New investment to transform skills education and training at Sunderland College

Significant investment in technical facilities at Sunderland College’s City Campus is set to support the future generation of engineers and business management professionals.

The new capital investment at the college’s campus, based in the heart of Sunderland City Centre, will ‘revolutionise’ skills and technical education and support the delivery of new engineering, manufacturing, and energy skills provision along with new provision in leadership, management and business administration.

The new investment will ensure that the college and its T Level curriculum can grow in alignment with the evolving needs of industry across Sunderland and the wider North East region.

Set to benefit from these exciting new developments is the college’s Department of Engineering, Manufacturing and Automotive. Students will be able to experience a 360-degree immersive digital training hub where industry environments will be replicated to immerse groups of students in international, national and regionally located industrial environments in a tech-led environment.

Shaped in partnership with Envision AESC, the Department will also benefit from a new battery power training facility, and automation and robotics hub, along with a new hybrid automotive technical skills facility including electric charging stations.

The Department of Education is also supporting the college to launch T Levels in Business Management. Further capital investment will see the creation of a business management suite, to enable students to operate in a variety of different learning environments.

It will feature areas for individual learning, collaborative working, business interaction and developing entrepreneurial experience. A new boardroom space will feature interactive digital walls to allow students to interact with websites, web-based applications, dashboards, data visualizations, spreadsheets, video conferencing platforms, 3D design tools and more.

Ellen Thinnesen, Chief Executive of Education Partnership North East, which includes Sunderland College, said:

“At our City Campus, we’re committed to providing students with innovative learning environments that will help them reach their full potential and prepare them for a highly skilled career. This investment reflects the work we have been doing to align our 16 to 19 and adult skills strategy to the industrial and digital developments across Sunderland and the wider North East.

“I am incredibly grateful to the Department for Education for their support as this capital investment will transform our facilities and support our T Level students to develop technical skills and competencies through immersive, real world training scenarios.

“Our T Level qualifications have been designed in collaboration with priority sectors across the region to produce a skilled workforce for the future. We look forward to playing a key role in transforming technical education and providing our students with state-of-the-art facilities to enrich their learning and ensure they gain the essential higher-level skills and knowledge that industry will demand in the future.”

The new capital investment is due for completion this summer.

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