I am delighted that the Government has awarded Gloucestershire College £4m to build a state-of-the-art construction skills centre at its Cheltenham campus in Hesters Way.
For the first time ever, students and apprentices will be able to study construction here in Cheltenham in a modern 7,000 square-foot sustainable facility. Equipped to train 164 learners per week, the new centre will help deliver Cheltenham’s cyber and infrastructure vision by meeting the growing local demand for skilled workers, projected to be 6,400 each year by 2025.
Full-time courses and apprenticeships will be taught on-site, using plumbing bays, electrical bays, and bays for brickwork, groundworks and carpentry.
Part of this latest Government cash comes from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, a central pillar of the national levelling-up agenda. It follows recent recent Government financial support for Cheltenham’s major infrastructure projects, with £24m already committed to the town’s cyber vision and more than half a billion pounds for the M5 J10 and Air Balloon projects.
So this is just another vote of confidence in Cheltenham’s future.
Readers of this column may know how passionate I am about apprenticeships. That’s because they promote social mobility and offer a pathway to success, regardless of someone’s background or start in life. By providing equal opportunities for all, apprenticeships allow young people of skill and determination to go as far as their talents can take them.
That matters because there are pockets of real deprivation in Cheltenham, and I know we have a shared sense of mission in our town to tackle them. My firm view is that creating opportunities for the next generation is one of the most effective ways of doing so.
That’s why it’s so exciting that opportunities for Cheltenham apprentices are expanding. In 2021 the £3m Government-funded Advanced Digital Academy opened at GlosCol. It has delivered computing labs, cyber-forensics tool kits, and cutting-edge attack and defence rooms for cyber apprentices to benefit from.
So whether they’re a dab hand on the construction site or a wizard in cyber-space, the future for Cheltenham’s apprentices is bright.
[Column published in the Glos Echo]