WCG (college)
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| Warwickshire College | |
|---|---|
| File:WarwickshireCol.jpg | |
| Address | |
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Warwick New Road Leamington Spa , Warwickshire , CV32 5JE England | |
| Information | |
| Type | General Further Education college |
| Motto | Put the learner first, Deliver the highest quality in all that we do & Promote a fair, open and respectful culture[citation needed] |
| Established | 1996 |
| Department for Education URN | 130835 Tables |
| Ofsted | Reports |
| Gender | Mixed |
| Age | 14 to 99 |
| Enrollment | over 20,500 (full and part-time)[1] |
| Website | http://www.warwickshire.ac.uk |
Warwickshire College is a large further and higher education college in England. It provides National Curriculum courses and vocational education in a broad range of subjects to students aged 16 and over. Through a series of mergers over a period of 12 years, it has over 20,000 students a year in six locations, with a wide network of outreach centres throughout Warwickshire and one in Worcestershire, making it one of the largest General Further Education (GFE) colleges in the country.[1] It was formed in 1996 with the merger of Mid-Warwickshire College in Leamington Spa and Warwickshire College for Agriculture, Horticulture, Equine & Related Studies (formerly Warwickshire College of Agriculture) in Moreton Morrell. In a further expansion the college merged with Rugby College in 2003, followed shortly by a new campus opening in Warwick called the Trident Centre. It then merged with a fifth site at Henley-in-Arden. In August 2007, Warwickshire College merged with Pershore College, Centre of Horticultural Excellence, in Worcestershire, spreading Warwickshire College across the two counties. The college has Centre of Vocational Excellence (CoVE) awards in engineering, equine, farriery, maintenance and construction, and leadership and management. Following a March 2008 inspection, an Ofsted report accorded the college an overall Grade 1 (outstanding) for its performance.[1] The college is a member of the 157 Group of high performing colleges.[2]
Locations
Henley-in-Arden Centre
The Henley-in-Arden centre focusses on sports related studies, health and beauty, fashion and textiles and offers courses from further education right through to postgraduate qualifications. The centre has a £2 million sports centre and sports academies. The college is affiliated to British Colleges’ Sport (BCS) and takes part in competitions covering team and individual sports.
Leamington Centre
The main campus for Warwickshire College is located in Leamington Spa. It lies to the west of the town centre, near the join of Warwick to Leamington Spa. It offers courses including A Levels, business, health care, hair and beauty, construction, travel and tourism and supported learning programmes. The Centre has a range of facilities, including a learning centre and library, a lecture theatre, hair and beauty salon, sports hall and gym, a travel centre, college shop and a children's nursery. The Leamington Spa centre is also the current home to Warwickshire School of Arts. The school of arts offers foundation diploma in art and design and extended/national diploma in fashion and clothing.[3]
Moreton Morrell Centre
Located in the Warwickshire countryside, the Moreton Morrell centre offers courses in equine, farriery and blacksmithing, agriculture, countryside, arboriculture, environment, horticulture, construction, floristry, animal welfare and veterinary nursing. The resources include a 345-hectare commercial farm with a large dairy herd, beef and sheep, wildlife habitats including woodlands, grasslands and wetlands. The College also has equine facilities, with stabling for over 100 horses, an indoor school, a covered school and large outdoor riding arenas. There are 3 forges, purpose-built centres for horticulture and veterinary nursing, as well as a large animal welfare centre housing a wide range of animals and facilities.
Pershore College
Pershore College is situated on a 60 hectare site near Evesham, Worcestershire (though close to the Warwickshire border) and offers courses in Horticulture, Floristry, Animal Welfare, Veterinary Nursing, Food and Drink Agriculture, Equine, Environmental Conservation, Countryside Management and Motor Vehicle. The resources include a commercial plant nursery, organic unit, plant centre, specialist plant unit, fruit unit with fruit juice production facilities, extensive amenity grounds and commercial glasshouses. The College also manages several national plant collections in the popular and much visited College gardens. The College is home to the Royal Horticultural Society Regional Centre and the Alpine Garden Society. There is also the specialist resource of an animal unit.
Pershore College was originally an independent institution founded in 1954 to train horticultural workers in the Vale of Evesham. It began offering higher education courses in 1993 and was merged into Warwickshire College in August 2007.
Rugby Centre
The Rugby centre's new building opened in 2011. It houses the Power Industry Academy, to train people in power generation manufacture. The centre also includes a Learning Resource Centre, sports hall and gym, astroturf pitch, meeting and conference facilities, purpose-built art, design and craft workshops, hair and beauty salons and college nursery.
Trident Centre
The Trident Business and Technology Centre in Warwick is a relatively new building. It houses a conference suite on the top floor with catering facilities. There is also a Learning Resource Centre with an open learning area and internet enabled PC's. There are also a number of computer suites for classes around the building. Many companies, including Alstom, Cable and Wireless, Jaguar Landrover, Rolls Royce and Telent, send their apprentices to this centre. There is a large workshop area for the Motor Vehicle courses with vehicles donated by manufacturers for use by the college and students to repair and maintain. There is a traditional engineering workshop, equipped with lathes, milling machines and grinding machines. There is also a materials lab along with electrical/electronic and pneumatics labs. The courses studied here are mainly engineering and motor vehicle based. There is also a 3D design area which has facilities for model making.
Alumni
- Broadcaster Chris Beardshaw, who has hosted gardening programmes on the BBC and Channel 4, and is famed for his work on Gardeners' World, attended Pershore College.
- Michael Burston (Würzel), guitarist of the group Motörhead, attended Pershore College in the mid 1990s.
- Hussein Chalayan and Luella Bartley both studied for a National Diploma in Fashion and Clothing at Warwickshire College. Both went on to study at Central Saint Martins, and both have won British Fashion Designer of the year.
- Trina Gulliver the nine-times World Professional Darts champion, taught carpentry and joinery at the college until 2005.
- Julie White, British businesswoman
References
- ^ a b c Ofsted report March 2008 Retrieved 29 July 2009
- ^ 157 Group Retrieved 29 July 2010
- ^ Warwickshire College Leamington Retrieved 29 July 2009
