A giant slab of land in Eastside has been set aside for the HS2 college with business leaders promising a skills boost delivering hundreds of thousands of jobs.

A 3.3-acre site – the size of two football pitches – is being cleared at Ashted Lock on Birmingham Science Park Aston.

Birmingham secured the college alongside Doncaster after a nationwide bidding process which left several other cities disappointed.

Firm plans for the college will now be drawn up but Andrew Cleaves, board director of Greater Birmingham and Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership (GBSLEP) responsible for transport said he expected construction work to begin before next summer.

Consultations have begun with companies currently on the land, which is largely vacant, to clear it in time for work to take place.

Mr Cleaves said: “I honestly think this is a game-changer for the region. The work around skills will be a catalyst to more economic growth. There is a feeling that it could generate as much as £2 billion a year in GVA (gross value-added) for the Midlands. This is much wider than high speed rail – it is symbolic of a growing region. And this is the first national competition this city has won in living memory. It is incumbent on us to take full advantage.”

The HS2 college will welcome its first cohort of students in 2017.

The training and research centre is seen as central to delivering billions of pounds of rail contracts over the coming decades and is a key part of Birmingham’s plan to become a global hub for high-speed rail.

The governing board of the college will be chaired by former Land Rover director Terry Morgan, who will head up negotiations about how it splits between Doncaster and Birmingham.

Mr Cleaves said the land was being given “unfettered”, with the flexibility to deliver a giant building or something smaller, dependent on requirements.

He said: “We have picked that site because it is in the learning quarter in Birmingham where it needs to be to make links with colleges and universities.

“We also wanted flexibility along with space because what we do there will be driven by industry.

“We are starting a process of going from the concept through to the reality of it in partnership with Doncaster.

“But what is clear is there will be around 2,000 apprenticeships and potentially something like 400,000 jobs created as HS2 evolves.”

Mr Cleaves said the college would be central to a wealth of vocations outside the rail sector.

He said: “These are not just railway-specific skills, they are things useful to a huge range of industries. Probably half of all people trained there will end up doing other jobs – signalling skills are similar to telecoms, rail construction skills are similar to civil engineering.”

He added: “I hope that we will be cutting the turf towards the middle of next year. We have Birmingham City Council on board as a key partner, to get through the planning process efficiently to be up and running by 2017.

“It is really quite a turnaround but we have experience of that in Birmingham, particularly in the education sector.”

Consultation has begun with businesses on the Ashted Lock plot.