OREANDA-NEWS. Jaguar Land Rover has launched the first significant campaign to recruit 1,400 employees at its new, state-of-the-art engine manufacturing centre based at the i54 South Staffordshire business park near Wolverhampton. The first phase will see the creation of about 600 manufacturing roles at the plant in the next four years.

Jaguar Land Rover is investing more than ?500 million in its new engine manufacturing centre, bringing engine supply back to its production doorstep and providing significant new resource to support continued innovation. The recruits will be required to support the manufacture of Jaguar Land Rover's new family of high-technology, low-emission engines. The team will be responsible for the assembly of engine components, operation of the plant's world-class manufacturing equipment, supporting tool changes and material line feed.

Trevor Leeks, the engine manufacturing centre's new operations director, said, “Our new engine manufacturing centre is a significant strand of Jaguar Land Rover's global growth ambitions, and it is critical that we have a world-class manufacturing team at the heart of our new plant.

“We are entering the next phase of the programme with our small team moving onsite just last week. Today, we are starting to build our operational team for the future with the launch of our recruitment campaign.

“We are looking for dedicated, committed and passionate people to join the Jaguar Land Rover team at the engine manufacturing centre.”

Jaguar Land Rover has worked in partnership with the Wolverhampton City Council, Staffordshire County Council and South Staffordshire Council to create a tailored training programme for local unemployed people to develop the skills required at the plant. The six-week training programme will cover topics such as enhanced literacy and numeracy skills, how to approach competency-based interviews, team exercises and interview preparation. The programme will be managed and coordinated by JobCentre Plus across Wolverhampton and Staffordshire.

The engine manufacturing centre's team currently stands at around 100 people, including 18 apprentices and 6 graduates. In addition to the manufacturing roles at the plant, there are also additional opportunities available in a range of engineering and supervisory roles.