Salford City College

Salford City College gets a digital overhaul

Salford City College is the number one General Further Education (GFE) College in Greater Manchester in terms of the success rates. Whilst the College offers high quality teaching to a diverse group of students, including those from disadvantaged areas, the standard and quality of accommodation was hindering teaching, learning and assessment.

The Brief

Salford City College were looking to transform their outdated estate which spans over five centres, to further improve their offering and give more young people than ever, the very best start.

With an initial design and layout for the five Digital Learning Zones – the college turned to exemplary manufacture and installation needed to achieve the visionary finish they had in mind.

The Solution

Innova Design Group completed the modernisation and re-fit of five LRC’s,  four science laboratories, vets room as well as a preparation room and various storage walls across the college.

Each zone in the new LRC’s provides students with access to computers, books, journals and newspapers, and a relaxed space where they can spend their time working either in between lessons or after college. As such they will enable students to become digital savvy learners.

Large, curved bench desking for PC’s provide a striking feature within the LRC’s, along with smaller desks for quiet working and data ports for ‘bring-your-own-device”. Mobile bookcases along the perimeter of the room provide students with access to journals and texts. The exciting and stimulating layouts have modern finishes in white, grey and stone effects.

The laboratories have been designed using Innova’s ‘Hot Corner‘ layout which addresses the need to provide both a working classroom and practical laboratory within the same space. The design shortens lines of communication, reducing problems students may have hearing the teacher and creates a more collaborative approach to learning. Power sockets and gas taps were placed on the front face of units, further increasing space for students to conduct theory work.

The refurbishment also included a vets area, nursery storage, storage walls, teacher walls and restaurant furniture.

The new learning environments match Salford City College’s aspirations and gear the college up to further pushing the boundaries of the already exemplary teaching.