College’s £5.9m expansion to meet demand for creative arts and construction teaching
A £5.9m redevelopment at a South West college will create new state-of-the-art digital and creative art studios and almost double the size of its construction workshops.
The project, at Wiltshire College & University Centre’s Trowbridge campus, will ensure it keeps pace with demand from rising student numbers, as well as employers’ changing needs.
CGI of Wiltshire college’s new art studio
Work is already under way, with new teaching centres expected to be ready for the start of the 2027/28 academic year.
The project also involves the construction of a mezzanine floor within an unused building alongside the Tech Trowbridge digital technology teaching hub, which itself was doubled in size last year to meet demand for places.
The new £4.3m School for Digital and Creative Art will feature a 385 sq m open plan art studio with IT and media suites and a state-of-the-art audio-visual studio for creating and recording sound and video content.
It will be home to all of the campus’s creative art courses, with the move leaving the vacant space for the expansion of construction training.
Meanwhile, the new £1.6m Construction Skills Centre will feature an extra 540 sq m of multi-skills workshops, training bays and electrical workshops, all linked to the existing construction building by a new shared entrance.
The college has seen a steady rise in student numbers at all its campuses, particularly at Trowbridge, and its close links with employers have helped it identify skills gaps in Wiltshire and the surrounding area.
CGI of Wiltshire College’s new art studio
Steve Campion, college deputy principal corporate resources, said the investment would allow it to meet the needs and aspirations of future students while enhancing its teaching at Trowbridge.
It follows recent investment at the college’s Salisbury, Chippenham and Lackham campuses.
“This construction expansion will support the skills needed to meet the challenge of significant local housebuilding in the area,” he added.
“Across the whole campus we will be helping more students gain the knowledge and skills they need to progress to higher education, apprenticeships and employment, while improving their overall student experience.
Plans for the expansion, which is funded with the help of £4.8m from the Department for Education (DfE) and college reserves, will be on show at open events in Trowbridge on 30 September and 7 November.
