Everyone can remember their favourite teacher.

It might’ve been someone who helped you get to grips with a subject you struggled with, or a teacher who always found a way to make classes interesting and relevant.

Excellent teachers have an effect that goes beyond classroom learning – often influencing the career you choose and the success you make of it. Not to mention helping shape the person you become.

Data backs up the anecdotal evidence.

An Ofsted study, which focused on a range of ‘outstanding’ providers, shows that “consistently good or better teaching, learning and assessment has never been more significant for learners in further education (FE)”.

The FE and skills sector has a fundamental role in helping learners progress to a rewarding and prosperous career – as well as developing the social skills that will enable them to make a contribution to society.

For many learners, further education is their last chance before they risk dropping out of education and training altogether. Learners, therefore, need the very best teaching to ensure they are on track and take the right next steps to secure a future of sustained employment.

In other words, FE is a watershed moment in many young people’s lives – which highlights the key role that teachers play.

I’ve always said that at Weston College, our teaching staff are our most important resource.

It’s no secret that FE providers across the country are feeling the pinch from repeated and prolonged budget cuts. But, nonetheless, we're continually investing in our lecturers.

We understand the importance of remunerating staff who perform well, and making them feel valued – or you run the risk of losing them, to the detriment of your learners.

You don’t have to take my word for it. We’ve been awarded the Investors in People (IIP) Gold Standard, which is held by less than 2% of UK businesses and demonstrates our commitment to invest in our staff to improve performance. We’re also an Investors in People ‘Champion’ – a prestigious award given to IIP role models.

And this investment is paying huge dividends.

Over recent years, the College has gone from strength to strength and, in 2014, we were graded ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted – the first college in the South West to earn top marks under the new assessment framework.

This was due, in no small part, to the quality of our teaching staff – which was singled out by Ofsted.

At the end of last year, we won the prestigious Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education. This award recognises excellence, innovation and positive impact on the community, and is seen as one of the most important educational prizes in the country.

It’s fantastic that individual members of staff have also been recognised for their efforts and the quality of their teaching.

The Pearson Teaching Awards are a prestigious national prize, with winners chosen from thousands of nominations. It speaks volumes for our staff that we have won an incredible six since 2014. This year, Travel and Tourism lecturer Charmaine Hale-Lynch and our Welfare and Pastoral Services Team won silver awards.

As you can see, the commitment we make to our staff produces tangible benefits for our learners which, after all, is why we are here. Not only can learners be sure they’ll get the highest quality education with us, staff members understand their efforts will always be rewarded.

Dr Paul Phillips, CBE Principal and Chief Executive 

New generations of students are set to benefit from the opening of a flagship facility at Weston College. The £13 million Health and Active Living Skills Centre, completed by Midas Construction is based at the college’s Loxton Campus and will welcome its first students this September.

The aim of the bespoke facility is to provide learners with knowledge of the healthcare and sport sectors as well as vital industry skills. The centre will bring together the College’s health and social care, sports therapy and active living courses into one facility, which will benefit students, businesses and the wider community.

It features a state-of-the-art training hospital ward, one full size 3G pitch, one full size rugby pitch, a multi-gym and a sports hall. Dr Paul Phillips, CBE, Principal and Chief Executive of the Weston College Group, said: “This outstanding new training centre is the latest step in our drive to provide students with the very best learning facilities and resources.

“We have worked with key business partners to ensure that the Health and Active Living Centre will tackle the current skills shortage in the sector and address the longer-term issues that affect our health service and the health of the local population.” The West of England Local Enterprise Partnership through the Local Growth Fund, administered by the West of England Combined Authority contributed £5.4 million towards the project, match funded by the college.

Chair of the West of England LEP, Prof Steve West, said: “We’re pleased to support the new Health and Active Living Skills Centre to deliver important investment in skills for health and social care professionals working in our region. It will also give young people the skills they need to progress further in their education and secure better career prospects right here in the West of England.

“We need to train more people for future careers in our hospitals and community services - this will improve the quality of care and improve people’s lives. With more highly qualified professionals, and with people trained in a wider range of disciplines, people will be better cared for.” James Rimmer, Chief Executive of Weston Area Health Trust, said: “This is a fantastic opportunity for partnership working between Weston College and Weston General Hospital.

“This demonstrates the investment we are both making to support the learning and development of students. We hope it will also help the recruitment and retention of staff as well as supporting the increased demand on healthcare locally”.

The development also continues a strong framework partnership between Weston College and Midas, who have worked closely together on a number of recent projects including the newly built Construction Training Centre.

Derek Quinn, Executive Director for Midas Construction, said: “This fantastic new development will have a significant long term impact on staff, students and the local community and we are pleased to have been able to complete the project on time for Weston College.

Weston College has smashed through its target of creating 600 work-related learning opportunities in six months.

The ambitious ‘600 in 6’ campaign aimed to persuade businesses to ‘pledge’ a range of opportunities to help learners gain the knowledge and they skills they need in workplace. These include apprenticeship, traineeship and work experience places.

It expanded on last year’s successful drive to create 200 apprenticeship vacancies in 100 days by including the College’s full range of work-based training services.

The campaign far exceeded expectations, securing 697 pledges in five months from business such as Wookey Hole Caves, Sedgemoor Council, Smurfit Kappa, Wessex Water and Carbase.

Dr Paul Phillips CBE, Principal and Chief Executive of Weston College, said: “It is highly impressive that we have managed to create opportunities for over 600 learners to gain experience with some of the best companies in the region.

“This year we wanted to showcase our full employer offer – to see businesses get behind this has been particularly exciting.

“Many organisations feel that they are suffering from a skills gap, and this campaign shows that we are actively supporting the community and matching enthusiastic learners with forward-thinking employers.

“Throughout this campaign we have built new relationships with employers, and I look forward to these progressing further in the future. Thank you to all of our employers and regional partners for supporting such a valuable initiative.”

If you’d still like to pledge an opportunity to the ‘600 in 6’ campaign, there’s still time. Find out more by speaking to our award-winning Training Solutions team on 01934 411 594.

Skills Support for the Unemployed (SSU) has helped Nicola find a new job after she was made redundant by Thomas Cook, after 20 years’ service.

The SSU programme is delivered by Weston College on behalf of Dimensions Training Solutions (DTS), which is funded by the European Social Fund (ESF) and managed by the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA).

SSU aims to upskill unemployed people and fast-track them to employment or further training.

Ahead of starting a new job, Nicola described how SSU has helped her.

“Following my redundancy with Thomas Cook, I was unemployed for three months,” she said.

“My friend recommended that I get in touch with Weston College, and I haven’t looked back.

“Through Skills Support for the Unemployed, I managed to complete three courses; IT Entry Level, IT Level 1 and AAT Bookkeeping.

“Not only did I develop skills, I also grew in confidence, which is so critical when you’re looking for a job. I particularly enjoyed the interview preparation with my ‘job coach – I found this so valuable in getting me a job.

“If you are unemployed, I would highly recommend getting in touch with Weston College. They will support you in every aspect of finding a job.

“I am really excited about starting my new job as a customer relations advisor.”

Find out more about SSU, by clicking here. 

Universities and colleges have set themselves challenging new targets to make further and faster progress on fair access to Higher Education. The new targets, agreed with the Office for Fair Access (OFFA), form part of the 183 access agreements approved today, and will help meet a Government ambition to double the rate of students from disadvantaged backgrounds entering Higher Education.

Professor Les Ebdon, Director of Fair Access to Higher Education, said:

“The access agreements I have approved today show that universities and colleges are setting stretching and ambitious targets to attract students from disadvantaged areas and then support them through their studies. Our work with universities and colleges has really borne fruit over the last decade. There are now greater rates of young people from disadvantaged backgrounds in Higher Education than ever before – but we know that talent is still being lost. Too many people who have the talent to excel are not given full opportunity to demonstrate their ability. Eroding the stubborn link between your background as a child and your life chances as an adult is a long-term project. But I am confident that this set of agreements can – and will – make a real and lasting difference for many years to come.

“I am enormously heartened to see the significant level of ambition in this set of access agreements. By making progress towards their own fair access challenges, universities and colleges will contribute to the Government’s national fair access goals. The Prime Minister and Minister for Universities have set a goal to double the rates of students from disadvantaged backgrounds by 2020, and these agreements send a clear message that universities are ready to do the hard work to make this target a reality.

“The work and ambition universities and colleges have committed to today will transform lives. The outreach work universities have planned will open the door to higher education for people who might otherwise have thought it was not for them. The people that universities work with now will go on to be the doctors, business leaders and engineers of the future.”

Each university and college with an access agreement sets their own targets depending on their own individual circumstances. These targets are then subject to OFFA’s approval. Among the targets universities and colleges have set for their 2016-17 access agreements are:

- All institutions have set a target on the make-up of their student body

- Around three quarters of institutions set a target to improve the rates of students continuing with their studies, while around 15 per cent set a specific target to help ensure that their students were well prepared for life after graduation.

- Many targets also focus on particular groups of disadvantaged students. For example:

- Over a fifth of institutions set targets designed to help care leavers access higher education and succeed in their studies

- Approximately forty per cent of institutions set targets around specific ethnic groups. This includes a range of targets to reduce attainment gaps between different groups of students

- Around a third of institutions set targets relating to disabled students.

In total, universities and colleges predict that they will invest £750.8 million in steady state through their 2016-17 access agreements. This consists of:

- £149.3 million on access activities. This includes long-term sustained outreach work, which identifies learners at an early stage, and helps to raise aspirations and attainment
- £148.0 million on work to support students through their studies – for example through tailored induction programmes for particular groups of students
- £54.6 million on progression activities, to ensure that students are well prepared for life after graduation
- £399.0 million on financial support, including bursaries, fee waivers and hardship funds.

Professor Ebdon continued:

“Our discussions and negotiations with universities and colleges have led to improved targets at 94 institutions. These new targets are evidence-led, strategic and deliverable, and I look forward to working with universities and colleges to make further, faster progress.”

For more information on the College's HE provision, click here.

Weston College's Access Agreement for 2016/17 has been approved by OFFA and outlines the measures the college will take to widen access to HE. Click here to download a PDF for more information.

As Weston College celebrated Women in Engineering day last week (23 June), Liz Griffiths, the College’s Lecturer in Mechanical Engineering, looks back on her decision to enter into the profession.

She said: “When I left school I was unsure about the career path that I wanted to pursue.

“I knew that my favourite subjects were maths and physics, so I wanted to find an occupation that related to those subjects.

“I was lucky enough to attend a seminar on women in engineering and was immediately interested in the exciting and varied career options that are available in the engineering industry, so I started to investigate the different kinds of apprenticeships that were available.”

Liz was accepted onto a four-year apprenticeship with Westland Helicopters, and was employed by the company after completing her study.

At Westland, she worked on Lynx and Puma aircraft before moving to Westland Industrial Products as a manufacturing planning engineer.

Prior to joining the College in 2016, she worked with GKN Aerospace on the Airbus A350.

Liz added: “The most important piece of advice I would give to girls that are considering getting into engineering is that it’s a very diverse and well-paid career and there is bound to be a pathway that interests you.

“If you’re unsure, it’s worth going to college open days to see what different types of engineering courses and apprenticeships are available.”

Somerset is home to over 4,600 regional, national and international engineering businesses, including major manufacturing and aerospace companies.

Over the next five years there will be 1.86 million jobs available to people with engineering qualifications, and people who graduate from university with engineering and technology degrees typically earn 20% more per year than graduates in other fields.

You can find out more about Weston College’s engineering provision here: www.weston.ac.uk/subject/engineering

Weston College’s catering students learned about budgeting on Wednesday (18 January) as they went head to head in a ‘market challenge’.

The students were tasked with sourcing local ingredients from Arthur David Food Wholesalers in Bishop Sutton before bringing them back to the College and creating menu items priced at £1.50 each.

The students created a selection of appetising dishes which were then put on sale to College staff, with the team who sold the most winning a day at a Michelin star restaurant courtesy of the Chefs’ Forum.

The students were assisted in the kitchen by Steven Shore, Chef at Arthur David, who provided expert advice as the students cooked their meals.

The winning team included Alice Ruff, Joe Gallagher and Luke Johnson-Brown, who impressed College staff with a spicy winter vegetable tagine followed by plumb crumble and custard.

Richard Tudor, Chef Lecturer at Weston College, said: “The idea behind the market challenge was to teach our students how to cook to a budget and ensure that they can turn a profit.

“The students also got to experience liaising with suppliers and working to the demands of a professional kitchen.”

Weston College’s catering students benefit from being a part of the Chefs’ Forum Academy, which enables top chefs from across the region to work with the College’s students in order to give them expert advice and open the doors to many business and employment opportunities after they’ve finished their qualifications.

A Formula Ford champion from Langley has been working with Weston College students to coach them for a national competition.

Roger Orgee Jr gave the students an exclusive session on carting, teaching them the driving techniques that they hope will see them through to the national karting finals.

The top three student drivers will represent the college in an exciting national karting competition next year.

As part of Weston College's sponsorship of the local Roger Orgee Racing team, the College’s motorsport study programme provides students with the opportunity to work with Formula Ford race mechanics in the College workshops and out on track on the local racing circuit.

Next year Roger is moving up to the National Formula Ford championship and is planned to involve Weston College motorsport degree students at the race meetings as part of their work experience.

Weston College has revealed the winners of its National Careers Week CV Competition.

Students from across the College were encouraged to put their CV writing skills to use during the College's 'How employable are you?' competitions, which saw prizes worth £50 up for grabs.

The CVs were judged by a panel which included members of the College's human resources department and recruiters at Bristol Airport. 

The triumphant winners were Scott Aldridge and Esme Taylor, and prizes were also awarded to runners up Alexandra Elliott, Samuel Folland, Amy Evans and Jordan Marsh.

Finalists received individual feedback from our recruitment specialists, and every student who entered the competition was given advice to improve their CV from the College's progression team.

Click here to see our CV writing advice.