The redevelopment of the site will see more than £100 million invested in the area. The scheme will benefit from up to £22.25milion of funding from the London Enterprise Panel.
Replacing the existing college building will be the all new Nine Elms Skills Centre, a ground-breaking education and training facility with a focus on construction, hospitality and science and technology, which will work in close partnership with employers.
It will replace the current 1960’s buildings, which are no longer fit for purpose and fail to meet employers’ needs. The scheme will align to the skills and employment priorities in Lambeth, South London and the Nine Elms regeneration area. Employers will have a direct involvement in curriculum design and delivery in order to ensure learning meets current and future industry needs.
The skills centre will create thousands of career and learning opportunities for young people, delivering in the region of 3,500 apprenticeships and 2,200 jobs. The site will also feature a fully-operational training hotel and additional local housing and public realm improvements will also be delivered.
Following an extensive public consultation process the college and its partners have finalised their proposals, which have been submitted to Lambeth Council.
Monica Box, Interim Principal and Chief Executive of Lambeth College said: “The local community has been really engaged with the college for this development and can see the benefits this skills centre will bring to the area’s education provision and the career and training opportunities for local young people. It will be a landmark and transformational development for this area and reinforce our commitment to be London’s career college.”
Simon Eastwood, Managing Director at Carillion Developments, said: “This is a pioneering project for the UK’s Further Education Sector, which will utilise the expertise of employers, working in partnership with the college, to address skills shortages in sectors such as construction. Carillion is the largest provider of construction skills training in the UK with over 2,500 apprentices in our training centres at any one time and the new Nine Elms Skills Centre will form an important part of our training infrastructure. We are proud to be part of such an ambitious scheme that will improve the long-term skills training opportunities for London.”
Allan Cook, Director of Arlington Real Estate, said: “The regeneration of the Vauxhall site will not only transform the college’s ability to provide world-class training, it will also deliver real benefits to the local community with the provision of additional high quality housing and public realm that is fitting of its place within the wider Nine Elms area.”
The London Enterprise Panel (LEP) is the local enterprise partnership for London. Chaired by Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, the LEP is the body through which the Mayoralty works with London’s boroughs, business and Transport for London to take a strategic view of the regeneration, employment and skills agenda for London. The LEP is responsible for overseeing the allocation of over £400m of funding to drive jobs and growth in the capital and provides strategic oversight of London’s €1.5 billion European Structural & Investment Funds programme.
