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00:00The first spade has gone in the ground for an extension at Sheppey College, marking the start of a £20m town centre regeneration project.
00:10Cement mixers, a digger and a 15m piling drill are all at the site.
00:15Educators hope that once it is open, it will mean more young people will stay on the island.
00:21It feels amazing, this is a really monumental step for the island, for education on the island, a real opportunity for young people of the future to come and train in what's going to be world class facilities in creative and engineering disciplines that we've not been able to train on the island in the past.
00:39So this is a really good opportunity for young people of the future.
00:42The start of construction marks the beginning of the £20m Sheerness revival project, led by Swale Council, which is upgrading run-down facilities.
00:53It's effectively three phases, so it is education, it is around business, and it's around leisure and health.
01:02So those three, four areas are really fundamental to it.
01:08The council has put in its own assets, it's put in Masters House, which it had refurbished as part of the equity into the deal, and it used its own car park, which is where the college extension is going.
01:20In Beechfield, we've got our existing building, which is being refurbished there for leisure and health and community purposes.
01:27So it is an all-encompassing project to maximise the value that we could get from this government funding, which is the maximum £20m.
01:38With all that money spent, it is hoped that the regeneration project will help boost the local economy by keeping skilled people working on Sheppey and attracting visitors.
01:50So obviously the college, allowing the college to expand the amount of work that it does here, fitting people with the skills they need for jobs on the island, that will have effects that feed back across the whole community here.
02:03So actually, if it fits people for jobs that they really want to do, but are also better paid, then I want to stay on Sheppey.
02:11The amount allows us to build strength in the community economically.
02:15More than that, I mean, I think it's no secret that Chinatown Sea has somewhat lost its connection to the sea.
02:21So reinvigorating the link between the rail station and the sea, it's overdue and really important.
02:28People need to come here and see what a great place this is.
02:31They're not far outside of London and other bits of Cape.
02:34Frankly, we've got the best beaches in Mackenzie and we've got the best views as well.