D&A College: VISION

Transform & Regenerate

Dundee & Angus College has a bold and ambitious vision for the future, putting the College at the heart of its communities. Transform & Regenerate

Our vision is to create a new kind of educational experience that brings together the advice, support and skills delivery that people need to start, or restart their career. With our region facing many challenges including poor economic and educational engagement, we aim to provide integrated world-class education and employability services in campuses unrivalled in Scotland. Our campuses will be in the centre of Dundee, the middle of Arbroath and in the innovation district of Dundee at Gardyne. In each location we will bring together multiple agencies concerned with the delivery of employability advice, training and guidance. Each facility will be a central hub of support, innovation and opportunity, creating new ways of working and maximising the collective impact of our partnership efforts. The aim of our vision is to bring about transformation and regeneration. To transform the lives of our students and to breathe vitality back into our local economy by creating the workers, innovators and entrepreneurs of the future. Our shared vision is a blueprint for the future that not only promises to enhance the wellbeing of our communities but also to act as the catalyst for sustainable growth, regeneration and prosperity for generations to come.

Simon Hewitt, Principal, Dundee & Angus College

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Why ?

To deliver our vision for a new kind of college experience, we must create new facilities fit to deliver inspirational teaching, an enhanced learning experience and much-needed advice and support for students. The rational for change

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This vision is a blueprint for what is needed to deliver 21st century opportunities for our students. Each campus will be designed to meet the needs of learners while providing future skilled workers to fuel growth and expansion in our regional ecomony. New socio-economic challenges and changes to the way our students need to learn mean that our existing campuses will struggle to deliver for our local economies. Our new sites will simulate workplaces, and private sector partners will be invited to work with students and staff to deliver the courses and outcomes needed to generate work and wealth. To reinvigorate the training, skills and work readiness of our region we will bring together employability services, both local and national, in one place on each campus. This will provide direct and easily accessible links for learners to ensure a smooth passage from education into work. Current provision is spread between sites and organisations, each with their own approaches, priorities and infrastructure. By bringing them all together we can create a seamless service dedicated to improving opportunities and life chances. To simply replace existing facilities would not be cost effective and would miss the opportunity to change the way in which the public and private sectors can work together to deliver education and improve the economic prospects of our communities. Our once innovative and exciting campuses have served us well but they are now being maintained at considerable cost without being able to provide the sort of environments even the most forward-thinking planners and architects in the post-war era could not have envisioned for the modern learning environment. Unlike our predecessors, we must also plan for a world in which every aspect of our operations move us towards being net-zero in our emissions. This means integrated transport solutions, carbon neutral services and a supply chain that reduces our environmental footprint to a minimum. We must also deliver value for money in our communities. By bringing employability services together, we will be streamlining the help available to students embarking on their journey into work. Ef ciently designed and accessible services delivered in a modern, technology-driven environment designed around modern learning will have a transformational impact on our local economies.

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How ?

Our plan is to create facilities across three campuses that meet the needs and aspirations of our staff and learners in a modern, forward looking environment.

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We want our campuses to be:

Prominent and inspiring in our communities Inclusive and supportive of all learners Flexible and collaborative spaces Sustainable and future-proofed developments To help achieve this, we want to move into two newly built campuses right at the heart of our communities. We want sites in the centre of both Dundee and Arbroath where we will create inspirational buildings that deliver exceptional education and drive economic and social regenerationregeneration. At Gardyne, we already have our most modern and exible campus and we plan to develop a skills base there which complements the work being done by private companies at the nearby Michelin Scotland Innovation Parc (MSIP) and Dundee docks. We want to make green skills the focus at Gardyne with an modern industry-focused hub that will meet the future skills needs of our region. The timeline has yet to be determined, but some UK Government funding is expected to be allocated to enable work to begin at Gardyne. In Arbroath and Dundee, we have identi ed sites which can be redeveloped to provide inspirational learning environments. Talks with the site owners are at an early stage.

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Where ?

Dundee. Arbroath. Gardyne.

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Dundee City Centre

Dundee is a third of the way through a 30-year transformation project which will create a new waterfront district, revitalise brown eld sites in the centre and expand an industrial ring around the city.

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Dundee City Centre

By focusing on a campus at the site of the Wellgate Centre, D&A would complete an arc of learning environments wrapping the north of the city centre from Dundee University in the west through Abertay University and nishing with the College at the east. The Wellgate site offers a unique opportunity to completely transform a challenged area of the commercial district of the city. New housing would sit alongside the modern campus which will be designed to have a visually stunning impact. New public spaces would be created in which the College and up to 1600 students and staff would provide much needed vitality and lead the economic revival of the Wellgate area. The plan has bold ambition, will create impact, kick-start economic activity and deliver an amazing environment for our students and staff. The masterplan envisages a centre of learning being an essential pillar in the final delivery of the city’s regeneration and the reimagining of its centre.

Arbroath Town Centre

In Arbroath, our current estate around Keptie Road is in a conservation area and is made up of several listed buildings. To redesign and rebuild on the same site would be very challenging and likely to fall short of our ambition to create modern, exible and innovative spaces to inspire students and deliver innovative education.

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Arbroath Town Centre

In the centre of the town, the opportunity to redevelop the site of the Abbeygate shopping centre would be transformational and be the catalyst for a commercial and cultural regeneration of the town centre. A new vibrant facility with 800 students and staff would inject much-needed life and economic activity into an environment which would set the centre of Arbroath up as a learning and social hub for the future. While several options are being considered, the footprint of the Abbeygate site ts perfectly with our ambition for an Arbroath campus and, when completed, would become the beating, vibrant soul of a newly invigorated town.

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Gardyne

At Gardyne, Dundee & Angus College already offers our most exible, diverse and modern educational facilities.

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Gardyne

At the centre of the educational philosophy of Gardyne and our new physical facilities, will be partnership with industry. Working with sectors and employers to deliver what is needed to power the region’s economy will be central to all activity at Gardyne. Combining that ambition with the vision of bringing employability services together in one place on each campus means that students will have the opportunity from the start of their education to follow a clear path into the world of work. Our ambitious plans to add on a new block to house our green skills training will make this campus attractive to industry and potential partnerships.

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When & How?

The investment to bring this vision to life will be returned many times over through the skilled workers and innovative learners who will come through the Dundee & Angus College of the future. The scale of investment required means that multiple funding models will need to be explored. The funding will need to follow a clear timeline from research and development to beginning the project at the Gardyne Campus followed by delivery of both Arbroath and Dundee campuses. Developing such a radical vision and planning the facilities will require significant investment.

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Stats

Across all key employability measures, the Angus and Dundee areas are below or above national averages, whichever is least favourable. In contrast, the College performs extremely well nationally and is therefore well placed as a key partner driving integrated services to support employability.

Business start ups in Dundee and Angus are the Business start ups in Dundee and An

80

70

60

Dundee Angus Scotland

50

%

40

30

20

10

0

Workless Households

Self Employment

Unemployed Economic Inactivity

Employment

80

70

60

D&A

Sector Average

50

%

40

30

20

10

0

Withdrawal

Attainment Rate

lowest in the UK at 33.2 start ups per 10,000 population

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What’s Next? Over the coming months, we will nalise our strategic case for investment and intensify discussions with government and others on potential funding models. A more detailed business case for the delivery of the new campuses and redevelopment of Gardyne will be completed early in 2025. We have had incredibly strong local support for our vision and look forward to working with partners across our Dundee and Angus communities to make it a reality.

Contact: collegetransformation@dundeeandangus.ac.uk

collegetransformation@dundeeandangus.ac.uk