Edwin James Group has strengthened its commitment to the upskilling and reskilling of staff with the launch of a new Digital Academy. The academy is the third purpose-built training facility to be opened by the group, which has delivered over 85,000 hours of training in the last 12 months.

The industry skills gap is well documented, and according to the World Economic Forum fifty per cent of all employees will need reskilling by 2025 as the adoption of technology increases.

Located in the headquarters of group company, EJ Peak Technology Solutions, at the internationally recognised Sci-Tech science and technology campus in Daresbury, the new academy will support further investment in apprenticeships and training existing staff in modern industrial technologies. It will house the latest software and infrastructure to let colleagues and clients get hands-on and operate test environments prior to going live onsite.

Courses will cover a range of areas, including specific training around Siemens and Rockwell PLC control equipment, cyber security, asset performance management and industry 4.0 concepts. A range of courses are already being delivered, including the ISA/IEC 62443 Cybersecurity Fundamentals Specialist certificate programme.

Christopher Kehoe, chief executive at Edwin James Group, said:

"The skills shortage is a challenge that affects the whole industry and, without serious investment, will prove a brake on growth. Finding and retaining the right people is key to our future success, and developing talent from within is something we take very seriously.

"Our Digital Academy will tackle the challenge by bridging the skills gap, delivering targeted industrial automation to a wider engineering audience. It allows Edwin James to recruit talent from diverse engineering backgrounds and augment their industrial digital skillset, adding further capacity to deliver transformational projects for our customers. "

The new technology-focused training hub marks a further expansion of the group-wide EJ Academy Programme that provides learning and development opportunities to employees from apprentice to boardroom.