Cardiff and Vale College
Cardiff and Vale College Barry Waterfront Campus
Barry Waterfront Campus will be a state-of-the-art further education facility and community college. The three-storey building, built on a brownfield site in the heart of the Waterfront Innovation Quarter, will include a mixture of flexible classrooms and IT rooms as well as curriculum spaces to support arts, hospitality and hairdressing.
Cardiff and Vale College Barry Waterfront Campus
Barry Waterfront Campus will be a state-of-the-art further education facility and community college. The three-storey building, built on a brownfield site in the heart of the Waterfront Innovation Quarter, will include a mixture of flexible classrooms and IT rooms as well as curriculum spaces to support arts, hospitality and hairdressing.
Plans include active street frontages with a hair and beauty salon and a bistro/restaurant that will be open to the public and run by students. There will also be an external garden terrace, a covered external dining area and a courtyard with a grass lawn and seating areas.
College learners will be involved in a project to design public art that will be incorporated into the structure of the campus. As a prominent Net Zero Carbon in Operation development in Barry Waterfront’s Innovation Quarter, the new campus is expected to become a truly sustainable learning environment that will bring substantial community benefits and become a long-term asset for the development of the Innovation Quarter.
Plans include active street frontages with a hair and beauty salon and a bistro/restaurant that will be open to the public and run by students. There will also be an external garden terrace, a covered external dining area and a courtyard with a grass lawn and seating areas.
College learners will be involved in a project to design public art that will be incorporated into the structure of the campus. As a prominent Net Zero Carbon in Operation development in Barry Waterfront’s Innovation Quarter, the new campus is expected to become a truly sustainable learning environment that will bring substantial community benefits and become a long-term asset for the development of the Innovation Quarter.
The Waterfront campus will be a landmark development for the town. It will bring modern, state-of-the-art education facilities for learners across the Vale. The new campus will redevelop a vacant brown field site close to the town centre and offer much needed new education and vocational training opportunities in an environmentally sustainable building. Once completed the new campus will serve as an excellent example of how education can be a major driver for local regeneration and placemaking. 
Councillor Lis Burnett, Leader of the Vale of Glamorgan Council
| STUDENTS: | 855 (mixture of full and part time) |
| SIZE: | 6000m2 |
| DESIGN & BUILD CONTRACTOR: | Bouygues UK |
| FACILITIES MANAGEMENT PROVIDER: | Robertson FM |
| OPENING DATE: | 2026 |
Timeline
Cardiff and Vale College Advanced Technology Centre
Based at Cardiff Airport, the Advanced Technology Centre will accommodate almost 2,000 learners and 100 staff, close to CAVC’s renowned International Centre for Aerospace Training (ICAT). In addition to flexible classrooms and workshops, the building will also include a Higher Education Business Centre, an advanced composites manufacturing facility, state of the art robotics and mechatronics labs and a “green skills house”.
Students will use Virtual Reality and AI and have access to rapid prototyping, 3D metal printers and autonomous drones to support their studies. Automotive students will work with both electric and hydrogen vehicles.
The ATC will focus on key growth areas, including artificial intelligence, composites, rapid prototyping, advanced design, electronics and net zero carbon technologies.
Cardiff and Vale College Advanced Technology Centre
Based at Cardiff Airport, the Advanced Technology Centre will accommodate almost 2,000 learners and 100 staff, close to CAVC’s renowned International Centre for Aerospace Training (ICAT). In addition to flexible classrooms and workshops, the building will also include a Higher Education Business Centre, an advanced composites manufacturing facility, state of the art robotics and mechatronics labs and a “green skills house”.
Students will use Virtual Reality and AI and have access to rapid prototyping, 3D metal printers and autonomous drones to support their studies. Automotive students will work with both electric and hydrogen vehicles.
The ATC will focus on key growth areas, including artificial intelligence, composites, rapid prototyping, advanced design, electronics and net zero carbon technologies.
The advanced technology centre at Cardiff Airport will establish a second centre of international excellence here in the Vale. The aerospace centre, which it will sit alongside, has already done much to drive economic development in the Vale. Pioneering even more technologies will only add to this as well as giving local people a pathway into highly skilled jobs.
Councillor Lis Burnett, Leader of the Vale of Glamorgan Council
| STUDENTS: | 1,896 (mixture of full and part time) |
| SIZE: | 13,000m2 |
| DESIGN & BUILD CONTRACTOR: | Bouygues UK |
| FACILITIES MANAGEMENT PROVIDER: | Robertson FM |
| OPENING DATE: | 2027 |
Timeline