Wirral Met College students and staff welcomed the exciting news that the college is to benefit from funding provided by the Liverpool City Region’s £232 million Growth Deal, that was secured by the Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) last year, to build a new Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) Centre at the Twelve Quays Campus in Birkenhead.
Wirral Met’s new STEM Centre is crucial to the development of a thriving economy and will create a centre of excellence where people can develop and continuously improve their skills. This is particularly welcomed because the college already works with a range of employers and universities who are at the forefront of STEM in their business. Some people don’t realise that Wirral Met provides university Degrees, allowing local people to study university education, at the college.
Wirral Met is also a central part of the Wirral Waters initiative, part of the Mersey Waters Enterprise Zone, aimed at attracting more business to the area. Wirral Waters Campus which is due to open in September 2015, is also the first building in the new Enterprise Zone. The STEM Centre will involve a major capital investment to provide facilities that will support innovative teaching and learning to attract the future workforce for these essential industries. It is anticipated that the new STEM Centre will be opened in 2016.
Principal Sue Higginson said, “Our new STEM Centre is an investment in the future that will provide students with innovative education, training and development in science and engineering, to ensure young people gain the skills and experience required to develop careers that will help us to build a successful, thriving economy. In this regard, Wirral Met College has been leading the design and delivery of education and training that supports the high profile area of Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths for many years and our contribution to education and training for the life science sector was recognised last year when the college won the Cogent UK Life Science Skills Provider of the Year Award, sponsored by The Science Council.”
