A NEW college specifically designed to train apprentices in the construction industry has been given the green light.

Launched as part of Abingdon & Witney College’s apprenticeship programme, the £1m refurbishment of four former warehouse unites on Churchill Road, Bicester, will form a new Construction Skills Centre.

The facility will provide opportunities for apprentices to train for the fast-growing property maintenance sector, alongside traditional professional trades in plumbing, electrical installation, carpentry and joinery.

The first cohort of apprentices will start in February 2021.

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Jacqui Canton, deputy principal of Abingdon and Witney College, who will become the principal in September, said: “We are absolutely delighted to get approval of the centre. We’re grateful for our partners because it couldn’t happen without them.

“In Oxfordshire you can see the amount of building going on at the moment. There’s such a shortage in infrastructure workers. Training for the future is needed.

“They can set up their own business and become self employed. There’s definitely demand for it.”

Oxfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership (OxLEP) secured £934,611 of funding for the project via the Government’s Local Growth Fund.

Since its inception in 2011, OxLEP – with its partners – has secured more than £650m of Government funding for Oxfordshire, which has seen more than 50,000 new jobs created in the county.

The Construction Skills Centre will house the type of industry-standard equipment that apprentices will find in the workplace, including a professional gas centre, electrical training bays for wiring regulation training and a large carpentry workshop.

Apprentices will be supported by the college’s Ofsted Outstanding apprenticeship team and will be taught by industry experts

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Work on the centre started at the beginning of July and is expected to be completed by January 2021.

Ms Canton added: “We have a really long track record for apprenticeships so we're excited to bring this to Bicester. There will be over 100 places every year.

“It’s for adult apprentices, too. Particularly with the coronavirus leaving many without jobs, it is a really good opportunity for them to look at a career in a new sector.”

Abingdon and Witney College is located at three main sites in Abingdon, Witney and Common Leys Farm near Hailey.

The college recruits students from across Oxfordshire and has 2,000 full-time and 10,000 part-time adult students each year.

It also has a wide range of higher education (HE) provision, with over 300 HE students attending each year, and offers ‘high quality and highly regarded’ apprenticeships.

Its facilities were last inspected by Ofsted in 2017 and it was judged Outstanding for apprenticeships.