Hugh Baird College in Bootle will be one of the UK’s first two Career Colleges opening, alongside Oldham College in Greater Manchester.
Career Colleges, launched by Lord Baker last year, are an innovation in employer-led education, with each encouraged to develop strong support from local industry, with businesses involved in designing and delivering the curriculum.
Chairman of the Career Colleges Trust, Luke Johnson, said: “Career Colleges provide young people with the opportunity to develop life-skills and gain practical experience within a specific industry – alongside a rigorous academic education.
“This is essential in today’s world, where we see so many skills gaps, yet still suffer from high youth unemployment. As a business owner myself, I know employers need young people to be ready for work, and able to adapt to the workplace. Career Colleges will help arm them with this essential know how.”
Hugh Baird College principal and chief executive Yana Williams added: “We want to offer educational choices to young people in Bootle and across the Liverpool City Region that equip them with life skills and prepare them for work while also ensuring they have a sound academic grounding.
“The Visitor Economy has been identified by the Liverpool City Region Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) as a key growth area with a range of employment opportunities for our learners.
“By focussing our Career College on the hospitality and catering industry, we are confident that we will help to ensure that employers’ needs are fulfilled in future years with highly skilled, work ready individuals with a clear understanding of the sector and employer expectations.
“Providing skills-based training for 14-19 year olds can help motivate young people and re-engage those who may have become disinterested with the wholly academic focus at many schools.
“We have already filled our Year 10 cohort for this coming September, demonstrating the support and need for Hugh Baird’s Career College.”
The 14 to 16-year-old curriculum focuses on key GCSE subjects such as English, maths, ICT and science and at Hugh Baird offers a hospitality and catering pathway to help students to gain hands-on, work-related qualifications.