Award winning college in West Lancashire

West Lancashire College has recently become the proud winner of the BIBAs 2024 Skills Provider of the Year Award.

Run by the North & Western Lancashire Chamber of Commerce, the Be Inspired Business Awards (BIBAs) is Lancashire’s longest running, largest and most prestigious business awards ceremony and are a celebration of the county’s best performing companies and entrepreneurs.

Based in the heart of Skelmersdale’s town centre, West Lancashire College, which is part of NCG, one of the largest education and training organisations in the UK, has a mission of enabling social mobility and prosperity through exceptional education, something it strives to achieve every single day.

The college has been on a journey to Outstanding since it’s last Ofsted inspection in January 2022, where they were graded ‘Good’. It offers a wide range of BTEC and T Level qualifications, Technical and Apprenticeship courses, plus online and in person professional qualifications for adults.

So what makes West Lancashire College Skills Provider of the Year?

The college puts its success down to the combination of a fantastic team of dedicated staff who all have one shared goal; to create the very best opportunities for their students so that they have better life chances and are best placed to achieve their potential in today’s competitive world. These opportunities are created via outstanding employer links, ongoing investment into facilities and continuous focus on the levelling up agenda.

Students at the college benefit from some fantastic industry and work experience placements, guest talks and masterclasses, and industry specific site visits with local, regional, and national organisations. Employers also work closely with the college to ensure their qualifications are fit for current industry standards. These industry collaborations support the fantastic teaching and learning and enrich the student experience by bringing future careers to life and enhancing student skills to the next level.

West Lancashire College already has outstanding facilities set in a beautiful university feel campus which they have recently been able to enhance further after receiving over £1.5m worth of funding from the Local Skills Improvement Fund (LSIF) and government T Level funding. This additional funding has allowed for improved equipment and facilities so that students can develop the skills and behaviours required by employers. This has included the refurbishment to digital classrooms, engineering workshops, and the creation of a mock primary setting, hospital ward and Apprentice style board room for business students.

The college has a number of initiatives to ensure their students can access opportunities on a level playing field and that any barriers to learning are removed. One such initiative has been through Turing who for the second year have funded educational international trips to some fantastic destinations enabling students to carry out industry placements in an international setting. Turing has allowed the college to offer these trips as funded for students who previously would have been unable to attend.

Local companies Asda and PepsiCo have partnered with the college, and have kindly sponsored food for a free breakfast, ensuring students have a good start to the day and are able to concentrate on their studies. The college also offers a free coach service for students from travelling from Liverpool, Southport, Ormskirk, and Wigan, so that parents have one less thing to worry about financially, and students can travel to college safely.

Liz Bromley, Chief Executive Officer, NCG said “I am thrilled to see West Lancashire College become the first further education college to be named Skills Provider of the Year at this year’s BIBAs.  This award is thoroughly deserved and highlights just how important the College is to its local community, and how the FE sector is key to the government’s skills agenda.

“My colleagues at West Lancashire College work hard to provide learners with an exceptional experience and life-changing opportunities. As a result, the College plays an important role in supporting the Skelmersdale and wider Lancashire communities to be successful and sustainable, by responding to local skills needs and developing the current and future workforce.”

Gareth Sutton, Vice Principal at the college added “We are enormously proud of our college and staff, the excellent support we provide to our students and the great opportunities we offer, and we are honoured to achieve this prestigious award which is testament to everyone who works at West Lancs.

“This year has already been a fantastic year, in March our students won The Lancashire Colleges Skills Competitions for both Early Years and Engineering categories, so winning Skills Provider of the Year at the iconic Blackpool Tower Ballroom has been the icing on the cake. We look forward to continuing our work to offer the local community of West Lancashire the very best educational experience around.”