LIVERPOOL Community College has plans to strengthen its links with business as well as change its name to better reflect its provision and business focus.

The college, which has more than 20,000 students on its books and four main city centre campuses: Arts Centre, Clarence Street, Duke Street and Vauxhall Road, aims to bolster its courses to ensure students continue to get skills relevant to the world of work.

This includes working closely with major employees in the region including Peel Holdings, Arup, Merseytravel and Balfour Beatty.

The employers will have an input into courses offered and suggest new course specifications needed in the changing world of business which will be put before awarding bodies for approval.

The college, which offers more than 500 academic and vocational qualifications, is particularly keen to develop and enhance courses in logistics, green energy and engineering.

It also hopes to double the 3,500 apprentices with courses tailor-made for businesses including Merseyside Police.

And the expansion includes opening a new drop-in centre – hopefully by the year’s close – in Everton.

The college already has 14 drop-jn centres which allow people a stepping stone back into study and offer everything from numeracy and literacy courses to GCSE.

The plans are being led by new principal Elaine Bowker who started in the summer after a three year stint as strategic director at Manchester city council where she had a remit of delivering better council services.