£5 million Telford healthcare training centre is completed
A £5 million training centre for the next generation of nurses and health workers has been completed and will welcome students next month.
The Marches Centre of Excellence for Health and Social Care at the Telford Campus of Wolverhampton University is a major development for Telford and the wider region.
The landmark project has now been completed, with the university's existing students set to begin at their new surroundings next month.
The centre, which has been created in the Angad Paul Building at the Priorslee campus, includes a room for paramedic science and other disciplines, a mock house, teaching spaces and new student social areas.
One of the major ambitions for the centre is to help tackle the shortage of healthcare professionals across the Marches area.
Tim Steele, Pro Vice-Chancellor at Wolverhampton University, said the facility would be transformational for the training of healthcare workers in the region, and a key part of meeting demand for workers.
He said: “The importance of key workers in the health and social care sectors has never been more apparent than during the Covid-19 pandemic, and with increasing numbers of people wanting to study healthcare related courses, this centre will provide state-of-the-art training facilities both for the existing and next generation of key workers.
“We’re delighted to have created an innovative and technologically advanced learning environment for students which will undoubtedly boost skills in the region and beyond.
"It will transform the training of professionals for the Marches area and enable us to meet the increasing local demand within the health and social care workforce."
The centre will also include an immersive reality suite for emergency planning and simulation of a variety of clinical and non-clinical settings, interview and mock office environments for social work training and student collaboration spaces.
A new Anamotage Room will be created feature a state-of-the-art Anamotage table which allows students to digitally ‘see’ inside the human body.
Mandy Thorn MBE, Chair of the Marches LEP, which provided £3.5m of funding for the project, said: “The new centre will play a vital part in ensuring this region leads the way in the training of health and care workers and it is excellent news that another important milestone in its development has been passed.”
The first phase of the project will see the development of new academic courses, degree apprenticeships and continuous professional development (CPD) courses at the campus from September 2021.
The centre is due to officially open for existing students next month.
Overbury is the contractor that led the refurbishment and fit out of existing space in the Angad Paul Building, designed by architects Broadway Malayan.
The University Project team worked with Faithful & Gould as the client-side project manager, Gleeds as Project Management and cost management services.
Design MEP managed the mechanical and electrical elements and Design2e acted as structural engineers.
Andrew Wood, managing director at Overbury, said: “Overbury are proud to have been part of a project that will help train the next generation of key workers.
"From the teaching spaces to the simulation facilities, it was a fantastic project to be involved in.”
