£10million college plan will boost jobs

Promotion of apprenticeship programmes is featured in a planning application to Worthing council for permission to proceed with phase two of the college’s ambitious, three-stage project to expand its educational contribution to the community.

If approved, the £10million project will entail demolishing nearly 4,000 square metres of antiquated Nissen hut-type accommodation, some of it dating back nearly 100 years.

In its place will be a two-storey building including a double-height refectory with an internal bridge link to the recently-completed new college complex fronting Broadwater Road.

The new accommodation will include general teaching classrooms, exam suites, an employment one-stop “shop” for young people and those in the community seeking employment for themselves and their children, as well as for employers.

There will also be a “job shop”, part of the base of an apprenticeship “company” to support students.

An application design statement says local employers are strong supporters of apprenticeships from level-2 upwards as a key pathway into employment, and have supported a doubling of the college’s apprenticeship numbers in the past year to about 1,500 young people aged 16-to-18 years.