Our Background | WYMS - West Yorkshire Manufacturing Services

Watch the story of WYMS and discover how we can help you, your business and your staff grow and improve.

About WYMS.

West Yorkshire Manufacturing Services (WYMS) is a charity established by manufacturers to ensure that the region’s manufacturing and engineering industry has a skilled workforce that enables the sector to continue to grow and thrive.

We achieve this through providing a variety of services including:

An accredited short course training programme
Business support & consultancy
Workforce re-skilling & up-skilling (advanced manufacturing techniques)
Industry 4.0 Hub
Apprenticeship training delivered in partnership with Calderdale College
Providing conference & room hire facilities

Our team of dedicated professionals are here to ensure you and your business have the best possible experience. Our service is constantly evolving to meet the needs of local businesses so please ask if what you are looking for is not mentioned on the website.

The Recent History of WYMS.

West Yorkshire Manufacturing Services was formed in 2021 by a dynamic group of manufacturing and engineering business leaders. It is a charity formed by manufacturers to support manufacturing & engineering businesses from across West Yorkshire & beyond.

In 2022 a partnership was established with Calderdale College to deliver the apprenticeship provision at The Engineering Centre at WYMS. The Engineering Centre continues to grow with increasing numbers of apprentices and students on new T Level courses.

Since launching, WYMS has gone from strength to strength delivering more and more exceptional quality accredited training and has become an approved Training Centre for ECITB, runs accredited ITC First (first aid) and Mental Health England courses and due to demand now runs a series of Lean Productivity training.

Continuing Excellence

In 2023 WYMS established a partnership with Make UK to become their northern training partner for Environmental & Health & Safety training courses, providing IOSH, NEBOSH and IEMA training courses throughout the year at WYMS.

In 2024, in partnership with Calderdale College and the Textile Centre of Excellence the brand-new Industry 4.0 Hub was launched to provide training facilities for apprentices and businesses in advanced technologies such as additive manufacturing, robotics and automation, AI, VR and AR.

Further collaborations in 2024 have seen WYMS partner with Made In Yorkshire and the Made In Group, who now have an office at our facilities in Brighouse.

In addition, our conference and meeting room facilities, branded Junction 25, are being continually developed and now include smart interactive screens, air-con, WiFi, and EV chargers have been provided in the car park so visitors can charge their vehicles whilst at an event.

WYMS are not only continuing to establish a reputation for excellent facilities and friendly attentive service, but businesses can be assured that any money that is spent using our facilities and services that as a charity it will be going back into supporting the industry across the region.

Board of Trustees.

Our Board of Trustees is made up of a team of experts drawn from the manufacturing and engineering industry who work closely with advisors from other sectors to ensure that WYMS is providing the very best service and facilities to the sector. The Board give their time generously to support the strategic direction of the charity, working on a voluntary basis on behalf of the charity.

Andrew Denford

Founder and Chairman - F1 in Schools Ltd

Graham Short

Retired

Helen Thornber

Managing Director - Hargreaves Foundry Group

Jonathan Wright

Managing Director – Colchester Machine Tool Solutions

Leigh Fleming

Head of Department for Engineering – University of Huddersfield

Steven Bonfield

Company Secretary

Dean Bycroft

The well-organised staff didn’t even flinch, and superbly executed a strategy to provide enough tables, seating and buffet options to satisfy the large cohort.

Steve Wormald

The staff are brilliant, helpful and knowledgeable... nothing is too much trouble for them.

Lesley Sherwin

From the initial planning stages through to the day itself, the staff were so helpful and made the whole process so easy and stress free.

Current Vacancies

Experienced Trainers.

All of our trainers are fully qualified experts in their field. Our trainers are constantly updating their methods and materials keeping abreast of current best practice and will be happy to help should you require any advice or information.