New workshop on the water for Highbury College
Highbury College Portsmouth has recently increased its range of boat-building and marine engineering courses and as a result is expanding its facilities to include a workshop situated in Portsmouth’s Trafalgar Wharf, already a key location for marine and industrial businesses.
The new training facility is currently being refurbished to contain all the technical equipment needed to support the hands-on vocational training offered by the courses.
Martin Porter, Head of Automotive and Engineering at Highbury College, says: "It is an exciting opportunity. We had a good look around before deciding on this site but Trafalgar Wharf seems the perfect location for marine-based training. It has a strong marine history, being the former VT Halmatic site, and is home to a number of marine and industrial companies, as well as having access to the water.
"We teach both traditional skills plus newer, more modern techniques so students have a fully-rounded understanding of the subject of boat construction, maintenance and repair. So the workshop will be equipped for working with fibreglass and also have a full woodwork facility."
As of January this year, Highbury now offers a PEO (Performing Engineering Operations - Marine) NVQ Level 2, which includes both theory and practical work to give students valuable knowledge and insights into various aspects of the engineering and marine industry.
This first course has now been successfully delivered with a 95% pass rate and the graduate students are actively seeking employment within the industry.
The College is also running an Apprenticeship in Boat Building (Marine Engineering) and is aiming to run several more marine engineering courses in the next academic year, including a City and Guilds Level 2 Certificate in Boat Construction, Maintenance and Support- a work-related course.
Highbury College is now actively recruiting students to all of its marine engineering courses. For more information about courses at Highbury College Portsmouth, please call (023) 9238 3131 or visit http://www.highbury.ac.uk
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