David Willetts, the Shadow Secretary for Skills and Innovation visited Cornwall this week for a fact finding tour of Cornwall’s Higher and Further education facilities and to learn more about the unique partnership operated by the Combined Universities for Cornwall to increase Higher Education provision in the county. 

Speaking after his visit, David Willetts said, “During my visit to Cornwall I saw some very innovative and sometimes unique work going on in the field of further and higher education and I was impressed by the very special partnership model operated by the Combined Universities for Cornwall. 

“I was also very interested in the focus given by Cornwall College to linking training courses with business in the real world because the challenge in the next few years is going to be getting people from further and higher education into employment.”  

George Eustice the Conservative Prospective MP for Camborne, Redruth and Hayle who accompanied Mr Willetts on the visit said, “Cornwall is pioneering some unique ideas in the provision of higher and further education.  I have always been impressed by the energy and enthusiasm of all those involved in developing some of this new thinking both at Cornwall College and at CUC. 

“The research work on marine energy being carried out at The Tremough Campus is a shining example what can be achieved in the Camborne and Redruth constituency:  an international centre of excellence in the technologies of the future which attracts the best talent in the field and exports great, new ideas around the world.” 

During a packed programme, Mr Willetts visited the Knowledge Spa in Truro to see some of the work being done by the new medical school, the Tremough Campus near Penryn where he was briefed on the research work on marine energy and some of the new facilities on design at the Falmouth School of Arts, he then sat in on a class in sustainable energy studies at Cornwall College Camborne before finishing his tour with a visit to Newquay Treviglas School.