Posted on 4th Jul
The UK’s first Gene Haas Centre for Advanced Manufacturing has officially opened at West Nottinghamshire College — marking a major leap forward for the region’s engineering and manufacturing sector.
It came after the college was awarded a £500,000 grant from the US-based Gene Haas Foundation, which has funded a remodelling of the college’s engineering centre in Sutton.
State-of-the-art learning areas are dedicated to manufacturing, automation, and robotics — bringing new opportunities to students, apprentices, and employers.
The college joins a network of schools and colleges, primarily across the US and Canada, to partner with the charitable organisation founded by Gene Haas, the entrepreneur behind Haas Automation — North America’s largest CNC machine tool manufacturer — and motor racing’s Haas F1 Team.
The partnership with Haas is enabling the college to expand its engineering facilities and strengthen its employer-focused curriculum, with the goal of increasing the pipeline of skilled manufacturers both locally and beyond.
A key initiative was the launch of the Haas CNC Academy, which recently welcomed its first cohort of engineering learners from a variety of levels. Students voluntarily attended sessions in their own time to explore CNC engineering, learning how to upload programmes, efficiently set-up machines, and produce components.
The college’s engineering centre, on Oddicroft Lane, sits within the emerging £100m Ashfield Innovation Technology Park – a hub bringing together strategic partners including Ashfield District Council, Nottingham Trent University, plus local and national employers to create a support and skills offer for technical industries.
Centrepiece of the technology park will be the Automated Distribution and Manufacturing Centre (ADMC) — Ashfield’s £44m Towns Fund flagship project being created as a national centre of excellence for automation, due to open in 2026.
Glenair UK apprentice Lewis Edmunds demonstrates a Haas CNC mini mill to Kathy Looman, college principal Andrew Cropley and Professor Veronica Pickering.
Student George Colley (left) and apprentice Nikita Romancevics (right) with the Gene Haas Foundation’s Kathy Looman; Andrew Ward, director of Haas Automation UK; and Lord-Lieutenant of Nottinghamshire Professor Veronica Pickering, who received Haas-branded items made by learners.
Andrew Cropley, principal and chief executive of the college, which first became the UK’s inaugural Gene Haas Centre in 2023, said: “That the world’s third-largest machine tool manufacturer has put its faith in us to carry its name is a tremendous endorsement of our staff, students, and ambition.
“Since forming this partnership with Haas two years ago, we’ve reshaped our engineering facilities to better meet employer needs and align our curriculum with future developments, most notably the ADMC opening next year.
“This collaboration helps to inspire the next generation of engineers and signals to local businesses that our region is ready for investment and innovation.”
He also praised the centre’s potential to attract young people to engineering through its association with the Haas F1 brand.
At the official opening of the Gene Haas Centre for Advanced Manufacturing, special guests Kathy Looman, executive director of the Gene Haas Foundation, and Professor Veronica Pickering, Lord-Lieutenant of Nottinghamshire, joined tours and CNC demonstrations.
Kathy said: “Manufacturing is the foundation of everything we touch, use, and rely on every day — and that’s why we need skilled people to keep it strong.”
As well as financing the centre’s overhaul, the foundation offers annual grants to support student scholarships and enrichment opportunities, including skills-based engineering competitions. Its funding also contributes to teacher development, the expansion of adult learning programmes, and the recruitment of additional staff to support a wider range of courses.
Benjamin Toule, head of engineering at the college, said: “Already, the momentum created by this partnership has helped us deliver successful boot camps in rail engineering, enhance our welding skills offer for adults, and create a new panel-wiring course in partnership with local firm AF Switchgear, with more exciting developments to follow.”
As a Gene Haas Centre, the college delivers training programmes that equip students with practical experience across manual lathe and milling, full-scale CNC operation, electrical and electronic engineering, additive manufacturing, electro-pneumatics, robotics, PLC systems, and advanced fabrication and welding.
Its engineering curriculum is shaped in close collaboration with local and regional employers, many of whom sit on its advisory panel.
The college’s automotive training workshops at the centre have transferred to its neighbouring Station Park campus.
