Transformation of a former school into facilities for Hereford’s proposed new engineering university NMiTE is set to go ahead after the Marches Local Enterprise Partnership signed a £2.34m funding deal. A further £5.66m for three additional centres will follow, subject to meeting targets.
The initial £2.34m funding will be used to refurbish and equip buildings at the former Robert Owen Academy to provide 3,200m2 of teaching and learning space, including studios and workshops, for students learning practical engineering skills. Under the deal more than £3m will also be invested by the private sector.
The refurbished buildings will complement NMITE’s main campus in Hereford. Once transformed, the building is expected to host 250 students, while creating 37 jobs and supporting 75 companies by 2023.
Marches LEP chair Mandy Thorn said: “This investment in skills in our region is vital and we’re very pleased the project is under way.”
The £2.34m is the first tranche of a wider funding package secured via the Government’s Local Growth Fund by the Marches LEP.
Under a second agreement, with a further funding package of £5.66m, three new centres for graduate, undergraduate and higher apprenticeship students could be built on Hereford’s Enterprise Zone. This is subject to the project achieving a number of targets, including the number of students enrolled and jobs created. The decision follows a submission of a business case to the LEP from NMiTE.
The three proposed centres are: the Centre for Automated Manufacture, serving the manufacturing sector; the Centre for Future Skills, a large flexible industrial space to allow development and testing of different technologies; and the Centre for Advanced Timber technology, showcasing timber as a construction material.
NMiTE – which stands for New Model in Technology and Engineering – is being set up to help address the shortage of skilled graduate engineers in British businesses across several sectors, including advanced manufacturing.
NMiTE plans to run an innovative engineering curriculum and intends to open its doors to a pioneer cohort of 50 undergraduates, rising by 200 by the end of the 2020/2021 academic year. It hopes to be educating more than 5,000 engineering students by 2032.
NMiTE president and chief executive Professor Elena Rodriguez-Falcon said: “We are delighted to have reached this important point in our progress.”
The funding allocation by the Marches LEP comes as part of its wider ambitions to encourage accelerated economic growth in the region, which covers Herefordshire, Shropshire, and Telford & Wrekin.
Home to over 29,000 businesses and a £12.3bn economy, the region is recognised for its sector strength in advanced manufacturing and engineering as well as agri-food and drink, automotive and defence and security. The LEP aims to create 70,000 new homes and 40,000 jobs by 2031.