Collins Aerospace launches "Junior Factory"

The new junior factory at Collins Aerospace in Wolverhampton has been officially opened.

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

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 is 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. She said:

“Recruiting and cultivating talented young employees is a priority for our business,

“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 giving them an opportunity to work on internal parts and fittings.