PLANS to invest £1.2million into the futures of young people across Tendring have been unveiled with a new learning centre opening this September.

The move marks a five-year partnership between national charity IntoUniversity and Anglia Ruskin University, whose bosses has been working with both Tendring Council and Essex Council since 2014.

At least 900 children and young people aged seven to 18 will benefit from the Clacton centre, which will become the 23rd in the UK.

Each centre offers after-school academic support, university support mentors, and direct experience of university life.

The Clacton centre will also have a particular science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) focus, and ideally an on-site science laboratory.

IntoUniversity was founded in London, in 2002, in response to the scale of underachievement amongst the country's poorest families.

The charity then launched in 2007 and last year worked with 22,000 young people from disadvantaged backgrounds to see them achieve either a university place or another chosen aspiration.

Working with children in their primary years, the charity believes has more of an impact on a child’s future, and this support will continue until further education or university.

This also coincides with Tendring Council's Corporate Plan 2016-2020, which prioritises improving qualifications and skills attainment for young people, and also facilitating better job prospects.

A spokesperson for Tendring Council said: "This joint initiative is an excellent example of community leadership and partnership working, and Anglia Ruskin University supporting Tendring directly to enhance educational standards and aspirations.

“With investment over five years, this partnership aims to have a significant positive impact on the futures of children and young people across the district.”

Potential sites include the Trinity Methodist Church, Our Lady of Light Church, Community Voluntary Services (CVS) Tendring offices on Rosemary Road, and the previous TESS school site in Jaywick Lane.

Depending on its success, the organisation is already looking into the possibility of a second centre to open in Harwich.