£3.3 million Modern Methods of Construction Building now open!

The extensive upgrade to our existing facilities, jointly funded by Greater Lincolnshire Local Enterprise Partnership (GLLEP) and Department for Education Post 16 Capital Funding, provides state-of-the-art learning and teaching resources for employers, adults and school leavers studying in the fields of plumbing, carpentry, brickwork and electrical installation this September.

The newly named Modern Methods of Construction Centre (MMC) is in addition to our £3.5 million Construction and Automotive Skills Centre completed in 2016. The substantial growth in recent student applications (around 15% more each year) is in response to the increased demand for skilled workers in trade-based industries within our local area (it is calculated that there is a 49,000 skills shortage in the eastern region).

With this in mind, design of the build­ing has reflect­ed its respon­si­bil­i­ty to teach and pro­vide learn­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties that reflect the rapid evo­lu­tion of the con­struc­tion indus­try through automa­tion, car­bon reduc­tion and the increased use of pre­fab­ri­ca­tion, and therefore ensur­ing our stu­dents are study­ing amongst the very lat­est con­struc­tion method­olo­gies and tech­nolo­gies so they can excel in their cho­sen careers.

The façade is designed as a row of 5 dif­fer­ent styles of ter­raced house, each with mul­ti­ple types of brick­work, arch­ways and win­dow instal­la­tions. Parts of the inte­ri­or have been left exposed with glass pan­els installed for stu­dents to see the mul­ti­ple lay­ers of con­struc­tion with­in the walls.

56 solar elec­tric­i­ty pan­els, also known as pho­to­voltaics (PV), have been installed on the roof to cap­ture the sun’s ener­gy and con­vert it into elec­tric­i­ty and gen­er­at­ing renew­able elec­tric­i­ty for the Col­lege with sur­plus ener­gy going back into the grid. Stu­dents can see these work­ing in real time via a 60″ TV screen in the lob­by detail­ing the elec­tric­i­ty being gen­er­at­ed and used.

Atten­u­a­tion tanks designed to col­lect and store excess sur­face water before slow­ly releas­ing it at a con­trolled rate into the local water course, min­imis­es the risk of localised flood­ing, and Air-source Heat Pumps take the warmth from the air out­side and use it to heat the building.

Even the bricks, ​‘eco-bricks’ have been sourced from envi­ron­men­tal­ly friend­ly man­u­fac­tur­ers to ensure the car­bon foot­print of the build­ing is min­imised, mak­ing our MMC our most green project to date.

Gary McPartland, Assistant Principal for Inspire Education Group said, "With UK, Welsh and Scottish Governments committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050, it means almost 27 million homes + 2 million other buildings require retrofitting, and the recruitment of an extra 567,000 qualified workers are needed by 2028 to complete the work. Our new Modern Methods of Construction Building means we have the facilities, expert-training and qualifications to prepare students for these industry demands".

New courses on offer at the new facility include:

SIX Retro­fit PAS 2035 Roles and Qual­i­fi­ca­tions (part time offer to adults and employers):

• Retro­fit Evaluators
• Retro­fit Advisors
• Retro­fit Coordinators
• Retro­fit Assessors
• Retro­fit Designers
• Retro­fit Installers

Part-time Indus­try Accreditations:

• 18^th Edi­tion Elec­tri­cal course
• City & Guilds 2391 Cer­tifi­cate in Inspec­tion, Test­ing and Cer­ti­fi­ca­tion of Elec­tri­cal Installation

Full-time Qual­i­fi­ca­tions:

• Plumb­ing 8202 – 25 Lev­el 2
• Mul­ti Skills 6219 – 07
• Occu­pa­tion­al Trainee­ships (path­way Carpentry)
• Occu­pa­tion­al Trainee­ships (path­way Bricklaying)

Appren­tice­ships:

• Con­struc­tion Sup­port Technician