Collins Aerospace launches Junior Factory in Wolverhampton

Collins Aerospace actuation systems vice president Ed Dryden cut the ribbon to open the new operation yesterday morning.

It is a fully functioning business supplying shims to the facility and has its own functional team including quality, supply chain, HR, finance, and operations led entirely by graduates and apprentice employees.

The first cohort of more than 10 participants will last for six months, at which point they will transition back to their regular training within the Stafford Road business which us one of the biggest employers in the city..

The junior factory is part of the site’s early years programme and designed to provide participants hands-on experience to better prepare them for successful careers at the company.

Operations director Lisa Swan has helped establish the programme at the actuation systems facility in the city.

“Recruiting and cultivating talented young employees is a priority for our business,” she said.

“We wanted to come up with a way to make the training experience for our graduates and apprentices even more fulfilling, and working with them we created the junior factory. We’re excited to launch this new programme and look forward to many participants moving through it in the years to come.”

Wolverhampton North East MP Emma Reynolds, visited the Stafford Road site, where more than 1,300 are employed, during National Apprenticeship Week to meet some of the 89 apprentices , many from Wolverhampton, that are employed there.

She praised the idea of the junior factory for giving apprentices and graduate placement students an insight into how a large-scale manufacturing facility shop floor works and gives them an opportunity to work on internal parts and fittings.Collins is one of the biggest private sector employers in Wolverhampton, so I’d like to thank Edward and James for taking the time to show me the site.

Collins Aerospace is a unit of American-based United Technologies Corporation and is a leader in technologically advanced and intelligent solutions for the global aerospace and defence industry.

It was created in 2018 by bringing together UTC Aerospace Systems and Rockwell Collins.

UTC Aerospace in Stafford Road and Wobaston Road has become Collins Aerospace.

The business, which sponsors the manufacturing champion category in the Express & Star Business Awards, also has an engine and control systems operation at its the other site in the city at Wobaston Road.

UTC, based in Farmington, Connecticut, provides high-technology systems and services to the building and aerospace industries.