Sheppey College expansion update

Published Monday 12 February, 2024
Last updated on Monday 18 March, 2024

Plans are beginning to take shape to deliver more health, education, leisure and employment opportunities in Sheerness.

East Kent Colleges Group (EKC Group) unveiled draft plans for one of three schemes that make up the Sheerness Revival Project at two consultation days last week.

The plans for EKC Sheppey College’s extension were on display for viewing and to get comments and feedback from the public and local councillors, before final plans are submitted to the council.

The extension, which is part of the £20 million Sheerness Revival project has been put together by Swale Borough Council after successfully bidding for funding from the Government's Levelling Up Fund.

This extension will provide more places for students and an expanded curriculum at the college to give opportunities to residents for careers in key industries.

The newly developed curriculum plan will focus on 16-19-year-olds and will offer creative, engineering and logistics courses.

The other schemes that make up Sheerness Revival are creating new and improved leisure and health facilities at Beachfields, and refurbishing the Masters House site to provide space and support for young people to start their own businesses.

Cllr Monique Bonney, chair of the regeneration and property committee, said:

“It is great to know that the plans for the college extension are coming together, as there has been a lot of work behind the scenes to get to this stage.

“Projects like these don't just happen overnight, but this consultation gave the public the opportunity to see some of our ambitious plans taking shape.

“The feedback the college received will help inform their final plans, which will be submitted for planning permission towards the end of February.

“This is a great example of partners working together to make a real difference to the lives of the people in Sheerness, and the wider area.”

Graham Razey, Chief Executive Officer of EKC, said:

“The extension of our EKC Sheppey College is such an exciting project for our Group and the whole community on the Isle of Sheppey, which we proudly serve.

“We have always been constrained by space at the college site, so haven’t been able to provide as wide a range of curriculum as we’d wanted.

“This project is going to enable us to expand outwards, building an incredibly exciting new extension to the existing College, and serving up fantastic new curriculum that will meet the needs of Sheppey’s employers.

“The consultation event we held was incredibly positive, with residents on the Island saying how excited they were to see this progressing.”