Wiltshire College Chippenham’s new £21 million campus-in-the-making will receive a ministerial inspection tomorrow.

Nick Boles, the Minister of State for Skills and Equalities, will visit the new college site just two days after a topping out ceremony to mark the structural completion of the building.

The minister will be joined by Michelle Donelan, the Conservative Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Chippenham, who is keen to highlight to the minister the exciting new campus and the vocational courses and apprenticeship schemes available through Wiltshire College.

Miss Donelan, a guest at yesterday’s topping out ceremony, said: “Wiltshire College is offering a fantastic array of courses at an excellent standard – I am delighted to have the opportunity to highlight this to the Minister of State for Skills and Equalities.”

Numerous guests witnessed the progress of the new college campus – due to open in the autumn of 2015 – as Wiltshire College and developers Willmott Dixon hosted the landmark ceremony.

Dating back to ancient times, the symbolic ceremony involved encasing wine (fertility and wisdom), oil (liberty and prosperity), corn (growth) and salt (purity and hospitality) under the final piece of concrete to be laid on the roof, alongside a yew tree, to be planted at a later date.

Amanda Burnside, acting principal of Wiltshire College, said: “The ceremony represented a significant step in the progress of the construction of the new Chippenham campus, and Wiltshire College as a whole, and we are now looking forward to the opportunity to show off this progress to the minister.”

The new campus is currently the biggest skills funding project nationally, built at a cost of £21.2 million, with a £17.8 million investment from the Skills Funding Agency.

Sitting adjacent to the existing college site in Cocklebury Road, the campus is being constructed to a high eco specification and will be equipped with all the latest equipment for vocational study in construction, engineering and motor vehicle maintenance, music, media and art, hair and beauty, sports science and IT.

Mr Boles will meet employers currently utilising Wiltshire College training for their apprentices, before being given a tour of the new campus and then meeting students and apprentices in an interactive engineering workshop.