£19.3 million facility set to shift skills up a gear

A Yorkshire college is shifting skills training up a gear with the opening of a £19.3 million facility designed to prepare hundreds of students for careers in automotive and digital engineering.

Bradford College has officially opened Junction Mills on Thornton Road following almost two years of construction.

The four-storey building was backed by £17.8 million from the Department for Education’s Further Education Capital Transformation Fund, alongside £1.5 million from the college.

Built by Morgan Sindall Construction on the site of a former textile mill, the facility will support up to 650 students and help develop electric and hybrid vehicle skills across West Yorkshire.

Junction Mills includes collaboration classrooms, IT labs and three large workshops, with facilities for traditional vehicles alongside EV bays and a hydrogen fuel cell car.

Specialist equipment includes vehicle lifts for MOT testing and wheel alignment, roller brake testing systems, emissions analysers and tyre changers.

The project has also achieved Morgan Sindall Construction’s platinum certification for carbon savings, with measures including electric arc furnace steel helping save 473 tonnes of carbon across the design and construction phases.

Pamela Sheldon, head of projects at Bradford College, said: “It’s fantastic to see Junction Mills ready to welcome students after all the hard work of everyone involved. 

“My thanks go to our staff, Morgan Sindall Construction, and all our many other local and regional contractors and partners who helped bring the project to life.

“Junction Mills is a major step forward in how we prepare young people for exciting, fast-moving careers in automotive and engineering industries. 

“This latest multi-million-pound investment in our estate shows our commitment to giving students world-class learning environments and the in-demand skills needed for their chosen professions.”

Junction Mills’ opening forms part of Bradford College’s wider estates investment after securing almost £32 million in funding over the past three years.

Other projects include the opening of Garden Mills in 2024 and the refurbishment of creative facilities for The Producing Academy in 2025, while the motor vehicle and engineering department’s former Bowling Back Lane base has been transformed into a new Electrical Academy.

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