CECAMM at Whippingham is to form part of the South Coast Institute of Technology (IoT), backed by over £13 million in funding from the Department for Education.
The college will open to new students from September 2023 and is expected to welcome over 1000 students across the educational partners in the first academic year.
The South Coast IoT is a collaboration of 5 further education colleges and 2 universities. It will deliver a wide range of flexible post-16 technical education including T Levels, Higher Technical qualifications, apprenticeships, degrees, and professional qualifications.
These courses can lead to a wide range of exciting and dynamic career pathways, from super yacht engineers and manufacturing wind turbines to researching long-term sustainable solutions to climate change and building virtual production film sets.
Building work will now start on 7 capital grant projects to create industry-standard facilities, including the construction of new Centres of Excellence (CoE) and the expansion of existing centres across providers.
The investment will deliver enhanced facilities at Fareham College’s CEMAST campus in Lee-on-the-Solent, a new higher education digital centre and expansion of CECAMM at the Isle of Wight College, a new digital centre at Eastleigh College, refurbish engineering and digital facilities across Havant and South Downs College, new equipment at the marine technology centre at Brockenhurst College and fund construction of an Engineering CoE at Solent University, Southampton.
The University of Portsmouth, which is also a partner, will also benefit from the funding, enhancing its provision of high-quality degree, technical and apprenticeship programmes serving the community.
The South Coast IoT is central to developing the talent pipeline, ensuring a sufficient home-grown workforce with the right skills to meet industry needs. The IoT is working with key employers, including anchor partners the Royal Navy and Portsmouth International Port.
The South Coast IoT also have support from key local employers such as IBM, QinetiQ, Leonardo, Maritime UK Solent, GKN, DDC, and Teemill.
Who knew that “white elephant” was spelled CECAMM?