Greater Manchester mayor opens college’s state-of-the-art construction centre
Tue, 03 May 2022
Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, has officially opened Tameside College’s brand new, state-of-the-art Construction Skills Centre.
The event, which took place on Friday 29th April, included a ribbon cutting ceremony, tours of the new facility and speeches by the mayor, Jackie Moores, principal and CEO at Tameside College and councillor Brenda Warrington, leader of Tameside Council.
The development is the latest stage in the college’s £100m ‘Vision Tameside’ masterplan to meet the skill needs of employers in in the local area and to provide students with high quality qualifications and apprenticeships. The £12m Construction Skills Centre includes state of the art learning environments for the next generation of bricklayers, plumbers, electricians, painter and decorators and civil engineers.
According to industry body CITB, an additional 217,000 new construction workers will be needed to meet demand by 2025.
The Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA), in conjunction with the Greater Manchester Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), contributed a £3.3m grant towards the project, making the centre a key project in the GM skills capital portfolio.
Vision Tameside will also include further redevelopment of the college estate, including a new animal management centre, automotive and hybrid technologies centre, a T-Level health studies specialist area, a 5G football pitch and much more.
Other guests who attended the ceremony included local business leaders, councillors, headteachers and college governors.
Andy Burnham, Greater Manchester mayor, said: “I’d like to congratulate Jackie, the college governors and staff on overseeing this fantastic project. The skills to build the new Greater Manchester are going to be learnt here. Green and environmentally friendly construction will create 80,000 jobs in Greater Manchester in the future, and this centre is going to be at the heart of it. It is fantastic to be part of the project and we know that this is an investment well made.”
Jackie Moores, principal and CEO at Tameside College said: “I would like to thank Andy Burnham for opening our Construction Skills Centre. Construction is a huge employment sector across Greater Manchester and this project will certainly help to develop this industry further as it grows. The students and apprentices who are learning in this centre are benefitting from some of the best facilities in the north west and we are very proud as a college to be helping young people to enrich their lives through learning. It is exciting to see the centre open and being used by students and I look forward to the redevelopment of the college’s estate being fully completed.”
Additional information on the ‘Vision Tameside’ project and the college’s construction courses can be found at www.tameside.ac.uk