Member Article

NETA Training Trust and Stockton College in merger

Stockton Riverside College and NETA Training Trust have joined forces in a move that will drive forward engineering and vocational training in the region.

The merger will help both organisations to achieve future growth plans, while meeting the region’s business needs and the demands of the surrounding community.

By merging the two organisations, Stockton Riverside College Principal, Phil Cook said: “We are confident that together we will be stronger, sustainable and have the opportunity to further develop and grow high quality skills training into the future. It is very exciting.”

The NETA Training Trust has provided engineering and vocational training for 40 years from its bases in Stockton and Billingham, with its chief executive, Frank Ramsay, at the helm for the last 21 years.

Mr Ramsay said: “I believe that NETA and Stockton Riverside College have found the best possible way to ensure high quality and responsive training for businesses in Stockton-on-Tees and beyond.

“I have always been fully committed to providing training services that match business needs. I am confident that, by working together, these two organisations will deliver this and more.

“Businesses will be able to take full advantage of the strengths of both organisations as we continue to expand our services. This is something that would not have been possible for NETA or the College to achieve alone.”

College Principal Mr Cook said: “For the benefit of our area we are delighted to be working with NETA and to safeguard highly responsive commercial training provision in Stockton-on-Tees and beyond. We aim to develop and grow our training provision to further meet the needs of business and our surrounding community.

“Gone are the days when businesses needed to chase around to co-ordinate all aspects of their training needs; together we aim to provide an all-inclusive provision.”

NETA will remain an individual entity but with the benefit of accessing additional training provision from Stockton Riverside College such as, Business Administration, Accountancy, Leadership and Management, English and maths, Catering, Computing and IT, Sales and Customer Service, Construction Trades and much more, along with other College services.

The merger has been warmly received by business leaders. Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council’s chief executive, Neil Schneider, said: “We have a strong relationship with Stockton Riverside College and we wish them well in this exciting new venture. This is a challenging time for all colleges and I’m pleased to see such a positive move being made to tackle skills shortages faced by local businesses because it is such an important issue.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ellen Forster .