Work has started on Cumbrian training provider Gen2’s £4.2m new premises at Lillyhall.

The developers, Flimby-based Thomas Armstrong Construction Ltd, were officially given the keys to the former Cemtex Fabrics site on yesterday. Their role in the project is due to take 30 weeks.

This development will allow substantial expansion of the company’s training and educational services for the energy, engineering and advanced manufacturing business sectors in Cumbria and across the country.

The 7,000 sq metre facility will include 3,000 sq metres of engineering training workshops equipped with specialist equipment and machinery, along with classrooms to accommodate an additional 500 learners.

The facilities will create new opportunities for Gen2’s existing clients throughout Cumbria and allow the organisation to fulfil its ambition to expand the range of services on offer to new customers.

Mike Smith, chief executive at Gen2, said: “This project has been a long time in the planning, and will see the creation of the largest engineering and advanced manufacturing training facility in the north west, if not the UK.

“The new facility will be large enough to accommodate all of our existing provision at both Lillyhall and Salterbeck, and become the company’s new head office. It will also give us room to further expand our capacity and capability well into the future.”

The development is being made possible by funding from the Cumbria Chamber of Commerce via the Cumbria Growth Fund.

Rob Johnston, chief executive of the chamber, said: “The fund is designed to help manufacturers.

“This is exciting to us because we’re also looking at services to manufacturing and one of the key services to manufacturing is skills. Gen2 are very important to Cumbria as a skills provider.

“It’s our biggest project in the whole scheme [Cumbria Growth Fund] and the first time we’ve been involved in a skills project and we’re proud to be able to make it happen.”

The new facility is due to open in September 2017.