Planning permission secured for new £14.7m NETA Training centre
Plans to bring an engineering training centre with a near 50-year history of meeting industrial training needs to Thornaby have been given the green light.
NETA Training has secured planning permission to develop its new £14.7m purpose-built facility, a flagship project of the Thornaby Town Deal.
The new centre will help position the Teesside-based company to deliver skills needed to respond to a rapidly transforming local, national and global landscape, while continuing to train up the region's future generations of engineers.
"NETA has a strong reputation for meeting changing industrial skills needs," said NETA director, Sean Johnston. "To be able to deliver that same level of service from brand new facilities, with investment in high spec industry-standard equipment, is something we are incredibly excited for."
Standing alongside Stockton Riverside College, the new 5,000 square metre facility will include bespoke industry workshops for the delivery of engineering skills training including welding, electrical, mechanical and pipefitting.
The NETA development has been made possible with £4.5m investment, endorsed by the Thornaby Town Deal Board. Funding has also been secured from the Department for Education, the Education Training Collective (Etc.), and will be delivered in partnership with Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council.
The relocation of NETA Training is one of the priority interventions that are set to bring long-term change and investment into Thornaby as part of its £23million Town Deal.
The interventions were identified by the Thornaby Town Deal Board, a group of local stakeholders who support the town investment plan, made up of key public and private sector bodies.
Mark White CBE DL, chair of Thornaby Town Deal Board, said: "Bringing a campus of such scale and significance to Stockton Riverside College is testament to the quality of ambition for the interventions and the hard work of the Town Deal Board.
"I am delighted that work can progress on bringing NETA Training to Thornaby-on-Tees in this state-of-the-art facility, it will certainly help to realise the Board's ambitions to bring long-term economic growth to the town."
Councillor Nigel Cooke, cabinet member for regeneration and housing at Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council, said: "The plans for the NETA Training facility will bring a host of benefits for Thornaby and the wider borough.
"We have a strong track record of futureproofing our towns through ambitious regeneration projects and this project will improve experience, drive growth and ensure future sustainability for our residents for years to come.
"This is an exciting time for Teesdale Business Park, with the arrival of NETA Training combined with our ambitions to create the Tees Valley Care and Health Innovation Zone in this area with key partners."
NETA, with its own access point off Princeton Drive, will maintain its own strong identity and brand, and continue to offer the full range of training services, commercial courses, testing and certification, delivered nationally and internationally, as well as apprenticeship training and engineering programmes for school leavers.
With building work due to start early next year, the development of the new centre will run alongside the creation of the NETA-led All Access Academy, currently in development at Redcar and Cleveland College, which will be home to the likes of specialist scaffolding, rope access, and rigging and lifting training.
NETA director Sean said: "Both centres will offer fantastic spaces and workshops for up-and-coming young engineers to learn the skills of their trade and for employers and individuals working in industry to upskill themselves and their workforce."
He added: "The industrial landscape of Teesside, the North-east, the UK, and the world, is changing and engineering and construction skills have a part to play in that. For us this feels like the next chapter."
NETA Training, Stockton Riverside College and Redcar and Cleveland College are all part of the Education Training Collective.
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