Midland Group Training Services (MGTS) has been meeting the needs of manufacturers and their employees in the development of engineering competences for more than 40 years.

It’s an employer-led, membership organisation with more than 100 members dedicated to continuous improvement in the workplace and to ensuring the provision of learning and skills that can benefit the whole of manufacturing industry. 

MGTS can offer open or bespoke courses to suit employers’ needs.  Its office and training centre in Coventry occupies 40,000 square feet, and has up to 120 young people and adults training there every day, while its teams of trainers are also out on site delivering work-based training to employees in manufacturing businesses throughout the UK.

Training provision is organised into three categories: 

• Technical Academy, which focuses on adult engineering skills development in mechanical, electrical and fabrication skills at qualification Levels 2 and 3; 
• Education to Work, which supports young people either preparing for employment or at the early stages of their careers. This includes their flagship product in this area, the National Maintenance ‘Performance+’ Advanced Apprenticeship at Level 3 through to courses delivered for engineering undergraduates at Coventry University; 
• People and Systems, which is geared primarily to developing competences for first-line management, team leadership and Health & Safety practices.

As a member of the Engineering and Maintenance Network within the National Skills Academy for Food and Drink Manufacturing, MGTS has particular expertise in the sector, having worked on production sites all over the country for leading companies such as Premier Foods, Kraft Foods, Dairy Crest, Britvic Soft Drinks, Carlsberg and Molson Coors Brewers.

Among its training resources is a maintenance-skills assessment and training rig that replicates a drinks manufacturing production line. It’s a mobile unit that’s used to assess the engineering maintenance competences of employees, and is a first step to planning training requirements geared to increasing efficiency and productivity.

This rig along with other purpose-built equipment supports the delivery of courses for mechanical and electrical maintenance engineers who require training from basic electrical principles, essential electrical repairs to motor control and three-phase applications, through to advanced PLC fault diagnosis.