Weston College – Required Skills For MMC
Weston College of Further and Higher Education has grown from a £9m turnover college in 2001, to one of the largest further and higher education colleges in the country, recognised regionally and nationally for the focus on quality training and education, and close alignment with the needs of employers and industry.
Since 2001 and under the leadership of Dr Paul Phillips CBE, the College has achieved Ofsted outstanding and secured TEF Gold status, recognition of standards delivering higher education up to degree level.
This has all been achieved through growth of provision, with the college being a national centre of excellence for its provision for students with disabilities (SEND), a growing and award winning apprenticeship programme, and also education provision in prisons across the South of England. Regardless of the type of training offered, there is a relentless pursuit of excellence built around the core mission of Weston College: creating brighter futures.
The College has invested in creating industry-standard construction facilities within the past 5 years, working closely with employers to deliver their training requirements. . The South West Skills Campus is the hub of engineering and construction training, and is also the location of the recently launched West of England Institute of Technology (IoT) which has a focus on offering higher level technical skills training, offering an alternative to traditional university offerings.
The IoT has a focus on the Digital, Advanced Engineering and Health sectors. Further investment 2019 created a new Construction Training Centre, a modular build facility providing training in Scaffolding, Plant, Groundworks, Logistics, Warehousing and Health & Safety. Through this centre, in partnership with industry, the College has embraced the use of technology, training heavy plant operators through GPS guidance systems and using simulation to safely introduce operators to practical scenarios in a safe environment.
Steve Caldwell, Dean of Faculty for Construction offers his perspective. “We pride ourselves on strong partnerships with industry, ensuring that our training is delivering highly-skilled, confident employees for employers. Through our partnership approach, we test our curriculum and strategy with employers, gaining their validation that our programmes support their needs.”
“As we all know revolutions and evolutions are taking place within the Built Environment because of numerous and varied drivers for change. These include a national housing crisis, an ageing workforce accompanied with a skills shortage, a lack of social mobility within the industry and a drive to improve energy efficiency and build quality. Here at Weston College we want to be further ahead of the industry curve, so we are able to equip our learners with the skills, knowledge and behaviours needed for the present and future.”
“This is where our challenge lies. Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) is very much here and more changes are afoot. MMC covers such a broad spectrum of construction activity, where do we, an education partner, begin to focus our energies to ensure we are getting it right regarding future trends and innovations? More importantly for us, it’s a better understanding of the skills and foundations that young people need in order to be workforce ready – for now and in the future.”
As an Ofsted Outstanding college, with over 800 students within our construction related training programmes, Weston College is inspiring the future generation of the construction industry, from future bricklayers, plumbers, scaffolders to Civil Engineers.
There is a commitment to innovate and evolve with industry, and to continue developing partnerships with employers in order to gain a better understanding of the developing modern construction environments. Armed with this knowledge and insight, the College will continue in their mission to create a skilled workforce for the construction industry.
The question being asked by Weston College and the education sector is how can employers and colleges collaborate to embed the innovations of industry and deliver the skills required in a time when industry is evolving with MMC? To have your say and join the conversation register for this webinar on………….
