Scotland’s Minister for Further Education, Higher Education and Science visited Forth Valley College today (Wednesday 22 January) for a tour of the new £78 million Falkirk Campus.
Richard Lochhead was welcomed by FVC Principal Dr Ken Thomson and Ross Martin Chair of the FVC Board of Management and was shown round the new facility, which only opened its doors to students for the first time on Monday 13 January 2020, marking a historic moment for the local area.
The new campus - which will serve as FVC’s headquarters - completes the college’s ambitious £128 million estates programme which saw their Alloa Campus (£21 million) opened in 2011 and their Stirling Campus (£29 million) opened a year later. The Scottish Government’s investment in the construction of the new campus, makes the campus one of the largest publicly funded building projects in Scotland.
Designed by architects Reiach and Hall and constructed by Balfour Beatty the unique state-of-the-art facilities include, world class laboratories, a process training rig, transmission training centre, distillation plant, virtual control room, mini-rig, biotechnology centre, construction workshops, sports centre and front of house training salons for hairdressing and beauty.
The progressive approach to learning and teaching in the campus is enhanced by cutting edge classrooms, flexible spaces across the campus and highly advanced technology throughout. Other facilities include a first class learning resource centre, food outlets, conferencing and sports facilities.
It was just over two years ago that then Scottish Minister for Further Education, Higher Education and Science, Shirley-Anne Somerville, used a digger to cut the first section of turf at the Middlefield site on Friday 10 November 2017.
Now FVC students are taking their seats in new classrooms to train to become the workforce of the future. The 20,709 square metre facility hosts 450 members of staff and cater for 2,000 full-time students.
Dr Ken Thomson, Forth Valley College Principal, said: “We were delighted to welcome the Minister to our new Falkirk Campus and to show him how the Scottish Government’s £65 million worth of investment has been spent, to create Scotland’s most modern college campus. I led him on a tour of the new facilities and his feedback has been excellent. We look forward to welcoming him back very soon.”
