training will be provided by Narec Distributed Energy (Narec DE), a spin out company from the UK National Renewable Energy Centre, with support from a number of other organisations for the Sunderland based project.

The training is funded through a combination of the “European Regional Development Fund”, the “European Social Fund”, the UK Government’s “Skills Funding Agency” and some other sources.

The funding is handled regionally in three sub-regional projects by Sunderland City Council, Hartlepool Borough Council and Northumberland County Council’s subsidiary company Business Northumberland.

Different courses are offered based on where each company or sole trader is based. Courses are available for Northumberland, Sunderland and Tees Valley postcode based businesses, who meet a set of eligibility criteria.

Leader of Sunderland City Council and Chairman of the Association of North East Councils, Councillor Paul Watson, said: “Across our region there’s a growing awareness of the economic and environmental benefits that are available in the low-carbon economy.

“Now, there is a package of support that can help local SMEs and their employees gain additional skills, knowledge and certification in a range of low carbon and renewable technologies.

“Great to see that European funding is playing an integral part in upskilling our communities for the technologies of the future.”

Employment and Skills Manager at the Tees Valley Local Enterprise Partnership, Sue Hannan, said: “This training will help local businesses diversify into renewable energy technologies, growing their client base, growing their businesses, and thus growing the local economy.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ed Walker .