Northampton College


Centre will tackle national green construction skills shortage


Northampton College will tackle the UK’s acute shortage of construction workers with up-to-date ‘green skills’ head on with the opening of a £500,000 renewable energies education and training facility. T e new Green Skills Centre at Booth Lane will provide up to 250


students with daily access to the latest green technologies each year, as well as reskilling adults who want to move into the construction industry and upskilling existing professionals in the sector. It will also support a variety of green initiatives run by


Northampton College, such as the Big Rig Low Carbon Challenge, which promotes sustainable construction careers to secondary school students across the county. Designed by leading decarbonisation specialist and renewable


training provider Quantum, the centre features rigs and bays for air source heat pumps, ground source heat pumps, solar PV, solar thermal, wind generation, electrifi cation of vehicles and EV charging and promotes sustainable construction methods and materials. Students will receive training on top-of-the-range low carbon technologies such as Daikin air source heat pumps. Deputy Principal Patrick Leavey said: “We tasked Quantum with


creating one of the best renewable technology centres in the country for us and they haven’t disappointed.


“This incredible facility will support the UK’s targets around


carbon reduction and help to address the acute skills shortages within construction personnel to meet the rising demand for green technologies. “T is is a fantastic resource for Northamptonshire and the region


and will strengthen the area’s construction and built environment workforce by providing them with specialist green construction skills which are needed across the UK.” Construction Curriculum Manager Mark Bradshaw added: “T e


technology in our Green Skills Centre is highly sophisticated and we’re replicating the best contemporary professional practices there to help our region get to net zero. “With support from Castle Climate Control and T orn Electrical


we’ll be offering masterclasses, we’re developing a range of competency and licence-to-practice courses in various green technologies, and we’re also creating a sustainability course.” T e new facility, which is next to the college’s existing Advanced


Construction Engineering Centre, will also be used to support an ongoing partnership Northampton College has with the University of Northampton to research effi cient design and implementation of low carbon adoption. Green skills was identifi ed as a priority skills development area


within the Local Skills Improvement Plan (LSIP), with the centre partially funded with support from the Local Skills Improvement Fund (LSIF).


For more information about courses available at Northampton College visit www.northamptoncollege.ac.uk


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