Jaguar Land Rover has started to recruit the first workers to fill the 1,400 new jobs at its £500 million engine plant on the outskirts of Wolverhampton.
The first phase will see the creation of about 600 manufacturing roles at the state-of-the-art plant on the i54 business park in the next four years.
The roles will support the manufacture of JLR’s new high technology, low emission engines. Employees will be responsible for the assembly of engine components, operation of the plant’s world class manufacturing equipment, supporting tool changes and material line feed.
Trevor Leeks, the Engine Manufacturing Centre’s new operations director, said: “Our new Engine Manufacturing Centre is a significant strand of Jaguar Land Rover’s global growth ambitions and it is critical that we have a world-class manufacturing team at the heart of our new plant.
“We are starting to build our operational team for the future with the launch of our recruitment campaign.”
JLR has worked in partnership with Wolverhampton City Council, Staffordshire County Council and South Staffordshire Council to create a tailored training programme for local unemployed people to develop the skills required at the plant. The six-week training programme will cover topics such as enhanced literacy and numeracy skills, how to approach competency based interviews, team exercises and interview preparation. The programme will be managed and co-ordinated by JobCentre Plus across Wolverhampton and Staffordshire.
The Engine Manufacturing Centre’s team currently stands at around 100 people including 18 apprentices. In addition to the manufacturing roles at the plant, there are also additional opportunities available in a range of engineering and supervisory roles.
