Skills Academy Provider GENII Win Sellafield Contract
GEN II, one of the Quality Assured Providers for the Skills Academy are delighted to announce that they have been named as winning bidder for a multi-million pound, long-term training contract by Sellafield Ltd.
The contract is to provide apprentice training for approximately 80 young people a year, further and higher education courses, such as foundation degrees in a number of nuclear disciplines and short courses ranging from safety to technical subjects.
The announcement of the contract, which is currently anticipated to be worth around £25 million over a maximum period of eight years, was made in the Skills Academy's Northwest flagship centre, ENERGUS, which is where the majority of the Sellafield Ltd apprentices and HE learners are to be trained.
The important announcement is timely, marking the beginning of National Apprentice Week.
Amongst those present at the announcement was MP for Copeland, Jamie Reed who said: “This is excellent news and is recognition of the superb job that GEN II have done for the past 13 years in skilling-up a new generation of nuclear workers.
The opportunities that we are all working hard to create in West Cumbria will mean that there will be even greater demand for highly skilled, well trained nuclear workers and the fact that they will be trained locally, at ENERGUS, by a local company, demonstrates once again that West Cumbria is a centre for excellence in nuclear power.
“I’m particularly pleased to see a local firm awarded such a significant NMP contract. I hope that there will be many more opportunities for the local supply chain in the short, medium and long term.”
Iain Irving, Director of Stakeholder Relations at Sellafield Ltd said “Our view at Sellafield and NMP is there is a great future for West Cumbria. It is a very proud day for us particularly as it marks the start of National Apprenticeship Week and our involvement with apprenticeships. Over the past 10 years we have doubled the number of apprentices and graduates and we are very proud that a local business has succeeded in winning the contract. GEN II were up against very strong national competition and have been chosen as the preferred bidder, our congratulations go to GEN II”.
David McNerney, NMP’s executive director for Human Resources at Sellafield Ltd also commented “We were impressed with the quality and value for money available in West Cumbria, this is a highly important contract for us, as it supports our safety improvement programme and invests in our people to ensure we have the right skills for the future.”
Mike Smith, Chief Executive Officer of GEN II, said; "Today is a momentous day for GEN II. The contract is great news for the staff, learners and local area and we are delighted to have won the contract in the face of very stiff competition from some much larger national providers."
“We have a long association with Sellafield and to have been chosen by them to be their long-term partner for the delivery of training and education demonstrates the potential for other local businesses to win major contracts in the face of national as well as international competition.
“We have a lot to be proud of in West Cumbria, not only in terms of the quality of the businesses based here but also in terms of the skills and dedication of their workforce."
Pictured Above: back row (left to right) Gary McKeating, Head of Socio Economic, NMP, Iain Irving, Director of Stakeholder Relations, Sellafield and Peter Woolley, Non-Exec Director, GEN II. Front row (seated at the table) are John Tyson, Sellafield Contract Manager and Mike Smith, CEO of GEN II.
