News: Brand-new T Level facilities at Rotherham college
A multimillion pound upgrade at RNN Group's college campus in Rotherham town centre has been completed. It has been designed to help create the next generation of skilled employees by overhauling college facilities for T Level students.
The £8m project is bolstered by government-backed capital funding, cutting-edge T Level centres have been created at RNN's Rotherham and North Notts campuses.
The latest renovations have breathed new life into the colleges’ existing spaces. These new-look learning environments have been modernised to the unique demands of the technical qualifications, featuring bespoke classrooms and hands-on learning areas.
Students need a space that gives a seamless transition to working out in the field on placement. Specialist facilities, such as a simulation clinical ward, virtual reality digital suite, high-tech hair and beauty salon, and ground-breaking construction centre, are poised to redefine the T Level learning experience.
Keith Sanderson, director of campus at Rotherham College, said that the T Level projects have been all about improving the student experience. He said: "Whenever we do any work on campus, it’s always with the mindset of ‘will it enhance learning?’ Our vision is to ensure our learners leave college as fully skilled and well-rounded tradespeople.
In return we want our learners to take ownership and responsibility for their new spaces, creating those positive behaviours that make students more employable when they leave college like time management, communication and being proactive.”
T Levels are the new era of post-GCSE learning. The two-year technical qualifications are a popular alternative to A-Levels that combine classroom learning with 45 days of work placements. One T Level is the equivalent of three A-Levels and they are assessed using a mixture of practical tasks, projects and exams.
RNN Group is diversifying its educational landscape by introducing a wide range of T Levels across its three further education colleges. T Levels are now available in areas like construction, digital, education and childcare, engineering, health, and business administration.
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In Rotherham a 12-month renovation project at the town centre campus’s Clifton Building has been the biggest project undertaken here in recent years. The £4m construction centre brings all four sub-specialisms of bricklaying, joinery, plumbing and electrical installation under one roof. Previously, the department had been split over two sites: Rawmarsh Road and the Clifton Building.
An old library has been renovated to create a two-storey multi-purpose workshop that is flexible and future-proof.
Each floor houses practical multi-use bays, with workings for bricklaying, joinery, plumbing and electrics so that our construction students can get a flavour of all areas of construction. A new lift can transport building materials up to the relevant floors.
There are breakout areas with IT resources for planning and theory work along with health, safety and welfare lessons. It has a CAD and VR suite with computer-aided design software and virtual reality technology for students interested in site surveying and construction specific drawing techniques.
In the new digital suite at Rotherham College there is a virtual reality suite, gaming room, animation studio, a green room for podcasting. The new digital suite will be used by our future web developers and software engineers who are studying T Levels in digital and digital design and production. It will also be used by students who are studying games design and development.
It also has new cyber labs for use by our cyber security HTQ students when they’re doing hands-on tasks like pentesting and digital forensics.
In the future, other departments from the Rotherham campus will be able to use the VR facilities for their courses, too.
RNN Group website
Images: RNN Group
The £8m project is bolstered by government-backed capital funding, cutting-edge T Level centres have been created at RNN's Rotherham and North Notts campuses.
The latest renovations have breathed new life into the colleges’ existing spaces. These new-look learning environments have been modernised to the unique demands of the technical qualifications, featuring bespoke classrooms and hands-on learning areas.
Students need a space that gives a seamless transition to working out in the field on placement. Specialist facilities, such as a simulation clinical ward, virtual reality digital suite, high-tech hair and beauty salon, and ground-breaking construction centre, are poised to redefine the T Level learning experience.
Keith Sanderson, director of campus at Rotherham College, said that the T Level projects have been all about improving the student experience. He said: "Whenever we do any work on campus, it’s always with the mindset of ‘will it enhance learning?’ Our vision is to ensure our learners leave college as fully skilled and well-rounded tradespeople.
In return we want our learners to take ownership and responsibility for their new spaces, creating those positive behaviours that make students more employable when they leave college like time management, communication and being proactive.”
T Levels are the new era of post-GCSE learning. The two-year technical qualifications are a popular alternative to A-Levels that combine classroom learning with 45 days of work placements. One T Level is the equivalent of three A-Levels and they are assessed using a mixture of practical tasks, projects and exams.
RNN Group is diversifying its educational landscape by introducing a wide range of T Levels across its three further education colleges. T Levels are now available in areas like construction, digital, education and childcare, engineering, health, and business administration.
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In Rotherham a 12-month renovation project at the town centre campus’s Clifton Building has been the biggest project undertaken here in recent years. The £4m construction centre brings all four sub-specialisms of bricklaying, joinery, plumbing and electrical installation under one roof. Previously, the department had been split over two sites: Rawmarsh Road and the Clifton Building.
An old library has been renovated to create a two-storey multi-purpose workshop that is flexible and future-proof.
Each floor houses practical multi-use bays, with workings for bricklaying, joinery, plumbing and electrics so that our construction students can get a flavour of all areas of construction. A new lift can transport building materials up to the relevant floors.
There are breakout areas with IT resources for planning and theory work along with health, safety and welfare lessons. It has a CAD and VR suite with computer-aided design software and virtual reality technology for students interested in site surveying and construction specific drawing techniques.
In the new digital suite at Rotherham College there is a virtual reality suite, gaming room, animation studio, a green room for podcasting. The new digital suite will be used by our future web developers and software engineers who are studying T Levels in digital and digital design and production. It will also be used by students who are studying games design and development.
It also has new cyber labs for use by our cyber security HTQ students when they’re doing hands-on tasks like pentesting and digital forensics.
In the future, other departments from the Rotherham campus will be able to use the VR facilities for their courses, too.
RNN Group website
Images: RNN Group
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