Delivering the new vision for army foundation training

In the late 1990s, the Army chose the site of the old Royal Signals Apprentice College, just outside Harrogate, as the location for its pioneering new education/training facility for 16/17 year olds. The aim was to offer good-quality, appropriate initial military training for young people who, in many cases, have been written off by the conventional post-16 educational system.

However, the existing facilities were coming to the end of their useful life. It soon became clear that an entirely new college needed to be built. This was to be an ambitious undertaking: transforming a run-down site into a modern, well-equipped campus without major disruption to the everyday working life of the college. The vision was to provide unrivalled education, accommodation, pastoral care, sports and leisure facilities for the 21st century

Providing an all-round education
The new Army Foundation College, now fully operational on the Yorkshire site, offers a 42-week foundation course for soldiers destined for front-line roles: combining military and leadership training with vocational education. The College helps up to 1,344 young men and women every year to develop key skills in numeracy, communications, IT, personal skills and problem solving, leading to national vocational qualifications.

Meeting challenges in a learning environment
Jarvis was chosen to develop the College, leading a team of contractors and partners to provide design, construction and on-going facilities management services for the site throughout the 30-year life of the contract. These services include ground and estate maintenance, cleaning, catering, clerical and stores management and medical services. Jarvis’ partner Nord Anglia is responsible for managing the delivery of vocational education, library and sports services.

The College benefits from state-of-the-art communication and learning facilities including a complete local-area network for staff, 650-seat lecture theatre, many IT suites and a fully-equipped learning resource centre with a huge range of books, videos, tapes, CD-Roms and computers to support education and leisure activities.

Building partnership out of complexity
The complicated structure of the PFI project, coupled with the uniquely demanding culture and environment, meant that building trust and understanding between all the parties involved has been vital. However, the benefits of the scheme are clear. There has been a radical improvement in the standard and functionality of the accommodation on the site. This – coupled with the vast range of excellent facilities on the site and the standard of services – has led to a significant improvement in student retention rates.

The whole ethos and environment in the College encourages the kind of positive, ‘can do’ attitude which the Army aims to foster in its flagship College.

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• Army Foundation College website


Factfile

• Winner of the 2003 publicprivatefinance Award for Best Operational Ministry of Defence Project, for its “strong partnering relationship, excellent facilities and strong educational results”
• Graded by Adult Learning Inspectorate as one of the top 24 of over 300 institutions in its category
• Some of the top sports facilities in the North of England, including three gyms, a climbing wall, championship-standard squash courts, a swimming pool, weight training and sports physiotherapy clinic, as well as floodlit all-weather and grass sports pitches, cricket nets, tennis courts and athletics tracks
• Site includes housing for some 180 staff and their families, developed in partnership with the Defence Housing Association
• New facilities officially opened by HRH Duke of York in Summer 2002