Premier Construction

LSBU Passmore Centre

Passmore Centre
Written by Roma Publications

LSBU Passmore Centre

The University’s new business and networking hub for high quality professional and technical courses opens in autumn 2018.

London South Bank University (LSBU) has received £5 million from Southwark Council to help create the Passmore Centre, which will support apprenticeships, skills and training in the borough. A further £3m million funding has come from the Higher Education Council for England (HEFCE) along with £4 million from LSBU’s own funds, which will be used to expand the facilities needed to deliver higher and degree apprenticeships.

The creation of the new Passmore Centre demonstrates the University’s strong commitment to supporting learners and apprenticeships in Southwark, while enabling Southwark Council to realise its aim of creating 2,000 apprenticeships by 2020 and strengthen the local economy.

It is hoped that 2,000 students will be undertaking apprenticeships at the University each year by 2020. Around 600 of these are expected to achieve higher degree apprenticeship qualifications or the equivalent. By 2023, the aim is to have helped roughly 1,000 Southwark residents to graduate from a high quality apprenticeship programme that will give them the skills demanded to tackle the jobs of the future.

The Passmore Centre will have a specific focus on employer engagement, providing a ‘one stop shop’ to help employer’s access information about apprenticeships and potential apprentices. The centre will also offer space for employer meetings, community engagement and teaching facilities.

As with the Clarence Centre – a local Grade II listed Georgian pub and adjacent buildings that the University spent £13 million on converting in 2013 – this latest project will also contribute to the preservation of Elephant and Castle’s heritage. The refurbishment of the Passmore Edwards Library on Borough Road will bring this handsome, listed Victorian building back into use after many years on the council’s register of endangered buildings.

Councillor Peter John, Leader of Southwark Council, said: “In September 2016 the council made a commitment to do all we can to support a high quality further education and skills offer in Southwark. But a commitment is only worth something if action follows, which is why we have made this £5 million investment in the Passmore Centre to create a gateway for learners into higher professional and technical education – an investment that will equip 1,000 Southwark residents to achieve high quality apprenticeships and give them the skills to take up the jobs demanded of the future.”

Professor David Phoenix, Vice-Chancellor of LSBU said: “Southwark’s generous £5million donation to the Passmore Centre means that this project is a reality and LSBU can contribute to meeting the UK’s national shortfall in professional and technical skills.”

London South Bank University is one of London’s largest and oldest universities. Since 1892 they have been providing vocationally-relevant accredited and professionally recognised education. LSBU is a cosmopolitan university with over 18,000 students drawn from over 130 countries. They have been awarded Silver for teaching excellence under the Government’s Teaching Excellence Framework and are University of the Year for Graduate Employment, as well as being recognised as Times Higher Education Entrepreneurial University of the Year 2016.

Work on the Passmore Centre started in January 2018 and is set to be completed in September 2018, with work being undertaken by main contractors ITC Concepts Ltd – a highly skilled fit out and interior refurbishment company who work for major brands across the commercial, education, healthcare, leisure, residential, retail, transport and public sectors.

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Roma Publications