Reaseheath College in massive training push

Reaseheath, in Cheshire, is the dairy champion college for the government’s National Skills Academy programme, an employer-led initiative that aims to create training centres of excellence for several industries.

The government has already allocated £43M to the college, with Reaseheath providing a further £8M. Of that cash, it has spent £15M to date, some of which has been poured into constructing a library. A total of £1M has been earmarked for a new engineering academy.

Reaseheath is also bidding for further funds from the Learning and Skills Council and the North West Development Agency, said Chris Edwards, dairy training and development manager. The college is to be told shortly if it has secured the money.

“In the longer term we are developing different courses for other sectors of the [food and drink] industry,” added Edwards.

Meanwhile, Dairy UK, the dairy industry trade association, is developing a pan-European training qualification for the sector, for which 10 colleges, including Reaseheath, are bidding to be the official training provider. A decision is expected on the initiative, known as Project Eden, in the next few weeks.

Reaseheath, which has its own halls of residence with 400 beds for 16-18 year-old students, also has manufacturing facilities and makes and sells nine tonnes of cheese annually.

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