The Warwickshire College Group (WCG) have updated their stakeholders on the developments across their Pershore & Evesham colleges.
There is good news within Evesham as achievement rates have risen in the past 5 years since WCG merged with South Worcestershire College in 2016, to 83% giving students better life chances.
Having improved quality at Evesham College, they are now moving to the next phase in its development, which is to re-shape the College to have a much more technical and professional focus, meeting the economic needs of the area and complementing provision at other post-16 providers in the area.
This new focus will be on subjects in the disciplines of Engineering, Construction, Motor Vehicle Maintenance, Graphic Design, e-Sports, and Hair, Beauty and Barbering.
Work will begin this Spring to transform the college estate over an 18-month period. The main focus will be the Technology Block, where new plumbing and expanded carpentry workshops are being created, and the Creative Block which is being digitised to prepare it for housing the growing e-Sports course and Graphic Design provision.
Pershore College is also entering another phase of development. In 2016 WCG developed their now successful agri-tech centre and in continued support of the region they are working with the Worcestershire LEPand other stakeholders, to further expand their role in supporting Worcestershire’s growers and agri- businesses. At the same time Pershore College will also expand its further and higher education courses into the area of human health from September 2021.
Additional classrooms will be built in the Avonbank building as well as in the main building and the Agri-tech centre. There are also improvements for the motor vehicle workshop to ensure learners have the technology they need when gaining skills for work.
Some £1.2 million is being spent across Evesham and Pershore Colleges to improve the estate.
The full update for Evesham can be found here and Pershore here.