CENTRE FOR CONSTRUCTION STUDENTS

Willmott Dixon has announced the delivery of Oldham College’s £9m Construction Centre designed by architect firm AHR.

The new two-storey building was handed over five weeks ahead of the planned delivery date.

It is designed to provide technical trades and higher professional skills to students to degree level including new T Level qualifications.

The building provides an additional 2,296m² of specialist teaching and learning space, provision for practical plumbing and electrical work plus flexible build spaces, testing areas, mobile workbenches, breakout and showcase areas, associated classrooms, office and storage space.

The Construction Centre will see an increase in construction student numbers by 70% along with related apprenticeships by an extra 200 places a year.

Planning permission for the project was granted last January and Willmott Dixon was selected as the lead contractor.

The work on the project included the demolition of the obsolete Bronte and Bevan teaching blocks.

The Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) has provided a £6.95m funding for the project while the remaining capital funding was contributed by Oldham College.

Oldham College chief executive and principal Alun Francis said: “This will be a fantastic environment for young people and adults to get into a higher-skilled trade across the construction and built environment sectors.

“It has also enabled us to expand our curriculum into areas with known labour skills shortages like internal design, dry lining and kitchen fitting.”

Enabling works for the project were procured through the Scape Major Works framework.

Source: Design Build