MADE NE: A crucial initiative for the future of North East Advanced Manufacturing

Posted on June 30, 2025

MADE NE (Manufacturing, Automation, Digitalisation, Electrification North East) is a landmark investment, ensuring the region has the skilled workforce and innovative capabilities to thrive in the rapidly evolving electric vehicle market.

A collaborative effort involving key players such as Nissan, AESC, Vantec Europe, Education Partnership North East, New College Durham, Newcastle University and the NEAA, MADE NE will create world-leading training facilities over two sites within the International Advanced Manufacturing Strategic Site (IAMSS) in Sunderland – part of the North East investment zone supported by Sunderland City Council and the North East Combined Authority.

The NEAA caught up with Craig Jennings, newly appointed CEO of MADE NE to hear more about how these plans are shaping.

Tell us about the objectives of MADE NE and its overall goal?

MADE NE has three main objectives to support the needs of the Electric Vehicle (EV) and Battery sector:

Industry Skills and Innovation
Clear educational pathways
Opportunity for all

These objectives are designed to deliver the right people, with the right skills, at the right time for the sector to prosper and grow in the transition towards electrification.

MADE NE will establish two centres that will be open-access and designed to bring industry-scale equipment and expertise to a safe and secure learning environment. Accessible to Industry, Education and Technology providers, the centres will combine the relevant strengths of each to deliver training and innovation in parallel – ensuring the best possible outcomes for learners and industry.

To ensure a sustainable and diverse pipeline of talent, we need engagement and support at all ages, education levels and socioeconomic backgrounds. As such, MADE NE plans to engage with the local communities to ensure opportunities for all.

This starts with STEM engagement at primary school (supported by the Nissan Skills Foundation) and goes all the way through to industry-supported Continuing Professional Development.

MADE NE is an Industry-led consortium (Nissan, AESC & Vantec) supported by Employee representative body (NEAA), Further Education Colleges (Education Partnership North East & New College Durham), Higher Education (Newcastle University) and Catapult (OREC). It is uniquely placed to meet the skills and industrial innovation challenges posed by electrification of the sector.

Ultimately, by providing unique and valued services to the sector, MADE NE aims to be self-sustaining within five years. It will generate revenue by hosting the delivery of STEM engagement and apprenticeships through to adult skills, by providing flexible space to businesses and innovation projects aligned with the goals of the centres and by making Nissan’s own training commercially available so that others can benefit.

What are the specific skills that MADE NE will focus on developing?

The skills required for modern advanced manufacturing are broad but can be summarised as Manufacturing, Automation, Digitalisation and Electrification!

Underpinning these themes are seven main pillars of activity:

Electrification: covering all manufacturing aspects of Batteries, Power Electronics, Motors and Drives

Industrial Digitalisation: applying digital technologies and data analytics to the industrial environment

Connected Supply Chain: Integrating supply chain data to drive efficiencies

Advanced Manufacturing: All aspects of operations, from hand skills to Statistical Process Control

Autonomous Logistics: Leveraging the region’s leading autonomous logistics projects (V-CAL) to deliver the skills and innovation for fully autonomous on -road logistics (an ambition of NICCAL by 2030 – the National Innovation Centre for Connected Autonomous Logistics)

Leadership: Developing future leaders (new and existing) able to operate in an ever-changing and increasingly digital environment

Cross Sectoral: Ensuring synergies between sectors are identified and leveraged (particularly between NE key sectors such as automotive and wind energy)

Uniquely MADE NE’s Centre aims to bring together the industrial assets, training capability and innovation frameworks to accelerate adoption and growth through targeted support.

Crucially, the overlay of the digital and physical manufacturing technologies in one space allows skills and innovation to be applied across a range of industrially relevant manufacturing equipment. This not only allows for the enrichment of skills and training, it also provides an innovation space where industry can experience new manufacturing technologies and trial applications before committing to invest for their own purposes.

An early example is the use of point cloud mapping to digitally scan the MADE NE facility. This map is being used with contractors to manage the fit out, take measurements without site visits, plan future layouts and infrastructure whilst also providing a valuable tool for customer engagement.

How will MADE NE ensure that the training it provides is relevant to the needs of the advanced manufacturing sector?

MADE NE is fundamentally an industry-led organisation, with each pillar lead by industry experts. This ensures that MADE NE will respond directly to the current and future skills and innovation challenges of the EV and battery sector.

Alongside the direction provided by industry members of the Advisory Board, MADE NE will generate its revenue by providing skills and innovation support to the sector, meaning strong engagement and alignment is essential to achieve a self-sustaining business.

The combined strength of the NEAA network and industry feedback through the Local Skills Improvement Plan (LSIP) have set the direction for MADE NE. But, going forward, it is important that MADE NE continues to engage with wider industry through networking events, conferences, and customer feedback. This is critical during this development phase – where your feedback can help to ensure alignment with your needs to ensure the centre’s success. In order for MADE NE to be successful and self-sustaining, industry will need to be hands-on, ensuring that the facilities and training content is industry-realistic and meeting the needs of our customers.

Crucially, the NEAA will play a major role in providing the voice of its members and supporting MADE NE to ensure its industry relevance, whilst utilising its convening power to leverage the vast experience of NE in the battery and EV sector. This will allow the NEAA and MADE NE to provide guest-lectures, workshops and open forums to share the experiences, challenges and best practice across the network.

It is also worth noting that MADE NE will operate an indirect model of delivery for formally recognised qualifications. This means that MADE NE will support education providers, such as EPNE, NCD and NCL University to tailor its training to the needs of industry – whilst using the significant experience and networks of the education providers to ensure compliance and safeguarding.

This model delivers the best of both worlds with industry and education operating hand in hand, in an industry-relevant environment.