A hub hosting new trades courses is the latest announcement in a multimillion-dollar redevelopment of Otago Polytechnic's Cromwell campus.
The 600sqm trade building will be built on the polytechnic's Bannockburn Rd site as part of a multi-year project.
It will house new automotive and carpentry programmes, classrooms, offices and a common room. There will also be a platform for the construction of a four-bedroom house that the students will build.
Otago Polytechnic head of Central Otago campus Alex Huffadine said the hub would provide a central learning area for new courses which were ``filling the void'' of local demand.
``We are talking to people to get every single one of those students into an apprenticeship after they study. It's very exciting.''
The polytechnic also plans to open its first phase of student accommodation next year.
The four houses will have up to five bedrooms each and be located at its Molyneux Ave site.
The trade hub and first-phase accommodation projects would together cost about $3 million and were both out for tender, Mr Huffadine said.
They are part of a larger project for the polytechnic to move all of its Cromwell facilities to the Bannockburn Rd campus.
``We're currently leasing facilities around the town. It'll be good to have them all together, but we'll do it over the next few years. It's not easy to move them all in one go.''
The trade hub would probably open in May.
