Cumbria’s state-of-the-art digital and gaming hub has been open for almost six months – so how has it been shaping up?
Levels, a £4.6 million redevelopment of Whitehaven’s former Whittles building on Duke Street, opened to the public officially in January.
The new hub is made up of four floors of technology, alongside a café and board game break-out space.
It has a virtual reality arcade, an Esports gaming area, immersive classroom, training spaces, a motion capture and podcasting zone, top of the range flight and driving simulators and more.
Its virtual reality facilities have been dubbed the best in the North West and feature vests that simulate in-game sensations like temperature changes and gunshots.
But who is actually using the space? What has life been like behind the scenes after opening? How is it helping upskill young people in West Cumbria? And will it help adults too?
We caught up with Levels director and chief operating officer of social impact property developer BEC, Gemma Leadbetter, to find out more.
Who is using Levels so far?
Gemma said Levels was best thought of as a well disguised education centre.
While it is accessible to all ages – and plans are in the works to offer more for adults – it is primarily focused on under-18s.
Gemma added that the centre’s main focus right now was connecting with the local community.
She said: “It has been manic, which is a really nice problem to have! We have been absolutely packed with lots of events and school visits, which is the predominate reason we set Levels up.
“But we’ve also had lots of partner events and corporate events and lots of different organisations through the space and that’s been an important part of our community building too.
“The last few weeks for me have actually been quite emotional in the best way. I’ve done a lot of corporate events, but I’ve now seen a few school groups visiting us and it is just amazing, I can’t describe the feeling.
“I went to another room while the kids were doing our games design challenge we ran with Atos and I heard this almighty cheer and shout from the education suite.
“It was such a fright, but the excitement and level of engagement was so infectious. It is genuinely the best feeling in the world ever. I think the only thing that really tops it is my own kids being born.
“When I set off on this journey all that time ago with BEC, people were saying ‘you’re nuts for what you’re trying to do’ and ‘why would you do that here’.
“It’s been such a hard journey to get people bought into this vision and what converts people is getting them in to see if first hand and they see how unlimited VR is and how it can take children anywhere you can think of all from our immersive classroom.”
Gemma said around 1,400 people of varied ages have visited Levels since it opened in January.
By the end of February, the hub had welcomed over 600 visitors across 30 events.
This includes community events, tours, school visits, after school club and Esports sessions, podcast bookings, demos, tours, corporate and teacher engagement events.
The figure then doubled to 1,200 by April and over 130 events have now taken place and 50 corporate groups have visited the space.
It has also gained just under 100 members – children visiting the space independently from school.
Members pay £12 a year for a card to access the building that can have money added to it and they get discounts in the café.
School visits began in March and over 503 young people have now visited over the course of 68 sessions.
Around 60 per cent of visits were from primary schools while 40 per cent were from secondary schools.
Gemma said: “We’re doing a mapping exercise to understand how many schools that is all together.
“We’ve had some challenges as when we opened we knew it wouldn’t work for many secondary schools as they have to be a bit more organised with school trips.
“That’s why we’ve had a lot of primary schools in, as it’s a bit easier for them to do things on slightly shorter notice.
“The hope is as we move into the new school year and they can see our menu options and it will be a lot easier for them to book in and that statistic will level out.
“We’ve recently had a really good session with Centre for Leadership Performance and the Primary Business Partnership around how we can make sure we have contact with all of those 91 primary schools and all of the secondary schools in West Cumbria.
“We’ve also had a lot of visits from further and higher education which is important in terms of longer term pathways and inspiration points.
“We do want to inspire young people and really raise aspirations but we don’t want them to be disappointed that there’s no next steps for them.
“So we want to work with higher education to look at how we can help inform higher education pathways.”
Gemma said Levels has also had visits from Cumbria Youth Alliance, Sea Cadets, Air Cadets and SEN school Branthwaite Academy.
It is also working with the Home School Network.
Schools are being welcomed from as far as Carlisle and Millom and Gemma said that schools from even further afield have also made contact.
She added that a number of business events had also taken place in the venue over the past few months.
This included:
- A care experience recruitment event led by Cumberland Council
- The launch of Positive Enterprise, a youth entreprenership programme
- Hosted the Cumbria Digital Inclusion Network
- Hosted Cumberland strategic partners
- Hosted an agentic AI talk, supporting ethical use of AI
More large scale events are planned for later this year, including the Coastal Navigator’s Network second year prospectus launch.
Educational sessions that haven taken place include after school clubs for Unity games design, Roblox coding and a talk given by a professional ESports player.
Levels also hosted a games design project with Atos which saw 177 children take part and it is hosting a regular podcast with Natterjack Marketing.
Gemma said that footfall had overall exceeded the team’s expectations so far.
She added: “It has exceeded our expectations. But it is a challenge as when we have a school visit we’re still having one in at a time. We want to get to a place where we can have two or three in a time and that’s around co-ordination in the building.
“The building is big enough for that, it’s just around co-ordination and the staffing levels we need to have.
“All our team just joined in December so it would have been unfair to chuck them into the deep end.
“So it’s getting them up to speed and getting them through enhanced DBS checks, first air training and safeguarding training, so that people coming to the facility are secure. So there are limitations around that.”
Have any changes been made at Levels?
Levels has so far improved its podcasting facilities to allow for video conferencing and has fully opened its café to the public, as well as adding new game titles and dividers in its VR arcade.
It is also in the process of fully fitting out its board games space with custom Dungeons and Dragons tabletops, which Gemma said will be revealed soon.
She added: “We’ve done some really technically challenging things, so with the podcasting, our first event was for Rayco, who run a regular session across their network.
“Our podcast studio was set up for in-studio podcasting, so we’ve expanded to bring in Teams capacity and video conferencing.
“We’ve got proper Dungeons and Dragons tables that are flexible and have removable tops and we have a screen in our boards game space for YouTube videos for theme music and ambiance for players
“We have the space set up for that, for now it’s still under wraps and nobody has seen it yet, but they got fitted out on May 22nd because they’re a custom product and took a little longer to get, but we’ll be launching that very soon.”
The café is also now open through the week to the public.
Gemma said: “Because we’ve been so busy with school visits we had to take a decision to defer slightly the full public opening of the café.
“We’ve been open on weekends since mid to late January, but we’ve just opened it everyday on May 23.
“It’s just been to do with the demand for school visits and the fact we don’t have a very big team. We’re having to grow to be able to do that and that’s dependent on the funding we have coming through, but we got there in the end!
“It was a difficult decision to postpone opening the café to everybody, but ultimately our purpose is around engaging with young people, that’s our core reason for existing, but we’re hoping we’ll build it up now.”
Gemma said that plans are in place to make sure equipment remains top of the range in the years to come.
She added: “It will be done as and when it’s needed. What we have in Levels is very high spec to do what we want to do, but we’ve also built it with a medium term view that this equipment needs to be relevant for quite a while.
“Obviously, hardware does move on, but not super fast. Our machines are bespoke built and that means the PC case will be good for 10 years, but the graphics card might need to be updated in three. We are keeping a proportion of our revenue for this.
“It might not be a case of ‘we need to update all at once’ it might be that we have a fix and fail regime as well
“We’ll see more changes around the titles and programmes we offer, that needs to stay fresh so Levels stays compelling for people.
“We’ll also constantly shape our menu and educational content with schools and look at our programme delivery based on what they’re trying to achieve.”
What does Esports look like at Levels right now?
Levels currently has eight Esports teams made up of 24 young people.
It has 10 professional-grade computers that make up the centre’s ESports training ground.
It currently offers local leagues for young people aged 10 to 18. Players become eligible for the British Esports Federation Student Champs when they turn 13, but they can still play in local leagues before hand.
Levels has been offering coaching, training and practice sessions and matches for players and it has held mixer events to build teams.
Gemma said: “We have 26 young people coming along and 24 of them had come on their own and didn’t know anybody else there.
“So they have then made friends and socialised and left as part of an Esports team.
“That’s been really good because gaming is often something that can be seen as an isolated activity. Coming to Levels gives them a chance to socialise with other children with similar interests.
“But they’re also building skills around communication, leadership, teamwork and critical thinking.”
Gemma said some of the feedback from players and their families has been motivating for the team.
She added: “We had a great piece of feedback from the parents of a young person who had not really engaged with friends for almost a year.
“He’d come along to the Esports mixer and to quote them he was buzzing when he came out.
“He’d started conversations, he’d felt like he’d made some friends and connections and things. It’s no different to us than kids going out and playing football or doing dance, it’s finding the right hobby for them.”
Alongside the leagues for under-18s, Gemma said Levels is also looking to start an adult Esports league due to popular demand.
She added: “We have had a lot of interest in an adult Esports league and the hope is that we’ll be able to start that up in the next few months as well.
“That would be in the 7pm until 9pm window. The building is access controlled so we can separate and safeguard, but at the moment we’re using evenings for after school sessions right now.
“But with that later time we can look to broaden our offer out to the older demographic.”
Gemma said Levels is also aiming to launch an accredited Esports leadership qualification in September.
So, will more opportunities open up at Levels for over-18s?
Gemma said while Levels is primarily focused on under-18s, plans are in the works to offer more for adults.
Demand has been strong for an adults Esports league as well as adult competitions on the flight and driving simulators.
She said: “We jokingly refer to Levels as a well disguised education centre, but at its heart, that is what it’s about.
“Our target has always been the under-18 demographic, that’s our core, but for us there is no upper age limit for Levels.
The younger age limit is guided largely by the fact not all of our equipment is suitable for children.
“But our immersive classroom is suitable for children so we can accept from seven up.
“However, we have got a lot of demand from adults and young adults around other things as well and we want to get to a point over the longer term where we’re really sweating the assets.
“At the moment we’re open from 9am until 7pm and that’s our school visits and after school clubs, but our building could be open until 10pm for a slightly older audience.
“But I think it’s realistic to say based on the demand so far that we could potentially have a school visit in every single day during term time if we can manage that and the hope is that we can run multiple school visits at once.”
Gemma added the team wanted to see the community get more involved in shaping what is on offer at Levels in the long term.
She said: “We want everybody to come in and the idea is that the community shape the offer over the long term, so if we’re seeing demand around digital upskill we have partners that can support that.
“I would like to say we’d start looking at doing things for adult demand within a year, months more than years for sure.
“We’d like to get to that place sooner rather than later. But it is driven by staffing more than anything else.
“We were on track to open last September for September but as with all big development projects challenges get hit and you get behind and we ended up sacrificing our fit out period to open in January.
“That has meant things have perhaps been not as structured as we would have ideally liked.
“So September is really key for us because in we’ll be in the new school year and that will also give us the headspace to look at adult demand.
“We’re trying to just keep people warm at the moment as we’re not in a position to fill that demand.”
But Gemma said Levels was proving to be a good support for adults looking for digital and gaming-related jobs.
She said: “Our crew range in age from 17 to 28 and they’re very much in that demographic that we’re supporting.
“We’ve got people in the team who have struggled to find employment after leaving university with the Covid impact.
“We expected a transient crew when we were modelling but that’s not what we’ve got, which is amazing.
“Our team do all see long term opportunities in the jobs there and they want to get involved in wider delivery.
“We’d anticipated using a lot of external tutors for our delivery but actually the team want to be invested in and they want to get involved in delivery and not just be here from a customer service point of view and that’s so brilliant, because we can build that capacity in house.
“I genuinely feel like a proud mam, they are an amazing team and amazing individuals and it has been busy and they’ve just got stuck in and made it amazing for everyone in the space. They’re brilliant representatives of the youth in our area.
“Levels is a facility you don’t even see in a lot of big city’s so its a huge opportunity to see in things that haven’t been here before.”
How is Levels funding itself?
Levels operates via external funding and makes a small amount of revenue through public use of the space.
It is currently fully free for children to access through school.
Gemma said: “We don’t generate a huge amount of revenue, revenue is only generated through the café and VR arcade.
“But a proportion of that is ringfenced for future investment to make sure we can remain relevant.
“I would like to not be in a position where we are developing programmes to chase funding, that is something that does happen a lot.
“I’d like to be in a position where the quality of what we are delivering is not in question and therefore funders and supporters get behind it because schools and young people are saying it’s what they want.”
While Levels could choose to go down a route of being financially self-sustaining, it would impact its mission to be accessible to all young people across West Cumbria, Gemma said.
She added: “It is possible for it to be financially sustainable in its own right, but that will create barriers to entry and we don’t want to do that.
“For it to remain accessible and appealing to young people and make sure they get engagement with a world class environment and facilities, we want them to be able to access it for free or at very low cost.
“At the moment its free to access for all schools and children but it may be that we do need to look at that over the longer term. But it depends on what our partner funding and longer term funding will look like.
“But I do feel it will always need a degree of financial support for it to run in the way we want.”
What facilities have been most and least used?
Gemma said the centre’s most popular facilities so far are its VR arcade and immersive classroom.
Schools have been heavily using the immersive classroom – which feature headsets for lessons based in virtual reality – followed by using the VR arcade as enrichment.
The VR arcade’s games employ ‘stealth learning’ to help children build skills like critical thinking and teamwork skills.
Gemma added: “For me it’s not just obvious digital software skills they pick up, its dexterity and operational technology side of it too.
“In Rayco and BAE they are using Xbox and Playstation controllers to work robotics, submersibles and the periscopes of the submarines and that’s a really clever shift by industry that we can support.”
While most of the facilities are well used, Gemma said she’d like to see the café grow.
She said: “I’d like to see the cafe used more. The whole reason we have it is it’s a place people can come and find out more about the wider offer here.
“People can come in, have a look and see what its about. I’d like to see a broader part of the community come in, get involved and help shape what we have on offer.
“It helps to answer people’s questions of ‘what is it?’ and I think it’s important for the older populations who maybe who feel that ‘it’s just for kids’.
“Yes, it absolutely has a very heavy focus on kids, but it is for everybody and there is no limit or upper age limit on what we do.
“If people just step in that front door, then all of the space will get used more.”
What does the future hold?
Gemma said Levels has a few priorities for the new academic year.
She said: “We want to maximise the use of the space so that means getting our programme options for schools more structured so it allows us to do more with them.
“That’s definitely a top priority and making sure that engagement is maintained. That is probably our top focus.
“Continuing the development of our programmes is another one. If we stop doing that, we’ll become boring and I think for me it’s about the people.
“We do need to bring in some more staff, so making sure they come in and our existing staff love their jobs is important too, that’s a key element in quality of experience.
“I would also like to see as many members of the community as possible come in for a nose, because why not!
“We always say about Levels, it will never be finished and if it is finished, we’ve done something wrong, because the nature of what it is requires us to be always changing a little bit.”
I haven’t visited Levels yet, what should I know?
Gemma said she wanted to see more people visit to ask questions about the space.
She added: “It is open to everybody and the café is there for all of the community to access.
“I appreciate our wider offer might not be for everybody, but digital skills are an intrinsic part of life these days and if people step foot through the door and start to get involved it allows us to continuously shape what we do and not just in terms of our under 18s core provision.
“You’re supporting young people in work, just by coming in and grabbing a coffee and local business. We have an amazing local coffee supplier Shiloh, based at Haig Pit.
“All our cakes come from a teen in Workington who has her own cake business.
“We talk constantly about wanting to see our high street thrive but for that to happen we all have to change our habits around that and shop local or get coffee locally.
“It’s a nice environment, our staff are friendly, you can watch the screens see what’s going on and if it’s not for you, it might be for your neighbour or grandson or your friend’s kids.
“That is what is going to really help improve our area, people getting behind new things.”
