JLR recruits for new Hotfire plant

Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) today launches the first phase of its campaign to recruit 1,400 employees at its new state-of-the-art Hotfire engine manufacturing centre based at the i54 South Staffordshire business park near Wolverhampton.

This phase will see the creation of in the region of 600 manufacturing roles at the plant in the next four years.

JLR is investing over £500 million in its new engine plant that will see the company bring diesel and gasoline engine supply back to its production doorstep providing significant new resource to support continued innovation and eventually free the company from its reliance on Ford Motor Company as engine supplier.

These roles will be required to support the manufacture of JLR’s new family of high technology, low emission engines. The team will be responsible for the assembly of engine components, operation of the plant’s world class manufacturing equipment, supporting tool changes and material line feed.

Trevor Leeks, the plant’s new operations director said: “Our new Engine Manufacturing Centre is a significant strand of JLR’s global growth ambitions and it is critical that we have a world-class manufacturing team at the heart of our new plant.”

“We are entering the next phase of the programme with our small team moving onsite last week. Today, we are starting to build our operational team for the future with the launch of our recruitment campaign. We are looking for dedicated, committed and passionate people to join the JLR team at the plant.”

JLR has worked in partnership with Wolverhampton City Council, Staffordshire County Council and South Staffordshire Council to create a tailored training programme for local unemployed people to develop the skills required at the plant. The six-week training programme will cover topics such as enhanced literacy and numeracy skills, how to approach competency based interviews, team exercises and interview preparation. The programme will be managed and co-ordinated by JobCentre Plus across Wolverhampton and Staffordshire.

The Engine Manufacturing Centre’s team currently stands at around 100 people including 18 apprentices and 6 graduates. In addition to the manufacturing roles at the plant, there are also additional opportunities available in a range of engineering and supervisory roles.  ∎