Associated British Ports is delighted to have invested in the new facility at CATCH’s Skills and Apprenticeship Centre in Stallingborough near its Port of Immingham.

CATCH is poised to play a pivotal role in steering more young individuals towards STEM careers, as part of the broader Humber Skills Plan to increase training output by tenfold by 2029. This latest funding initiative has had a substantial impact on its facility.

Simon Bird, Regional Director for the Humber ports said: “As a founder member of CATCH we are delighted to support this new facility to train the future generation of apprentices who will provide the workforce to drive the Humber’s decarbonisation programme.

“There is concern in the private sector about the skills gap impacting the ability to deliver projects. It aligns with the UK Government’s Missions particularly growth, energy and opportunity. It aligns with ABP’s mission to enable the UK’s energy transition.”

The expansion has been made possible by a £1.5 million funding investment from sponsors in the region, including Viking CCS members Phillips 66 Limited, Harbour Energy, DRAX and ABP. Plus, Air Products and Uniper, alongside funding from the Engineering Construction Industry Training Board (ECITB) and Humber Freeport.

The new facility at CATCH’s Skills and Apprenticeships Centre. It represents a significant milestone in CATCH’s commitment to fostering the green skills needed for the energy transition whilst helping to deliver economic growth locally in the Humber, Lincolnshire and Yorkshire regions.

Following this first phase of funding, CATCH has an ambitious expansion plan to develop a new £60 million National Net Zero Training Centre by 2029, aiming to deliver education to 1,000 learners a year, targeted at the skills needed by net zero projects. The Centre will fill the skills gaps which exist in sectors such as Carbon Capture and Storage, green steel, gigafactories, and hydrogen.

Across our 21 ports, ABP is working to reduce our own fuel and power consumption from our own vehicles, equipment and facilities. This has included investments in renewable energy including the largest commercial rooftop solar installation at the Port of Hull, and solar farms in our ports of Barry and Silloth. In all our ports we continue to promote energy efficiency.

Between 2022 and 2024 we will be investing over £600 million to decarbonise our own operations and work to enable the UK’s energy transition including fixed onshore wind, floating offshore wind, green hydrogen, solar and onshore wind, carbon capture use and storage.