The Engineering Construction Industry Training Board (ECITB) has awarded £250,000 in Regional Skills Hub funding to a new robotics training facility in West Cumbria
The Cumbria Robotics Operations Skills Centre (CROSS), which is set to officially open later this year, has been developed to build the robotics-skilled workforce needed to deliver the UK’s nuclear and clean energy ambitions.
Plans for the centre were first announced in April 2026, with the venture involving the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA), National College for Nuclear and Clean Energy (NCfN&CE), the Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Collaboration (RAICo), Sellafield and its supply chain, and Lakes College.
So far, the project has secured £1m in funding from UKAEA through the FOSTER programme, including equipment to equip the CROSS facility.
Funding from the ECITB, which comes from the industry-led skills body’s investment in Regional Skills Hubs, will support the delivery of the hub, including developing the curriculum, short bite-sized courses and teaching resources, and expanding technical and sector-relevant content beyond the centre’s initial focus on nuclear.
ECITB chief executive, Andrew Hockey, said, “The ECITB is delighted to support this innovative project in Cumbria from our Regional Skills Hub funding, which targets capacity-building projects like this in the UK’s industrial heartlands. Industry intelligence shows there is currently a lack of industry-applicable robotics training available for careers in the engineering construction industry (ECI).
“A key pillar of the ECITB’s Leading Industry Learning strategy under the Transform pillar is to drive technology adoption through training to allow industry to harness new technologies, including robotics. This project and the new, cutting-edge CROSS facility help meet this objective by delivering much-needed robotics training to benefit Sellafield nuclear site and other ECI sectors in the future. Our investment and collaboration with project partners positions the ECITB at the heart of emerging ECI robotics modularised training development and roll-out.”
The ECITB’s Regional Skills Hubs funding initiative has committed to invest over £3m to boost training provider capacity and grow new entrant numbers in industrial cluster hot spots and other major ECI centres of activity at the centre of the UK’s decarbonisation agenda.
Grants between £50,000 and £500,000 are awarded to eligible projects that meet set criteria, such as matching ECITB grant funding from industry partners.
So far, the ECITB has committed £1.6m in funding, matched by £14.4m from industry partners for projects across North East and Central Scotland, Teesside, and Humberside.
The latest funding commitment for Cumbria contributes to the delivery of robotics training where there is currently no existing facility. The centre expects to deliver training to 650 learners by 2030.
Lakes College is the lead ECITB-approved training provider for the project. It is working with NCfN&CE, which is leading the design and development of the CROSS curriculum, and housing the new facility in its northern hub at the college.
Initially, CROSS will support apprenticeship delivery, including a significant first intake from Sellafield, while offering modular training routes that enable individuals to develop targeted skills in response to industry demand.
Additionally, Lakes College is working with the new North-West Clean Energy Technical Excellence College (CE-TEC). This investment marks an early step in ECITB’s aim to support the CE-TEC mission to equip the engineering construction workforce with the skills on the future across the GB clean energy clusters.
At the launch of CROSS in April this year, Kirsty Hewitson, director of RAICo, said, “CROSS represents an important step in how we build the robotics-skilled workforce needed for the UK’s nuclear and clean energy ambitions. Alongside advancing robotics and innovation, we must ensure that people have the skills to develop and deploy these technologies and innovations in real-world environments.
“By working in collaboration, we are bringing together industry insight and education expertise to create something both relevant and impactful. CROSS will help embed robotics capability across the workforce, support regional job creation in Cumbria and create new pathways into high-value careers.”
