Corby is to get a new Free School to cater for 350 pupils from in and around the town.
The Department for Education announced on Monday that the joint bid from the Brooke Weston Partnership and Tresham College had been successful.
Brooke Weston and Tresham say the school will help with the increasing demand for school places in the area.
Plans were unveiled in March for a school for 11 to 19-year-olds specialising in technical skills and crafts, as well as providing academic qualifications.
No new site is proposed at present, as the organisations are looking at the feasibility of using the existing Tresham College and Brooke Weston sites in Oakley Road and Coomb Road.
Free Schools are all-ability state-funded schools which operate outside local authority control.
They can be set up by groups including parents, charities or businesses in response to parental demand.
Paul Fletton, acting principal and chief executive at Tresham, said: “We are delighted with this decision to create additional high quality technical provision for children and young people in Corby.”
Sir Peter Simpson, executive principal of the Brooke Weston Partnership, said: “I am delighted to be working with Tresham on this scheme, which aims to provide more choice to parents by providing a genuine alternative to present provision.”
There has been some criticism of the plan, with opponents saying the parental demand is not there and the money would be better spent on Corby’s existing schools.
Cllr Mark Pengelly, deputy leader of Corby Council, said: “Free Schools are designed to be set up by groups of people who really want one.
“In Corby this has not been decided by parents but by institutions.
“It is wrong and not needed.
“If they have got that sort of money they should be spending it on the schools in the town where it is needed.”
Mum of four Catrina Brown, 35, from the Exeter estate, said: “Instead of opening another school I think they would be better spending the money on local Government run schools.
“Nobody has come forward to do it – it is the first I have heard of it.
“When are they going to get the parents together?”
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