new college unrivalled facility

Thursday, 1st May 2008

Type: Editors Picks

Categories: What's New

A tantalising glimpse of the future has been revealed as a new college starts to take shape against the skyline of Middlesbrough.

The £68m Middlesbrough College will be completed at the beginning of June bringing unrivalled facilities to the town.

At the very heart of the Middlehaven regeneration project, the 32,000sqm development is of a scale seldom seen in further education and unrivalled in the region.

Up to 20,000 full and part-time students will begin to enrol in August in time for the September term where they will be taught by 700 staff.

The development will centralise studies for the first time after years of being spread across four college sites.

The old sites - Marton, Kirby, Longlands and Acklam - will be redeveloped for housing.

There are 350 men and women, including two college apprentices, working on site for construction company Laing O'Rourke which is building the college.

Assistant principal of business development Martin Peagam said: "We will be finished on time and on budget at the beginning of June. The new college really is going to be something to behold."

Middlesbrough College marketing manager Andy Williams added: "The new college will offer the town and the region a learning facility second to none.

"For the first time Middlesbrough College will have its own special and unique identity putting it firmly on the further education map."

Surrounded by iconic structures - the Riverside football ground, the Transporter Bridge and the old docks clock tower - the college is five stories on one side, two on the other and features the very latest in modern building materials.

Inside there will be a central street leading to 450 rooms - fully accessible thanks to four lifts.

Features include:

• Engineering and construction workshops
• A motor vehicle centre
• A four storey library
• Five training kitchens for a catering department designated a Centre of Vocational Excellence
• A bistro, silver service restaurant and a hi-tech pod cyber café, as well as a catering theatre for demonstration cooking
• Environmentally controlled sports facilities including national standard eight court hall, cricket nets, spectator area, changing rooms, a championship standard gymnastics venue including floor, foam pit, tumble track, high bars and rings and sports therapy rooms
• Six hair and beauty salons, a nail bar, sauna, solarium, monsoon shower room;
• Dance and drama studios;
• Photographic and arts studios, a dark room, radio and video suites and a textile workshop;
• A 150-seat theatre with 48-seat orchestra pit, public gallery, lighting rig, technical gallery, make-up and changing rooms;
• A recording studio and a dance studio;
• Science labs, seminar and classrooms with interactive white boards;
• A 37-place nursery.

Further Information

Middlesbrough College Website

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