Art and Design courses are exciting opportunities to let your creativity flow. If you’re undecided on whether or not to study an art course, here are our top 4 reasons as to why you should.

Learn a range of techniques

Our courses cover a wide selection of skills, such as painting, drawing, ceramics and photography. We will teach you new techniques, and develop your existing skills.

College facilities

Weston College has excellent facilities, we are always looking to improve the learner environment to ensure you are supported throughout your learning. We have purpose built art studios based at our Loxton Campus which will provide you with all the resources needed to develop.

Top class lecturers

Our lecturers have industry experience, and they will teach you the relevant skills needed for when you complete the course. It’s not just us that think our lecturers are great, they were also rated as outstanding by Ofsted.

Future opportunities

The industry is expected to grow 5.3% in the build up to 2024, which will provide you with more job opportunities. Art and Design covers an array of exciting occupations, from illustration to teaching, there are lots of opportunities for you. There is also the potential to earn huge sums of money, whilst working in a job you love.

If you would like more information on our Art and Design courses click here.

The Weston College Staff Mentoring Programme is a new initiative that aims to help new staff settle into their job roles. Recently, 31 members of staff representing faculties and departments across the College completed the course and are now ready to mentor new curriculum, assessing and business support staff alike.

The new academic year will welcome a wide array of new lecturers and support staff, many of whom were recruited via our Industry into Education initiative, where the College recognised the need for industry experienced candidates within the education sector.

Andrea Greer, Vice Principal for Human Resources, Offender Learning & College Reputation, said: “This is a brand new internal CPD course for the College and it was a natural progression from this year’s “Industry into Education” theme, which has seen unprecedented levels of College growth and numbers of new staff from industry joining us.

We knew that there were already many natural mentors within the organisation, and we wanted to capitalise on this and create a more structured approach to mentoring that would provide an ongoing framework of support for new employees from the start of the next academic year.

Most importantly, this course is focused on further developing our staff and ensuring that in the end, everything we do is to ultimately benefit our learners”.

Scaffolding safety experts, Simian Risk, has recently partnered with Weston College to open their latest training centre.

Based at the South West Skills campus, the new centre will drastically increase the accessibility of expert scaffolding safety training to those living in and around the South West, where as previously they would have had to travel significant distances to access a training centre.

Established in 2005, Simian Risk has cemented their position within the scaffolding industry as experts in safety and best practice, helping scaffolding professionals to improve safety standards through training and consultancy services, thus reducing the risk of accidents when working at height.

The new centre will deliver CISRS ‘core’ courses which will include CISRS part one and two, as well as scaffolding apprenticeships.

Business Development Manager at Simian, Simon O’Donnell, stated, “We are very pleased to be offering high quality training over an increased geographical area in the excellent facilities that Weston College has. Our ability to hold training courses in this region means that more and more scaffolding professionals can access the appropriate training they need to work safely at height.”

Speaking of the partnership, Simian Risk Managing Director, Simon Hughes said: “These are exciting times for Simian and we’re delighted to be playing our part in upskilling the workers that operate in this area of the UK. Particularly as the need for skilled apprenticeships will be rising over the next few years as the government carries out a number of construction initiatives, we look forward to working with Weston College to ensure the next generation of scaffolding professionals is fully qualified to advance their careers in the industry.”

Steve Caldwell, Head of Faculty for Building, Automotive and Civil Engineering at Weston College, added: “Weston College has worked hard to identify a strategic partner for its new Construction Skills Centre which is due to open in Spring 2019. We are delighted to be working with Simon and the team at Simian who are nationally renowned as leaders in the field of CISRS accredited scaffolding training and assessment.

“With such a buoyant construction and civil engineering industry across the South West, Weston College will be ideally positioned to train future generations of construction specialist in the high demand areas such as scaffolding and plant operations.”