SALISBURY'S new University Technical College (UTC) has been completed ahead of schedule as it gets ready to open its doors and welcome its first 200 students.

The Wilton Road site opens on September 1 after an £8m refurbishment, which has included the installation of £1m of specialist kit and equipment, and the first students arrive two days later.

South Wiltshire UTC Principal Gordon Aitken, speaking about the new building, said: "It is looking superb. We have preserved the traditional landmark building outside with a modern state-of-the art learning environment that has the best of both worlds."

The new building has traditional classrooms with interactive television screens, which will link up the students' individual laptop computers, as well as specialist workshops for computer aided design (CAD), 3D printing, electronic and mechanical engineering and science labs, adding to the workplace learning environment.

"All the specialist facilities have all been designed to industrial standard so students get a real flavour of what the workplace will be like," added Mr Aitken.

UTCs are a national initiative and students join at either Year 10, the start of GCSEs, or Year 12, the start of sixth form.

South Wiltshire UTC has been over-subscribed for Year 10 places for months and has only a few places left for sixth formers.

Mr Aitken said: “Students do all the usual GCSEs, A Levels and BTECs but on top of that they learn prized technical skills and work on real-world projects set by employers. As a result they gain employability skills such as time management, communication, problem-solving and team-working that make them stand out from other young people.”

The working day is different with students on site from 8.45am to 5.00pm — splitting their time between formal lessons, group project work and supervised study.

The initiative is backed by many of the area’s top employers including Dstl, Salisbury NHS Hospital Trust, Stannah Stairlifts, Chemring, QinetiQ and Public Health England. There is also backing from the Royal Navy and the British Army and the University of Southampton is a lead sponsor.

The UTC will be open on Thursday on GCSE results day from 10.30 to enrol students and Mr Aitken says it is not too late for students to come along and apply to join the sixth form.

He said: “The UTC is new and very different and some students are only just finding out about it. We have spaces for A Levels in the sciences, electronics, computing, geography, Maths, English, Economics and Psychology and on our three — A Level equivalent BTEC Extended Diploma in engineering. Whether students want to go on to university or secure places in top apprenticeship programmes they can have no better start than sixth form at the UTC.”

Due to the very high level of demand this year, the UTC is already getting expressions of interest for 2016 and even 2017 enrolment, although the application process does not officially start until September 1.

The UTC’s open days are from 4pm to 8pm on October 20 and November 10. The deadline for Year 10 applications for next year is 31 October.

For more information go to wiltshire-utc.co.uk