A programme of investment and recruitment has seen a Teesside electrical safety training company prosper in the 12 months since its move to the Wilton Centre and set the foundations to double the size of its business.
Following its relocation to the South Annexe Building on the Wilton Centre’s 75 acre business and science park campus in August 2017, The Faraday Centre has invested more than £1 million in industrial electrical switchgear and the installation of specialist high and low voltage electrical equipment, to help it deliver safety training courses for electricians, and others working with electricity, in industry, offshore and in domestic settings.
At the same time, the privately owned training company has increased its lecturing staff by more than 50% and introduced new specialist courses for the fast growing Windfarm and Hybrid power systems markets.
The investment in the new building, equipment and staff means that The Faraday Centre will be able double its annual training provision to 3,500 candidates over the next few years, drawn not just from across Teesside and the North East, but from around the world.
Established in Middlesbrough nearly 30 years ago, The Faraday Centre has built a global reputation, particularly for providing quality, ‘hands-on’ High Voltage safety training which it supplies to 95% of oil and gas companies and their subsidiaries around the world. British Steel, in all its incarnations, has been a client since The Faraday Centre started in business, while it also counts high profile names such as Harrods, the Central Bank of Tanzania and the Royal Australian Navy among its many clients.
The move to the Wilton Centre’s South Annexe Building, originally constructed as the home of ICI’s North East Regional Computing Centre, more than doubled The Faraday Centre’s accommodation to some 40,000 sq ft and allowed it to centralise its operations into one centre, moving from three buildings on Middlesbrough’s Skippers Lane Industrial Estate.
“Our new building is fantastic. If I had sat down and designed what we needed from scratch I could not have done better myself,” says Suhail Mitoubsi, General Manager of The Faraday Centre.
“The Wilton Centre management team maintained the building very well and worked closely with us to help with our fit-out and move which we achieved without disrupting our business.
“We’ve now got the space to accommodate the largest range of high voltage switchgear in any UK training centre, specialist low voltage training areas, 13 dedicated classrooms, a purpose-built seminar room, and three canteen areas, one of which is in the light, bright atrium.”
The centre’s 33,000/11,000/6600/3300 volt switchgear units are stepped down to 110 volts to allow safe working, even if the trainees make a mistake. “We saved a lot of time and money by installing all the electrical systems ourselves in the new building. Our projects team and lecturers are highly qualified and have previously worked in industry or offshore, so they were able to carry out the installation, and it also means the courses which the lecturers deliver are very practical and based on real experience,” continues Mr Mitoubsi.
Further investment is planned in the centre’s specialist marine and offshore training area in the next six months, but attention has now switched to delivering courses to electricians working on low voltage domestic, light industrial and office supplies who need to bring their training up to date by qualifying in the 18th Edition of the Wiring Regulations which will be introduced in July (2018) and comes into force in January 2019.
“We have a dedicated in-house team working with industry to ensure that all our courses are effectively designed by industry for industry, so we have geared up to ensure there are sufficient training places for the new 18th Edition courses,” says Mr Mitoubsi.
“I am extremely proud of our staff and of the investment we have made, without any external help, to deliver such a fantastic facility, but the proof of our success is in continuing to deliver high quality courses, appreciated by both our candidates and their employers.”
Steve Duffield, Site Director at the Wilton Centre says: “We were delighted when The Faraday Centre joined our many other world leading companies at the Wilton Centre, and we look forward to continuing to help and support them in their plans for growth, as we do with all our tenants.”
Further information about training courses at The Faraday Centre is available via www.faradaycentre.co.uk.
Wilton Centre is a leading, privately-owned science and business park located in the heart of Teesside just five minutes’ drive from Middlesbrough. It provides a wide range of top quality office, laboratory and pilot plant accommodation at competitive rental terms with immediate occupancy. Set in a 75 acre landscaped site, it has its own lake and boasts 1,600 free car parking spaces.
Further information about accommodation at the Wilton Centre is available from Claire Morton at Wilton Centre on tel. 01642 438 050, emailenquiries@wiltoncentre.co.uk or from Stephen Brown at Dodds Brown on 01642 244130 or by email s.brown@doddsbrown.co.uk or via the Wilton Centre’s website –www.wiltoncentre.com.
Picture caption: The Faraday Centre at the Wilton Centre.