College to open £500,000 green skills centre
A ‘Green Skills Innovation Centre’ at Wiltshire College & University Centre’s Lackham campus will be used to equip plumbers, electricians and construction companies with sustainable expertise.
The opening is in response to more new homes being built to environmentally friendly standards, featuring solar PV panels, solar thermal heating, air source heat pumps and renewable technology such as electrical storage systems and electric vehicle charging.
Principal and chief executive Iain Hatt said the college wants to be at the forefront of the training needed.
“We have been fortunate to have received £100,000 through the Wiltshire Council Shared Prosperity Fund to develop our Green Skills Innovation Centre and are in the process of converting an existing building into a purpose-built space at a total cost of £500,000,” he said.
“It’s a really exciting project that will benefit our students on construction apprenticeships and employers across the area.”
The centre will be divided into teaching bays where students can learn how to install sustainable units such as air source heat pumps.
“They will be able to install and commission them and then run fault finding to see if they are performing properly,” said Steve Gingell, head of faculty, construction and the built environment.
The centre will also have a replica roof at ground level where trained individuals will be able to install and commission solar PV panels and demonstrate how to monitor and understand the energy usage within the home.
The college will offer short courses to construction sector employers who need to develop their plumbing and heating engineers, electricians and builders’ renewable skills as demand grows.
Hatt said: “Climate Change is presenting us all with a growing challenge and the construction industry is having to adapt quickly to meet that challenge. We are seeing the demand for sustainable housing grow, and not just because of global warming but also rising energy bills.
“Our Green Skills Centre will be there to meet this demand for new skills and it will be convenient for employers because it is based here in Wiltshire at our Lackham campus.”
The college is also converting a former residential house at Lackham into an eco-house to act as a showcase for renewable technologies.
“It has been designed with cutaway walls as well as the latest equipment so that people can see how the technology is installed and how it works,” said Hatt.
It has been developed in partnership with Chippenham energy firm Good Energy, which will use it to train its engineers.
“Both of these projects are vitally important to the training we offer,” said Hatt. “Sustainability is already central to our teaching and we hope they will work in tandem to set the standards even higher.”
