JCB academy to offer specialist diplomas

JCB’s £22m training academy will offer specialist diplomas when it opens in 2010, it has announced.

The digger group will offer diplomas in engineering, manufacturing and business from the school, to open at its Rocester headquarters.

The first diplomas were introduced by ministers last month.

They are designed as a more practical alternative to GCSEs and A-levels, reported the Financial Times.

The JCB academy will take around 540 students, located in the Grade II Tutbury Mill in Staffordshire.