Page added on January 31, 2012
City Council Construction Training Centre Opens in Beaumont Leys
A new training centre for Leicester City Council apprentices and staff in the construction and housing trades is set to open its doors.
The Housing Division Construction Training Centre of Excellence, in Beaumont Leys Lane, Leicester, is designed to improve the knowledge and skills of people carrying out work on the city’s council houses, and will work closely with local schools and colleges develop apprenticeship programmes.
Leicester College is already using the new centre to run classes and practical training programmes to apprentice council maintenance technicians.
The centre houses 16 trade-specific training bays, a conference room, three class rooms, a computer learning suite, and a bricklaying and plastering workshop. It also incorporates an independently-run BPEC-approved gas assessment centre, to ensure skills and qualifications in gas maintenance and repair are kept up to date to meet industry standards.
An opening event for the housing division Construction Training Centre of Excellence takes place on Monday, January 30, from 10am to 12noon.
The site cost £60,000 to refurbish, with apprentices themselves carrying out much of the work as part of their training, and with materials and equipment recycled from other smaller training facilities around the city.
Leicester assistant city mayor with responsibility for housing, Cllr Mohammed Dawood, will join staff for a tour of the facilities, and presentations will be given outlining the centre’s goals and detailing the housing apprenticeship programme.
Cllr Dawood said: “We are very concerned about unemployment in the city, which is why we are so committed to making apprenticeships and other such opportunities available.
“The construction skills being taught at this centre are very valuable, and the combination of teaching and high-quality facilities mean apprentices will be in a great position to learn the skills of the trade.
“By also providing the council’s housing services workforce with its own training and development facility, technical skills and knowledge can be improved, which will benefit the overall quality of the work carried out in our tenants’ homes.
“The centre’s work also ties in with the Leicester to Work scheme, in which we’re investing £400,000 on creating jobs, training and employment opportunities in the city’s housing estates, and working with tenants to carry out the work they’d like to see done.”
