Falkirk certainly sweats its collective assets, levering to the max the much vaunted benefits of working in partnership.

A £70 million planned investment in a new college headquarters that welds together school, college, community, local employer and university interests to multiply the value of economic and social regeneration is a strong statement of intent.

Dr Ken Thomson is Principal at Forth Valley College, a triple campus institution with its two related bases at Stirling and Alloa.

Importantly for a college that boasts winning a UK-wide Beacon Award for innovation in further education, the new building will be designed as its hub for engineering and science learning – accelerating the provision of qualified students in the important science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects fundamental to economic growth.

“It will be a STEM centre for the central belt of Scotland,” Dr Thomson proudly declares.

“We want to provide the best opportunities for our young people, a skilled workforce for our employers and our local industry, and to that end we have the go ahead toward a full business case for a £70 million new build in Falkirk.

“Because we’ve now made that big investment in the STEM area in Falkirk, it has allowed us to look at the College as a catalyst.

Firstly, with the local schools – and I’ve got to say that Falkirk Council is so forward thinking on this.

“We now work with all of the secondary schools in Falkirk. They come to us in S4, they experience all of our subject areas, we inspire and inform them and at S5 they are able to make some decisions.

So we have young people coming through from schools who understand both the employment opportunities and also the workforce skills required.

“Secondly, we have our links with universities – our 2+2. What we do is the first two years – HND Plus – and after that the whole class goes to university and into the third and fourth years.

“There is an engineering stream into Heriot-Watt University, life sciences into Stirling University, and chemical engineering and industrial bio-technology into Strathclyde University.”

The third element of this joined-up strategy involves industry where, reflecting in-demand need, it can provide training to replicate – rather than merely simulate – on-site tasks, helping create and sustain jobs.

“We are talking with Falkirk Council and Falkirk Community Trust to put an arts venue into our campus with a theatre of up to 500 seats,” Thomson adds.

“It would allow our College to become a real community campus and allows us to start looking at a new curriculum in the performing arts.”

A public consultation event takes place on October 5 at the existing Forth Valley College in Falkirk, to summarise new-build plans.