Hucknall: Skills Academy to be added to Top Wighay Farm site

Nottinghamshire County Council along with their chosen developer Countryside Partnerships have announced plans to build a Skills Academy on Top Wighay Farm.

The site, which is located on the border of Hucknall and Linby already has outlined planning for 805 houses and a primary school.

Now, Countryside Partnerships has chosen Chameleon school of construction as the training provider who will offer a range of practical courses on site such as bricklaying, plastering and tiling. Their students will be given the opportunity to engage in practical learning.

Chameleon already has six centres of learning across the country including in Pinxton and Swadlincote.

Speaking to Hucknall Nub News Andy Reynolds, MD at Countryside Partnerships East Midlands said: "We're going to look to provide welfare facilities, a teaching room and also potentially some foundations for the likes of bricklaying courses or anything like that to actually be done physically on site rather than in the classroom.

"We'll provide the training facility. We'll put some foundations in, and leave it there and then that will be the platform for Chameleon to provide some training opportunities."

Steven Crossley, Operations Manager of Chameleon school of construction, added: "It's on-site experience which is invaluable. It is sometimes difficult for them to get especially since the pandemic, a lot of sites have shut their doors to letting people on to have experience so this a really interesting exciting opportunity for our learners.

"They'll be learning their skills working towards qualifications but by being on site so you're getting best of both worlds really, and it is a really interesting concept that we're excited to be involved with."

Councillor Keith Girling , Cabinet Member for Economic Development and Asset Management welcomed the announcement.

Speaking to Hucknall Nub News, he said: "We're going to have a skills college here training people up to do bricklaying and things like that, which is creating jobs for people.

"This is practical skills on site, they also learn what it's like to get up at whatever time it is in the morning, and it's raining and you're doing all the work in those sorts of conditions, you don't get that in a classroom. This is really valuable experience for anybody that they bring in to go through that college so I'm quite excited about that."

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