The Stonemasonry sections at City of Bath, York and Weymouth Colleges have been promoted by the Government as a Centre of Vocational Excellence (CoVE) for their stonemasonry courses.

The colleges have received funding totalling £1.45million to invest in a range of new learning resources as a direct result of the CoVE status.

This funding has been used to provide stonemasonry training facilities in the partners\' workshops that are intended to be second to none. They say it will mean training at the colleges will maintain the traditional craft element while also embedding new technology into the genre.

Installation and commissioning of the new facilities and equipment took place over the summer months while students were away on holiday, ready for the new cohort to start in September.

The partnership have been promoting promoting the results of the investment at a series of \'open door\' sessions during this Autumn term to enable companies, industry bodies, schools and community organisations to view the facilities and hear about the training opportunities available. The last session is at York on 10 December.