STAFFORD College has unveiled proposals for a £13m redevelopment of its campus in Earl Street. Principal Stephen Willis confirmed that the College expects to submit a planning application to Stafford Borough Council within weeks. The project centres around the demolition of outdated buildings on the campus and the construction of new, state-of-the-art facilities in their place.

Last year the College was one of 79 to have outline approval for ambitious building programmes, only to have funding withdrawn when the Learning & Skills Council was forced to suspend its capital programme. Mr Willis said that the new project will be fully funded from College resources.
 
“We want to demolish the workshop building, which has been largely unusable since a fire several years ago. On that site we hope to create a new building which will house a Learning Resource Centre with integrated ILT (Information Learning Technology) suites as well as teaching areas for catering and beauty therapy including high quality training restaurants and beauty salons open to the public,” explained Mr Willis. 
 
The project also includes proposals to landscape and pedestrianise the remaining external campus space. 

“Students play a key role in the town's economy and the large numbers of staff and students using the town centre each day has a significant impact on local businesses. The new campus will attract an even greater number of people to the town centre and the subsequent impact on the local economy will be noticeable,” said Mr Willis.
 
“The new build provides a real opportunity for bringing in new technology that mirrors that of the modern, well-equipped workplace. The new facilities will support the national policy and our own target to grow the numbers of young people engaged in Apprenticeships. It will provide resources that will benefit all our students.”

Confirmation of the College’s plans to create a flagship campus for the town centre come after Ofsted inspectors highlighted outstanding aspects of the work carried out by Staffordshire’s leading college. Stafford College is also riding high in league tables measuring the success of students sitting A-levels and equivalent vocational qualifications in 2009, becoming the top-performing centre countywide when measured against other further education colleges and sixth forms in the state sector.