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One-year automation degree aims to help plug the UK skills gap
Published:  28 February, 2017

The University of Salford has joined forces with Siemens to launch a Bachelor of Engineering (BEng) degree in control and automation, to help address the skills shortage affecting UK industry.

The year-long top-up degree will be available, from September, as part of the Level 6 Degree Apprenticeship standard for control and technical support engineers, or as a standalone course for engineers wanting to upskill and achieve an academic qualification.

The degree will combine academic modules with Siemens’ Approved PLC Programmer certification, and will be available to apprentices and to anyone with an appropriate Level 5 engineering qualification and experience.

According to Professor Richard Stephenson, the University’s deputy vice-chancellor, the degree “will equip participants with industry-specific understanding to enhance their skill-set and further their career in engineering.”

For Jason Phin, an apprentice scheme coordinator at Siemens, “the development of this degree represents a truly unique collaboration between further education, higher education and industry.

“We wanted to ensure this degree was not just purely an academic solution we would endorse, but that it would offer the practical skills required by the engineers of tomorrow,” he adds.