£11.7m skills centre set for former Springfield Brewery site
A flagship £11.7 million centre that will form part of the transformation of Wolverhampton's historic Springfield Brewery has moved a step closer with a formal planning application being submitted to city bosses.
The Elite Centre for Manufacturing Skills is aimed at boosting productivity and growth across the Black Country by providing specialist training in areas such as toolmaking, metal forging and patternmaking.
The bid, by the University of Wolverhampton, seeks permission to change the use of the former brewery to an education facility, requiring alterations to the 130-year-old listed building and the insertion of a mezzanine floor.
The ambitious project has been funded through a £7.6m investment by The Black Country Local Enterprise Partnership via its Growth Deal. Industry and education partners have contributed a further £4.15m.
The application to Wolverhampton City Council reveals plans for a display and demonstration area inside an atrium-style space to promote what students do to the industry, along with teaching rooms, laboratory, metallurgy room, workshop, boardroom, offices and a viewing gallery.
Where possible it is planned to expose the existing brickwork and roof structure inside the revamped building as a way of retaining some of its historic character.
Professor Geoff Layer, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Wolverhampton, said: "The Elite Centre for Manufacturing Skills (ECMS) is an important element of our plans to transform the former Springfield Brewery site into a major educational quarter within Wolverhampton city centre.
"The planning application is the next step in this exciting project which brings together employers, further education and higher education.
"The Springfield Campus is a significant part of the university's investment plan, which will generate £250m of investment over the next five years. Once complete, the super-campus will provide skills education from the age of 14 right through to advanced level."
The centre will specialise in product design, with branches to be created at Dudley Port, where a training block to teach foundry skills and pattern making will be constructed next to an existing foundry, while the National Metalforming Centre in West Bromwich would focus on toolmaking, metalforming and presswork.
