The Michelin Training Centre has clocked up delivery of its 500,000th hour of high-quality training – and shows no signs of ‘tyre-ing’.

Established at the start of 2002, the centre, which is close to Michelin’s UK headquarters in Campbell Road, Stoke-on-Trent, sees an average of over 3,000 people from all over the world come through its doors each year.

The modern teaching environment provides both internal and external training on everything from basic time management to tyre related aspects of crash scene investigation.

Instructors from the centre are also called to provide training in other countries. Most recently lecturers have visited Michelin offices in Romania and India to train staff in effective customer service.

As well as its own manufacturing and business staff, the centre is used by organisations such as the Police, the MOD and retailers to ensure their staff know all they need to about tyre design, construction and performance.

Internal training carried out at the centre is focused on making Michelin more effective by providing employees with a better understanding of the company’s products and business objectives.

Michelin training staff are all certified by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and deal with everything from regrooving truck tyres to strategic business planning.

Some of the centre’s more advanced courses go into detail on how to examine a tyre, using a combination of its condition and additional specific knowledge of vehicles and applications, to determine how it has been used in service.

The accident investigators’ course looks at how a tyre may have contributed to a road traffic incident. It is believed that this is a unique insight into this discipline and is of particular use to police vehicle examiners and collision investigators, who come from all over the country to attend.

Richard Whitehurst, commercial training manager at the centre said: “Last year was a record year for us in terms of people attending the centre and hours taught.

“Every course we do is getting more and more popular and I can only see the trend continuing for the next five years - which is great news for Michelin and its staff.”