Photo: Norton
After moving in on the premises of the old, historic Castle Donington, Norton Motorcycles seems to have enjoyed quite a lucrative period, with production restored and bikes being once more sold in both old and new markets. Even more, Norton is again making a name for itself in the Isle of Man TT races, with the SG3 prototype having no other than Cameron Donald at the helm this year. And the good news from Norton keeps on coming in!
Norton will launch a skills academy, where it will train hundreds of apprentices, along a 3-year course. The first batch will be recruited by September and will include 40 persons, but Norton says that the program envisages having around 100 trainees per year.
This program is a part of the British Motorcycle Manufacture Academy (BMMA), a creation of the Norton CEO Stuart Garner, and is aimed at providing especially young people in the UK a unique opportunity to find a job in the local motorcycle industry, and possible abroad, as well. The ideal candidates for the Norton courses are 16-18 years of age, with a solid interest in motorcycles and engineering, good team players, willing to comply with work ethics and timekeeping, and with a strong motivation to avoid unemployment.
Garner’s dream is to become able to manufacture every part, down to the last bolt and nut which come together to form a bike in the UK, thus fulfilling Norton’s “100 percent British-made motorcycle”. Looking back at the long way Norton has come during the last years, it looks like Garner will succeed: ”We want to make a 100 per cent British-made motorcycle, but this is hard to do because there's no way of buying some of the parts in the UK. We don't have any suspension or brake manufacturing here. We have to get them from the Far East. This is because there's not the skills in this country any more. We need to do something about it. We didn't want to do another classroom-based course. We want the guys to come and get their hands dirty and make parts for motorcycles."
The Norton academy will be headed by Adam Wragg from the Loughborough College, and state funding is also being sought for the project.
In early July, Norton started exporting the Commando 961 bikes to Japan, after sending out the first crates to California the previous month. The next overseas market which will receive Norton machinery is Australia, with exports due to start in the coming months, following a successful homologation process in the country.
This program is a part of the British Motorcycle Manufacture Academy (BMMA), a creation of the Norton CEO Stuart Garner, and is aimed at providing especially young people in the UK a unique opportunity to find a job in the local motorcycle industry, and possible abroad, as well. The ideal candidates for the Norton courses are 16-18 years of age, with a solid interest in motorcycles and engineering, good team players, willing to comply with work ethics and timekeeping, and with a strong motivation to avoid unemployment.
Garner’s dream is to become able to manufacture every part, down to the last bolt and nut which come together to form a bike in the UK, thus fulfilling Norton’s “100 percent British-made motorcycle”. Looking back at the long way Norton has come during the last years, it looks like Garner will succeed: ”We want to make a 100 per cent British-made motorcycle, but this is hard to do because there's no way of buying some of the parts in the UK. We don't have any suspension or brake manufacturing here. We have to get them from the Far East. This is because there's not the skills in this country any more. We need to do something about it. We didn't want to do another classroom-based course. We want the guys to come and get their hands dirty and make parts for motorcycles."
The Norton academy will be headed by Adam Wragg from the Loughborough College, and state funding is also being sought for the project.
In early July, Norton started exporting the Commando 961 bikes to Japan, after sending out the first crates to California the previous month. The next overseas market which will receive Norton machinery is Australia, with exports due to start in the coming months, following a successful homologation process in the country.
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