Construction skills training centre near GCHQ could boost county infrastructure projects

Massive infrastructure projects worth more than £700 million are taking place across Gloucestershire, from big improvements to junctions on the M5 to the A417 ‘Missing Link’ project to clear the Air Balloon bottleneck, requiring thousands of skilled construction workers to carry out these major works. In the shadow of a countywide shortage of workers with these essential skills, Gloucestershire College (GC) has submitted a plan to boost access to training.

Planning documents show that the further education college wants to build a state-of-the-art construction skills centre with dedicated indoor and outdoor work environments, as well as four classrooms and a carpentry workshop, on their Cheltenham Campus near GCHQ on Princess Elizabeth Way. The town currently has no construction training, with many apprentices and students travelling to Gloucester to pick up their trade.

The potential new centre for construction training in Cheltenham is aiming to help address the annual shortage of roughly 6,400 new construction workers needed to carry out these vast infrastructure projects and meet housebuilding targets across the wider South West. Gloucestershire College already offers Good-rated construction training across its two other sites in Gloucester and the Forest of Dean and draws more than 1000 trainees from nearby firms to advance their skills and qualifications in the sector.

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If Cheltenham Borough Council planners approve the new campus building, 16 to 18-year-olds around the town will be able to learn new skills at a time of great change for the construction industry, with climate change and net-zero targets challenging construction to find greener and more sustainable materials and techniques. With GC aiming for carbon zero, last year installed ground source heat pumps and planning for 380 square metres of solar panels on the building’s roof, the college hopes to inspire the green construction workers of tomorrow.

Gloucestershire College has trained thousands of people in construction(Image: Still Moving Media/ Gloucestershire College)

The planning document reads: “This project and the wider GC carbon zero project present great opportunities for student engagement in the operation and sustainable design of the building with exposed services and safe access to plant areas providing enhanced teaching and learning opportunities within the building.”

Techniques to reduce the building’s carbon impact are a core concept in its design, with roofs and levels of the training centre designed to provide shade from overheating, while internal insulation and a heat pump should keep the building’s energy use to a minimum, which will itself be offset by its south-facing solar panels.