Exeter College Celebrates National #LoveOurCollege Week

Exeter College is celebrating national ‘Love Our Colleges’ Week – a national celebration of Further Education colleges across the nation.

The nationwide ‘Love Our Colleges’ week, 13-17 May 2019, coordinated by the Association of Colleges (AoC) seeks to highlight the brilliant work that goes on in FE colleges.

The campaign also highlights how better investment in Further Education across the country could have a significant return on investment for UK Plc – particularly enabling outstanding colleges like Exeter College to do even more as powerhouses for growth, productivity, and social mobility for their communities.

Throughout the week, outstanding Exeter College will be showcasing just some of the recent achievements of its staff and students.

Exeter College, with its vision to be an exceptional college, has a mission to shape the future of education by delivering excellence in all aspects of its work, in order to realise the ambitions of its learners, city and region.

Ten Recent Exeter College Highlights

1. World class academic progress – Exeter College is in the top 10% nationally – for the second consecutive year – for outstanding progress of its A Level learners in 2018;
2. Exeter College recently celebrated a multi-million pound bid to revolutionise digital, manufacturing technology education. The Exeter element of the bid will help fund Exeter College’s plans for a new £10 million Digital and Data Hub;
3. Outstanding Exeter College student rugby players represented England in Japan in 2019 – for the second year in a row;
4. Exceptional Exeter Tops Apprenticeship table – bucking a national trend of a decline in Apprenticeship starts. Exeter College has played a significant part of this success story with more than a thousand starts in a year;
5. Exeter College is among the UK’s Best Not-for-Profit Organisations to work for, according to The Sunday Times;
6. The college recently officially launched its new Apprenticeship and Employment Hub to meet the needs of the more than 1,000 employers it works together with;
7. The Education and Training Foundation and Royal Commission for Education of 1851 recently awarded Exeter College’s Stephen Mariadas a coveted Technical Teaching Fellowship;
8. Exeter College celebrated its best ever academic results in 2018, with students setting a new record for the very highest results, well above all national averages. A remarkable number of students achieved the very highest grades possible – with 174 A* awarded;
9. Exeter College is one of only 12 colleges in the UK to be a Microsoft Showcase College, and the first in Devon;
10. Debating success – Exeter College students have won the Bristol Grammar School Model United Nations (MUN) conference for four consecutive years and were runners-up, as the only non-selective school/college, in the highly coveted Bath International Schools MUN conference in March 2019.

John Laramy, Exeter College Principal and Chief Executive, said:

“Colleges make a massive difference to young people, adults, businesses, sports teams and the communities we serve. I am therefore delighted that Exeter College is supporting ‘Love Our Colleges’ Week.

“The aim of the week is to raise the profile of the life changing work done by colleges and in the case of Exeter College, we hope to share a few examples of our progress towards our vision of becoming an exceptional college.”

Outstanding Apprenticeship Success Celebrated to Mark ‘Love Our Colleges Week’

Exeter College is celebrating the award-winning Apprenticeship success of its partners, employers and Apprentices to mark national ‘Love Our Colleges’ Week.

Apprenticeships at outstanding Exeter College have been on a clear upward trajectory in recent years. As the city’s largest provider of Apprenticeships, it has played a key role in Exeter’s brilliant Apprenticeship growth, bucking a national trend of decline.

Indeed, the city of Exeter has topped the table for Apprenticeship starts between 2015/16 and 2017/18, in a recent Centre for Cities report; beating other cities like Oxford and Cambridge, by nearly 50%.

Exeter College recently officially opened a new Apprenticeship and Employment Hub, a city-centre facility that is available to both students and employers, which includes a walk-in clinic and learning space.

Exeter College Apprenticeships Top Five

1. Top 10% nationally for success rates for four consecutive years within Further Education (FE) colleges;
2. Previous Winners of The Times Educational Supplement Apprenticeship programme of the year;
3. Featured by Ofsted in their Apprenticeship best practice video for their approach to employers;
4. Identified as a support college through the Strategic College Improvement Fund to support other Apprenticeship providers;
5. Five years of substantial growth has made Exeter College’s Apprenticeship programme the largest in Devon.

Mike Blakeley, Director of Apprenticeships and Employment Engagement, said:

“The changing face of Apprenticeships has led to countless new and exciting opportunities for young people to enter the world of work. We are blessed in the region with some of the most innovative and supportive employers when it comes to creating employment opportunities with training.

“No week goes by without new businesses joining the ever-expanding number that makes up the Exeter College’s award-winning Apprenticeship network. The investment and support we receive from these businesses are truly staggering and in turn allows us to deliver the exceptional provision employers and young people have come to love.”

John Laramy, Exeter College Principal and Chief Executive, said:

“The quality and impact of our Apprenticeship work is a great example of why so many people ‘Love Our Colleges’. I am absolutely delighted that while nationally Apprenticeship growth has fallen, here in Exeter we have seen yet another record breaking year.

“The passion of our employers, the calibre of our Apprentices, and the quality and dedication of our staff has created a magic formula – which has enabled us to buck every trend. I would simply like to say thank you to everyone who has contributed to the success of the Apprenticeship programme.”