Brecon Beacons College’s newest addition, the College Within the Community Hub – ‘The CWTCH’ has officially opened its doors.
The former tourist information centre will create a vision for further education in Brecon and will be part of the community with open access for all.
Assembly Member of Brecon and Radnorshire and Minister for Education, Kirsty Williams unveiled a plaque to mark the occasion. She was joined by guests including dignitaries, members of the community, staff, and students. She said she hoped and believed the CWTCH will be a very important part of the Brecon community by bringing people together and help to drive the economy in Brecon town.
“It’s given this building re-purpose and will broaden college activity by being so accessible and central. It will be a hub and bring people together. I find this building and what’s going on inspirational,” she added.
The CWTCH has been refurbished and includes flexible working areas, video conferencing facilities, interactive touch screens, and ultra-fast 1GB internet access, along with state of the art computing facilities for both student and public use.
As well as the delivery of courses for college students, the community will be welcome to use the IT facilities as well as sign up for some of the new part-time courses that will be offered from the building which it leases from the local authority.
Also available will be tips on job hunting, setting up your own business, interview techniques, and CV writing. The College is also interested to hear what courses the community would like to see offered and has a suggestion box available at the CWTCH reception.
Mark Dacey, CEO, and Principal of NPTC Group of Colleges said the Group has an enviable and reputation of engaging with the communities that it serves and there are a number of plans to change the way Post-16 education is delivered in Brecon.
“Our aim is to bring the majority of Post-16 education into the town centre, allowing our students to use the facilities and services provided by the shops in Brecon, to contribute to footfall in the Town and to help all of the businesses and contribute positively to the economy.
“We want to engage with the public about our curriculum, our adult courses, short courses, further education, and our higher education. We want to expand the opportunities for our students to access the amazing museum and changing exhibitions and expose our students to the work of the Brecknock Society of Museum Friends. Our plans in Brecon are to develop co-location with the Local Authority, to bring public services together to achieve better value for money, but not to the detriment of those services. We fully support the Welsh Government’s ‘One Welsh Public Service’ ethos and we have a shared purpose and shared drivers to achieve a better and lasting quality of life for all the communities we serve.”
Call in for a chat and find out more! Or visit: nptcgroup.ac.uk/locations-facilities/the-cwtch
