National Construction College redevelopment on hold as LSC announces capital funding shortlist

Essential funding to redevelop the National Construction College East (NCC East) – a major resource for the UK construction industry – is in serious doubt as the Learning and Skills Council today announced just 13 projects on its shortlist for funding as part of the FE capital funding programme.

For NCC East, and other colleges which were not shortlisted, next steps will start in the autumn when the LSC will consult with the sector to agree ‘a robust, fair and transparent process’ for prioritising the capital investment programme for the next Spending Review period starting in 2011-12.

The College is one of 79 projects which had already received approval in principle from the LSC. NCC East submitted a robust bid for its £26m redevelopment - emphasising the College’s national, regional and local importance and detailing how the development meets all the LSC’s value and ‘readiness to start building’ criteria.

Andy Walder, NCC Director, said: “If we can not find funding for this project it means a huge loss for both industry and the region. The NCC is of major national and regional significance, delivering unique training that is not available, and can not be delivered anywhere else in the UK.

“Our project met all the LSC’s ‘readiness to start building’ criteria – with full planning permission, a strong design team, detailed build designs and all other funding sources in place for a planned start on site of Autumn 2009. We had already stripped away aspects of the project that were not essential. The remainder of funding – outside the LSC’s contribution – is already in place, including funds already set aside by the College and grant money from the East of England Development Agency.

 “The National Construction College trains 30,000 adults and 800 apprentices every year, across the UK - the majority trained at NCC East. The College’s facilities are over 70 years old and in urgent need of redevelopment. Without this funding the college cannot continue to provide the training support the construction industry urgently needs. We are now actively seeking talks with the LSC to ensure they understand the unique nature of this project and to discuss how we can secure the redevelopment.”

The redeveloped NCC East campus in Norfolk would have been the National Skills Academy for Construction (NSAfC) National Specialist Training Hub - delivering highly specialist skills to the local, regional and national industry. Nationally, no other college is capable of providing the facilities, space, specialist equipment and teaching expertise to deliver this type of training.

The NCC also provides the biggest breadth of specialist construction-related training to adults and youth learners in the UK. The majority of learners are trained at the main training centre at NCC East, which offers over 150 different courses. The NCC is also the country’s foremost training provider of specialist apprentices; working closely with their employers across the lifetime of their apprenticeship to equip apprentices for success. Providing specialist training in a single national centre delivers best value to the industry and to Government.

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The 13 successful projects on the LSC shortlist are: Barnsley College, Bournville College, Furness College, Hartlepool College of Further Education, Kirklees College, Leyton Sixth Form College, Manchester College - Wythenshawe, North West Kent College, St Helens College, Sandwell College, South Thames College, Tresham Institute of Further and Higher Education, Corby, and West Cheshire College.

The significance of the National Construction College

• The College’s Norfolk site is a unique national resource – providing the space, soil conditions, specialist equipment, training facilities and instructor workforce needed to deliver world-class training in 11 high-demand specialisms, from civil engineering and roofing to plant operations, scaffolding and steeplejacking. Many of the facilities to teach these skills do not, and could not, exist anywhere else in the UK.
• NCC East’s facilities are 70 years old, but in use by over 5,000 learners a year. The redevelopment is essential to help meet the continuing and anticipated demand for specialist construction workers and to allow the College to provide additional places for apprentices and adult learners by 2012. 
• NCC provides vital support to help government meet its 2012 apprenticeship placement targets. The NCC typically trains around 700 apprentices a year across all of its sites, with the majority trained at its NCC East campus.  The NCC East Redevelopment project itself will also contribute directly to apprentice training – the main contractor, Morgan Ashurst, has committed to training at least 10 apprentices through the supply chain over the life of the project and has recently agreed to increase this by 20% to 12 apprentices to showcase their value to the wider industry at this time.
• The National Construction College is indispensable to the UK construction industry. With seven campuses around the UK, the NCC is Europe’s largest construction training provider – serving over 30,000 apprentices and adult learners every year, with the NCC East serving over 5,000 alone.
• If the National Construction College were to cease providing training in any specialisms, there would be a severe negative impact on the industry. This has been acknowledged by the members of the Major Contractors’ Group (now UKCG), a group of senior executives from leading construction companies.