New civil engineering academy in Hartlepool

Seymour Civil Engineering have officially opened a new civil engineering skills academy in Hartlepool in the North East as a means of tackling the devastating skills shortage and the subsequent forecasts in loss of personnel.

The award winning civil engineering firm worked in partnership with the Hartlepool College of Further Education and the Hartlepool Borough Council to make land available for the construction of the new academy, which takes up 11 acres just off of Brenda Road.

The new academy is the first of it’s like in the region and will provide certified qualifications and training in professions such as: house building, surveying, planning, street works, plant and machinery training, horticulture, landscaping, tree surgery, and general construction operative apprenticeships.

The Academy Manager, Niall Crosby stated: “The initial vision of the academy was to help to go some way to closing the skills gap. Seymour wants to be able to offer quality learning for a range of age groups.

“The academy provides a one-stop-shop for employers to support their training needs across all aspects of construction and civil engineering. Being a large local employer, our offering will be dynamic, evolving in response to market needs and employers’ requirements – ensuring highly trained staff have perfected their trades away from commercial pressures but in a real-life simulated environment.  The opportunities that this academy brings are endless.”

The Chair of Hartlepool Borough Council’s Regeneration Services Committee, Councillor Christopher Akers-Belcher added: “The council is absolutely committed to doing all it can to ensure that our young people get the best start in their careers, so we were delighted to play a key role in the creation of this training academy.

“There is a shortage of skilled young people in the construction and civil engineering sectors in Hartlepool and thee wider Tees Valley and this ambitious partnership between the Council, Seymour Civil Engineering and Hartlepool College of Further Education will help to close that gap.”

The Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) has recently published some damning figures which forecast that the construction industry will need to recruit more than 30,000 people per year by 2022 in order to keep up with the demands of the industry but it is projected that Brexit will result in the loss of over a hundred thousand personnel.

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