Birmingham Airport's Chief Executive visits University College Birmingham

Birmingham Airport’s Chief Executive paid a flying visit to University College Birmingham to check out its exciting new, multi-million pound facilities, including a new aviation and tourism suite complete with mock plane cabin, check-in areas and Galileo GDS system.

Nick Barton visited the suite at the University's Summer Row campus, as well as the new Aspire Aesthetics clinic, where Aesthetic Practitioner students put their skills into practice with real-life customers, new prosthetics studio for Specialist Hair and Media Make-up students and the award-winning training restaurants, kitchens and food science and innovation suite for student chefs, bakers and new product developers.

He then moved on to look around nearby McIntyre House with its new state-of-the-art financial trading suite for students on business, finance and accounting-related degrees, one of the largest university trading suites in the UK, before finishing up with a tour of the exciting, new £42 million Moss House campus for higher education next door in Holland Street.

Here, Nick had the chance to check out the University's new sports facilities, including a 35-metre indoor running track for assessing speed and performance, sports injury and massage clinics and Human Performance Laboratory, and new health simulation suite, complete with a mock hospital ward, before the campus officially opens later this semester.

Vice-chancellor and Principal Michael Harkin, said: “Nick said he was very impressed with the sheer range and breadth of our modern facilities for student learning, which have a sharp focus on work experience and employability through hired@UCB and represent an investment of £130 million.

"In particular, he noted the large numbers of students training for careers in airport, aviation and tourism at an operational and management level.

"We continue to grow our key contacts across the sectors we represent to provide more opportunities and work placements for our students and it was fantastic to welcome Nick to see the new facilities for himself. From his feedback, they are, clearly, a popular addition to our campus.”

Aviation students across degree and college courses at UCB are set to benefit from the new aviation facilities for training students on UCB’s Aviation and Airport Management foundation and bachelor’s degree and the Level 2 in Cabin Crew and Airport Operations, as well as other travel and tourism-related courses.

Find out more about travel and tourism and aviation-related courses at UCB.

Find out more about all of the University's training facilities.