£800k funding to upgrade Tameside College

Tameside College have been handed a share of £200million worth of funding to upgrade their current buildings.

They’ll receive £872k, part of a £1.5billion pot over the coming years to improve further education buildings.

The money must be spent on improving ‘poorer quality accommodation’, meaning that the funds will be allocated to the Beaufort Road site.

The college say they will match the money with 25% of their own funds.

Any money has to be spent by March 21 2021 and the college say that they will be speaking to the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) about their planned spend.

Principal of Tameside College Jackie Moores says that the money will allow them to bring the Beaufort Road site up to the standards of their other campuses, such as the Clarendon Sixth Form College and Tameside One. She said: “We still have a lot to do as part of the ‘Vision Tameside’ accommodation strategy to bring all of our estate up to the same very high quality as our new buildings which were completed / in progress in phases 1 to 3. 

“Phase 4 is the remainder of our estate and clearly 872K is a very welcome bonus to help us with our plans. But there is still much to do.

“We are now restarting our building project of an 11 million pound construction skills centre and our new builder will be on site by October after Bardsleys went into administration.

“Currently we are looking at options where we could have a significant impact on students’ learning.

The funding was announced last week by Education Secretary Gavin Williamson who said: “We want to build a world class further education system which delivers for the whole nation, and a key part of this is ensuring colleges are fit for the future - with better facilities and brand-new buildings.

“We want all students to continue to receive high-quality education and training, no matter where they grow up or what college they go to. Now more than ever, it is vital that colleges can support their students to gain the skills they need to progress and help the economy to recover and grow.”

Meanwhile as students prepare to return to college from September, Jackie reassured them that it is safe to do so, with the college being risk assessed as “Covid secure.”

She said: “Teaching starts 14^th September and feedback on our arrangements from staff, students and parents during enrolment has been very positive from a safety standpoint. Our new students who we have met this week, during enrolment have behaved very sensibly during enrolment and fully understand the need to follow government and local guidelines in response to Covid.

“For the start of teaching, we have allocated students into ‘bubbles’ to reduce contact and every bubble has its own outdoor space. We have increased our outdoor space overall for those ‘bubbles’ of students with new outdoor furniture. 

“Enhanced cleaning protocols are in place across the college and cleaning stations within classrooms and across the entire estate. Limiting use of the lifts, installing one way systems and lots of signage to raise awareness and keep people safe.

“We are confident that we can operate safely in September when first teaching starts, for school leavers, adults, HE learners and apprentices. Our staff are very keen to reengage with our learners after the protracted lockdown period.

“If any Tameside residents are thinking of upskilling, learning a new skill or thinking about starting back in learning, they should look at our website for details as we are still enrolling to all courses and have live vacancies for apprenticeships.”