Green-light for Leeds College of Building

Leeds College of Building has become one of 14 colleges in the country to be accredited to provide courses in low carbon and renewable skills.

The college’s ‘Green’ accreditation is part of a government initiative to educate workforces so that it can deliver on its “green energy revolution” pledge.

Stephen Harrison, faculty director for mechanical and engineering services, who is helping to lead the programme in association with The National Skills Academy for Environment Technologies, said: “We are delighted to have been chosen to deliver a range of environmental technology courses that have been approved by SummitSkills, the Sector Skills Council for the building services engineering sector.

“The environmental technologies courses include training and assessment in renewable awareness, solar domestic hot water, heat pumps and solar photovoltaics. We believe the courses will be extremely popular with employees demonstrating a high level of demand for training in accredited renewable skills in a central location like Leeds.”

The government’s other Green accredited colleges are: Bedford, Blackburn, Bradford, North West London, Cornwall, Dudley, Hartlepool, Liverpool, Stephenson College in Leicestershire, Stourbridge, the Genesis Project at Somerset College, Trafford and Weston-Super-Mare.

Ian Billyard, principal of Leeds College of Building, believes that it will become essential for the construction and engineering sector to train their staff to deliver competent levels of ‘green’ skills.

“Previously training provision in the renewable skills area has been patchy but our accreditation will give employers that design, install and maintain green solutions for homes and buildings world class training that will not only help meet emissions targets but also lead the way in terms of innovation,” said Mr Billyard.

Mark Astley

(Pictured L-R: Student Richard Blundell and Peter Smith, assistant faculty manager for Mechanical and Engineering Services)