Planning secured for SUFC National Skills Academy
29 Apr 2008
WCEC Architects has secured planning for a business learning and training centre on behalf of clients Sheffield United Football Club.
The club will now build a three storey 20,000 sq ft business and learning centre including classrooms, business incubator units and sports training facilities on land next to the club’s Shirecliffe football training ground.
One floor of the three buildings will host a National Skills Academy Sports and Active Leisure Hub for Yorkshire and Humberside – one of only three such academies in the country.
The business centre will act as a gateway for employers and learners in the region, and be a central point for information and access to training and qualifications. There will be a particular focus on young people, and on prospective entrepreneurs from disadvantaged groups.
The ground floor of the academy will house a state of the art resource for the football club including rehabilitation, treatment and changing facilities.
WCEC is working closely with Sheffield United Football Club on a long term masterplan for the club’s property portfolio and the academy is just the first in a series of planned developments. Later stages in the masterplan will see an extension to the club’s seating capacity, and regeneration around the club’s main site at Bramall Lane which will deliver new retail space, leisure facilities, start up office space and residential.
Work should start on the new academy in June and be finished by the end of the year.