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Education - Uplands Community College

Uplands Community College, in Wadhurst, East Sussex, became one of the country's Specialist Technology Colleges in 2001. Working together with four other schools, they helped to create the Wealden Skills Centre, to provide students taking skills courses, such as carpentry or plumbing with practical experience in a purpose-built environment.

The centre also provides a number of courses for adults in the community to learn new skills and enable them to improve their employment options.

The centre has received financial support from the Learning & Skills Council Sussex, East Sussex County Council, Wealden District Council, and the Wealden Education Business Partnership, who recognise the importance of this project to the young people it will benefit and support. In addition, funding was also received from the South East England Development Agency, through the East Sussex Economic Partnership.

Rydon has partnered Uplands and the Wealden Skills Centre in a programme which aims to provide students with opportunities to learn about construction as a career and to experience some of the skills used in the industry at first hand.

At a nearby site in Crowborough we created a classroom environment and invited teachers from the school to use the facility to deliver lessons related to construction. This enabled them to combine the theoretical, classroom-based teaching with the experience of observing the work in practice in one location. In addition, we hosted an industry day for the year 9 pupils from Uplands and also provided visits to one of our construction sites in Crawley for pupils attending skills sessions at the Wealden Skills Centre.

Rydon also took on three pupils from the Wealden Skills Centre on a one-year work experience programme, with one based at Rydon Homes and two working for our property maintenance division.