THERE are many emotions to be felt when a project some five years in the making is finally completed and all were on display on Tuesday at East Berkshire College's (EBC) Langley Campus.

For Tuesday's official opening of the college's new STEM Project and Research Centre was more than just about the opening of the centre itself.

The day in fact marked the culmination of five years of thought, planning, investment, construction and patience - and £30m worth of spending - for the three stage improvement scheme at the Station Road campus of the further education college.

In that time, the outward facing entrance of the college in Station Road has been transformed with a sleek, modern design, an indoor and outdoor sports centre has got up and running, a new training restaurant called Zest opened to showcase the skills of students in the, also new, hospitality and catering academy, a commercial hair salon was opened to the public, new facilities for health and social care students - including a simulated hospital environment - were revealed and the new STEM centre has been set up.

Kate Webb, principal at EBC, said: "These facilities are what the local community needs and that is who we are here to serve, the local community and our students. It is a college's job to invest in the people it serves. We have invested wisely in professional and technical skills for the benefits of people in Slough, Windsor and the surrounding areas.

"Colleges are the enabler of local economic growth."

But the £30m project itself was born out of a refusal by the college and its governing body to have their plans beaten when government cash dried up.

Speaking on Tuesday as students learnt and worked behind him in the STEM Centre, Tony Martin, chairman of governors at EBC, said: "We are very proud of what has been achieved. A few years ago we were looking at the prospects of expanding and renovating the college, but then the government ran out of money so we thought we can't just sit here and carry on as we are, we need to do something which the students and the community needs.

"We are very pleased to see it come to fruition."

Wayne Hemingway, designer and architect, was the special guest for the opening on Tuesday who spoke to the assembled guests - students, councillors, business leaders and more - about his background and story in a bid to inspire the next generation.

The STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathmatics) Project and Research Centre features specialist workshops for carpentry, plumbing, welding, bricklaying, electrical, painting and decorating, plastering and engineering. It is designed to enable students to develop higher level skills in a realistic work environment and, as such, the new centre includes project space, where construction, IT and engineering students are working together to build a bungalow complete with SMART technology to learn about how operations work on a real world building site.

At the end of each school year, the bungalow will be torn down and the next crop of students will be challenged to use the same materials to come up with and bring to life their own design.

Guests on Tuesday were given a guided tour of the STEM Centre and the facilities it offers with so many comments remarking on the scale and success of the project but the last word should be left to the principal who, during her opening speech, said: "What people say to me now is it 'looks just like a university', but I say 'no, it looks just like a further education college'."