Transport Secretary Geoff Hoon visited a construction site in Rugby to see how Warwickshire College’s new £35million building is taking shape.
After viewing the plans with college principal Ioan Morgan and estates director Chris Paget, the minister toured the building site and met members of the teams from developer St Modwens and contractor Ashford Construction.
Also visiting with Mr Hoon were Rugby borough councillor and Warwickshire College governor James Shera, and representatives from Converteam, which is working closely with the college on setting up the Power Academy.
This will be a specialist area of the new college involved in training technicians for the new generation of power stations, with focus on renewables, particularly turbines and carbon-friendly power generation. Mr Hoon was told that the new generation of power stations and future green power sources will require particular skills for which specialist, hands-on training is not easily available now.
When completed, the 150,000sq ft building will house more than 1,000 students daily in a modern, environmentally-friendly building.
The Transport Secretary said: “It’s a very exciting project – providing training in specific skills is of real importance. Training young people with the skills that are needed in the workplace is a real challenge, and this will meet it.”
