Training provider Gen2 has revealed plans for a multi-million-pound new base near their present site at Lillyhall, Workington. 

The £4 million site will provide more space and increased facilities for the company’s training and educational services for the energy, engineering and advanced manufacturing business sectors in Cumbria and elsewhere. 

It will also allow Gen2 to provide an extended range of commercial training courses tailored to meet the skills needs of employers in Cumbria, including those in advanced manufacturing, nuclear new build as well as the service and business sectors. 

The new site is next to to Gen2’s current base at Energus and the Energy Coast University Technical College.

Mike Smith, chief executive officer for Gen2, said: "This project has been a long time in the planning and will eventually see the creation of the largest engineering and advanced manufacturing training facility in the North West, if not the UK. 

"As our existing facilities on the Lillyhall Business Park have been at full capacity for some time. Wwe’ve had to make some short-term arrangements for additional accommodation due to the increase in demand from employers and learner growth, which this year saw the opening of our skills centre on the Salterbeck estate in Workington. 

"The new facility will be large enough to accommodate all of our existing provision at both Lillyhall and Salterbeck, and become the company’s new head office. It will also give us room to further expand our capacity and capability well into the future, as the demands for skilled engineers and technicians in support of the county’s large scale industrial projects, such as the new reactors to be built by NuGen at Moorside, start to take place. 

"As such this should not only be seen as a vote of confidence in Gen2’s future, but the economic future of West Cumbria and the county as a whole."