Suffolk New College is working to embed sustainability and green skills across all areas of our business, guided by our ambitious Sustainability Strategy
Highlights
- A partnership project with the University of Suffolk to develop sustainable planters and planting schemes to support research work at the University’s sustainable SmartHouse at BT Adastral Park.
- A controlled environment hydroponics system to introduce horticulture and agriculture students to the techniques behind vertical farming.
- A Sustainability Festival for students at Suffolk Rural on 27 March and at the Ipswich Campus on 28 March, with a range of fun and educational activities on a sustainability theme.
- All teaching staff participated in a ‘Back to the Floor’ day on 10 February 2023 with a sustainability theme to support their teaching practice.
- 28 staff have undertaken projects to investigate new approaches to incorporating sustainability into the College Curriculum
NET ZERO Skills Centre
The Suffolk New College Net Zero Skills Centre was launched on 10th May 2023 with new facilities for teaching and training in key growth areas for green skills.
Our Net Zero Main Studio features sustainable heating technologies, including air and ground source heat pumps, and solar thermal and solar PV technologies as well as a meeting and training space for Sustainable Construction supported with VR technology.
The Net Zero Hybrid EV Studio houses cars and high-tech training equipment for all the skills needed to understand and maintain hybrid and EV cars.
Electric boilers and EV charging station equipment are housed in the Net Zero Electrical Studio.
All relevant 16-18 learners will now have green skills and the latest technologies embedded into their learning and the Centre will also be a focus for a new programme of Green Skills for Business courses.
Green Skills Conference
Suffolk New College was proud to host the New Anglia Green Skills Conference on 15 March 2023 at the Hold in Ipswich on behalf of all five Norfolk and Suffolk FE Colleges to share expertise and ideas for embedding sustainability across all curriculum areas.
The New Anglia Green Skills project ends in the summer 2023 and is a collaborative project across the five Norfolk and Suffolk FE colleges, funded by a £2.75m grant from the Department for Education Strategic Development Fund.
The Partners in the project are City College Norwich, Suffolk New College, West Suffolk College, East Coast College and the College of West Anglia.
Green Skills for Business
Watch this space for an exciting programme of short courses and training opportunities in Green Skills, many of them hosted in our state-of-the-art Net Zero Skills Centre on the Ipswich Campus, with other courses at our landbased campus, Suffolk Rural.
On Tuesday 21 March we held consultations with key business stakeholders on our ideas for course delivery so will shortly be launching an initial programme of courses on this page, taught by industry experts and relevant to the skills needs of our local businesses.
