On Friday 22 March, construction employers from across the county gathered at Theatre Severn for a Project Pipeline event.

With keynote speakers, Mark Barrow, Executive Director for Place at Shropshire Council, Katherine Kynaston and James Dunn, Directors at Telford & Wrekin Council, the audience got the low down on what is coming down the line for our county in terms of housing and infrastructure – and there is a lot of it! 

Sponsored by Shrewsbury Colleges Group as part of the Marches Education Partnership, this event not only informed our local construction sector of future plans, but also embraced many of the aims of the Local Skills Improvement Funded project, focussing in part on retrofit.

Harpreet Rayet, MD at Star Housing and Cornovii Developments spoke of their success in upgrading old housing stock and how these skills are going to be much needed if we are to reach Net Zero by 2050, leading on nicely to Matt Laws, Vice Principal for Vocational Education at the college, who gave an overview of the project and its direct response to the Local Skills Improvement Plan.  

With an audience in excess of 100, this clearly demonstrated a huge interest in the future of our county and the many ambitious plans the local authorities are heavily investing in, for which we all very much want to play our part, not least the college.

Future Skills are absolutely essential to success and Matt Laws was very clear in his presentation that we are listening to this priority sector and aiming to provide what they need, including apprenticeships, T levels and university level courses.