Site Manager Mark Hann and his team have just handed over a spotlessly finished project to JTL, for whom we have stripped out and reconfigured an office block to convert it into a new gas and electrical training centre specifically suited to the delivery of the highest-quality Electrical and Plumbing apprenticeships.

This is McCarrick Construction’s third gas and electrical training facility but our first for JTL, a charity established since 1990 which is the leading work-based learning provider in the building services engineering sector across England and Wales. JTL works with employers to provide the training to support their apprentices with off-the-job learning, and to do this they have created a number of training centres like these across the country to cater to young Electrical and Plumbing apprentices in a modern, purpose-built environment.

Bright and airy, the building held various challenges in store for Mark including an unexpected concrete subfloor which required some clever design adjustments in order to allow for the required drop for water wastage from the boiler installations.

New floors, wall partitions, lighting, general decoration and ceiling grids were applied throughout to create classrooms, a cafeteria, renovated toilet facilities and refreshed reception, but what makes this project so unique is the high-volume gas supply controlled from a state-of-the-art plant room. This is siphoned out via a complex network of piping to deliver normal household supply levels of gas to each of the building’s many simulation labs, which are realistically arranged so that trainees can practice their trade on a simulated home set-up before being set loose on real world gas installations. This required hundreds of metres of gas pipe installation and Mark insisted on perfection for every single identical pipework and wiring arrangement, on the basis that the engineers of tomorrow should be given the absolute best practice examples to learn from.

Pipework which is usually hidden in real homes is on display here so no visible shortcuts, variation or uneven-looking work was allowed, even in the units which are used for examinations in which problems are deliberately set up for candidates to find and diagnose.

The end result is a real sense of neatness and organisation throughout what is bound to be a life-changing training facility for future plumbers, electricians and gas engineers of the North East.

Fantastic job Mark.