Thanet College has been successful in securing a grant from the Skills Funding Agency for £2m towards a new sustainable Centre for Environmental Technologies to be built on the College campus.
The new £6.5m centre will be the first of its kind in Kent and will open for business in September 2013. Its development is in response to significant local ‘green’ training opportunities and goes hand in hand with the Government’s recognition of the need for the UK to develop a workforce with real expertise and skills in the renewable sector.
Graham Razey, Principal of Thanet College said, ‘We are delighted that this important development has been given the go ahead. The new Centre will put Thanet College centre stage to deliver leading-edge education and training in environmental technologies. This will allow people in East Kent to take advantage of real employment opportunities within a rapidly growing sector with local companies such as the Thanet Offshore Wind Farm, Thanet Earth, the proposed ‘green’ power park at Richborough and more specifically the Green Deal. The state-of-the-art facilities are also designed to offer higher-level apprenticeships in science and technology, linked to the emerging training needs of the companies establishing themselves at the ‘Discovery Park’ in Sandwich, and will we believe play an important part in attracting new businesses to the Park in the future.’
The field of Environmental Technologies is a specialist area of focus for Thanet College and will enhance parts of the established existing Technology curriculum such as Construction, Computing, Electrical Installation, General Engineering and Motor Vehicle. New qualifications to be offered from September 2012 include sustainable construction, micro-generation (solar and wind), hybrid and electric vehicle technology and energy conservation.
The new building itself will be an opportunity to showcase renewable technologies in action and seeks to achieve a BREEAM Rating of Excellent. Sustainable features include a small wind turbine, photovoltaics (solar panels), biomass heating, a geothermal heat pump, rainwater harvesting and the maximisation of natural daylight. The centre is designed with flexible workshops and teaching spaces which can be easily adapted to accommodate the future education and training needs of this dynamic sector.
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Offshore WIND staff, December 27, 2011; Image: thanet