Colleges to get share of £42m to repair buildings

2 hours ago

Maisie OlahWest Midlands

The funding will be for 23 colleges in the West Midlands, including Telford College

BBC Photo of the entrance to Telford College. It's a large, three-storey building with white columns holding up a porch over the entrance. There are floor-to-ceiling windows on the right-hand side of the building and its entrance, while the left-hand side is black and brown bricks. Over the entrance, there is a white sign with blue letters that reads, "Welcome to Telford College". — The funding will be for 23 colleges in the West Midlands, including Telford College

Colleges around the West Midlands region will receive a total of £42m in funding to help repair and improve their buildings, the government has announced.

It is part of an overall £1.7bn investment nationally aimed at helping colleges to modernise buildings by 2030.

The money will go towards 23 colleges in the region and will help with repairing leaky roofs, fixing broken windows and updating worn-out heating systems.

Skills Minister Jacqui Smith said: "The young people in these colleges are the engineers, bricklayers and designers of the future, and they and the dedicated staff teaching them deserve the best possible environment to learn and succeed."

The Department for Education (DfE) said each college would receive individual allocations in the summer, ranging from £6,000 for smaller institutions to £7m for large college groups for the next academic year.

It follows the national announcement of £570m to increase capacity in colleges to train the next generation of skilled workers.

City of Wolverhampton College said the money would help its Wellington Road campus to become more like its new city one

Google Light coloured college building with a grey sign in front on a grass round verge, saying City of Wolverhampton College. A green bus stop is near the entrance as well as a red and white car. — City of Wolverhampton College said the money would help its Wellington Road campus to become more like its new city one

City of Wolverhampton College is one of the colleges benefitting from the funding, and said the money would enable it to provide modern features at its Wellington Road campus to the same level as at its new City Learning Quarter (CLQ) campus, which opened in November.

The college added that it would be getting £1.92m from the funding, which would enable further improvements to learning facilities, digital systems and breakout spaces at the Wellington Road campus to ensure that learners and staff on the site benefitted from comparable facilities to those at CLQ.

Stoke-on-Trent College is also receiving funding, and said it was "grateful" for the money.

"Funding allocated to the college ensures that we can continue to offer outstanding facilities that support our learners to be skills-ready and future-ready," chief financial officer David Osborne said.