Solid foundations

Heckmondwike, West Yorkshire-based 600 UK – through its distributor RK International Machine Tools – has supplied no fewer than eight of its M300 manual lathes for the college's impressive new Skills and Technology Centre.

Advanced engineering apprentices and other students at the college, which opened its new campus at the beginning of the year, are already said to be benefiting from the centre's investment in Harrison technology by acquiring vital machining skills which they will need for the future.

“Our training philosophy is based on providing students with the right foundation skills, the building blocks. That's why all our turning machines are manually operated,” says Mike Peacock, the college's engineering work based learning co-ordinator.

“We train our youngsters to control these machines manually as we believe that it's very important for them to have the fundamental skills at the beginning of their training, and that is also what employers tell us they require,” he continues. “They can then progress to more complex machines, but if they get used to using these machines straightaway they are unlikely to go back to gaining the basic skills. That's the way we look at it.”

He explains that the college's success in training engineering apprentices at its former campus, which was equipped with Colchester Student and Harrison M300 lathes, led to strong links with engineering sector companies in the Staffordshire and West Midlands region. The college has achieved ongoing success in securing employment for apprentices within these local industries and in 2009 one of its students won a national award.

As well as machine tool training, first year ‘off the job' apprentices on the college's four year multi-disciplined apprenticeship programme undergo skills training in bench fitting, fabrication, welding and electrical/electronic engineering.

“They are all skilled in these areas before they specialise in the second year,” Mr Peacock adds. This is one of the key reasons why our apprentices have been so marketable in the past.” He adds that this level of success in training the skills which industry needs, led directly to the level of investment for the college's Skills and Technology Centre, including the eight new Harrison M300 lathes.

“We believe these are the best machines available for the training we provide and they are certainly coming up to our expectations,” he says.

600 UK and RK International Machine Tools, based at Erith, Kent, have a well-established reputation for supplying teaching technology to engineering colleges and other training providers at affordable rates.
Mike Berry, managing director of 600 Europe, comments: “We are delighted that Newcastle-under-Lyme College has identified the Harrison M300 lathe as the best in the market for training the engineers of tomorrow.

“The machines have a long and proven track record in the UK engineering industry and the college's decision to invest in these lathes for its advanced new training centre shows that they have an important ongoing role in delivering the skills needed by the high technology engineering industry. We are very confident that they will perform to the very highest standard for many years to come.”

600 UK
www.colchester-harrison.co.uk