THE veteran principal of a south Essex college that teaches 2,000 apprentices has resigned.

Neil Bates, who has built up Procat College from scratch for more than 30 years, will leave in September, it emerged yesterday.

The college specialises in construction and engineering, with sites in Luckyn Lane, Basildon, and Meppel Avenue, Canvey.

In a statement, Mr Bates said it has been an “enormous privilege” to have led the college.

He said: “My driving ambition is to make a difference and to champion technical professional education so that it has the status and prestige that it deserves.

“For me the most satisfying and rewarding part of the job has been witnessing how education and training transforms the life chances of young people, often lifting them out of generational disadvantage and poverty.

“Whilst I am stepping down from Procat I am certainly not retiring from the sector which I love.

“I am going to have a holiday and a break to think about what I might do next.”

It comes as Procat this year moved out of its £20million campus, in Southchurch Boulevard.

Southend Council is set to take over the building, which will make way for new secondary school places as part of an expansion of Futures Community College.

A baby boom means the council needs to find 300 extra place by 2021.

Mr Bates continued:”It has been an enormous privilege to have been able to lead the development of the college over the last 30 years.

“We are at last seeing some recognition of the importance of technical professional education and we are rightly giving employers greater ownership of the skills system, alongside an expectation that they will share the costs, as well as the benefits of an investment in developing their workforce.”

David Sherlock CBE, chairman of the Procat board, said: “Neil’s departure at the end of September will mark the end of an era.

“His has been the seminal influence on the College’s direction and successful approach to employer-led learning.

“It is now up to us to honour that legacy by taking Procat to still greater international success in the new age of the levy and Brexit.”

Under Mr Bates’ leadership Procat has grown from a small employers’ Group Training Association, launched in the first era of the levy in the 1960s, to a well-established college of advanced technology.

In 2013 Mr Bates was honoured with a Fellowship of the City & Guilds of London.