A traditional ‘ground breaking’ ceremony has been held at Uxbridge College to mark the start of a £6.5m build.

The development at the Uxbridge campus will house engineering workshops and a larger refectory, and add two floors of classrooms and staffrooms for Health & Social Care training.

Uxbridge College’s Principal, Laraine Smith OBE, and Vice Principal, Finance and Corporate Services, Sara Djili, joined Project Director Robert Drury, and Craig Millar from contractors SDC at the ceremony.

Ms Smith said: “It is really exciting to be adding more state-of-the-art facilities to the Uxbridge College estate, which we are continually developing to meet the ever-changing needs of education and training.

“While our staff and students really are the key to our success, we can only offer such high quality teaching and learning because we have the right environment to do it in, and the right partners to create that environment – in this case SDC.

“This project is particularly important because it responds to the increasing need for engineering training, which has recently seen us split this expanding department into two separate areas.”

SDC Director Mr Millar said: “SDC have a long history of working on projects in education and other key areas, and are pleased to have the opportunity to work with Uxbridge College to construct these new facilities.

“We are proud to bring our experience of completing high quality, prestigious projects to bear on this development, which in recent years has included projects for Cambridge University’s Trinity College, The Open University, The Royal Veterinary College, BMW, Jaguar Land Rover and Addenbrookes Hospital.”

The work is part of the college’s ongoing plans to ensure all its facilities are fully up to date. In the last few years a £6m sports hall and outdoor games area, and a £5m media block have been built at the Uxbridge campus in Park Road.

Work on the latest development is taking place during this academic year with the new facilities due to be ready in autumn 2013.

The cost of the work will be met from college reserves.