New Appointment for World-Class Automotive Skills Centre

Caption: MIRA Technology Insitute Campus

The launch of a £9.5m Midlands-based skills centre for the automotive sector, developed with the help of government growth funding via the LLEP, has been brought a step closer with the appointment of an operations director.

Lisa Bingley will take the helm at the MIRA Technology Institute (MTI), due to be launched in September 2018, which has been designed to develop specialist skills for the global automotive industry.

Lisa has been managing the project to deliver the new building that will house the training facility since December last year. As construction enters its final stages, Lisa is now focused on the priorities for the first three months in her new role which include reaching out to the automotive sector to showcase the opportunities that the MTI offers to enhance the local, regional and international workforce.

The MIRA Technology Institute is expected to become a global centre of excellence, helping to nurture specialist skills in new disruptive technology areas such as electrification and driverless cars, ensuring a sustainable supply of future technical specialists and engineers.

The project is led by North Warwickshire and South Leicestershire College and HORIBA MIRA, working closely with a collaboration of key partners including Coventry University, Loughborough University, and the University of Leicester.

Lisa joined the MTI from HORIBA MIRA where she worked as a programme manager with a broad training and development portfolio. She is a Chartered Engineer and works in a voluntary capacity for the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, currently as chair of the automotive events programme committee, and as vice chair of the automotive division board.

Lisa takes up the appointment with immediate effect, working to ensure that the centre’s training provision delivers the vision to provide key skills development to the automotive and transport sectors. She reports to the North Warwickshire and South Leicestershire College and MTI Operations Board, which consists of senior-level representatives from key partner organisations.

Lisa said: “This is an exciting time in the development of the MTI as we have now got our sights set on the launch. It is a fantastic facility and I am thrilled to have been part of its creation. The MTI is designed to meet a real skills challenge in the automotive sector and I am looking forward to working with the project’s partners to make it happen.

“The future of engineering also depends on capturing the interest of children and young people, so we will be opening the doors of the MTI to local schools to help inspire them with career ideas that enable them to become the engineers of the future.”

Marion Plant OBE, Principal and Chief Executive of North Warwickshire and South Leicestershire College, said: “I am delighted with the appointment of Lisa Bingley to the role of operations director for the MIRA Technology Institute. She has worked hard to successfully oversee the construction phase of the project and is well-placed to bring the world-class provision to life and transform the skills supply, particularly at high levels, to the automotive industry. I look forward to continuing to work with Lisa as we move towards the launch of the MTI.”

The MTI is being created to help to satisfy the ever-increasing demand for specialist skills in the automotive sector highlighted in research by the Leicester & Leicestershire Enterprise Partnership (LLEP)to identify future skills needs.

The project offers a unique solution aligned with the Government’s Industrial Strategy by creating a technology institute focused on the automotive sector. It has been funded with £9.5m from the Leicester and Leicestershire LEP Growth Deal Fund and is backed by the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS).

Developing talented apprentices right through to qualified engineers, the MTI will bridge the skills gap across the automotive sector with relevant expertise and qualifications, providing students and apprentices with a ‘ladder of opportunity’ up to level 8 (PhD level).