A huge new state-of-the-art skills institute has opened at Truro and Penwith College in Cornwall.
The Future Skills Institute will offer adult education courses for people over the age of 19, with training developed in collaboration with employers and in line with the local skills strategies of the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly LEP, Cornwall Council and Cornwall Chamber of Commerce.
The institute includes the University Centre Truro and Penwith and its 19+ Career and Professional Development offer. The new £7.3m Valency Building at Truro College opened last week as part of the innovative South West Institute of Technology.
The College’s Future Skills Institute was launched at an event on May 19, supported by special guest speaker Jason Bradbury from TV’s The Gadget Show. Among the speakers was also Kathie Bowden, national space and careers lead at the UK Space Agency; and former Truro College student Jamie Williams, who now works in deep space operations for Goonhilly Earth Station.
Martin Tucker, principal at Truro and Penwith College, said: “The Future Skills Institute puts Cornwall on the map as a destination to learn, work, recruit, invest and innovate in the future growth sectors of our economy. Our goal is to develop and retain highly talented people to work and live in Cornwall, with employer collaboration ensuring courses and qualifications meet the needs of quality local careers.
“In line with the Government’s Levelling-Up paper, that pledges the number of people successfully completing high-quality skills training will have significantly increased in every area of the UK by 2030, the Future Skills Institute is already responsible for multi-million-pound investments that are benefitting the future of Cornwall."
Further investment comes in the form of the college’s £6.3m Bodmin-based Health and STEM Skills Centre that is due to open in early 2023. The college is also planning to introduce electric vehicle labs at its Truro and Penwith campuses to support local industry to lead the "electric vehicle revolution" by 2030, it said. The new fleet of vehicles, including the latest Model 3 Tesla, was on show at the launch event.
“Thanks to the Institute working in partnership with employers and embracing new technologies, Cornwall’s workforce is now at the forefront of regional and global innovation. The future starts here," Mr Tucker added.
The University Centre Truro and Penwith was recently boosted by the college’s £492k Cornwall Space and Aerospace Technology Training Project, which is part-funded by the European Social Fund to support skills development for Cornwall’s £1bn space sector and the hundreds of jobs it is anticipated to create, ahead of the first space launch from UK soil at Spaceport Cornwall later this year.
The University Centre is also addressing the future needs of Cornwall’s NHS and care sectors, running Cornwall’s only Nursing Degrees and Nursing Apprenticeships locally, in partnership with Greenwich University, Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust and Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust.
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