The Marches Local Skills Improvement Fund for Construction Green Skills is dedicated to advancing green skills in industry and is making great strides by offering a suite of new courses at Level 3 and above.

Courses include Retrofit; Environmental Technologies; Supervising in Construction and Principles of Alternative Energy, to name a few.

This project has and will continue to attract a wave of new industry professionals and enthusiasts eager to embrace sustainable construction practices.

The collaboration between the three colleges: Herefordshire Ludlow and North Shropshire College; Shrewsbury Colleges Group and Telford College has already enabled benefits, with significant investments in state-of-the-art training facilities and specialist equipment.

These enhancements are designed to provide a modern and industry relevant learning experience.  As a result, many individuals have already benefited from these new facilities and equipment to benefit the future of the construction industry across The Marches.

Employers have offered industry placements, providing real-world experience to students. Additionally, many employers have seized the opportunity to upskill their current staff through the innovative courses, ensuring their workforce remains at the forefront of industry standards and practices.

A participant of one of the courses, remarked: “I was a ground worker before I came here, so had already learnt certain skills, but this introduced me to a lot of new ones including how to use power tools correctly, mitre corners and tiling which was the highlight of the week!”

Employers are equally positive. An employer commented: “The impact of upskilling staff is far wider than just giving them additional skills. The enthusiasm is great to see, and it gives us the opportunity to identify talent through investing in our staff.  The effect [of the training] is already having an impact on the quality of our output.  As the general operatives gain more knowledge of the different skilled areas, they are now able to identify any work that is below standard, which has huge benefits on our productivity.”

The partnership is committed to spreading the word about these new opportunities and encouraging more individuals to take advantage of the advanced training available.

• For more information and to discover how you could benefit from these courses, visit Construction courses | Marches Education (marches-education.co.uk) or review our latest prospectus here: The-Marches-Partnership-Prospectus.pdf (marches-education.co.uk)