Fluid systems specialist Swagelok Scotland, Teesside & Ireland has invested more than £120,000 in a new training facility in Teesside, England.
The Aberdeen-headquartered firm now provides training services from Middlesbrough College and has taken up residence in the £20m STEM Centre.
As the authorised sales and service centre for Swagelok products, assemblies and services in Scotland, North-east of England and Ireland, Swagelok works with oil and gas, power, chemical and petrochemical companies to support their fluid systems with a focus on environmental and plant reliability functions.
The firm is already one of more than 35 industrial members of the STEM Advisory Board which guides the STEM Centre in its mission to meet the skills needs of local employers.
This move is designed to gear Swagelok’s Teesside division for growth in its training and onsite inspection services, and will see six employees based within the building.
Sam McCulloch, training services manager at Swagelok Scotland, Teesside & Ireland said: “This is an exciting move for Swagelok which will put us in a great position to provide training in a location that is convenient to many of our customers.
“The STEM Centre’s Process Hall is the ideal environment for our specialist trainers to work with clients because it’s like being on site. It allows us to demonstrate system integrity issues and better understand the consequences.
“The increased capacity in Teesside will mean the company will train in excess of 1,200 delegates each year – helping to prevent major incidents in the process and oil and gas sectors, while helping clients to cut costs and maintain compliance.”
As well as using the Centre for training clients, the Swagelok team will also demonstrate its innovative onsite inspection services to potential customers in the Process Hall.
Using specialist equipment, the team measures system efficiency and leakage before providing companies with valuable data.
Andy Buckworth, executive director of STEM at Middlesbrough College, said: “The team at Middlesbrough College is already integrated with regional and national industry, and having Swagelok on board in the STEM Centre is another extension of this.
“We’re really looking forward to having a world-renowned brand in our facilities – one which will bring even more live industrial knowledge to the heart of our offering through Middlesbrough College and Northern Skills Group.”
Dennis Melrose, group technical support manager at Swagelok Scotland, Teesside & Ireland, added: “This move is a forward-thinking partnership between education and industry – and will provide us with fantastic facilities from which to expand our training and inspection services.
“In turn Swagelok will support Middlesbrough College and Northern Skills Group’s offering by bringing industry into the learning environment on a full-time basis.”