Construction progress on a £6.5m university centre at West Nottinghamshire College has been viewed by David Ralph, Chief Executive of the D2N2 Local Enterprise Partnership – which has given £2.6m towards the project.
The three-storey ‘Vision University Centre’ at the College’s Derby Road campus, in Mansfield, is due to open in September (2016).
It will replace a single storey building with a state-of-the-art, much expanded facility; including teaching and learning spaces, IT suites, study rooms, a learning resource centre, a 100-seat lecture theatre and a science laboratory. It will boost the number of the College’s students on higher education (HE) courses, initially by 400, rising to 600 after three years. Students would include those on advanced apprenticeships, and studying part-time professional qualifications and short courses.
D2N2’s Chief Executive was shown around the site by Dame Asha Khemka, Principal and Chief Executive of West Nottinghamshire College, and D2N2 Board member, yesterday (February 25). Media representatives from the Mansfield CHAD and BBC East Midlands Today (pictured on the site, interviewing Dame Asha and David Ralph) also took the chance to view the construction.
David said: “It was great to see the progress being made on the College’s new centre.
“Providing access to higher level skills for potential employees of the area’s businesses is vital for building the economy and job numbers, allowing all communities to share in prosperity. That is why we are investing significant time and resources in skills and training development, including through capital investment schemes which create leading facilities such as the Vision University Centre at West Nottinghamshire College.”
D2N2’s £2.6m investment in the Vision University Centre comes from its £192 million Local Growth Fund allocation; to be spent over a six year period on improving infrastructure (for example, road schemes, and skills and training sites) which will help economic development across its catchment.
D2N2 – a private sector-led partnership of business, local authorities, skills and training providers, and community organisations – is investing resources and funding in higher employment skills; as part of its remit to promote economic growth and create jobs across Derby, Derbyshire, Nottingham and Nottinghamshire.
For more information about West Nottinghamshire College see its website at www.wnc.ac.uk/
To learn more about what the D2N2 LEP is doing to develop skills and training see web link www.d2n2lep.org/skills
Media wanting further information on the work of the D2N2 Local Enterprise Partnership can contact D2N2 Communications Officer Sean Kirby on 0115 9578749 or email: sean.kirby@d2n2lep.org
