500 pupils rev in for Jaguar Land Rover visits

JLR's head of community relations Les Ratcliffe said almost 200 of the young visitors to the centre at the engine manufacturing centre on the i54 business park had been from the city's secondary and primary schools.

The centre is one of six in the UK now operated by the car giant.

It was set up with Staffordshire County Council, South Staffordshire Council, Wolverhampton City Council and Wolverhampton College and has been operating since June.

Mr Ratcliffe, who is based at JLR's head office at Witley, Coventry, said that 17 per cent of the 509 school visitors had come from Staffordshire's schools and 58 per cent in total from Midlands schools.

"The partnership that we have got between JLR and local authorities and schools is second to none in the UK.

"You don't see many other areas of the UK with this kind of facility or partnership," he said

As well as schools visits the education centre delivers work placements and bespoke education programmes

"In addition we are working closely with Wednesfield High School and Codsall High School and integrated and supported an education programme with them while the factory was being built. Pupils from both schools are regular visitors to the site," added Mr Ratcliffe.

He said that many school pupils from the West Midlands took part in regional and national STEM (science, technology engineering and mathematics) programmes including the Land Rover 4x4 in Schools and Jaguar Primary Schools challenges.

"We are always looking for more schools including those in Wolverhampton to make use of the education business partnership centre," said Mr Ratcliffe.

He explained that JLR believed there was a need to get young people to think about careers early and get the right qualifications to pursue careers in engineering.

"It is good to start young and our education centres are designed to support schools in bringing the world of work to the forefront of education," added Mr Ratcliffe.

JLR will be opening its first international education centre at its new site in Brazil in May and has plans to open one at a new plant that is planned in Slovakia.

The centre at the engine manufacturing centre, which employs more than 1,000, uses a range of cutting edge technologies such as a holographic table which projects images of Jaguar Land Rover's Ingenium engines to show how they are manufactured. iPad stations using bespoke modules are also available for students to complete when they return from tours and young people are also be able to learn how to control and manipulate miniature robots, similar to those used in the facility.

The EBPC's are part of JLR's Inspiring Tomorrow's Engineers business programme.

Since June the EMC EBPC has hosted visits for 886 UK and international school, college and university students and 165 tutors across 50 educational visits.