French principals visit Cambridge Regional College to share best practice

Cambridge Regional College played host to a visit by principals from leading vocational colleges in and around Paris in a day designed to share best practice.

The five head teachers, who were in Cambridge for a week-long language course, toured the college and met lecturers and apprenticeship assessors to find out more about further education in the UK.

The visit gave the French principals an opportunity to talk to students and apprentices and exchange ideas in vocational teaching. They visited the college’s hair and beauty salons, catering department and construction faculty, and found out more about the curriculum at CRC and its recent highly-rated Ofsted report.

Vladimer Butin, from CRC’s International Centre, said it had been an excellent visit.

“We were delighted to welcome our French visitors and talk to them about our apprenticeship programmes and vocational training for local skills needs,” he said.

“It was an excellent opportunity to discuss the different ways we teach and share best practice in both countries. They were very impressed with the college and enjoyed touring all our specialist training areas, including our engineering workshops designed with input from employers.”