Gloucestershire College Opens £5 Million Sustainable Construction Centre

I go to a lot of business events but few excite me like the official opening of Gloucestershire College’s new £5 million sustainable construction training centre.

Yes, it’s part of the college’s Cheltenham campus but a vitally needed training centre which will serve the whole of Gloucestershire at a critical time for our infrastructure development.

Building for growth is the name of the game.

This new centre is sited cheek by jowl with the Golden Valley digital/cyber project and expands the provision with additional training in electrical, plumbing and carpentry.

It will be an essential cog in Gloucestershire’s wheel of growth and skills.

And that growth will not happen unless we have far more skilled young people like these local students taking those important jobs and not leaving the county.

Nationally, the UK faces a huge funding gap on capital projects according to research from EY I read at the weekend which said that the country must mobilise £1.6 trillion of funding by 2040 to meet the nation’s infrastructure needs.

And as if to back that up, Cheltenham’s new MP, Max Wilkinson, told construction companies at the centre opening that growth would not be achieved “unless we build more.”

But there are challenges, as Matt Burgess, principal and chief executive of the college pointed out with Brexit reducing the number of EU nationals working in construction.

It was good to see the last government recognising the skills need and contributing £4 million to the £5 million costs of building the centre.

I now hope that the new government’s pledge on apprenticeships helps to encourage more young people going into construction.

The British Chamber of Commerce of which Business West is a major player has consistently argued for reform of the Apprenticeship Levy and we look forward to seeing more details of the changes.

As an honorary vice president of the college, I left this official opening extremely proud that here in Gloucestershire we are helping to drive growth through the skills of more learners in construction.