North Shropshire college's £3m move to take more students
A college in north Shropshire is to invest £3 million in buildings and equipment to accommodate more than 500 extra students.
The project at the Walford campus of the Walford and North Shropshire College, near Baschurch, will create five jobs over the next two years.
An apprenticeship headquarters, five classrooms, office space for up to 20 staff and a large multi-purpose workshop will be built after the college was given money.
It comes from the Skills Funding Agency, which works with the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills to promote adult further education and skills training.
Much of the money will be used to bring listed stable buildings back into use as a rural skills centre.
One of the buildings will become a rural enterprise hub to support and promote self-employment and small business start-ups.
As a result the college will be able to take on an extra 100 students and apprentices, aged 16 to 18, and more than 400 extra part time adults.
Andrew Tyley, college principal, said "Our funding bid was pretty ambitious and provides a fantastic opportunity to bring back into use some wonderful buildings which have sat unused for many years.
"We are hoping we can start work on the farm developments straight after Christmas and to have the majority of the teaching facilities finished by the end of next year. The whole emphasis of our bid was about promoting employment for young people."
