£4.2m teachers' educational training centre is launched

Thousands of teachers from County Durham will attend courses in the new building, which will house a management development centre, a Sci-Tech centre and the educational psychology service when it opens in September next year.

The move is a significant boost for the Sedgefield borough, which has lost more than 1,000 manufacturing jobs in the past year, most of them at the nearby Black and Decker plant.

Durham County Council is moving staff from three buildings at its Neville's Cross College site, which it is selling for housing, office and leisure development.

The college is moving on to one site at Framwellgate Moor, north of Durham City.

The departments are all to be grouped together in a two-storey office building on the south-east of the Green Lane Industrial Estate, on land at the corner of Enterprise Way and Butchers Race.

The building will be of contemporary design, with curved metal roofs and internal glass walls. It will house seminar and training rooms, a 120-seat lecture theatre, office accommodation and a restaurant. There will be parking for 240 cars.

Although new jobs will be created immediately, there could be opportunities for more vacancies in the future because the council has plans to develop the service and extend the centre.

Yesterday, staff working at Neville's Cross looked on as Councillor Neil Foster, the authority's cabinet member for lifelong learning, set work under way for contractors the Wates Group.

Margaret Hanratty, operations manager for the education development service, said: "The new building will be great for us because we will have a brand new, state-of-the art training facility for the people of County Durham.

"It will be an important part of the professional development for staff in every school in County Durham. Thousands of teachers a year will visit it."

Coun Foster said: "This is a much welcome investment by the county council in a 'behind the scenes' but important area of education provision."