Engineering at the heart of multi-million college investment22 November 2013

More than 50 colleges are set to invest millions in building modern facilities after two further rounds of government capital investment unlocked £488 million.

Many of the successful colleges will use the money to build science and engineering facilities to provide training for the next generation of engineers.

Projects being funded include Dudley College's new engineering and advanced manufacturing workshops, Leeds City College centre for mechanical engineering and Runshaw College's industry standard engineering and science facilities.

The focus on engineering, science and manufacturing is shown by:

• Dudley College's £1.7m in Dudley Enhance, which includes a workshop and lecture theatre for engineering and advanced manufacturing programmes. These facilities are a response to increased demand for engineering and manufacturing
• Almost £10m of investment at Leeds City College to build a new home for engineering, manufacturing and electrical provision. This development will address higher level skills shortages in mechanical engineering in the area
• Runshaw College's project to build new training facilities for engineering and science. This project has been designed in response to the Lancashire Local Enterprise Partnership's strategy to meet a need for engineers in the county
• A centre for engineering excellence and creative digital facilities at North Lindsey College, which with £12m investment will provide state of the art industry standard equipment and technology.

The government is investing £232.7m in colleges, matched with more than £250m investment from colleges themselves.

Business secretary Vince Cable said: "Boosting the quality and availability of training is fundamental to building a stronger economy, with skilled jobs spread across all regions of the UK.

"Our commitment to support modern, well-equipped colleges and training centres to train the next generation sits alongside the government's industrial strategy giving business the confidence to invest in the long-term."

He added: "For Britain to compete, and for everyone to reach their potential, we need the very best training centres, staffed with the very best trainers. This is why I can confirm that a further £330m will also be available for skills capital investment through the Local Growth Fund in 2016-17 in order to support local priorities.

"This investment, along with these 50 or so new college capital projects takes total government capital investment in FE colleges since May 2010 to over £1.5 billion."

The investment in college estates forms the third and fourth rounds of the College Capital Investment Fund (CCIF), through which £550m is being made available between 2013 and 2015.

Ian Vallely

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