Skills village on the move to its new home
Scarborough’s Construction Skills Village is relocating – and with a new green model to support future eco-friendly house-building in the area. The 12-week relocation is being assisted by apprentices and learners who are trained to national standards at the skills village, which opened five years ago at Middle Deepdale, off Filey Road.
The move to High Eastfield Farm, just off the A64, will enable learners and apprentices of all ages to put their joinery, brick-laying and groundwork skills to real use in helping to create an important green construction skills centre.
The development is backed by Scarborough Council, which is working in partnership with Northern Regeneration, operators of the skills village, to help meet the need for thousands of new affordable homes.
Work on re-developing the two-acre site that includes agricultural buildings and a steel-framed store has already started and perimeter fencing has been installed thanks to funding from the York & North Yorkshire Enterprise Partnership and from Advantage Coast Community Locally-Led Development.
The new training facility will provide areas for scaffolding, bricklaying, plastering, joinery, plumbing, heating and electrical training, as well as a range of small startup units and a lecture/seminar room. The skills village is operated by Northern Regeneration, a community-interest company, which is planning a new range of green construction techniques as part of its portfolio to help meet needs within housing and construction.
The High Eastfield site will include units to practise trade skills, green skills, plant training areas, enterprise units, offices, a cafe and an exhibition space.
The extensive farm buildings are in varying states of repair, but once fully renovated would provide facilities across two floors.
Local tradespeople and their apprentices who have kindly offered their skills and expertise will work alongside staff to support the transition from the old site to the new site, dismantling and transporting all its wooden structures and low-loading its present cabins, for use until the new buildings are transformed.
The move marks a huge expansion of the Skills Village as it seeks to help meet the target of 49,000 constructionrelated workers needed for the region by 2030 – and to provide the skilled workers required to build the 9,000 homes needed in Scarborough over the next 10 years.
Graham Ratcliffe, managing director, said: “Our partners and sponsors and the backing of the borough council has been magnificent in helping us to create record numbers of learners and qualifications, for both young people and adults who want to develop extra skills and gain a career in construction.”
The skills village has created 171 jobs or apprenticeships and 102 learners were directly recruited for their post-16 education, with 62 learners going into employment or apprenticeships in the construction industry last year.
High Eastfield Farm is north-west of Eastfield, near Musham Bank Roundabout.