The main contractor has been awarded a £12.5 million contract to expand Thomas Telford University Technical College (UTC) by the Department for Education (DfE), and the Thomas Telford Multi-Academy Trust which operates the UTC. Funding for the UTC is from the DfE with a contribution from the City of Wolverhampton Council.
Based at the University of Wolverhampton's Springfield site - Europe's largest construction education campus - the expanded UTC will be built alongside the institution’s School of Architecture & the Built Environment (SOABE), and the new National Brownfield Institute which is currently being developed.
Designed by Associated Architects, the 4,500 sq m extension comprises a three-storey teaching building and a separate sports hall facility with a reconfigured and enhanced external social space and multi-use games area. The design is sympathetic to the Springfield conservation area and features a profiled metal cladding system with a sawtooth pitched roof.
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The work will enable the school to increase its intake by 450 additional pupils taking the total capacity to 1,050, while supporting at least 50 additional roles for teaching and support staff.
The expanded sports and activity spaces will facilitate the delivery of a full secondary academic syllabus, allowing pupils aged 11-18 years old to be taught at the UTC. Crucially, students will also study a range of technical options in the built environment, including architecture, design and innovation.
The Principal of Thomas Telford University Technical College, Av Gill said: "We are extremely excited by this opportunity to bring a gold standard in education to Wolverhampton and are very happy to be working alongside Morgan Sindall Construction as our chosen contractor."
Morgan Sindall Construction was also enlisted by the government four years ago as one of the main industry voices shaping the design of T-levels. A key element of T-levels is industry placements and the main contractor will be supporting two of the UTC’s students during the build process.
In addition to the T-level placements, the site team will be engaging with the wider school and providing further work experience opportunities as part of its commitment to social value. Morgan Sindall Construction will also be guaranteeing new job starts for at least four unemployed workers and routing 75% of spend through local subcontractors as part of the project’s social value plan.
