The capital projects were funded through a mix of the FECTF, T-Levels and Towns Fund streams. A key project was the development of a new Clean Energy Education Hub (CEEH) delivered at Redcar College where our role included working with Redcar Council to develop outline and full business cases to secure funding through the government’s Town Deal programme by demonstrating that the new facility will provide a focus for training the workforce of the future in the skills needed to install air source heat pumps, solar panels, wind turbines and other new technologies, including hydrogen infrastructure. The 1,000 sqm CEEH is a strategic partner to the major clean energy development at Teesworks, a key pillar in the government’s levelling-up agenda.

Also at Redcar College, a further project to provide suitable spaces to support the delivery of the new T-Level curriculum in healthcare and engineering was completed with a scope that also included the construction of two large external steel canopies to provide partially-sheltered spaces for brick laying and rope access training, respectively.

In addition, Gennorth led on the delivery of a new £2.5m build annex to Bede VI Form college which provides additional capacity together with a number of flexible teaching spaces and a specialist media training classroom that have allowed the college to strengthen and grow their curriculum.

The DfE’s funding criteria was very stringent for all of the projects, meaning that one of the key objectives was to complete the construction works against a very challenging programme, prior to the new academic term. Despite numerous challenges, each of the projects were delivered on time and within budget allowing the maximum drawdown of DfE funding.