MADE NE

MADE NE (Manufacturing, Automation, Digitalisation, Electrification North East) offers world-leading training and industrial innovation facilities in Sunderland, NE England. It provides open-access facilities for skills training and innovation in the region’s advanced manufacturing sector, with a particular focus on electric vehicle (EV) and battery manufacturing. It covers skills development from primary school to apprenticeships, to in-work learning and training. The centre supports targeted industrial innovation projects. MADE NE is a £14 million project, with support from the North East Combined Authority. It is the first project to come forward as part of the region’s Investment Zone: a £160 million, 10-year programme that is expected to create at least 4,000 jobs and secure £3bn of private sector investment. MADE NE aims to be self-sustaining in five years, generating revenue linked with the delivery of apprenticeships, sub-letting space to businesses aligned with the goals of the project and by making Nissan’s training commercially available so that others can benefit. The plan has been developed in partnership by Nissan with the North East CA, Sunderland City Council, Education Partnership North East (EPNE), New College Durham, AESC, Vantec, Newcastle University, the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult, and the North East Automotive Alliance (NEAA).