JLR Leads Effort to Upgrade U.K. Engineering Expertise

Jaguar Land Rover expands its pioneering education program aimed at boosting the skills of engineers working within the automotive supply chain and other high-tech industries.

The Advanced Skills Accreditation Scheme (ASAS), based on a program developed by JLR in partnership with leading U.K. universities, offers engineers the chance to develop the “green” and future engineering expertise that will be needed to create world-leading new products and technologies over the next decades.

It is being expanded beyond JLR with a £1 million ($1.56 million) grant from the U.K. Commission for Employment and Skills.

Secretary of State for Business Vince Cable says ASAS is the sort of innovative idea that will help address the U.K.’s crippling shortage of trained engineers.

“It’s fantastic that JLR sees (the) benefit not just of making itself competitive, but also (of) collaborating across the sector to help make British advanced manufacturing increasingly competitive,” Cable says in a statement.

“The best solutions are found when business, universities and government work together, and this is an excellent example of partnership working to face future challenges.”

JLR Executive Director Mike Wright says the auto maker already has begun the country’s largest advanced-engineering skills program to help it deliver low-carbon vehicles of the future.

“We are planning for more than half of our 6,000 engineers to take part in the program,” Wright says. “If U.K. companies are going to be able to compete successfully in the future, we need to raise the skill levels throughout the supply chain and U.K. manufacturing as a whole.”

The ASAS is expected to involve engineers from more than 2,000 U.K. companies taking 5,000 master’s-level courses over the next two years.

JLR Engineering Director Bob Joyce says the auto maker originally developed the program to raise the skill levels among its own employees, and more than 1,000 engineers participated in it over a 2-year period.

“The next generation of ‘green’ high-performance products demand very different concepts and technologies, and our engineers need to be equipped to deliver those innovations,” he says.

The scheme offers supply-chain companies access to education tailored to their business needs. It is designed to let participants select from more than 50 course modules covering various advanced skills and technologies, such as hybrid technology or sustainable powertrains, which count toward a qualification up to a master’s-level degree.

The program will be rolled out first across the Greater West Midlands and then England over the next two years, with plans to eventually extend it throughout the U.K.

The ASAS is being run through the Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG) at the University of Warwick and provided through collaboration with a network of leading universities, with each module delivered by a university chosen for its research expertise in a given topic.

Earlier this month, JLR announced it will fund a new professor at WMG who will lead a team charged with achieving international research leadership in simulation support of hybrid and battery-electric component and systems innovation. The research will allow JLR to embrace and deploy the new vehicle technologies.

This is the second industry-sponsored professorship secured by WMG in recent months, with the Royal Academy of Engineering and Tata Steel funding a new research chair in low-carbon materials.