National College for Wind Energy calls for expressions of interest from skills providers

The proposed National College for Wind Energy (NCfWE) Shadow Board is calling for expressions of interest from skills providers who can offer specialist facilities and qualifications as part of developing the required national partnership.  Board member, the Humber Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) is acting as facilitator in this process.

Seven National Colleges offering specialist training provision with a sector focus were announced by Government last year. The timescale for the developments of all National Colleges is expected from the Department of Business, Innovation & Skills during Quarter 4 2015 and work on the NCfWE is continuing apace.

The Humber was identified as the ideal location for the UK’s first National College for Wind Energy. The decision to base the College headquarters in this area, which has established itself as the UK’s Energy Estuary was made owing to factors such as its proximity to offshore wind farms, major industry investments, its deep water estuary and large ports, incentives for development and the pre-existing infrastructure.

Shadow Board Chair, Maf Smith commented, “The proposed National College for Wind Energy will be established on a hub and spoke model with the “hub”, i.e. the headquarters, being based in the Humber region. The “spokes” will be skills providers located throughout the UK, with the aim of addressing skills challenges and amalgamating the expertise and facilities of existing providers to provide best value for the investment being made”.

In order to ensure that the provision of specialist facilities and qualifications for the wind and marine energy sector is set at the right level, the National College’s Shadow Board is seeking to map current provision against industry requirements.  We are therefore inviting expressions of interest from appropriate skills providers who may latterly become a ‘spoke’ partner to the college.

Providers wishing to submit an initial expression of interest are asked to provide information including their location; existing delivery of qualifications relevant to the wind and marine energy sector supply chain and an overview of their specialist facilities.

Interested organisations are asked to submit their expression of interest no later than 5pm on Monday 9^th November.  Expressions of interest forms and further submission information can be found here.