Britcon hands over £14.7m NETA engineering training centre in Thornaby

Britcon has handed over the keys to the £14.7m NETA Training Engineering Centre in Thornaby, a facility built for NETA Training and the Education Training Collective alongside Stockton Riverside College, the contractor said.

The building provides training environments for welding, fabrication, electrical, mechanical, pipefitting, and domestic and commercial gas work, Britcon said. It acted as principal contractor and used its construction, civil engineering and steel businesses on the job.

Britcon said the project had delivered more than £9.0m of social value and reinforced its growing presence in the North East and the education sector.

Nick Shepherd, Managing Director of Britcon, said: "This facility has been created to support future generations of engineering talent and provide employers with access to the skills needed to drive innovation, productivity and economic growth."

The scheme

When Britcon announced its appointment as main contractor, it described the scheme as a purpose-built two-storey engineering training centre together with the refurbishment of an existing building to house gas, electric and mechanical workshops. The work was procured through the Procure Partnerships Framework.

Britcon's case study describes the scope as demolition and alteration of existing buildings and construction of a new two-storey teaching and training facility, delivered within a live education environment on a constrained site surrounded by operational buildings.

Britcon's appointment announcement put the facility at 5,000 sq m, while its case study refers to about 4,600 sq m of educational accommodation.

Tilbury Douglas said on 18 November 2024 that it had been appointed to deliver the £14.7m centre. Britcon's own announcements name Britcon as main contractor and principal contractor for the project.

Funding and design

Britcon said the project was made possible by a £4.5m investment from the Government's Town Deal Fund, through the Thornaby Town Deal Board in partnership with Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council, with further investment from the Department for Education, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and the Etc.

GSS Architecture, which designed the facility, said the NETA development was one of the priority interventions in Thornaby's £23m Town Deal. The practice announced planning consent on 26 September 2024 and worked with Hall and Partners, JH Partners, BGP and One Environments, exploring biodiversity net gain, sustainable drainage and net zero technologies in the design.

GSS said the NETA building has its own arrival point from Princeton Drive and is intended for government-funded students aged 16 and over, commercial learners already working in industry, and adults returning to work.

Teesside skills push

NETA was founded in Stockton-on-Tees in 1975 and is part of the Etc., according to GSS. Tilbury Douglas described NETA Training Group as a provider of technical training to the engineering, offshore and petrochemical industries in Teesside, with the Etc. also including Stockton Riverside College, Bede Sixth Form College and Redcar and Cleveland College.

The Engineering Construction Industry Training Board (ECITB) has awarded £478,000 of Regional Skills Hub funding for a training rig that it said would be a flagship asset of the new Thornaby facility. The ECITB said Redcar & Cleveland College and NETA Training would use the extra capacity to train more than 400 learners over five years.

Andrew Hockey, ECITB Chief Executive, said: "Our Labour Forecasting Tool predicts that the ECI could need thousands of additional workers over the coming years for major projects, such as the ones on Teesside."

In March 2025 the ECITB said the Thornaby facility was due for completion in January 2026.

The centre is Britcon's sixth project for the Etc., following the All Access Academy and the Clean Energy Education Hub, the contractor said. Britcon (UK) Limited is registered in Scunthorpe and was incorporated on 26 January 1990, according to Companies House.