Wisbech’s new Green Skills Academy at the College of West Anglia has officially opened, made possible by £2 million of overall funding from Anglian Water and its alliance partners, including Balfour Beatty, Barhale, Clancy, Claret, Costain, Danaher & Walsh, Farrans, Jacobs, Kier, M Group, Mott MacDonald Bentley, MWH Treatment, Public Sewer Services, Skanska and Sweco.

The project also received £2 million of funding from the Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Combined Authority’s Recycled Local Growth Fund, alongside £200,000 from the College of West Anglia.

The £4 million training centre officially opened yesterday, marking a major milestone in efforts to boost green skills and employment opportunities in the town. The Academy provides a vital new hub for local people keen to pursue careers focused on protecting and enhancing the environment.

Based in a new, sustainable building, the Green Skills Academy is powered by solar panels and incorporates rainwater harvesting technology to reduce water use, reflecting the environmental values it promotes.

Once a thriving town, Wisbech has experienced sustained underinvestment since the industrial revolution, with national indices placing the town in the bottom 10% nationally for four of the top eight deprivation indicators.

Often described as the capital of the Fens, Wisbech is home to a quarter of Fenland’s residents. Anglian Water has worked in partnership with Business in the Community (BiTC) since 2013 to help regenerate the town, using a pioneering place-based approach to improve social, economic and environmental prosperity.

This holistic thinking aligns closely with Anglian Water’s purpose, and the Green Skills Academy was previously showcased at BiTC’s Seeing is Believing event as an exemplar of place-based regeneration. In recognition of this work, Anglian Water was named BiTC’s Responsible Business of the Year in 2017.

The Green Skills Academy aims to create a strong pipeline of new talent equipped with highly employable environmental skills. Green skills such as carbon reduction, biodiversity, and conservation will be vital in delivering the infrastructure and environmental work needed to build resilience against the growing impacts of climate change.

This is particularly significant for Anglian Water, which will deliver £11 billion of investment across the East of England between 2025 and 2030. To deliver this programme, the company expects to recruit thousands of new employees, including up to 800 apprentices, many of whom will move into green roles.

Mark Thurston, Chief Executive Officer at Anglian Water, said: “We've invested £2 million, alongside our alliance partners, to support the new Green Skills Academy. Water is critical to enabling economic growth, so the Green Skills Academy is one crucial way that we’re investing in these skills now, to provide a pathway for local people to get involved in really important work that will benefit our region’s environment for years to come."

Jason Tucker, Director of Commercial Operations at Anglian Water, said: “It was a pleasure to officially open Wisbech’s new Green Skills Academy alongside the Mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Paul Bristow and David Pomfret, CEO and Principal of the College of West Anglia. We’re really proud to have contributed to this exciting new Green Skills Academy, building on years of investment and community engagement in Wisbech. We are committed to supporting local people in Wisbech to boost their green skills and access employment opportunities in the local area.”

The Green Skills Academy welcomed a small cohort of Anglian Water and partner employees earlier this year, before its official opening, for a Green Skills Sustainability Bootcamp, supporting the development of the Academy’s full course offering. A further Bootcamp for Anglian Water and partner employees will be held at the Academy in May.

The Wisbech Academy complements a wider programme of skills and early careers initiatives across the region. Anglian Water’s alliance partners already work with the College of West Anglia through the Collaborative Skills Programme, giving local people access to apprenticeships with partner organisations.