South Birmingham College has set up a logistics, transport and warehousing training academy as part of its ongoing commitment to improving vocational training in the city.

The Highgate Centre, in Auckland Road, Highgate, Birmingham, offers the highest levels of tuition in all aspects of logistics, warehousing, forklift truck and transport and distribution sectors.

Keith Squire and Dave Stansbie, the College’s Directors of Business Services, have overseen the creation of the Highgate Centre.

Dave said: “The UK has now become a nation of distribution and has unfortunately lost the majority of its manufacturing and engineering businesses. However, we feel we have found a niche in terms of our tailored training within this buoyant and expanding sector.

“This centre can offer a wide range of new skills and openings to people who have lost their jobs, especially those who are unemployed as a result of the decline in the manufacturing industry.

“We offer the whole suite of nationally-recognised training at our indoor heated training academy, which is a RTITB & ITSSAR Accredited Forklift Training facility and has various new training rooms to be able to cater for individual or group training.”

Keith and Dave have extensive links with businesses in the industry and say they are very receptive to the idea of a dedicated centre for logistics training.

Keith added: “The industry thinks it is a great idea and feels comfortable with the fact that we’re a college and therefore credible, coupled with the fact that South Birmingham College has won a number of prestigious awards, including TQS Total Quality Standard and Customer Service Excellence.

“We have a number of training benchmarks and are heavily audited so the companies we work with get a level of training that exceeds their expectations. Our Business Consultants can help make businesses more effective, productive and profitable by offering training, advice and guidance that will have the desired impact on their business needs.

“We offer flexible 24/7 learning as we don’t work to an academic year. Training is offered both on and off site at our client’s premises.”

The College is also eligible for Train to Gain, the government initiative to help businesses and individuals get the training they need to succeed.

Individuals wanting to find out more about courses at South Birmingham College should call Admissions on 0121 694 5000 or email: admissions@sbc.ac.uk