Wiltshire College Chippenham Campus

It's the latest high education campus 'hub' for a company that has delivered £350 million of upgrades to collage and university estates in the last three years.

Live environments

One reason for our team's appointment was its track record of working in live environments, helping to ensure day-to-day work is not disrupted by construction.

Following completion in November 2015, the facility now accommodates 1,000 full-time students and provides construction, engineering and motor vehicle workshops, new skills rooms including a sensory room for learners with disabilities, conference facilities and a Learning Resource Centre.

It will strengthen vocational training and apprenticeships for engineering, construction, hair and beauty as well as provide university level courses. It is designed to support growth in apprenticeships and army resettlement.

Completion

To mark completion, students gathered in front of the three-pronged building before Student Union President Ben Saint proudly cut a ribbon to declare it open.

Principal Amanda Burnside:

“This building opening heralds a new era for skills and training in the Chippenham area and is an important day for the county. Students, staff and the employers we work with will have access to 21st century training facilities which are absolutely essential to meet the needs of our vibrant economic region.”

An area of the remaining campus will be demolished over the coming months and transformed into extra parking.

Key facts

The building comprised:

• 200,000 bricks
• 50 tonnes of steel,
• 67 teaching spaces to suit the diverse curriculum,
• low or zero carbon technology,
• 350m2 of solar panels and cooling and heating takes place via a 150kw ground source heat pump.

Neal Stephens, Managing Director for Willmott Dixon in the South West:

“We are delighted to have been involved in creating such an important new facility for Wiltshire College. We have constructed an innovative BREAAM excellent building that will fully support the vocational and technology learning within the campus.

What do students think?

Ben, aged 20 from Chippenham,is a second year Level 3 Games Development student: “It was a great honour to cut the ribbon this morning to declare the new campus open.I absolutely love the new building and you can tell how much thought has gone into every aspect.

“It isn’t just a move to a new building, everything has been completely upgraded. As a Games Development student, I was thrilled to see much of the new equipment this morning and it is the same for all areas of curriculum.

Want to know more? Speak to John Boughton