SIGMA Wales has been revealed as the organisation responsible for training workers on the proposed £250m Circuit of Wales in Ebbw Vale.

The organisation’s chief executive officer, Brendan Hand, says it will ensure local people are given skills employers want and not “soft, empty certificates”.

The announcement comes after local businessman Jonathan Jones was appointed as head of recruitment and training in March. It is hoped up to 12,000 jobs will be created by the scheme.

Sigma has worked with some of the automotive industry’s biggest names such as Jaguar Land Rover, Caterpillar, Audi and BMW.

Mr Hand said: “We make sure people get the chance to impress the employer and this definitely increases their understanding of what businesses need from them as employees. We don’t train for training’s sake: training must be relevant.

“We are passionate about the impact that the Circuit of Wales would make in the local and wider communities in Ebbw Vale, and about the legacy it would leave for future generations,” he added.

The proposed £250m development represents the biggest investment in the UK automotive sector in more than half a century, and bosses expect the track to attract around 750,000 visitors a year.

According to the group behind Circuit of Wales, the provision of local jobs is one of the key reasons the project has been proposed for Blaenau Gwent – where less than two-thirds of working age people are employed.

Michael Carrick, chief executive of the Heads of the Valleys Development Company, said: “Since the inception of Circuit of Wales, the word on everybody’s lips has been ‘jobs’. It’s one of the main reasons we decided we wanted to bring the project here: the positive effect it would have in reawakening a dormant economy by putting people into work”.

Blaenau Gwent council will make a decision on the planning application for the Circuit of Wales in the next fewweeks.