Green energy academy set for £8.5m boost

A MULTI-million pound cash injection could help a North East college train up thousands more young people for green energy jobs.

- By DANIEL HOLLAND Local democracy reporter

An £8.5million investment to expand the college’s Energy Academy in Wallsend is due to be signed off by the North East Combined Authority (NECA) next week.

The move could allow the specialist renewable, subsea and offshore engineering facility, which opened in 2012, to deliver valuable skills training to more than 1,000 learners every year. A bigger Energy Campus would have triple the number of students who can enrol than the 340 who started their studies in 2024/25.

There are hopes a boom in the offshore renewable energy sector could create around 4,500 jobs in manufacturing and engineering on the River Tyne over the next 10 years.