A group of American visitors gave the thumbs-up to what they saw in a visit to the the advanced manufacturing technology centre at Hills Meadow, Douglas.

The representatives of Swagelok’s American global management team were impressed by the engineering facilities they saw.

The high-powered group were shown around by John Cashin, engineering assistant programme manager at University College Isle of Man (UCM) and Dave Hester, managing director of Swagelok Isle of Man.

Mr Hester said: ’As the largest engineering company on the island, Swagelok is fully committed to supporting UCM’s technical education and vocational training programmes. The facilities UCM has on the island are key to supporting our apprenticeships and providing higher and further education to our employees every year.

’We are also pleased to see increasing use of the facilities by the island’s high schools; and the Chamber of Commerce STEM committee continues to focus on increased collaboration with the schools and the Department of Education, Sport and Culture to raise awareness of careers in engineering.’

Swagelok Isle of Man, which is part of a global engineering and technology business, has a long history of working with UCM, as the college is the training centre for many of its technical staff.

The purpose of the visit was to show Swagelok’s American team the collaborative partnership UCM shares with industry as well as its benefits.

Mr Cashin said: ’We have been working closely with the local manufacturing sector and the (former) Department for Economic Development (now Department for Enterprise) in the last 12 years to produce a long-term strategy to combat the skills shortage on the island.

’We strongly believe that this collaboration brings benefits to all parties.’

Swagelok’s American visitors were very impressed by UCM’s engineering facilities at the AMTC and the William Kennish site.

UCM offers engineering courses which include manufacturing, craft mechanical and electrical engineering. 98% of its engineering students find employment in a relevant industry after completing their studies at UCM.

John Cashin said: ’We are very proud to show the American delegation around our workshops that boast industry standard training equipment, which enables our students to gain practical skills that they can apply in the workplace.’