23.04.04
College Opens New Skills Centre for Cornwall

Brian Moone, Director (Best Practice Knowledge) of Constructing Excellence is officially opening a new £5.5 million Centre for Excellence in Construction and Engineering at Cornwall College's Camborne Campus as part of an ongoing £10 million investment that has seen a range of new buildings and training facilities opened during the past year.

This project is part of the Combined Universities in Cornwall initiative and has received investment of £2,027,824 from the Objective One Programme.

The unique triangular 2-storey building with a centrepiece tent roof that is visible from up to 2 miles away (the largest of its kind in the UK) provides a premier training facility for construction, engineering and automotive studies, the largest of its kind in the Southwest. Housed inside are specialist workshops and real-work training facilities offering a range of courses to 350 full-time and 800 part-time students on all levels from NVQs to Foundation Degrees, catering to the needs of school leavers', adults looking to retrain and up-skill as well as students wishing to study university-level courses within Cornwall. The workshops are equipped with some of the most up-to-date technology available.

Launch day offered visitors an insight into a range of skills areas, with students working in the plumbing workshop, electrical installation, automotive engineering and body repair garage, bricklaying, carpentry and joinery workshops to name a few.

Head of College Barrie Atkinson said of the new Skills Centre for Cornwall, "We are delighted to be able to offer our students the best courses in state-of-the-art facilities. This investment emphasises the importance we place in the future development and teaching of craft, technician and supervisory skills and our commitment to the industries we serve and the general prosperity of Cornwall."

Carleen Kelemen, Director of the Objective One Partnership, said "This fantastic project will provide first-class training in the skills needed by the engineering and construction industries in Cornwall. Objective One's vision is to help unlock people's talents and as a result help businesses grow and prosper. By investing in this project we are helping to give present and future generations the skills needed by business."

For more information, please contact:

Sarah Plant
Marketing Department
Cornwall College Camborne
Trevenson Road
Redruth
Cornwall
Tel: 01209 616100

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Editor's notes:

Brian Moone MRICS, FCIOB
Director Best Practice Knowledge
Constructing Excellence

Brian has held a number of senior positions influencing positive change within the construction industry. Currently as a Director of Constructing Excellence he heads up Best Practice Knowledge and is responsible for the high profile Demonstration Projects and Best Practice Clubs. Previously the Director of the successful Construction Best Practice Programme he moved into Constructing Excellence which was established to further promote a world class construction industry and was formed from the merger of Construction Best Practice and Rethinking Construction.

Brian has also held positions on a number of key industry or bodies, most notably the Strategic Forum for Construction, under the Chairmanship of both Sir John Egan and Peter Rogers, with involvement in the two seminal industry reports, Rethinking Construction and Accelerating Change. Brian was previously a Director at the Chartered Institute of Building, responsible for the development of the profession, during this time he was involved in the Latham report "Constructing the Team" and the development of Adjudication and the Construction Act.

Brian has a firm foundation in the construction industry having joined as a craft apprentice; he went on to qualify as a Chartered Surveyor and Chartered Builder. He is committed to seeing an industry that can consistently deliver a quality product and service to its customers in an efficient and productive manner thereby enabling it to invest in its most important resource, its people.

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Sue Wolstenholme
Objective One Communications
Objective One Partnership Office
Castle House
Pydar Street
Truro TR1 2UD
Mob: 07973 813647
Tel: 01579 370991

lmroberts@cornwall.gov.uk

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