A college set up to deliver skills for major infrastructure projects is to shut down next month after failing to become viable.
The National College for Advanced Transport and Infrastructure (NCATI) was launched by the government in 2017 as the National College of High Speed Rail, with buildings that could accommodate up to 3,200 students.
The aim of the college was to deliver the skills needed for the construction of HS2. But it soon ran into troublewith a tiny number of students enrolling and a funding shortfall emerging within its first years of operation.
The college has now announced it will close by the end of July, with just 49 students on its books plus 119 affiliated apprentices. Some 81 apprentices and 24 students whose courses continue beyond the end of this academic year will transfer to other providers, it said.
Interim principal and chief executive Lowell Williams said: “Unfortunately, we have been unable to identify a sustainable future for NCATI as a direct deliverer of education, and therefore we have made the difficult decision to discontinue delivery of learning.”
Staff will be made redundant and NCATI’s buildings are set to “remain an asset for the [further education] sector and the rail industry”, under a future use that has yet to be determined.
Education regulator Ofsted handed NCATI an ‘inadequate’ rating in 2019, and the college tried to block the inspectorate’s report. HS2 chief executive Mark Thurston claimed in 2020 that the institution was concerned that releasing the report might worsen the sector’s skills shortage.
NCATI was rebranded in 2019 to broaden its appeal, and it became part of the University of Birmingham in 2021.
Alasdair Reisner, chief executive of the Civil Engineering Contractors Association, told Construction News: “The college was a brilliant facility that unfortunately struggled to get traction with employers and new learners.
“We must learn the lessons from this so that any future, similar facilities are developed with clear support from industry to deliver the broad skills needed by infrastructure, giving flexibility to ensure resilience where demand for individual roles does not materialise.”
Construction Products Association economics director Noble Francis pointed the finger at the government in a post on LinkedIn.
He said: “The government’s persistent delays and failure of delivery in the rail infrastructure sector have real consequences. Government can spend millions on new, stylish facilities for training young people to build high-speed rail, but if the government doesn’t deliver on its announcements of projects then companies cannot commit to investing in people, so it all just gets wasted and has to close.”
Earlier this week, the Sunday Times reported that the Department for Transport (DfT) quietly axed the Acceleration Unit it set up in 2020 to speed up delivery of infrastructure projects.
The newspaper reported a source from the body saying that recent announcements to delay the delivery of sections of HS2 did not tally with having a unit to accelerate projects.
A DfT spokesperson said the unit had been “reorganised” rather than axed, adding that its functions would continue to aid project delivery.
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