The UK’s first dedicated forklift truck engineer training centre has opened in Swindon. The national centre, on the town’s Kembrey Park business park, has been set up to train the next generation of UK forklift truck service engineers as well as giving mature engineers the chance to upgrade their knowledge and keep pace with the industry’s increasingly rapid technological advances.
It features lecture theatres and a workshop area where apprentices will gain practical experience across a range of forklift brands and model types while established engineers will be taught the specific new skills required by their employers. 
The centre has been set up by the Forklift Training Engineering Centre (F-TEC), the industry-led organisation that delivers apprenticeships in materials handling equipment. It previously operated as the British Industrial Truck Association (BITA) and the Forklift Truck Association (FTA).
The F-TEC established the centre after agreeing terms with property agents Alder King on a vacant building in Kembrey Park.
Unit 17 Ash, an end of terrace light industrial unit, had been vacant since its previous occupier ceased trading at the end of last year.
The 4,600 sq ft building has been let on a new five-year lease agreement. 
F-TEC director Karl Baum said: “After a long search of the Swindon property market, we inspected Unit 17 and knew that it was not only the right unit for our business but also the type of business park environment that would portray the right image for our business.
“Our principal aim is to provide a steady stream of qualified service engineers with the technical, academic and interpersonal skills needed to represent the companies whose forklift trucks and other MHE (materials handling equipment) are the backbone of Britain’s retail and manufacturing economies.
“The forklift truck industry has long been aware of the need to encourage more school leavers and other young people to enter the industry as service engineers. We estimate that sustaining the number of qualified engineers available to the industry at their present level requires a minimum of 200 fully qualified engineers to graduate every year. Our intention is to provide at least this amount.”
Operations director Tiffany Jenkins added: “Establishing our own training centre really is a game-changer.
“We now have our own full-time team of training personnel which ensures that all apprentices that pass through our Swindon Training Centre receive the same uniformly high standard of education and are perfectly prepared to enter the industry, while those more mature engineers can upgrade their skill sets by attending bespoke training courses overseen by experts that meet the changing mechanical demands of the industry.”
Martin Baker of Alder King said: “The Ash units at Kembrey Park continue to prove attractive to occupiers, as they have done for circa 30 years. “
Kembrey Park, owned by property firm Canmoor, is home to a range of local, regional and national occupiers, including Thames Water, National Semiconductor, Smiths News and Pure Offices.
