Hercules plc (LON:HERC), a leading technology enabled labour supply company for the UK infrastructure and construction sectors, has announced that the Hercules Academy is on course to train 2,000 students in the 2025 calendar year.
The Academy, which launched in February 2024 and is situated in the market town of Nuneaton, West Midlands, had planned to train up to 400 new entrants in its first year, but beat expectations after training 1,100 students by February 2025.
The Academy is helping address the UK’s skills shortage and benefits major infrastructure and construction projects across the UK.
Industry training body The Construction Industry Training Board (CITB), as part of its Construction Skills Network report, has forecasted that an additional 225,000 workers will be needed by the industry by 2027 to meet demand.
The Academy employs eleven members of staff and provides a range of courses. Qualifications offered include health and safety courses, NVQs, plant and machinery, as well as specialist courses in utility detection, working at height, overhead powerline awareness, highways, and other bespoke industry courses. Recently it has delivered specialist industrial warehousing qualifications and a dedicated Women-Into-Construction programme.
The qualifications offered by the Academy are accredited by the CITB as well as the NOCN Group, the Energy & Utility Skills Register and the RTITB.
The Academy is situated close to Birmingham and Coventry, where some of the region’s major infrastructure and construction projects, including HS2, are situated. Its convenient location means that it is well placed to provide training for Balfour Beatty Vinci and its supply chain partners working on HS2 alongside Hercules.
The Academy is also benefiting from the Company’s recent acquisition of Staffordshire training company, Quality Transport Training (QTT), which will give the Academy more training capacity.
The Academy has recently expanded its training initiatives into the prison system, successfully completing the training of its first cohort at HMP Holme House in Stockton-on-Tees. Participants undertook a New Roads and Street Works course, equipping them with valuable skills.
Going forward, Hercules will endeavour to place these individuals on local projects, enabling them to apply their newly acquired competencies and offering a fresh start through sustainable employment.
Brusk Korkmaz, CEO of Hercules Site Services, said: “The Hercules Academy is going from strength to strength and our acquisition of QTT means that we are one of the nation’s leading private training providers in the infrastructure and construction sectors.
“The Academy has also expanded into prison training work, as part of our ‘Realigning Lives’ initiative, and the team are currently working with HMP Sudbury to train prisoners who are on ROTL (Release on Temporary License), they are travelling to the academy each day and this is being funded by EMCA (East Midlands Combined Authority).”
