Learning facilities expansion programme
October 1st 2004 Woodland Grange, one of the UK’s leading HS&E training providers, has now started a £5 million facilities expansion programme. Due for completion in summer next year (2005), the development will extend and enhance what is already one of the UK’s outstanding HS&E learning environments.
The centre located centrally in beautiful Warwickshire countryside near Leamington Spa offers a very comprehensive range of courses, seminars and updates. All courses can be attended residentially or delivered in-company.
Those choosing to study at Woodland Grange already experience top quality standards of facilities and service, and from the middle of next year will benefit from an even wider range of facilities.
The Centre already has a prestige restaurant, a lounge bar and other relaxations areas, together with established leisure walks through its rural estate. The expansion will develop these to include a comprehensively-equipped leisure centre, with gymnasium, sauna, jacuzzi and a games room. The development also includes an internet café/bar with business support services.
Capacity will increase from 72 to 114 ensuite bedrooms, and six new training and syndicate rooms to complement the 30 that already exist.
Woodland Grange is acknowledged as a pioneer of new, fast-track routes to the key qualifications, in which it consistently achieves pass rates well above the national average. Its clients include several of the country’s leading organisations in the public and private sectors.
The Centre has a unique network of partnerships with the key authorities such as NEBOSH, IEMA, and IOSH, and with educational bodies such as Oxford Brookes and the Open University. They are key relationships in the Centre’s quest for innovative, accessible programmes and teaching methods, a perfect example of which is its ground-breaking ‘blended learning’ version of the NEBOSH National General Certificate.
Developments this year have underlined Woodland Grange’s central role in the training community. It was selected to pilot the new NEBOSH International Certificate overseas, developing it for a group of Eastern Europe managers in Poland and achieving a pass rate of over 90%. Also in 2004, as a result of its expertise in environmental training, Woodland Grange was chosen to help develop a brand new Government-inspired training initiative on resource efficiency management. The new two-day training programme, which can help organisations make significant savings, is now available at the Centre.
Involvement in initiatives such as these underlines the enormous respect generated by the Centre’s tutorial team not only experts in delivering effective training, but with extensive practical experience of working in all the key sectors.
Woodland Grange’s driving force is to ensure that the people it trains can go back and make a real and immediate impact on their own organisations.
Acknowledging the challenges many small and medium sized companies face in understanding and addressing HS&E legislation, in 2004 Woodland Grange also created a new division, CMTC, which provides short-course, quickresponse training solutions for companies many of whom do not have HSE specialists who need to ‘fast track’ their responses. Courses include single-day programmes on managing safely, risk assessment and essential environmental issues; workshops addressing the latest issues; and day release courses leading to the key professional qualifications. CMTC has an international division, the focus for Woodland Grange’s extensive portfolio of overseas training which includes customers in the Far East, Africa, Eastern Europe and the Caribbean.
With a tradition of setting new standards across the spectrum of training, Woodland Grange could well be described as a ‘university’ of health, safety and environmental learning. Its extensive new investment will reinforce its place at the pinnacle of the sector. More articles from EEF Ltd/Woodland Grange: | 
