Dorset Local Enterprise Partnership (Dorset LEP) has allocated over £1.3 million of Local Growth Funding to three colleges and a university.

Dorset LEP director Lorna Carver (www.dorsetlep.co.uk) said: “Increasing the local education skills offering and competitiveness is of great importance in consolidating Dorset as a great place to learn and work.”

Weymouth College will establish an Engineering Centre of Excellence, which will improve advanced-engineering teaching using new ‘state of the art’ equipment.

Its plans include a new digital media suite, allowing students to develop CAD and modelling skills. There are also plans to advance the college’s electrical-engineering centre at its Poundbury Campus.

Meanwhile, Bournemouth & Poole College will establish an Engineering Centre of Excellence and increase its engineering and manufacturing offering.

This will involve the refurbishment of an existing building on Fulcrum Business Park and the creation of a workspace construction hub at the college’s North Road campus.