£15m College Campus Planned For Belfast

A £15m educational facility for west Belfast that will boost economic development and promote employability, entrepreneurship and enterprise (or e3) has been announced. It centre is to be constructed on what would have been west Belfast's Springvale university campus - a project that was dropped eight years ago.

The e3 economic development building is a significant investment for the north and west Belfast area and is jointly funded by the Department for Employment and Learning, the International Fund for Ireland and Belfast Metropolitan College.

The building, which will be owned and operated by Belfast Metropolitan College, will provide industry standard facilities including an animation and digital editing suite, TV and radio production studios, a hospitality training facility and manufacturing and engineering facilities for product innovation.

The proposed e3 will be a model for the innovative use of new and emerging technologies with resources for the testing and demonstration of renewable energies.

The 5,000 sq metre building will be located adjacent to Belfast Metropolitan College's Millennium Community Outreach Centre on the Springfield Road and will accommodate up to 350 users per day, drawn from higher education students, school pupils, start up companies, local businesses and community organisations.

Construction of the building is expected to start in September 2010 and is scheduled to open in Spring 2012.

The College's Director and Chief Executive, Marie Thérèse McGivern, said: "The e3 economic development building is an imaginative initiative designed to support the economic and social regeneration of North and West Belfast.

"An integral part of the project will be the delivery of industry-led live projects by student teams who will provide innovative solutions to practical and technical projects devised and driven by business."

Welcoming the plans, Stormont Employment and Learning Minister, Sir Reg Empey, said: "The e3 project exemplifies the multi-agency approach which will be vital to addressing our skills gap.

"The development of STEM subjects is a key theme in my Department's skills strategy, Success Through Skills 2, and e3 will not only provide training in a range of cutting-edge subjects which will be much sought-after in the modern workplace, but do so in an environment where business and education sectors can collaborate to meet the requirements of employer and employee alike."

Denis Rooney, Chairman of the International Fund for Ireland - which contributed £5m to the project - added: "As we continue on our journey towards a more positive, peaceful and stable future, the International Fund for Ireland is keen to support communities throughout Northern Ireland and the southern border counties by focusing on projects that will deliver long-term positive impacts long after the Fund ceases to exist.

"By investing in our young people, they become our hope for a better and shared future – a future where we can all learn, live and work together."

The campus will add to the Belfast Metropolitan College's expanding property portfolio. A new multi-million pound city centre campus located in the Titanic Quarter in east Belfast is scheduled for completion in August 2011.

However, the site was once earmarked by the University of Ulster to build a 'peaceline campus' in north and west Belfast.

But because the private-finance initiative faced a multimillion-pound shortfall it had abandoned the scheme in 2002.

It had raised £9 million for the campus, but was struggling to raise an expected £8 million in additional funding.

See: £44m Contract Signed For Belfast College

(GK/BMcC)