Swindon College’s £17 million bid to become an Institute of Technology (IOT), is one of only 16 colleges in England and Wales to have reached the final round of the tender process, which commences in July. The bid is part of the Governments drive to establish a national network of specialist IOTs, to tackle the skills shortage in computing, manufacturing and life sciences.
The IOT bid is a collaboration between Gloucestershire University, Swindon College and anchor partners from the private sector including local employers; Excalibur Communications Ltd, Nationwide, Catalent Pharma Solutions and Bath ASU. It also has the support of local enterprise partnerships, Swindon and Wiltshire and GFirst. If it wins approval, the institute will be responsible for implementing new technical courses and training to more than a thousand higher level apprentices and students across the region.
Peter Boucher, Excalibur CEO, comments; “This bid is a project close to our hearts, not only as a local employer but as a company that is passionate about education. Through our education division, Techs4Education, we have been providing specialist IT solutions and support to the education sector for over ten years. Our goal has always been to enable teachers to deliver an exceptional education experience on campus or remotely.
“Excalibur has always been actively involved with local apprenticeship schemes and has its own business school programme for employees. Supporting the bid is a natural move for us as we want to keep and up-skill our local talent.”
