Further education bosses have signed a merger document to create the Greater Brighton Metropolitan College.
The Met has been created by the merger of City College Brighton and Hove and Northbrook College.
The £40 million a year college will operate from five campuses – including Pelham Street, Brighton, and Wilson Avenue, Whitehawk.
Aeronautical engineering students will continue to study at Shoreham Airport with sites also in Broadwater and West Durrington, in Worthing.
Chief executive Nick Juba said that the new college would build on 150 years of history and heritage in bringing the two colleges together to create the Met.
Mr Juba said: “The Met is committed to transforming the lives of young people and adults by offeing high-quality vocational, professional and technical routes into employment.
“By taking the best elements from two colleges and combining them in one organisation with a single strategic vision and management team, the Met is well placed to provide outstanding and accessible education and training to everyone in our communities and to support the development of the Greater Brighton region.
“Together, our five campuses in east Brighton, central Brighton, Shoreham and central and west Worthing form the ‘engine room’ of the local economy, helping employers to thrive with access to a pipeline of bright, skilled, work-ready young people.”
Mr Juba told an audience of employers, former students, current students and supporters this week that the Met would teach about 4,000 young people, mainly 16 to 18-year-olds, as well as 1,000 undergraduates, 800 apprentices and about 7,000 adults.
He said: “ Students and apprentices at the Met will study for vocational and professional qualifications in engineering, construction, business, travel, sport, accountancy, art, fashion, 3D design and theatre – and a lot more besides.
“For local businesses the Met will be the place to come to source your skills and talent.
“The Met will have the size and scale required to thrive in what is a very challenging financial climate for the whole public sector.
“We will use that new sustainability to invest in our curriculum, our buildings and resources and the quality of our student experience.
“The Met employs around 1,200 staff and will be a key part of the civic infrastructure of the city region.”
He added: “As our college embarks on a new era of opportunity for young people and local employers, it feels like the right time to address some of the myths and misconceptions that often exist around apprenticeships, vocational further education and the career and higher education options they lead to.
“For example, apprenticeships exist in all sorts of industry areas – including marketing, business and finance, digital professions and manufacturing – and at different levels, including a degree equivalent.
“The growing uptake of BTECs and other vocational qualifications means that over a third of 18-year-olds applying for university degree courses across the UK are doing so without studying for the traditional three A levels.
“The demands of our regional and national labour market are changing and we want to help young people make study and training choices informed by the world around them.”
The merger proposal was announced while a government review of the further education sector was under way. Met chief executive Nick Juba had only relatively recently joined City College as chief executive. To take up the post, he gave up his role as the chairman of the board at Northbrook.
The Met board will be chaired by Julie Nerney, from Brighton. She previously held the same position at City College and was a non-executive director of the Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs the Royal Sussex County Hospital.
