Last updated 12:14, Monday, 08 December 2008

Cath Richardson - Principal, Lakes College West Cumbria

THIS month, as part of Colleges Week, we invited Energus Director of Training Paul Connor to talk to local businesses at a Big Breakfast meeting to talk about the impact of the Energy Coast on their companies.

Energus is one of the main partners who will be working with the University of Cumbria and Lakes College to make the Lillyhall campus a world-renowned centre for learning about the nuclear, carbon-free and environmental restoration industries.

The Energy Coast Campus £10 million investment, initially funded by the NDA, will offer progression routes from further right through to higher education, offering specialist programmes across the energy industries.

We at Lakes College are very excited to be an integral part of this campus and have secured a significant part of the £10million funding to expand our buildings and facilities to help accommodate some of the extra 2,000 students expected at the campus by 2016.

Not only will the development of the Energy Coast Campus have a direct impact on our students in terms of the quality of the learning environment and materials, there will also be a greater opportunity to learn more niche skills needed for the evolving energy market, meaning that once our students start looking for work they have a distinct advantage of having been educated at a world-renowned site.

In addition to offering students a world- class place to learn, the Energy Coast Campus will have a direct impact on local businesses. Obviously the overall investment in the Energy Coast will be £2billion and it is projected to create 16,000 jobs as the investment is rolled out over the next 20 years. Construction companies will be involved in decommissioning and in the re-commissioning of nuclear buildings, engineering firms will need specialists to make new and innovative renewable energy equipment and all the administration staff that is needed to support this industry.

The Big Breakfast event was a great success, with many important Cumbria business people coming to the college to learn more about how they could be a part of what is going on and how to gear up their workforce to take advantage of this exciting development. For years Sellafield has been the linchpin in West Cumbria's economy, and the threatened removal of this industry could have sent our economy in a tailspin, but with this new development encompassing other developing energy industries, it seems the financial stability could be secured for years to come.