An engineering college has been re-branded after a £500,000 refurbishment of its 70,000ft2 facilities in Birkenhead. The Engineering College — once known as the Laird Foundation and more recently as the Maritime & Engineering College — is located next to the Cammell Laird shipyard in Monk’s Ferry. Founded in 1998, the college currently has a turnover of £1.7 million and 38 members of staff. It has also increased apprentice numbers to 330, drawn from 70 clients — ranging from large businesses such as Cammell Laird, Balfour Beatty and Clarke Energy to SMEs like Sovex and Laker Vent.

Chief executive Terry Weston hopes that the new name and improved facilities will help double the size of the college over the next five years. “The college has been very successful, but our profile needs to be higher, and we want to be better understood by the market-place. This is why we have re-branded. Historically, we have been seen — wrongly — as working mainly in the maritime industry, but our offer is much broader. We can train apprentices and staff across sectors including construction, nuclear, petrochemical, renewables, oil and gas and the NHS — as well as maritime.”

The refurbishment project received £243,000 of funding through the Liverpool City Region Growth Deal. Asif Hamid, interim chairman of the Liverpool City Region LEP, said: “I am extremely pleased to see Growth Deal funding being allocated to our City Region colleges. This investment will further support the work done at the Engineering College to tackle the skills shortage in the City Region and drive growth across the engineering sector.”