College's construction centre expands

A college has expanded one of its sites to offer 100 new places to students taking construction courses.

Abingdon and Witney College's Bicester Construction Skills Centre opened in 2021 and had been at full capacity with 200 students enrolled.

The college's principal Jacqui Canton said it was "really excited" at the expansion and was keen to carry on work done with local companies.

"We want to continue to do the work for the construction industry, with all the amazing employers we work with," she said.

"There's such a skills shortage across the country but particularly in Oxfordshire. I don't think you can miss the amount of new housebuilding that's going on anywhere you go."

The Labour government wants to build 1.5 million new homes across the country by 2029, including just over 5,000 across Oxfordshire every year.

Ryan Harris, the regional director for construction company Hill in Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire, said the country had "never had a government that's been so supportive of housebuilding and infrastructure".

But he added: "The industry has a shortfall of 250,000 workers. That is likely to increase as we strive to meet the government's ambitious targets."

Mark French, the head of the Construction Skills Centre, said the college was looking to make teaching more attractive to younger people.

"It used to be that you'd wait until your knees had gone in your 50s and that would be the time to come into teaching," he said.

"We're trying to show something a bit different to that now – that your knees don't have to be blown to teach."

You can follow BBC Oxfordshire on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram.