ONE of the two rival consortiums bidding to manage the future of the military in Bordon, has revealed it plans to create hundreds of jobs if it is successful. MC3 - a consortium comprising BAE Systems, Carillion and VT Group - says it will "undertake a major investment in new training facilities" at the Bordon Army site if it wins the bid for the Defence Training Rationalisation (DTR) programme. It claims more than 300 new jobs in the construction industry will be created if it gets the multi-billion pound defence training contract, expected to be awarded by the Ministry Of Defence by the end of the year. MC3 wants to create new facilities in the town to train recruits from all three armed forces - the Army, the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force - in a building scheme which will last more than three years and cost nearly £250million. David Benson, of MC3 Training, has forecast that 1,150 construction workers would be needed for the project, including hundreds of existing tradesmen already employed in the area. He also predicted a big boost to the local economy through construction workers coming into the area and spending their incomes with local businesses. Around 25 per cent of the jobs would apparently offer opportunities for local people to enter the construction industry as new employees. Mr Benson said that MC3 would be looking to establish a skills-training facility - either a self-contained centre on site or a joint- venture with a local college - to equip the new recruits with the right skills. This Construction Skills Centre would be opened in conjunction with the Learning and Skills Council and the Construction Industry Training Board. Carillion, a Midlands-based company, is rated among the top five per cent of trainers in the country by the Adult Learning Inspectorate (ALI) and takes on 1,800 apprentices in the construction trades every year. Among MC3's other projects for the Bordon site are new housing, new community facilities and an Army electrical and mechanical engineers museum. Mr Benson added that further new jobs would be created through these additional construction projects in the MC3 scheme.
