South Wales Home for Defence Training Hub

, St Athan, in the Vale of Glamorgan, South Wales, will be home to a new tri-service Defence Training campus, Defence Secretary Des Browne announced today. Improvements and investments are also planned on a number of other training sites. 
 
The Defence Training Review will provide the best possible specialist training by creating new National Centres of Excellence, through a programme of investment, rationalisation and modernisation. In most cases, training will be delivered on a defence-wide, tri-service basis, rather than by single Service. This will better support joint operational deployments and allow the training estate to be rationalised. 
 
Following a robust assessment process, the Metrix consortium has been awarded Preferred Bidder status for Package 1 of the Defence Training Review programme, and Provisional Preferred Bidder status for Package 2. 
 
Bidders were asked to select the sites that would best meet the Services' training requirements. We expect the anticipated solutions to eventually reduce the current defence training estate from about 30 current sites to about 10 in the future, with a main campus to be located at St Athan. 
 
Significant investment at all the major sites, including a largely new facility which will be built at St Athan, will ensure the best possible living and learning environment for our service personnel. In addition, new technology and methods of teaching will be used to enable Defence trainees to learn at their own pace. These improvements will be the result of a five year transition period following contract signature, which is anticipated for the second half of 2008. 
 
Senior Military Officers will command and retain overall responsibility for the effectiveness of the training solution, ensuring that the military ethos which underpins effective training is retained. 
 
The greater involvement of industry in training support will release more military personnel for the front line. 
 
Mr Browne said: 
 
“Our Service men and women deserve the best training we can offer them. The Defence Training Review is all about making the investment needed to modernise the way we train our people. It is about providing a more flexible, responsive and effective training system, and at the same time improve living and training accommodation for our people. 
 
“This programme of investment, rationalisation and modernisation will draw together many small training units to create national centres of excellence for specialist trade training. Identifying the best outcome for the future of Defence training has been the driving factor behind the Defence Training Review.”  
 
Background Information  
 
1. The DTR programme comprises six specialist training streams, which have been separated into two contractual packages to optimise synergies and economies of scale. Package 1 involves provision of training for engineering and communications. Package 2 will provide training for logistics, security, policing and administration. 
 
2. The DTR Programme seeks to provide better training to meet the requirements of the front line by creating national centres of excellence for specialist training, through a programme of investment, rationalisation and modernisation. Phase 2 and Phase 3 specialist training will be delivered on a Defence rather than single-service basis and this will better support the increasing move towards joint deployments. 
 
3. As part of their training solutions, Bidders were asked to select the sites that would best meet MoD's training requirements. Locations were not prescribed by the Department. A fully comprehensive evaluation programme was undertaken from October 2005 to June 2006. Whilst the work undertaken at the Defence Colleges will ultimately move away, there are no current plans to close or sell off either Blandford or Cosford once the training has been withdrawn. The MOD Estate is under continuous review to ensure that it is the right size and quality to support the delivery of Defence capability. It is anticipated that there will continue to be a Defence use of both the Blandford and Cosford sites which will also continue to provide employment and income generation opportunities for the local regions of North Dorset and the West Midlands. 
 
4. For Package 1 the proposal plans to rationalise the 9 sites, on which this training is currently delivered, over a 5 year transition period starting from late 2008, to initially 2 major sites, St Athan and HMS Sultan, before further consolidating on a single main campus at St Athan. A small enclave will be retained at Bordon for REME vehicle recovery training and some communications training will continue to be delivered alongside Naval warfare training, itself outside the scope of this project, at HMS Collingwood. Overall this will have a varying impact across 9 sites: Arborfield, Bordon, Blandford, HMS Collingwood, Cosford, RAF Cranwell, RAF Digby, HMS Sultan and St Athan. The St Athan site will be largely a new build facility, which meets both sustainability and Lyons requirements. Marine Engineering training, currently delivered at HMS Sultan, Gosport, is anticipated to remain there until 2017 when it is planned to relocate to St Athan. 
 
5. The scale of complexity related to Package 2 is greater, and whilst the evaluation process identified Metrix as a clear winner we have significantly more work to do to resolve the outstanding issues and explore possible synergies which should deliver improved value for money. Until we have resolved these issues with the Bidder there is no certainty on the final approach that the MoD will take, including whether or not all or part of Package 2 goes forward. Package 2 is expected to reduce the current number of training sites significantly, and these sites will be invested in, giving the best living and learning environment that we can provide for our service men and women. New technology and methods of teaching will be used to enable students to learn at their own pace; this will allow our most able soldiers, sailors and airmen to be trained and pass to the frontline commands more quickly, whilst others can be afforded the support to learn at a pace which suits them best. 
 
6. Some 3400 military and 3000 civilian instructors and support personnel, and a standing population of some 11,000 Defence trainees are potentially affected by the DTR Programme. The impact is likely to be significant for those civilian staff who will be required to transfer to the new Partner. In transferring, their existing terms and conditions of employment will be protected in full accordance with the TUPE regulations, over which there will be detailed discussions between the MOD and the Preferred Bidder during the forthcoming negotiations. Subject to the protection provided by that legislation, the possibility of some redundancies following transfer cannot, however, be ruled out. Should this be the case, this will be taken forward sensitively and in full consultation with Trades Unions with whom strong consultative links have been in place from the outset. 
 
7. The Metrix consortium is made up of AgustaWestland, City and Guilds, Dalkia, EDS, Laing O'Rourke, Land Securities Trillium, Nord Anglia Education, The Open University, QinetiQ, Raytheon, Serco & Sodexho.