Academy ready for pupils

Nov 20 2007 By The Journal

A£5.5m state-of-the-art Skills Academy in Gateshead will soon be gearing up for its first students.

UK Land Estates have managed the 55,000sqft project on behalf of Gateshead College to ensure the fantastic new facilities have been completed to the highest specification on time.

Budding builders, potential plumbers and promising painters and decorators will soon be studying in style when Gateshead College opens their new campus dedicated to vocational learning at the former Rolls Royce Factory on Kingsway, Team Valley.

The college announced plans to build a new Skills Academy, funded by the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) and One NorthEast earlier in the month. The flagship campus will be situated on Kingsway South, the main dual carriageway running through Team Valley. It will provide learning facilities for more than 1,500 students when it opens in Spring 2008.

Students at the campus will benefit from 32,292sqft of workshop space, classrooms, a learning and resource centre, where they can access computers and text books, and a modern café. The site will also have amenities for vocational courses for 14 to 16- year-olds.

Michael Spriggs, managing director for UK Land Estates said: “We are delighted to have been able to work with Gateshead College on both this and their Automotive Centre of Excellence on the other side of Kingsway.

“It is a great opportunity to project manage such a prestigious building on Team Valley; this has seen the transformation of an obsolete brownfield site, which stood empty for years, into another state-of-the-art training resource for the region.”

Principal David Cheetham, said: “We are delighted to announce that we will be introducing a new campus dedicated to construction and vocational courses. The building is part of a massive investment by Gateshead College to provide new and improved education facilities.

“The College is investing more than £60m in education in the region, including the landmark Baltic Campus which will replace the existing Durham Road building from early next year.” UK Land Estates has worked closely with the design team for the project, which included Dewjo’c Architects, Gleeds, Operon , BDN, Bluekeep and Appleyard & Trew.

The new Skills Academy, redesigned by North-East architects Dewjo’c, will be built opposite the college’s Automotive Centre of Excellence.

Hundreds of full and part-time courses will run at the centre, including joinery, plumbing, carpentry, electrical installation, brickwork, plastering, gas servicing and repair and painting and decorating.

The academy will integrate vocational learning, work-based learning and further education and will provide a Centre of Vocational Excellence (CoVE) in Business and Management.

Chris Roberts, regional director LSC North- East, added: “The LSC has invested millions of pounds in capital in the region’s further education colleges to ensure the North-East has inspirational, world-class buildings in which learning and skills development can support regional economic growth.

“The Skills Academy will house a wide curriculum base covering 14-16, 16-19, vocational, 19 plus adult, and high level skills training, as well as apprenticeships and professional trade courses.

“It will also be a flagship 14-19 centre supporting the delivery of the new diplomas delivered through a collaborative partnership involving the college, work based learning providers, schools, employers and a private training provider.”

The centre will also be home to Gateshead Collective, a partnership of work-based learning providers, which includes the college, Access Training, the North-East Employment Training Agency and TVS Training.

One NorthEast head of skills and Europe, Lesley Calder, added: “The Skills Academy will help the region prepare the next generation of tradesmen and I am delighted that all of the partners associated with this project have come together for the benefit of young people.

“Never before has the expression ‘learn a trade’ been more appropriate, with the new Prime Minister announcing plans for three million new homes in the UK by 2020.”