The island’s College of Further and Higher Education has moved its engineering department into its new building in Greenfield Road.
A project which cost £4.9 million has seen engineering leave the main college building in Homefield Road for the newly refurbished premises in the former Water Authority treatment works.
The new engineering base will be named the William Kennish Engineering Centre after the Manxman whose inventions included the predecessor of the gun turret and who discovered the first canal route without locks to link the Pacific and the Atlantic – paving the way, some 40 years later, for the Panama Canal.
Courses will begin there this term with the college saying the move will allow more students to ‘access a wider range of training, benefiting the economy’.
The space vacated at the main college site is being turned into a bespoke training area for the four main construction crafts – brickwork, joinery, painting and decorating and plumbing. That part of the project is scheduled for completion next July.
Tim Crookall MHK, Minister for Education and Children, will officially open the new engineering centre on Wednesday, November 12.
It houses courses in electrical, mechanical and motor vehicle engineering.
Mr Crookall said: ‘Education seeks to support the island’s economy by equipping students with skills for life and the workplace and the Isle of Man College of Further and Higher Education plays a vital role in this.
‘With a view to better meeting the needs of the community and economy, we are extending the range of further and higher education courses and improving the quality and range of vocational options.
‘We are also broadening the school curriculum to provide more opportunities for applied and vocational learning.
‘The creation of these modern training facilities is a big step towards achieving those aims.’
William’s two great great grandsons are travelling from America with their wives to attend the opening.
The Minister added: ‘It will be special to link engineering past and present by having direct descendants of Mr Kennish present.’