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Brooksby Melton College, near Melton Mowbray in Leicestershire, has been awarded Centre of Vocational Excellence status by the Learning & Skills Council for its Landbased Service Engineering courses, including the John Deere Ag & Turf Tech programmes. Through the CoVE initiative, the LSC encourages colleges to work more closely with employers to deliver high quality specialist training.



Gaining CoVE recognition has enabled Brooksby Melton college to invest nearly half a million pounds in upgrading facilities and buying a diverse range of state of the art equipment. This ranges from tractors and attachments to technical and diagnostic equipment, including dynamometers and cylinder grinding facilities.

A key focus of CoVE is to train the technicians of the future, and to address recruitment and skills shortages, by offering a broad range of engineering apprenticeships. At Brooksby Melton, these include the National Training Award winning Ag & Turf Tech programmes run in conjunction with John Deere Limited since 1992 - no less than nine City & Guilds Medals of Excellence, the country's highest vocational training award, have been awarded to individual Ag Tech apprentices over this time.

Only one Medal of Excellence is awarded each year in the Landbased Service Engineering sector. Latest winner of this award is third year Ag Tech apprentice Oliver Rumsey of John Deere dealership P Tuckwell Ltd in Worlingworth, Suffolk, with the award judges making the following comment: "The centre has given excellent support to Oliver and has worked well in partnership with the workplace."

Landbased Service Engineering courses vary from totally customised training packages to specific technical subjects such as cylinder grinding, hydraulics and air conditioning, which appeal to the broader engineering sector. Potential customers include agricultural, groundcare and garden machinery dealerships, as well as agricultural engineers and technicians.

The college is also developing new qualifications tailored to the engineering sector. The first short course in Leadership & Management is planned for May 2005.

On receiving the award, Brooksby Melton College principal Annie White said: "CoVE recognition is a great honour, but this is just the beginning. By listening to both learners and employers, we are continuing to develop further new courses to meet the needs of our customers, and to help bridge the skills gap in current and future workforces."

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