The CITB has confirmed that it has sold its Bircham Newton National Construction College in Norfolk.

The Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) is set to sign terms of agreement with West Suffolk College based in Bury St Edmunds.

Up until 2018 It was the must-go-to campus for thousands of budding scaffolders for more than 50 years until the CITB pulled out of direct training as part of its reform programme, Vision 2020.

The sale will see the CITB and West Suffolk College enter a period of due diligence with a view to transferring the ownership of the National Construction College.

In a joint statement CITB chief executive, Sarah Beale, said: “The agreements mean that CITB and West Suffolk College will be working to secure the continuity of training provision for the construction industry in relation to both quality and quantity. They also mean that the north west Norfolk area would continue to host a major British training college. We are looking forward to working together to build and grow the training at Bircham Newton, which will benefit the construction industry, NCC and the local area.”

Dr Nikos Savvas, Principal of West Suffolk College, added: “West Suffolk College is delighted to be working with CITB on the acquisition of the National Construction College – Bircham Newton. We have a long history of working with employers to upskill and retrain their staff across a number of campuses and firmly believe that we can maintain, develop and build upon the industry-wide reputation of NCC as the home of construction training in the UK. We want to build on the experience and knowledge of the NCC team to make Bircham Newton a Centre of Excellence in UK.”

The National Construction College remains open for business and is taking bookings throughout 2020.