£20m Coleg Menai plan for Anglesey 'energy island' jobs

Coleg Menai already has an energy centre on the campus

A north Wales college is set to get a £20m investment to make sure the area is ready to meet the demands of a new nuclear power station on Anglesey.

The plans will see Coleg Menai's campus at Llangefni expanded to develop a specialist technology and energy centre, and an engineering site.

The college also wants to set up business "incubator" units.

The new Wylfa Newydd nuclear plant will need 8,500 construction workers and a 1,000 station staff when built.

As well as plans for Horizon's replacement nuclear station on the island, there are renewable energy projects and the whole of Anglesey is an enterprise zone.

The Anglesey Energy Island strategy aims to bring in 2,500 new jobs and £2.3bn of investment over 15 years.

The college is part of Grŵp Llandrillo Menai - Wales' largest further education institution - which also includes Coleg Llandrillo in Conwy and Coleg Meirion-Dwyfor in Gwynedd.

An illustration of the proposed extension at Llangefni

Group chief executive Glyn Jones told BBC Wales it was working closely with the Horizon project on Wylfa.

It is hoped local people will make up at least 20% of the construction workforce.

"We already have engineering and construction courses in Rhos-on-Sea, Rhyl, Dolgellau, Bangor and Llangefni - but we need to expand Llangefni," said Mr Jones.

"This is going to be a massive project - the equivalent of the London 2012 Olympic village - and this could cause a big displacement from across local employers."