The City of Liverpool College’s new home for its construction programmes, located on the historic banks of the River Mersey, has welcomed its first students.

Housed on Regent Road, The Construction Academy at Liverpool Waters will educate 250 students, expanding the College’s construction offer alongside its state-of-the-art Vauxhall Road campus. Together, the two campuses will provide additional capacity, specialist facilities and a choice for learners. Students will continue to gain hands-on experience in the practical spaces at the new site, as well as learning construction theory in its four purpose-built modular classrooms.

The new Construction Academy is located within Peel Waters’ Central Docks neighbourhood at Liverpool Waters. The 10.5-hectare neighbourhood is the largest of the five neighbourhoods within Liverpool Waters and is the largest brownfield site in the city. Through Peel Waters’ partnership with Homes England, work will start imminently on delivering the impressive 2.1-hectare park that will become one of the city’s largest green spaces together with the essential infrastructure to support up to 2,350 new homes.

The major project will provide a pipeline of apprenticeship opportunities for students studying at The Construction Academy and job opportunities for graduates. The partnership between The City of Liverpool College and Peel Waters dates back over five years, with many current and former students working on building developments across Liverpool Waters.

As the site continues to be developed, existing businesses in the area such as Ten Streets Social are strengthening ties with the College by offering their spaces for utilisation by the College and its students.

Construction of the Academy over the summer of 2025 had to be considered carefully and in lots of detail to ensure consistency with existing structures. The College’s estates team worked closely with Peel Waters, regulatory bodies and heritage groups to take great care to ensure that bricks used in the project were almost identical to those in the historically significant wall that divides the former dockland from Regent Road.  Similarly, tram tracks from the site’s industrial past as a working dock were also treated with the utmost respect and remain undamaged.

Alex Black, The City of Liverpool College’s Director of Estates, commented: “The Construction Academy at Liverpool Waters is a huge step forward for our students in this sector. It allows them to learn the fundamentals of their chosen career on what is essentially a working site.”

Liza Marco, Senior Asset Manager at Liverpool Waters, also commented:“We’re really pleased to be partnering with The City of Liverpool College to launch The Construction Academy at Liverpool Waters. Supporting our local communities and creating a pipeline of new employment opportunities are central to Peel Waters’ vision for each development we regenerate.

“With the scale and ambition of Liverpool Waters, we hope many of the students who train here will go on to play a hands-on role in delivering the transformation of this site, building future homes for people to live in and spaces for people to enjoy. Every student who studies and works here will play a huge role in shaping the next chapter of our city’s iconic waterfront.”

Neil Borg-Olivier, Vice Principal - Curriculum Development and Innovation at the College, added: “Our Vauxhall Road site required expansion, to ensure it met the specific education demands of students in the construction sector, as we had reached its capacity.

“The Construction Academy at Liverpool Waters will allow us to enrol more students who can address the region’s skills shortage in construction, and it will also allow the College to lease out parts of the Vauxhall Road site to enable more local people to learn skills that will get them the jobs and careers they want,” he said.