Providing the best skills for the future (From Kidderminster Shuttle)

Providing the best skills for the future

9:30am Sunday 16th September 2012 in Local

Hundreds of students have just joined the Academy at Kidderminster to continue the next stage of their learning journey.

Following its stunning £10 million makeover by Thomas Vale with facilities which are amongst the very best in the country, the Academy in Weavers Wharf is providing the best educational opportunities for the first cohort of learners. The skills and entrepreneurial academy, a partnership between Birmingham Metropolitan College and Kidderminster College , is an innovative collaboration with industry and will create a wider and better choice of education and training for learners and employers in the Wyre Forest region.

The association and partnership with local and global companies such as Samsung, Dixons Retail Knowhow Home Service, John Lewis and BMW is developing opportunities for apprenticeships and enhancing job prospects for learners. Employers have been invited to identify areas of skills shortages which the Academy will respond to by putting on suitable training. The warehouse concept of the original building has been retained; students will be working on live industry-led projects in contemporary learning spaces which provide industry standard suites for media, fashion laboratories and professional training facilities in world-class commercial kitchens. Learners will have access to the latest Samsung technologies in the Samsung Experience Academy. Learners really will learn by doing.

Qualifications for Fashion, Hospitality and Culinary Arts, Entrepreneurship, Legal and Marketing along with android Apps, HTML 5 Web Apps, Java and a full suite of qualifications in the Samsung Experience Academy will be delivered at the new Academy.

Through the Birmingham College’s connectivity with global businesses, such as Samsung, learners and businesses will have outstanding opportunities to get the skills they need to find employment.

For further information about the Academy at Kidderminster, visit kidderminster2012.ac.uk