Technology such as laptops and tablets are staples of any modern school.

Less common, though, are robots in prison cells. 

But that is precisely what students will find at a new sixth-form college scheduled to open in South Norwood in September.

STEM Academy, a free school set to use the former police station site in Oliver Grove, will aim to inspire the next generation of technology and engineering graduates and help plug the skills gap in specialist industries. 

It hopes students will be lured by the prospect of unique hands-on training and links with leading STEM (science technology, engineering and maths) firms, alongside more traditional education. 

Headteacher Adrian Miller, who has previously advised on Government engineering policy as well as having 20 years of teaching experience, said: "What is going to be unique is the focus on employability.

"What I'm trying to do is prepare people for the next jobs that might not have even been created yet. We want students to get meaningful qualifications and to know how their learning can be applied and where it can take them."

Your Local Guardian: South Norwood Police station will close.

The school is set to be based at the former South Norwood police station

Field trips to see the Large Hadron Collider in Cern, Switzerland, and an A level-equivalent qualification in Mechatronics, a fusion of mechanical, electrical, control and computer engineering, will make STEM Academy unique in Croydon's increasingly crowded post-16 sector.

But it is a small, multi-purpose robot - used by L'Oreal, among other companies, in its production of hair colouring - locked in the former station's custody suite that is likely to widen prospective students' eyes.

Mr Miller, said: "The traditional police cells actually lend themselves very well to robot training.

"The robot turns in 350th of a millisecond, so you don't want to get in the way of it. If you have it in a cell, then you can view it at a safe distance."

The school has acquired an IRB 120 robot

Mr Miller, who joins the school from Kimberly STEM College in Somerset and was previously vice-principal at a Bedfordshire engineering college, is determined the South Norwood school will not just be about "boys' toys".

He wants it to cater for both sexes and take in students from diverse backgrounds.

The school has secured funding from the Department for Education and take on an initial cohort of 230 students, rising to 460 across two years.

Plans to open at the station - sold by the Metropolitan Police after budget cuts led to its closure in 2012 - have provoked concern from the Harris Federation, which runs two nearby academies.

However, Mr Miller hopes an invitation for Harris students to use STEM Academy's state-of-the-art facilities will ease any doubts.

He added: "I am confident we will open by September."

Five possible careers for STEM students

Robotics programmer

Responsible for programming the robotics on a state-of-the-art industrial production line.

Possible employer: L’Oréal – working in a competitive, fast-paced business where high demand from salons means products must be assembled quickly, safely and to a very high standard.

Mechatronics engineer

Combining the complementary disciplines of mechanical, electronic, control and software engineering used in the manufacturing sector.

Possible employer: Jaguar Land Rover - designing and supporting their high-level, automated vehicle production line for one of the world’s most highly regarded brands.

App/website designer

Producing coding responsible for the creation and maintenance of websites and apps.

Possible employer: Facebook - producing code that builds and supports the infrastructure and interconnected services for the 1.2 billion people who visit Facebook every month.

Environmental engineer

Creating automated sustainable solutions for the environmental challenges the UK will face in the future.

Possible employer:  British Water – supporting them to design effective, automated water treatment for the future as resources become increasingly scarce.

Nano technology designer

Working with science, engineering, and technology conducted at the nanoscale - which is about 1 to 100 nanometres. An area of science currently making huge advances in the medical sector.

Possible employer: Google – who are currently working on a nanoparticle pill that could identify cancers, heart attacks and other diseases before they become a problem.