A college has announced a £2.1 million investment into new cyber, digital and healthcare teaching facilities.

Blackburn College has revealed details of exciting new facilities as it further commits to delivering future skills.

The £2.1m Office for Students capital funding investment will see existing teaching spaces in the University Centre completely revamped to create new cyber training suites and a healthcare teaching ward.

Principal and Chief Executive of Blackburn College, Dr Fazal Dad, said: “These latest state-of-the-art investments will bring fantastic benefits to our students and the wider economic community by addressing crucial skills gaps.

“We have specifically designed our offering in line with employer needs in key sectors such as cyber and digital, healthcare and electric vehicles, as well as diversity and inclusion, working closely with them to ensure that our students are leaving us to progress into jobs and careers that will have a positive impact on local and regional economies today and long into the future.”

The new facilities will be used by students studying for a range of existing and new qualifications.

Lancashire Telegraph: The blueprints for the new facilities at Blackburn College University CentreThe blueprints for the new facilities at Blackburn College University Centre (Image: Blackburn College)

The bespoke cyber and digital training centre will provide hands-on cyber security education and training.

It will feature dedicated ‘attack’ and ‘defence’ rooms, creating hyper-realistic cyber-attack scenarios, as well as a new cyber project lab, and enhanced teaching areas. 

The college anticipates that having such real-world cyber, digital and data science training capabilities will help students take advantage of the growing job opportunities in this sector from the National Cyber Force which is set to be built in nearby Samlesbury, and the wider North West ‘cyber zone’ set to be established between Lancashire and Manchester.

A healthcare facility is also being developed featuring a new healthcare simulation ward.

The ward will be equipped with programmable patient manikins calibrated for different clinical situations giving healthcare students a realistic experience in dealing with an emergency, paediatric and other healthcare scenarios in line with current NHS best practices – without needing to access hospital sites.

The cyber training facilities will support degree studies in data science, networking and cyber security and software development, all of which are validated by Lancaster University, while the healthcare hub will play a key role in a new Health and Social Care foundation degree in partnership with UCLan, subject to validation.