The new level 3 Trailblazer Apprentice Standard in Metal Casting, Foundry and Patternmaking has now been approved by the Institute for Apprenticeships, IfA. Thus apprentices will soon be able to be registered for the new standard and employers in the UK will be able to use their levy funding to pay for the training for their apprentices. The Elite Centre for Manufacturing Skills, ECMS, will be offering this standard as part of its range of apprentice standards at the new National Foundry Training Centre and delivery is to start in earnest immediately.

ICME’s stand-alone training company, Foundry Training Services Ltd, FTSL, will be helping to deliver the foundry specific elements of the training to learners using tutors from the industry – many of whose names will be familiar to industry and include Eddie Lindsay, Mike Bacon and Chris Allott.

Welcoming the news, ICME national president Trevor Ayre FICME said: “Getting to this point is no small achievement as the process has required considerable work to prepare the content of the standard and also to write the end point assessment plan, whilst the IfA was also learning how to work with employers to develop these employer-led trailblazer standards. “As an industry that is dominated by smaller companies, and with only a very small team of staff at ICME, getting the resources in place to support the development of a national standard for the industry was challenging. But we recognise the need to rebuild the training infrastructure for the industry in the UK and, as the professional lead body, ICME has an important role to play in this – indeed it is one of our key responsibilities. “We are grateful for the support of the many ICME members who have worked to support this process so far, as well as staff and employers from the Cast Metals Federation (CMF) who have also contributed and facilitated this work. Our next challenge is to ensure that our tutors are supported as they develop their teaching skills, and that the necessary teaching and learning materials are available to support the delivery of this standard – many of these need to be updated and this will require continued investment from ICME to enable this. We also recognise the need for higher level programmes, at levels 4, 5 and 6 (where level 6 is degree level) to allow for progression and continued professional development for our members.”

Pam Murrell FICME, CEO for CMF added: “We are pleased that our employers will be able to access foundry specific training for their apprentices with the approval of this new standard. It seems that with the new foundry training centre taking shape, and continued investment by ICME in teaching resources, we now have a good opportunity developing for us to be able to train our current and future industry employees.”

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