Great news that Chelmsford College is set to receive £588,231 following the Government’s announcement to transform further education colleges across the country with £1.5 billion of new capital in England over the next five years.
I am told this money will be used to continue the refurbishment work at the Princes Road campus. The funding will both increase their capacity and allow them to teach more modern building methods, alternative methods of constriction, some of the renewable energy subjects and possibly plumbing / Heating and Ventilation. The new building replaces some temporary accommodation the college has had in place for the last 15 plus years. The LGF3 bid was for £1.295m of a £2m project, the Department for Education capital allocation will cover the remainder. Overall, that should allow them to teach an additional 110 full-time students and about 50 apprentices. Learners have started to return to their campuses in a COVID-19 secure way. Entry and Level 1 learners will be on site 100% of the time, with L2 and L3 learners doing roughly a 50% blended model to start with.
In June, the Prime Minister announced that an initial £200 million of the £1.5 billion in capital funding will be brought forward to this financial year, 2020 to 2021. This will support further education colleges to undertake immediate remedial work in this financial year to upgrade the condition of their estate and provide a jobs boost as the country and its education system recover at this challenging time.
