A range of new science facilities have officially opened at North Hertfordshire College's Stevenage campus.
SITEC (Science, Innovation and Technology Centre) officially opened this afternoon (March 9).
The facilities include five separate labs, allowing students to learn using an immersive reality space, virtual reality (VR) headsets and a range of lab-spaces.
Sports science, vaccine production and learning about industry software is all included.
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A number of guests attended the event, including Stevenage MP Stephen McPartland and Adrian Hawkins OBE, chair of the Stevenage Development Board.
Stephen McPartland MP said: "I've been here 13 years, so I'm old enough to be opening this building for the second time!
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"The first time I opened it, it was going to be a studio school.
"The reason why I'm referring to that is that I'm also going to refer back to one other thing.
"I also laid a brick in 2011, at the back of the Stevenage Catapult Life Sciences area.
"...When we did this as a studio school, what was brilliant about the college - Stevenage Borough Council, Herts County Council... we're like a family, we argued - but what we all do is get stuff done.
"The college, in fairness, have always tried to do new stuff, they've tried to innovate.
"The college's idea is brilliant, which is, if you've got a bunch of life sciences companies on the edge of your town, you're going to provide lots of opportunities for children to go into those companies."
North Hertfordshire College's CEO and principal, Kit Davies, added: "We create exciting, vibrant spaces.
"We fill it with exciting, vibrant technology and equipment.
"We hire and work with brilliant staff, who come from industry, and who want to then give something back.
"We put all of that into a test tube, we put it into the centrifuge.
"We mix it all up and after a year, after two years, three years, we are churning out employer ready, tailor made people for the workforce."
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