GREEN LIGHT FOR ENERGY SKILLS CENTRE
East Coast College is moving forward with the creation of a new Energy Skills Centre, thanks to a £10m investment from New Anglia LEP’s Growth Deal with Government.
The £11.4m centre will replace a former engineering technology building at the college’s St Peters Street Campus in Lowestoft, providing added space and improved facilities to train the next generation of workers along the East’s all-energy coastline.
The college’s stated aim for the Centre is to increase learner numbers across the range of skills provision with a focus on technical training and competence at levels 3, 4, 5 and 6, delivering a skilled workforce to the energy sector and raising aspiration levels for young people in the area. The new facility is expected to be operational by December 2018.
The Energy Skills Centre is the third major skills project to be funded through New Anglia LEP’s £290m Growth Deal with Government, following Easton and Otley College Construction Skills Centre – the first new-build Growth Deal funded project completed anywhere in the country – and the College of West Anglia’s University Centre, both of which were completed on time and on budget.
Mark Pendlington, Chairman of New Anglia LEP, said: “This new Centre of Excellence can be truly transformational for our all-energy coastline, for the young people who will be its future workforce and for our wider economy.
It will unlock the potential of a generation, giving them the skills business tells us it needs, as our fast-growing energy sector continues to evolve, compete and win on a global stage.”
Stuart Rimmer, CEO of East Coast College, said:
“This is a huge commitment to the newly formed East Coast College and tremendous support for technical and professional education in the region for energy and engineering. This places the College at the cutting edge of technical education nationally. This will create world class facilities for our region to support business and the future workforce.”