High speed rail college will be game-changer to skills development in the West Midlands

THE start of construction work on the new National College for High Speed Rail in Birmingham has been hailed as an important boost for skills development in the West Midlands.

The new college is being based on a site at Birmingham Science Park, close to Aston University and when complete will train some of the engineers expected to work on the new HS2 high speed rail link.

The college, which also has a hub in Doncaster, is expected to be open for students in September next year.

Cllr John Clancy, leader of Birmingham City Council. said: “This new college is a fantastic opportunity to build skills in this city and it’s really important that people across the whole of Birmingham benefit.

“We have thousands of talented young engineers and scientists and this will be their chance to access world-leading, cutting-edge rail technology.

“Birmingham will become the city of a thousand and one trades when we begin training an elite generation of high speed rail engineers.”

Andrew Cleaves, Director for Employment and Skills at Greater Birmingham & Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership, said the college would prove to be a “game changer” for the region.

“(This) is why the LEP is proud to be investing £6m, alongside investment from Birmingham City Council too,” he said.

“This college is part of a wider strategy to up-skill local people and, in turn, deliver economic benefit for the region and allow us to compete on a global scale.

“The college will equip thousands of students with the highly technical engineering skills required to build, operate and maintain a railway, including a strong emphasis on practical and virtual learning.”

The college will be open to a wide range of students including new entrants, existing workforce, students studying for a foundation degree in rail engineering, access students, mature entrants, higher apprentice rail engineering students, progression from L3 diploma rail engineering, continuous professional development and career changers.

“This is the latest milestone for the new high tech training facility, which will provide Britain’s workforce with the specialist training, skills and qualifications required to build HS2 and future rail infrastructure projects,” added Mr Cleaves.

The groundbreaking ceremony coincided with news that HS2 Ltd, the company responsible for the high speed rail project, had begun consulting staff at its London office about a relocation to Birmingham.

The move could see hundreds of people move into new offices at Two Snowhill, which is already home to the construction arm of the project.