Business leaders gather for launch of state of the art skills centre

Local business leaders made the most of the huge space renovated as part of the Gloucestershire Renewable Energy, Engineering & Nuclear (GREEN) Skills Project, when the centre was officially opened on Thursday afternoon as the John Huggett Engineering Hall.

The event was led by Dr Diane Savory OBE, Chair of GFirst LEP; David Owen, Chief Executive of GFirst LEP; Kevin Hamblin, Group CEO of South Gloucestershire and Stroud College; and Neil Carmichael, MP for Stroud. The Chair of SGS College, John Huggett after whom the Centre was named, was the guest of honour. The launch attracted over 100 businesses to hear more about what the centre can offer.

Funded with £5 million through GFirst LEP’s Gloucestershire Growth Deal, in a partnership with South Gloucestershire and Stroud College, the centre utilises one of the tallest engineering halls in the country to create a dynamic and sustainable education facility and will offer some of the best training facilities in the country for the science, technology, engineering and manufacturing (STEM) industries.

Diane Savory said: “It’s fantastic to see our local business community so excited about the new skills centre. The much needed facilities are a fantastic asset for Gloucestershire and I’m pleased to see the impact that the Gloucestershire Growth Deal is starting to have across the county.”

The GREEN Skills Centre sits within a 50 acre Gloucestershire Science and Technology Park at the former nuclear laboratories at Berkeley and will incorporate education, training, business start-up and research facilities with a focus on the development of STEM. It will become a specialist training centre for the provision of some of the 45,000 skilled jobs estimated to be needed for the supply chain for major engineering projects and the low-carbon industry to ensure the workforce demands are met and labour is compliant with very the highest industry standards. The building will sit alongside the recently approved state of the art SGS Berkeley Green UTC.

The centre will open to full time learners from September 2017, but part time groups will be taking advantage of the centre prior from January 2017.