North Liverpool training centre to create 45 jobs and get 1,000 people into work

A new road laying training centre in Liverpool dubbed the ‘tarmacademy’ will aim to get 1,000 unemployed people working between now and 2020.

Merseyside-based civil engineering and construction firm Kings Construction is set to launch the facility, creating 25 new jobs. Additionally, the firm also hopes to address a shortage of qualified personnel to deliver an estimated £250m of highways work taking place in Liverpool in the next few years.

As part of the plans, tarmac firm Cemex will build an asphalt plant on the grounds of the training centre, employing a further 20 people and cutting out the need to transport trainees to its facility in Manchester.

Liverpool mayor Joe Anderson said: “This is a really exciting and innovative opportunity for us to partner with the private sector and come up with a scheme which will get a significant number of people into work.

“There are around a quarter of a billion pounds of major highways infrastructure projects in the pipeline in the next few years as we tackle the backlog of road repairs and invest in improvements to the network.”

He continued: “We must make sure that people from the city are best placed to get work on these projects.

“By creating an asphalt factory in the city we will also be helping the environment by making sure that the raw materials can be made ‘road ready’ on site rather than being transported to Manchester and back.”

A report will go before the Liverpool City Council cabinet on Friday (December 11), recommending that the authority supports Kings Construction in finding a suitable site in the vicinity of North Liverpool Docks.