This academic term sees the opening of Coleg Cambria’s newest educational facility.
The Healthcare and Therapies Centre of Excellence at the Yale campus in Wrexham is now open and welcoming its first cohort of students.
Working with Wynne Construction and TACP Architects, JPS provided the civil and structural engineering design for this state-of-the-art £14m healthcare educational facility. Built on a constrained city centre site, the project involved demolishing two buildings to make way for the new three storey learning hub. Excavation of the site was undertaken to construct the basement for beauty workshop areas. The project’s foundations and basement slab were laid in Spring 2023 and involved 2 round-the-clock concrete pours. The superstructure was formed in steel framing with composite concrete slabs including a large overhang façade projecting out beyond the ground floor walls. The team had to work in close proximity to the existing listed building and also many protected trees, whilst the campus remained open to students throughout the construction phase of the project.
Now complete, the healthcare educational facility includes a fully furnished industry-standard commercial spa, hair and beauty workshops, classrooms, laboratories and juice bar. Learners will have the opportunity to work and train alongside industry professionals as well as experience simulated health wards and Virtual Reality environments.This project is one of several new and on-going projects for JPS with Coleg Cambria, and is another welcome addition to Wrexham’s ever-changing city centre.
Vicky Edwards, vice principal of technical studies for the college, described the new learning hub as “revolutionary for education in this region …The practical skills and experience our learners will gain, in partnership with leading names in the sector, will ensure this is a living, breathing hub of activity, both academically and as a realistic working environment”.
The scheme is targeting a BREEAM Excellent rating and aims to be an exemplar Low Carbon building on the campus and a flagship development to showcase the College’s intentions for a Low Carbon education estate of the future.
