NORTH Cornwall is now the home to an innovative education centre for STEM and healthcare which was formally opened by the education minister.

MP Gillian Keegan, secretary of state for education, accompanied by the Conservative MP for North Cornwall Scott Mann and Cornwall Council leader Linda Taylor were given a tour of the new facility located in the Ottery Building of Callywith College. The project was backed by £3.78-million from the government’s Local Enterprise Partnerships.

The trio met students from across Cornwall who were benefitting from the courses offered by the state-of-the art centre and saw demonstrations of the facilities in action. This included the health education facility, which was built to an identical specification as would be offered in a hospital setting allowing a smooth transition into the workplace.

After the tour, an official cutting of the ribbon ceremony took place, where the secretary of state opened the facility accompanied by students and officials from the college.

After the event, she said of the facility: “I think that what has impressed me the most is that the building is amazing, the equipment is up to date, but it’s the way that all the people across Cornwall have really worked together to make this possible.

“Whether it’s the hospitals, the advanced manufacturing, the engineering companies, pretty much everybody in this area has come together to make sure that young people and anyone who wants to retrain has access to the latest and greatest facilities, with courses up to level seven as well, which I think is also something.

“I know that something like this was Scott’s vision when he wanted to bring the local skills here and to enable that, it was to be able to go all the way.

“We saw three or four types of engineering and that was just in the groups that we met, and that’s a huge range of advanced engineering. Again, the equipment that they’re working on – and I’ve worked in factories, and I’ve worked in business, and I’ve never seen it at this level. I can’t believe how advanced it is, it’s really the next generation and that will make a real difference.

“We’ve always known there’s talent across our country, but that the opportunity hasn’t always matched it in terms of facilities and access to apprenticeships and courses, that’s been really at the heart of our mission to make that happen across the country. It’s not just important for the young when it comes an opportunity. I did an apprenticeship and both me and Scott feel very passionately about these sorts of opportunities and that’s what brought us both into politics in our older life.

“It’s also about the businesses. So much opportunity in Cornwall and Scott mentions all the money coming in but the money doesn’t come in if you can’t find the people and you end up in this catch 22 situation which you do see happen in places. This is why on this we’ve worked together and why it’s brilliant having champions for it such as Scott.”

Mr Mann, the MP for North Cornwall, said that after seeing the facility, he was proud that such opportunities were available in North Cornwall.

He said: “For me, the children that I grew up with when I went through secondary school, a lot of them when they left went to university or moved away, and now we’ve got opportunities for people to remain skilled right here in North Cornwall.

“That makes me exceptionally proud, and I think of all the children who are at secondary school now who are going to have these opportunities right here in North Cornwall, it certainly makes me proud what we’ve done as a government.

“Spreading the opportunities is probably my driving force. Gillian and I both didn’t go through conventional education, and from my perspective, I wanted opportunities to be available for people that didn’t want to go to university, so to have those right here on our doorstep is great.

“Bodmin has been seen over the years to be socially deprived, but there are now huge amounts of investment which is flowing through the town. We were at the Bodmin jail for an event last evening, the money that’s coming into Cornwall is huge but having these kind of skill bases for people to work in industry and having it on our doorstep is wonderful.

“From my perspective, you always see plans but to see something that you’ve worked on for several years, they are going to make a difference going forward, that’s what it’s all about.

“If I was an engineering employer in North Cornwall at this moment in time, I would be absolutely coming to this place to try and get my units that I work on at my factory into here, so they have got the skills to go straight into the workplace.”