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SCHOOL students in north Oxfordshire will soon have the chance to leave their classrooms for one day a week and train in the motorsport industry.

A new college building in Bicester will offer a new engineering diploma from September to students aged 14-19.

It is a joint venture with local motorsport employers - including Honda Racing, Prodrive, Force India and Bicester-based Pankl - Bicester Community College and Cooper School.

Gosford Hill in Kidlington, Lord Williams in Thame, Wheatley Park and St. Birinus in Didcot will also offer the course.

A £250,000 extension will be built at the Oxford and Cherwell Valley College (OCVC) Performance Engineering Centre on Telford Road after the college won a national bidding process to pilot the diploma.

Programme manager Andy Thomas said: "Students will spend one day a week at college, but we will also send staff to the schools."

Engineering is one five subjects being offered under the initiative, which is part of the Government's drive to improve young people's skills and keep them in education or training until 18.

The vocational diplomas will blend job skills such as team-working and problem-solving with English, maths and IT. Students will also complete a project and do 10 days' work experience.

A new showroom will display students' projects, and a bigger refectory will cater for higher student numbers.

College principal Sally Dicketts said: "This is a great opportunity to be part of the fastest and most exciting industry on earth. The new diploma will deliver world-class skills in an area where there is currently a major UK skills shortage."

She added: "This will provide young people in the area with an alternative to other types of further education. It could fast-track them into careers in motorsport, aerospace or general engineering."

Bicester is in the heart of so-called motorsports valley, which stretches into Northamptonshire and Buckinghamshire, with Silverstone Formula 1 track and many Grand Prix teams based nearby.

Building work will start at the end of April and finish by September.

An open day will be held from 10 am to 4pm on Saturday, April 19. For details, contact Mr Thomas on 01865 551108. The consortium is one of 145 nationwide which will provide 40,000 student places on vocational diploma courses from September next year.

The diplomas, which will be a vocational alternative to GCSE and A-levels, will also be in construction and the built environment, IT, creative and media, and society, health and development. Five more diploma subjects are planned to be introduced in 2009, and another four the following year.

2:04pm Thursday 10th April 2008

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