New generations of students are set to benefit from the opening of a flagship facility at Weston College. The £13 million Health and Active Living Skills Centre, completed by Midas Construction is based at the college’s Loxton Campus and will welcome its first students this September.

The aim of the bespoke facility is to provide learners with knowledge of the healthcare and sport sectors as well as vital industry skills. The centre will bring together the College’s health and social care, sports therapy and active living courses into one facility, which will benefit students, businesses and the wider community.

It features a state-of-the-art training hospital ward, one full size 3G pitch, one full size rugby pitch, a multi-gym and a sports hall. Dr Paul Phillips, CBE, Principal and Chief Executive of the Weston College Group, said: “This outstanding new training centre is the latest step in our drive to provide students with the very best learning facilities and resources.

“We have worked with key business partners to ensure that the Health and Active Living Centre will tackle the current skills shortage in the sector and address the longer-term issues that affect our health service and the health of the local population.” The West of England Local Enterprise Partnership through the Local Growth Fund, administered by the West of England Combined Authority contributed £5.4 million towards the project, match funded by the college.

Chair of the West of England LEP, Prof Steve West, said: “We’re pleased to support the new Health and Active Living Skills Centre to deliver important investment in skills for health and social care professionals working in our region. It will also give young people the skills they need to progress further in their education and secure better career prospects right here in the West of England.

“We need to train more people for future careers in our hospitals and community services - this will improve the quality of care and improve people’s lives. With more highly qualified professionals, and with people trained in a wider range of disciplines, people will be better cared for.” James Rimmer, Chief Executive of Weston Area Health Trust, said: “This is a fantastic opportunity for partnership working between Weston College and Weston General Hospital.

“This demonstrates the investment we are both making to support the learning and development of students. We hope it will also help the recruitment and retention of staff as well as supporting the increased demand on healthcare locally”.

The development also continues a strong framework partnership between Weston College and Midas, who have worked closely together on a number of recent projects including the newly built Construction Training Centre.

Derek Quinn, Executive Director for Midas Construction, said: “This fantastic new development will have a significant long term impact on staff, students and the local community and we are pleased to have been able to complete the project on time for Weston College.

Weston College is set to play a lead role in tackling the construction skills shortage by opening a multi-million pound training centre.

The Weston College Construction Training Centre, completed by Midas Construction, opens in May and aims to offer training in seven key areas of training – plant, health and safety, scaffolding, highway and groundworks, warehousing (e.g. forklift training) and apprenticeships.

The state-of-the-art training centre has been created in response to the growing demand for a trained and skills construction workforce in the region. The industry-specific training it provides has been designed with employers’ needs in mind, and will be available on request, rather than fitting into the traditional academic year.

Dr Paul Phillips CBE, Principal and Chief Executive of the Weston College Group said: “The Construction Training Centre is a big step into commercial training and starts an exciting chapter for us.

“Over the last ten years, we’ve built strong relationships with employers to develop our apprenticeship provision. But we’ve recognised, more and more, the need to deliver training at the point of need – not only for school leavers during the academic year.

“The Construction Training Centre means employers can come to us at any time for short courses, top-up courses, and to up-skill staff who are taking on new roles.”

“This month we launched the new website – www.construction-training-centre.co.uk, which enables people to easily navigate between the seven key areas of training.

“It’s also designed to make it as quick and simple as possible to book and pay for the more basic training online. This includes non-practical, class based, one-day courses – for instance, Site Safety Plus, Health and Safety Awareness, and Driver CPC courses.” This training centre has been made possible through the efforts of Weston College in partnership with the West of England Local Enterprise Partnership and North Somerset Council.

The financial investment has been provided by the College match-funding a successful bid for £3.3m funding from the West of England Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) through the Local Growth Fund, administered by the West of England Combined Authority.

Chair of the West of England LEP, Prof Steve West, said: “We’re really pleased to support the fantastic new Construction Training Centre at Weston College. This will help to equip our current and future construction workforce with the skills they need to drive forward the building of new homes, business premises and infrastructure as our region grows. It will also help them to secure better career prospects and make the most of the opportunities available right here in the West of England.”

West of England Mayor, Tim Bowles said: “Construction is a key contributor to our region’s growing economy. It’s clear that there are huge opportunities here and we need to continue to provide the right skills to sustain the industry. The West of England Combined Authority has committed to working with colleges, councils and businesses to help the construction industry fill the estimated 82,500 jobs that will be created by 2036. The new Construction Training Centre at Weston College is a great example how we are addressing that challenge. It will help prepare young people, apprentices and higher education students for successful careers in the construction sector.”

Derek Quinn, Executive director for Midas Construction, said: “We are delighted to have created a much-needed training centre which will benefit students and the wider construction industry for many years to come. Midas is passionate about supporting the training and development of our staff and the communities we work in so we are proud to help develop a highly skilled and highly-trained workforce for the future.”

Weston College catering students were given a masterclass in sausage making from a local expert this week.

Martin Felstead, from Greenway Farm – a venue based near Bridgwater – visited the College’s Grove Training Kitchen to pass on some experience to the students.

Martin has spent most of his life in the hospitality trade, having owned and managed hotels, restaurants and catering businesses. He recently managed a number of projects for Cote Brasserie and Bill’s coffee shops, but is now focusing his attention on building a successful business at Greenway with his wife Sue.

At Greenway they have been keeping pigs for eight years, and specialise in some of the rarer, traditional breeds that modern day farming can sometimes overlook – such as the Gloucester Old Spot, Oxford Sandy and Black, Middle White, Tamworth and Saddleback. They keep them in small numbers in their own field with plenty of space to roam and a warm shelter. The pigs have a diet of organic pignuts and fruit and vegetable scraps. They make several varieties of sausages, including leek and apple, and Cumberland, and use only the finest pork, rusk and flavourings. They sell sausages at the Combwich Market on the second Saturday of each month, and direct from the Farm.

Martin brought in ‘Greenway pork’ for the students to use, and taught a number of sausage-making techniques, including how to tie the sausages and which cuts to use.

You can check out some more photos from the session on The Grove’s Facebook page.

The session was a great success and there are plans to invite Martin back to The Grove Training Kitchen next term.