The Cornwall College Camborne and Duchy College Rosewarne campuses will benefit from new buildings as well as the refurbishment of existing areas to support excellence in vocational training, thanks in part to a recently announced £2million allocation from the Skills Funding Agency’s (SFA) Enhanced Renewal Grant. The College will contribute a further £4million to increase the overall spend.

College Principal Dave Linnell said: “The SFA grant will enable us to progress with major redevelopments of two sites which have been planned for some time. This is excellent news and will build on previous developments on these and other campuses, providing modern and attractive learning facilities for our students to benefit even more from the high quality courses offered at Cornwall College.”

As the bigger site, the Camborne campus, located on Trevenson Road in Pool, will receive £4.3million to develop two key areas, benefitting over 2500 students annually and complementing the site’s most recent development – a £1.5million facelift of the 30 metre tall Tamar building. The Carlyon building (pictured) will be rebuilt to house catering, hospitality, hair and beauty courses across two storeys, including classrooms, offices and a breakout area for the newly established Peter Jones Enterprise Academy. In the same area, the commercially-run Trevenson Restaurant and the Tekhe salon will be refurbished to provide the best facilities for students to train whilst providing a service to the local community. Student eatery Café Metro will also see improvements. The plans have received support from local employers and industry specialists.

Award winning chef Nathan Outlaw, who oversees the training of Cornwall College apprentices in his Cornish restaurants, commented: “Food and drink in Cornwall are second to none because we have great restaurants, great produce and a great college. Cornwall College’s fantastic new facilities will let even more young people train at the cutting edge and be ready to succeed in our industry.”

Ruth Huxley, Director of Cornwall Food & Drink, the county’s food industry development organisation, welcomed the plans: “No-one can under-estimate the value of this news to Cornwall. The hospitality industry is such an important part of the local economy, not only providing valuable jobs but also helping to attract the increasing number of visitors who come to the county specifically because of its reputation for great food and drink. It is absolutely essential that we have the skills to match those expectations and, while Cornwall College is already well known throughout the UK for the high calibre of its students, this new state-of-the-art facility will attract new entrants and give them the opportunity to hone their skills to an even higher standard.”

At Duchy College Rosewarne funding of £1.7 million has been secured to build a brand new Animal Management Centre, which will provide over 1600 students with fantastic, state of the art practical facilities to enhance their learning experience. This new building will include spacious, modern classrooms for theory lessons, plus specialist areas to house exotic species, a range of small mammals and a dog grooming salon. The high quality facilities will replicate those which students will encounter when they go out to work within the animal industry, giving them the opportunity to experience the very best example of good animal welfare and, in the longer term, will enable them to support the land-based sectors in the county more effectively. As a result of this project, temporary buildings at Duchy College Rosewarne can now be demolished and the whole area landscaped to enhance the beautiful surroundings at the College.

The Rosewarne build is set to start in April and be completed by November of this year.

Find out more about the new developments here.