College training centre application could help NEETS

Burnley College is hoping to build on its success training the next generation of tradespeople, with a brand new workshop facility.

The application comes as the new Prime Minister Andy Burnham attempts to shift the focus for many secondary school students towards more vocational courses, with the latest nationwide figures showing that one million 16 to 24-year-olds are currently not in education or employment (NEET).

The number of young people who have fallen out of the labour or education market in Burnley has risen continuously in the years following the Covid pandemic, with the latest Lancashire County Council data showing that 4.4 per cent of this age group are now classified as NEET – a figure that almost doubled in the four years up to 2025.

But Burnley College is looking to change this situation for the town’s teens, by creating a dedicated training centre to give the next generation of builders the skills they will need to stand out in the job market.

The college is asking Burnley Council for permission to expand their pre-existing bricklaying centre and support its ‘ongoing provision of practical skills-based education by widening capacity for such specialist disciplines.’

It will be constructed on the southern end of the main campus, next to its current construction centre and temporary workshop. The large new building will take over part of an existing car park, with four parking spaces lost as a result.

Situated in the shadow of the Grade II-listed Burnley Viaduct, the new steel-framed building is expected to be another temporary workshop in a similar style to the one that already present in the bricklaying training area.

The application says: “The building will be constructed on a new concrete slab to provide a suitable working surface for workshop activities. The structure is designed to be removeable, allowing the opportunity to be re-used elsewhere on campus.”

It also details some of the activities that Burnley College’s bricklaying apprentices will be able to practice in this new workshop, including: wall construction, block laying, setting out, mortar mixing, cutting and shaping bricks, installation of cavity wall insulation, and general tool and safety training.

ABW Architects, who designed the plans, add that the facility will also give them the opportunity to practice using mortar mixers, brick and block cutting saws), mechanical ventilation systems, and associated hand tools.

This expanded capacity may well come in handy following Prime Minister Burnham’s announcement that such vocational courses will in the future be made available to teens from Year 10 onwards.

Speaking at a manufacturing training centre in Derby this week, he said: “We’ve had a system built for too long around the university route and it sends a message to some young people that they’re some kind of second-class citizens, and it’s just not right.

“They need an education system that works for them as well, that offers a path to all young people, that’s balanced between academic and technical.”