Inside City of Wolverhampton' College's 'monumental' £8.1m building set to transform engineering and automotive learning for thousands of students

Stephen Simkins, leader of Wolverhampton Council and mayor of the West Midlands Mayor Richard Parker unveiled commemorative plaques at the City of Wolverhampton College’s Wellington Road campus in Bilston front of more than 100 guests.

They included lecturers, students, business leaders and bosses from Speller Metcalfe which carried out the project.

The purpose-built Advanced Technology and Automotive Centre (ATAC) is expected to create learning opportunities and jobs for thousands of students specialising in the engineering and automotive sections in the Wolverhampton and Black Country area.

Visitors were given a guided tour of the two-storey 2,410 square metre centre which boasts a range of industry-standard training facilities and equipment. It includes a 12-bay automotive workshop, drive-in electric vehicle lab, laser alignment machines and diagnostic equipment, as well as engineering workshops, fabrication, CAD and welding suites, lathes, 3D printers and a laser cutter.

It was completed in July with funding by £7.7 million from the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA), with the remainder from the Black Country Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP). ATAC forms the first part of the City Learning Quarter which is set to be completed in time for the 2025-26 academic year.

Many students at ATAC have moved over from the college’s Paget Road campus to the Wellington Road site. Also on display for visitors were vehicles developed on the courses including a racing car developed in conjunction with and raced by a team from the University of Wolverhampton.

New college principal and chief executive Louise Fall said: “The opening of the new centre is fantastic news for the students and apprentices who will benefit from the new facilities this academic year – as well as the many hundreds who will study here in the years to come.

“It provides the latest in hands-on learning which really brings lessons to life and will equip them with the skills and knowledge that employers in the automotive and engineering industry require their workforce to have, leading to successful future careers in their chosen sector.”

Councillor Simkins said: “This is fantastic for Bilston, which is synonymous with engineering and steel – and everywhere around the world benefits from those two things – what we want to do is to send apprentices and employers and the products they develop across the world because this is the future.

“It is a monumental project and this is just the first part of of the learning quarter project which has seen the City of Wolverhampton Council, the college, the combined authority, the wider government and many other partners work together and secure over £60m of funding which will help provide the future of education and industry for people across the city and the wider Black Country area.”

Mayor of the West Midlands Richard Parker said: “This is a fantastic achievement. It is a great investment and a wonderful facility for the region.

“We have too many young people out of work in the West Midlands – twice the national average – and this and the wider learning quarter will give them in particular the chance to develop their education and build employable skills which will serve them well in the world of work.”