The multi-million pound hub, situated on the River Clyde, is the first of its kind in central and southern Scotland, and has attracted workers in the marine and oil and gas industries from all over the world.

International delegates, as well as those from across the UK, are able to complete mandatory and industry enhancing safety training courses.

Mr Wheelhouse, Minister for Business, Innovation and Energy, toured the purpose built centre and met with the specialist training team.

Speaking afterwards he said:  “It is a pleasure to visit Clyde Training Solutions' new marine and offshore training facility. It gives trainees from across the UK and international delegates the opportunity to attend a high quality training centre in the central belt, equipping them with valuable skills.

“The centre is a significant investment for Clydebank and I would like to congratulate Clyde Training Solutions on putting a plan in place to ensure that the local community will benefit for years to come.”

The training campus, located alongside the River Clyde close to the former site of the world renowned John Brown Shipyard, houses multiple classrooms, a training pool, HUET (Helicopter Underwater Escape Training module) and full fire training ground complete with stack and helideck

Joyce Downie, Clyde Group Managing Director, said: “We have been delighted to host the Minister and update him on the great progress that’s been made at our training centre.

“Our state-of-the-art facility has already been able to serve candidates not just from Scotland and England, but from all over the world.

“A new chapter in the history of Clyde Group has begun and in the coming years we look forward to hosting many more delegates, helping them continue in their careers, or forge news ones.”

The visit came after the UK’s new £3bn aircraft carrier, HMS Queen Elizabeth docked in Portsmouth for the first time while undergoing sea trials.

Prior to her departure from Rosyth dockyard in Fife, Clyde Training Solutions welcomed ship build engineers from the Aircraft Carrier Alliance (a unique alliancing relationship between BAE Systems, Thales UK, Babcock and the Ministry of Defence) for Personal Survival Techniques (PST) training.

Completion of the mandatory training has allowed the highly skilled professionals to proceed with their sea trial duties on board the vessel.

Ross Hickey, Lead Project Engineer with the Aircraft Carrier Alliance, was responsible for ensuring his colleagues carried out the PST training before the sea trials began.

He said: “The PST is part of the mandatory training package that we need to undertake to allow our people to undergo sea trials.

“I’ve been through the process before but this was the first time for a few of the guys.

“The training has been very good. Also, the scheduling flexibility shown to us by Clyde Training Solutions has been tremendous and very helpful.”

Gareth Mathias, CTS General Manager said: “Given the size, complexity and importance of the HMS Queen Elizabeth build, we were more than happy to offer a bespoke training schedule which was highly flexible and accommodating of the needs of the Aircraft Carrier Alliance.

“Our team is equipped to be able to handle training requirements of this nature under strict deadlines and we were delighted to be able to fulfill this important training.

“HMS Queen Elizabeth is an incredibly impressive achievement by all those involved in her construction and we at CTS are proud to have had a small role in helping this project move forward to completion.”