Merged college to get big cash boost

MUCH-NEEDED investment of £16m will be spent on Stockport College as it merges with Trafford in a bid to become ‘the best in Greater Manchester’.

The ambitious target was revealed as the two colleges – which have 14,000 students and a turnover of £37m between them – officially announced their partnership this week.

Principal and chief executive Lesley Davies said the money will be spent over the next two years at the Wellington Road South campus. It is hoped that the fortunes of Stockport College, currently rated as ‘inadequate’, will be revived by the merger with two-campus Trafford, which is rated as ‘good’.

Ms Davies said: “If you look at the campus now buildings need work doing to them. Stockport College hasn’t got the quality where it needs to be.

“From today we are working to improve the quality of provision in Stockport. Our aim is always to be outstanding but at the very minimum we want to be good and push to be the best college in Greater Manchester.

“All mergers take a while as it is complex merging any two businesses. But it has been worth the wait and we are really excited at the prospect of having three campuses.”

Details for spending the money, which has come from the Greater Man- chester Combined Authority, are still at the ‘design’ stage.

But among the plans for the large-scale campus redevelopment are a newlook theatre, art block improvements and a new space in the centre for students to socialise and study.

It is also intended to offer a greater range of subjects for GCSE resits, more health and social care courses and increased adult education to help with employability skills.

The third of these areas has already been praised as of a good standard by the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education.

Of the Trafford campuses the one at Talbot Road, Old Trafford, is seen as specialising in engineering and the Manchester Road, Altrincham, one in A levels and hospitality.

Stockport counts trades such as building and brick-laying as its strengths.

It will be called Stockport College part of the Trafford College Group. Ms Davies’s deputy principal and chief executive will also be the on-site principal at Stockport and all three sites will share a board of governors.