Skills provider adds steel to £14.7 million hub plan

A £14.7 million skills base has moved a step closer.

The Education Training Collective has held a steel signing ceremony for a new NETA Training hub.

Bosses say the venture, set for Thornaby, near Stockton, will train the welders, fabricators, electricians, pipefitters and domestic and commercial gas workers of tomorrow.

They add the two-storey structure, which will sit alongside Stockton Riverside College, will “meet the Government’s industrial strategy… and work with clients and employers wanting to upskill staff”.

Grant Glendinning, chief executive and group principal at NETA Training operator Education Training Collective, said: “After years in the planning, it is incredible to see the centre taking shape.

“The desire has long been there to equip NETA with facilities to truly match the passion and expertise of its instructors.

“Those ambitions have become something very tangible with the structure we see today.”

The project has been backed by £4.5 million from the Thornaby Town Deal Board, delivered alongside Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council, and further funding from the Department for Education and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.

Mark White, Thornaby Town Deal Board chair and Stockton-on-Tees Strategic Education Board chair, said: “This will help bring long-term economic growth to the town.”

Nick Shepherd, managing director at building contractor Britcon, added: “The steel signing event marks another important milestone on one of our flagship regional projects.”

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