One of Norfolk's most remarkable companies has celebrated its win of a Queens Award for Enterprise by launching its 'Industry Accelerator' Training Academy.

Eastern Daily Press: Lord-Lieutenant Richard Jewson takes a tour of the Lintott Control Systems offices. Picture: Stephanie WennLord-Lieutenant Richard Jewson takes a tour of the Lintott Control Systems offices. Picture: Stephanie Wenn (Image: Lintott Control Systems)

Lintott Control Systems specialises in design, manufacture and maintenance of water and wastewater treatments, and bagged the win thanks to their latest service i-Catalyst, which enables customers to design their own systems online.

Jamie Thums, chief operating officer at Lintott, said the company was on 'cloud nine' having won the award, and was looking forward to its next challenge: 'Even though the industry is trying to push STEM subjects in schools, it's not developing at the rate it should and needs to be. We could see this as a problem but we choose to see it as an opportunity, and so have launched the Industry Accelorator to give schools the chance to put their students in the workplace, with facilities their colleges don't have.'

The training academy, part-funded by the Norfolk County Council, will also see eight STEM-Ambassadors work with tutors at the likes of East Coast College, the College of West Anglia, West Suffolk College, the University of East Anglia and City College Norwich, and City College Norwich, to provide insight into the industry.

The facility is cost-neutral to the colleges, with a small fee requested to cover lighting and heat costs.

Eastern Daily Press: The Industry Accelerator Training Academy at Lintott. Picture: Lintott Control SystemsThe Industry Accelerator Training Academy at Lintott. Picture: Lintott Control Systems (Image: Lintott Control Systems)

Mr Thums added: 'We need to work better as an industry, with the media and with civic partners to get people into manufacturing. There's still this idea I think that manufacturing is a dirty industry, but it's not- it's creative and clean.

'I say it a lot but the world needs to watch, not watch Lintott, but watch Norfolk and what we're going to be doing.'

The Future 50 business director continued: 'We went for the Queens Award because we wanted which could be celebrated across the company, and across the region as a whole.

'We started going for awards three years ago as progress markers, the first year we were finalists in the EDP Business Awards, the next we won two; Corporate Social Responsibility and Enviro-Technologies. Last year we won the big one, Business of the Year.'

Lintott Control Systems welcomed Lord-Lieutenant Richard Jewson to their site as he presented them with the award on September 28.