IF it should all go horribly wrong for the new chief executive of Coleg Gwent I can see him sailing off into the sunset aboard a round-the-world yacht, writes Ashley Nield.

Thirty years ago marine scientist turned academic Howard Burton crossed the Atlantic on one of Sir Chay Blyth's early experiments at turning ocean racing into a successful business.

He's currently hoarding the brochure for Blyth's latest Global Challenge (in the garden shed, presumably, or somewhere else where his wife is unlikely to find it).

But being a steady guy with experience of colleges in Bristol (head of humanities, languages, mathematics and science) and Swansea (assistant principal with responsibility for curriculum planning), the sailing looks likely to remain a day dream.

His challenge at Coleg Gwent (with 33,000 students, the largest institution of its type in Wales and one of the largest in the UK) is to secure its financial future, adapt its courses to the needs of the community, widen participation and tiptoe along the precarious path of education politics.

He's been parachuted in at a time when faculty unions are storming about cuts in the teaching staff.

Coleg Gwent has 1,600 staff and a turnover of £45 million. Mr Burton said: "The college used to be rewarded for growth - if we recruited more students the funds were made available. "But the Assembly has capped this because it needs money for other social commitments.

"And at the same time, every college must review its curriculum to make sure its course reflect the skills the community needs to acquire. "This means some staff will be left without the right skills.

"So we've bitten the bullet and in a three-month process reduced the teaching staff by 25-30 through voluntary redundancies and early retirements."

Mr Burton thinks he can avoid forced redundancies, although he's currently reviewing the administration and ancillary staff, so there could be more turmoil ahead.

Fresh investment is arriving (Mr Burton estimates that £20 million has been spent on the college's estate in the last four years) and will shortly be on display in Pontypool with a £2.75m construction centre fronted by a £1.25 million learning resources centre.

"It's public knowledge that the construction industry is desperately short of skilled tradespeople, and with so many capital projects going on in Wales the opportunities for good jobs are considerable.

"We're launching courses such as plumbing, and the applications are flooding in.

"In all areas it's vital for us to anticipate what skills are going to be required in five years or ten years' time."

Much criticism has recently been levelled at the government's target of getting 50 per cent of schoolchildren into university.

Critics argue that academic courses are not for everyone, and many would do better learning a useful skill or trade.

Mr Burton agrees - up to a point - referring to the situation as "the gentrification of training". But he adds the rider that many people who dismiss university are degree holders unaware of any discrimination felt by non-graduates.

But as Coleg Gwent is the front line of non-university skill provision, it will be a prime beneficiary of any backlash.

He's delighted by the expansion of the modern apprenticeship scheme - as are a lot of business people desperate to recruit and retain staff at technician grades.

He wants to expand links with the business community to replicate partnerships such as that with the Krypton engine-tuning company. This deal has led to major investments in college facilities and training contracts for Krypton staff and those of several major manufacturers.

Coleg Gwent is a tremendous feeder of students into the University of Wales, Newport. Partly for this reason and partly because the government sees economies of scale in making education groups as large as possible, a merger murmur has been around for several years.

Mr Burton is non-committal on this: "Back in 1993, when we left local education authority control, the emphasis was on competition to attract and retain students.

"Now we're working on a more collaborative model. "A review has been conducted on curriculums, systems and governance. But for the moment we're focusing on collaboration around the curriculum."

Major Coleg Gwent developments in the pipeline include The Learning Campus at Ebbw Vale, which will be a major platform in the regeneration of the former steel town.

But as the cost is likely to be around £15m to £20m, there are still some major hurdles to overcome.

A more modest scheme is the development of a learning centre in Caldicot. "We've got a building near the High Street and we're very excited about it."

One of the major growth opportunities for the college is the importation of foreign students. Mr Burton had experience of this at Bristol, and likes the idea for two reasons.

"It's another revenue stream and it can have a galvanising effect on domestic students to see how hard they work.

"At Bristol we had Chinese students who were incredibly industrious and interacted well with local students. "It adds a lot to a learning environment."

Mr Burton is committed to internationalism. He spent the first six years of his life in Sudan, where his father emigrated on a government-sponsored cotton-growing scheme.

He finds the civil war and decline of the country distressing. He can't do much about that, but if he can make Coleg Gwent the best college of its type in Britain, it should be enough.