Why Britishvolt's gigafactory is fantastic news for our pupils
On Tuesday, Northumberland County Council granted planning permission for Britishvolt to build a huge electric car battery ‘gigafactory’ at Cambois by 2023. When fully operational, this will produce 300,000 electric car batteries each year, employing around 3,000 people directly with an expected 5,000 further jobs with suppliers. The factory will be one of the 20 largest buildings in the UK and represents a £2.6 billion investment, which is the largest single investment in the North East since the opening of the Nissan factory in Sunderland.
OK, so far this blog has sounded like a news report and you will probably be wondering why a school leader is writing about a new factory... The simple reason is that Britishvolt will create incredible opportunities for the pupils in our schools and will mean a more hopeful and prosperous future for Northumberland. I believe this to be true for two reasons.
Firstly, there will be well-paid, skilled jobs on offer at the plant, which hopefully will be here for the very long term. This offers some amazing career opportunities for our pupils to access, but only if they have the right qualifications and above all, the right attitude to fit into the culture of the employer. As a Trust, we are very fortunate to have strong links with many local employers, such as AkzoNobel, who have the world’s most advanced paint factory based right here in Ashington.
It’s very clear from our work with employers that being able to fit into their culture is absolutely vital to a successful career. Many organisations now make assessing cultural fit a key part of their recruitment process and probationary period when joining. One of NCEAT’s key objectives is to help our pupils to develop skills such as teamwork, problem solving and good communications, because we recognise that these are in high demand from employers and we want our pupils to have the best opportunities. Alongside this, we work to educate our pupils on the range of careers available and the qualifications needed for success.
There is no doubt that Britishvolt will bring many high quality career opportunities, but many of these will also require particular qualifications as well as skills, so we need to ensure that our pupils and parents are aware of the importance of post-16 qualifications in Maths and Science in particular.
The second reason to welcome Britishvolt’s investment is because it represents a low carbon, sustainable future for our region...
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