From education to employment

Lord Nigel Jones to Spearhead College’s Bid for Involving Business in Development

The Government has made little secret of its desire to bring the world of business into the education arena in a bid to enhance the level of investment and create genuinely work ““ centred qualifications that provide the workforce of tomorrow with skills that employers look for.

In a local initiative to meet this challenge of involving business in FE, Aylesbury College have announced that they have invited both local and national businesses and enterprises to become a part of the future of the college. The offer will see businesses invited to provide sponsorship for activities within the college’s new Oxford Road Campus through the Working on Wishes (WOW) programme.

Steering Committee

The new campus, costing £30 million and making the college completely state-of-the-art, will be offered for sharing the services of contributing organisations and will also be a forum for these organisations to promote their work. The steering committee is being headed by Lord Nigel Jones of Cheltenham, who is a keen advocate of supporting business links with education. Lord Jones welcomed the early contributors and the efforts of Governors in setting the programme up at the lunchtime reception at the Palace of Westminster.

The reception was also attended by the local MP, David Liddington, who took the opportunity to congratulate the college on the development of the programme. The sponsorship is expected to result in departments being named after sponsors, and will potentially provide local businesses and their staff the chance to share the new College facilities such as the Health Spa, Restaurant, Hair and Beauty salon and Travel shop.

A First for the College

The Principal of the College, Pauline Odulinski, spoke of the novel approach, saying: “For the first time in our 43 year history, we are actively inviting local commerce to partner with us in a new initiative for Buckinghamshire which is designed to build closer links between the business community and the College.”

Pauline went on to say: “We hope that the opportunity of reaching over 5000 full and part- time students as well as establishing a strong association with this brilliant new College campus will prove attractive at many levels. This is good news for students and staff who can both benefit from the closer involvement of the business community.”

Jethro Marsh

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