Carmaker Jaguar Land Rover will launch its operation in the industrial park close to Nitra in early September.
While its operational director Alexander Wortberg did not want to specify the date, the information from the carmaker’s employees indicate the date might be September 3, the TASR newswire reported.
At the same time, the company plans to train its employees in the new Training Academy, opened directly at its Nitra premises. Investing €7.5 million, the company wants to avoid the lack of qualified labour force in the future. The academy, occupying 3,000 square metres, is expected to prepare the plant for the launch of operation in autumn.
Jaguar Land Rover currently employs 1,300 people, 97 percent of whom are Slovaks. The share of women working for the plant is 30 percent. The age average is 36 years, the SITA newswire reported.
The work proceeds
The most completed part of the plant is currently the body shop, occupying 90,000 square metres. The plan is to launch a testing operation for the Land Rover Discovery during summer.
Altogether 624 robots will be working in the hall, while the body works will be comprised of 350 parts, SITA wrote.
Jaguar Land Rover plans to start production of another car model in Nitra in two years.
The plant will also have a paint shop, occupying 53,000 square metres, an assembly hall with 134,000 square metres, and a logistics part. The investment in Nitra will total €1.4 billion, while the government provided aid of nearly €130 million, TASR wrote.
Training to start at secondary schools
The Training Academy will consist of six-level programme, which includes training in a classroom and a production line. New employees do not necessarily need previous experiences with working in the automotive industry.
“The Training Academy enables us to offer a strong programme tailored to the plant’s needs and, at the same time, address the obvious lack of qualified workforce in Slovakia,” said Nicci Cook, HR director at Jaguar Land Rover, as quoted by SITA.
Moreover, the carmaker wants to educate its future staffers already from secondary school. In cooperation with the Secondary Vocational School Polytechnic DSA in Nitra they plan to open four-year specialisation mechatronics as of 2019.
Jaguar Land Rover plans to employ 2,800 people in its Nitra plant by 2020. The average monthly wage of qualified workers and production workers will oscillate between €900 and €1,800 based on position and experience.
It is expected that the carmaker will create a further 22,000 indirect jobs, TASR reported.
