SMB College Group’s Brooksby Campus is set to benefit from an investment of £18 million from the Department for Education for a transformational development project, including a brand new Agri-tech centre.
With initial building works commencing in the next few weeks, these developments will see the creation of a state-of-the-art Agri-tech centre featuring equipment such as GIS software for field and yield mapping, virtual learning environments, purpose-built labs, drones and robotics.
Dawn Whitemore, Principal and CEO of SMB College Group, said of the new development: “This is a truly transformational project for our Brooksby Campus, and we are incredibly pleased to announce the beginning of construction works for our brand new Agri-tech Centre.
“We have a rich heritage of delivering Agricultural training for many generations and are very proud of our commitment to offering innovative, forward-thinking qualifications and facilities to train the workforce of the future.
“We’d like to extend our thanks to everyone who has been involved throughout the initial planning phases of this project, and we are excited to keep the community updated going forward as the project progresses.
“The support that college has received so far from the teams at the Department for Education and Gleeds has been exceptional, along with Tilbury Douglas who have secured the contract.”
This transformation project also comes in the wake of a series of sustainability projects already underway at the college’s Brooksby Campus, which have been spearheaded by the Land-based Industries Teaching team and their students in recent years.
These impactful projects, which are still ongoing, include a regenerative agriculture/agroforestry project, the restoration of the River Wreake, and a tree planting scheme which has seen hundreds of trees planted across the 850-acre Brooksby estate.
