GEN II - South Ulverston

I discovered this Furness Skills Centre as I went door-to-door in South Ulverston.

"What's down there" I said to myself. The area used to be The Elms - operated by Glaxo also for training! (I was taught how to speed read but never got the hang of this)

I got myself given a conducted tour to workshops giving training in electrics - both wiring and circuit electronics (there's a job there - designing personalised control circuits - play a recorded "Shut up" whenever the dog barks; turn the sprinklers on, play rule Britannia, and dig a hole to New Zealand whenever it rains)

Then they have a milling machine and two lathes but they don't reckon that there's a future up here becoming a toolmaker. I would disagree - these guys are the most sought after skilled craftsman in the UK and could help a small business set up with an injection molding business, manufacturing useless plastic gadgets that we could export to China.

Finally a welding and sheet metal shop. I was disappointed to hear that Gas welding was being dropped because this is the stuff of the small business with flexible tools.

Their good news was that they plan to relocate within two years to somewhere else in Ulverston where they hope to have bigger premises including high tech CAD and CAM. The former is the modern day equivalent to the drawing board, leading to skills that would suit somone working from home for a company in Tasmania. The latter makes many things by just being supplied with a computer drawing : trouble is that the computer is only as good as its programmer - for complex jobs a skilled toolmaker would be far more reliable.

So Councillors, make sure this training facility stays in Ulverston and if you live here get in there if you can.

Please add comments to put me straight on all this if you are knowledgeable.