Wembley opens its doors to college students at construction awards ceremony

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Local college students were treated to a glamorous night at the newly refurbished Wembley Stadium as part of an awards ceremony held earlier this month.

Graduates of construction programme “Building One Stop Shop” [BOSS] were among the first guests to set foot inside the new stadium, receiving their construction certificates in the hospitality suite overlooking the grounds, on the 7th December 2006.

The programme, run by the London Borough of Brent in partnership with the College of North West London, “helps local people get into training and jobs in the construction industry”. The event was hosted by Multiplex, the company responsible for rebuilding the famous venue.

Vicki Fagg, Principal of the College of North West London, said: “It is tremendous that Multiplex has made this superb venue available for the first time, for an event to celebrate local people’s skills for work. The company has also been generous with its support with bursaries for our students and helped us plan our training provision”.

She added: “[The] Leitch report on skills has called on employers to show real commitment to developing people and this is just what Multiplex are doing ““ lighting the way for other companies to follow”.

Frank Horan, former Head of Technology and now Head of Developments for 2012 at the College said the new stadium was “absolutely magnificent”.

“I have been in stadia all round Europe, but this beats them all. The workmanship is first class and the quality of finish and design is out of this world. You can clearly see the pitch from every part of the stadium, and the services such as toilets and restaurant are also superb”.

The programme enables students to achieve NVQs in construction at Levels 2 and 3, and fast tracks workers to achieve “industry standard qualifications”. Further, they also gain the “Construction Skills Certification Scheme” [CSCS]; an accreditation that all major sites will require as a pre-requisite to employment.

Multiplex will hand over the keys to Wembley National Stadium Ltd early in 2007 after several test events. Plans include a July concert in memory of Princess Diana.

Vijay Pattni.

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