MORE than 50 employers, together with MP Sarah Gibson and Lord Lansdowne, were left impressed by the set-up at Wiltshire College & University Centre’s Chippenham campus after they attended a Chippenham Chamber of Commerce and Town Team Business Breakfast.
The chamber chose the College after being invited to check out what was on offer at the campus and Chair Sandie Webb said she has been wowed by the campus.
“I thought the college and the people were absolutely amazing,” she said. “When I first went there a few weeks ago it was the first time I’d walked through the doors and it looks magnificent.
“The facilities there are stunning, but what makes it better are the people, there’s just so much kindness and so much togetherness there.”
In welcoming guests to the breakfast, where the theme was the future of Chippenham, she spoke about how good it was to see a mix of independent businesses and major employers, voluntary organisations and local authorities at the event.
MP Sarah Gibson also attended the event, welcoming the opportunity to meet local businesses and hear about their successes and challenges.
College Head of Business Development Jarid Clark-Bound spoke about what the college has to offer businesses and said the event gave him and his team the chance to meet employers and talk about their skills needs.
“It’s really important for us that we are working with local employers to allow them to shape the local curriculum, so to have more than 50 of them in here for the meeting was excellent,” he said.
“We’ve sent out a survey to businesses about shaping curriculum, what they feel are the skills gaps in the area and what we can do to help fix that. I spoke about our courses and what we can do, but actually what I found was really invaluable was just chatting to them and trying to align our curriculum with local need.”
He said the feedback he received was hugely helpful. “It was really good and so insightful for us to start building relationships with the employers, quite a few of whom we’d not met before,” he said.
“I also think everyone who came got a really good understanding what facilities we have and some went away with their preconceptions about the college changed. There were a few who haven’t been here for a number of years and couldn’t believe the positive changes here.”
Sandie said she has had nothing but good feedback on the event. “There was a real energy around the tables and it demonstrated just how much can be achieved when we work together, with a shared ambition to make Chippenham an even better place to live, work and visit,” she said.
“We very much enjoyed being at the college, it’s not just a beautiful modern building but it has a great team and the students are very lucky that they’ve got such good people around them.”
Work with us
Businesses interested in working with Wiltshire College & University Centre, helping shape the curriculum or exploring training opportunities can find out more through the College’s Business Development team.
