Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has awarded a slice of a £25 million funding pot to Barking and Dagenham College’s new tech centre.

The further education college in Dagenham Road, Dagenham, has received £5m to finish building its Centre for Advanced Technologies building.

The renovation project will see an aging block turned into teaching space for science and technical subjects such as engineering and robotics.

“Industry is changing and needs a workforce trained in new advanced, technological and innovative methods to meet industry’s future needs,” said principal Yvonne Kelly.

“Supported by employers, we are working with key industries to ensure the skills replicate what they are looking for from their future workforce.”

Previous works have seen a public space created on campus, including a library, restaurant, cafe and shops run by students.

Robert Yang, head of Huawei Enterprise UK, a partner in the project, described the funding as “great news”.