A composites manufacturing qualification designed for the shopfloor
NCC has launched a PIABC-accredited Level 2 Composite Manufacturing Award - a short, focused qualification for people working in composite manufacturing and for employers who need a practical way to build and demonstrate competence across their teams.
Why this exists
Composites manufacturing is growing across aerospace, defence, energy, marine and automotive, and the demand for people who genuinely understand composite materials keeps increasing. Employers have been telling NCC for years that they need accessible, accredited training that works around the reality of running a production environment.
Accredited composites qualifications already exist. NVQ routes are available and further education providers deliver strong programmes across manufacturing. But employers kept raising the same point - they wanted something shorter, specifically focused on composite manufacturing competence, that their people could complete without extended time away from production.
This qualification is designed to add to those options, not replace them.
What the course covers
The Level 2 Award covers practical composite manufacturing skills - layup, cure cycles, quality control, material handling - but it goes further than procedures. It teaches the engineering fundamentals behind the processes: why a cure cycle behaves the way it does, why layup sequence matters, why defects occur and what to look for.
The aim is people who understand the engineering, not just people who can follow a work instruction.
It’s off-the-job training, but it connects directly to the work people do every day. Employees bring their shopfloor experience into the classroom and leave with structured knowledge and a credential that carries weight with their employer, with auditors, and with future employers too.
What it gives employers
A formal qualification provides evidence of competence - and that matters when you’re bidding for contracts, responding to supply chain audits or showing clients how you invest in your people. It also gives employees a clear route to progression, which counts in a sector where experienced composites operatives are hard to find and expensive to lose.
NCC’s course draws on specialist facilities, live R&D programmes and direct industry relationships, so the content reflects what’s actually happening on production lines rather than what was written in a textbook five years ago.
Building on what NCC already does
NCC has been delivering training alongside its research and innovation programmes for years. This accreditation formalises that work and adds a recognised qualification to the development NCC already provides.
It sits alongside further education and vocational training routes that already serve manufacturing well. The aim is to widen the options available to employers and learners, particularly where composites-specific training has been thin on the ground.
UK manufacturing doesn’t just need better technologies - it needs the people who can use them. The distance between what gets developed in R&D and what happens on a production line is often a skills gap. This qualification is one practical way to close it.
A representative from PIABC added:
“This programme has been developed in close alignment with what industry needs. It provides a credible, transferable qualification that supports employers and learners in building genuine capability in composites.”
Book now
The Level 2 Composite Manufacturing Award is open for bookings. It’s designed for employees in composite manufacturing roles and for people entering the sector. Course details, eligibility and enrolment information are on the NCC website.