Students Get Insight On Site at New NIFRS Facility

Female construction students from SERC’s Level 3 Extended Diploma in Construction and the Built Environment and Level 3 Extended Diploma in Civil Engineering, were hosted by the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB), Women in Construction Network (WICN), and contractor, Felix O'Hare & Co Ltd, to a site visit of the new Northern Ireland Fire & Rescue Service (NIFRS) Learning and Development Centre in Cookstown recently.

Lecturer, Kim Johnston said, “This was a very unique site visit which highlighted ground-breaking construction and technologies used in the design and build of the new state of the art facility.”

Kim added. “Visits such as this, empower our female students, and encourage their active participation in construction careers.   Our students got to meet and talk directly to females working in the industry and learn more about the diverse career opportunities available to them on successful completion of their qualifications.”

About the construction by Felix O’Hare & Co Ltd Northern Ireland Fire & Rescue Service’s new £46 million state of the art Learning and Development Centre will see NI become a global centre of excellence for emergency services training.  With an academic building, tactical firefighting facility, mock fire station, flood water rescue facility and call-out village, the training centre will pave the way in terms of revolutionising how firefighters and other emergency services train in the UK. The project is Design and Build and seeking BREEAM Excellent accreditation. There has been an emphasis from the outset on protection of existing hedgerows and woodland, retaining the original landscape character and supporting biodiversity across this expansive site.

Main Picture Above: Students from Level 3 Extended Diploma in Construction and the Built Environment and Level 3 Extended Diploma in Civil Engineering students  (L – R Baraa Salaho (Dunmurry), Olivia McCloughlin (Lisburn), SERC Lecturer,  Kim Johnston, Jeeja Sangngern (Lisburn), Joanne McKernan,  Felix O'Hare Health & Safety, Una Barrett, Felix O'Hare Carbon & Environment.