This £3.5million purpose built facility came about from a recent government initiative to provide a network of 44 schools across England to help prepare young people for the workplace. This is achieved by involving employers in all aspects of the school, including forming the curriculum, mentoring and providing work placements. The aim of the building was to provide a specialist environment for land-based sciences in a vocational and academic format for students between 14 and 19 years old. This project is in partnership with another local education facility – Thomas Hardye School, also located in Dorchester, to provide a range of GCSE’s, A-levels and other vocational qualifications. The building houses several classrooms, an ICT suite, an open plan studio space, a greenhouse and specialist science classrooms to cater for 200 students.