A £32m deal has been confirmed in the latest stage of the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme. Sandwell MBC announced IT services and outsourcing provider, Agilisys, had been selected to join the Local Education Partnership as part of the consortium, Environments for Learning (E4L). The other partners are Interserve, Barclays Private Equity and Cambridge Education. The 10-year strategic partnership will transform up to 20 secondary schools, improving educational facilities and resources, and provide a state-of-the-art environment for learners, staff and the community more broadly. Cllr Bill Thomas, leader of Sandwell MBC, said the initiative would radically improve outcomes for local youngsters. ‘This is a really exciting time for Sandwell,' he said. ‘E4L has developed proposals with council officers which are both challenging and interesting, and now we are all ready to exploit this superb opportunity to create modern schools of which we can all be proud. ‘The new and improved buildings, facilities and technology we will be working on with E4L will have an enormous impact on the education and life chances of every child in Sandwell.'