BUILDING is progressing on Whitehill and Bordon’s Future Skills Centre, as this photograph from operator the Basingstoke College of Technology shows.

The Future Skills Centre promises to offer top-quality technical training to students age 16 and over.

The centre will give young people, employers and the wider community the skills necessary for the jobs that will be created by the town’s regeneration, and improve the area’s economic prosperity.

Located in the former Louisburg Barracks, its core curriculum will focus on construction and skills for the built environment, reflecting the skills needed in the area.

Although the focus will be on training for the construction sector, the centre will also be a hub for technical training and will host a broad adult and community learning programme for the wider population.

Basingstoke College of Technology has been appointed as Hampshire County Council’s operating partner to deliver the curriculum at the centre, which expects to welcome the first students in the 2017 autumn term.

It is funded by £3.8m from the Local Growth Fund Grant (from the Enterprise M3 Local Enterprise Partnership) and is part of the wider Louisburg Barracks development of 500 homes and employment opportunities, being delivered by the Government’s Homes and Communities Agency.