Salford City College does the Double

Salford City College is the top performing General Further Education (GFE) College in Greater Manchester for the second year running, and has bagged the top spot in two learner categories. 

The College, which was also named Educate North’s ‘College of the Year’ last month, has been ranked the Number One GFE College for Education and Training (Classroom Based Learning) and the Number One GFE College for Apprenticeships (Overall), ‘doing the double’ and securing its title as the top performing College in Greater Manchester. 

Each year data from the Department for Education is released and can be used to name the best performing Colleges in certain areas. Salford City College secured an impressive 85.7% achievement rate for education and training (classroom based learning), and a fantastic 78.4% achievement rate for Apprenticeships in 2015/16, the highest achievement rate for these two categories out of the 10 GFE Colleges in Greater Manchester.

Michael J Walsh, Acting Principal, Salford City College expressed his delight at the news, “We couldn’t be happier here at Salford City College being named, once again, as the highest performing GFE College in Greater Manchester, and with ‘doing the double’ in regards to our success in both the classroom based learning category and the Apprenticeships category.

“This, along with our success at the Educate North Awards, is simply remarkable and something we not only feel extremely proud of, but also something that inspires us to keep achieving in the future.”

The success of the College, which was rated ‘Good’ by Ofsted in 2015, was particularly important when it came to Apprenticeships. This is an especially significant success as Salford City College prides itself on the partnerships it has made with employers across Greater Manchester. The College works with hundreds of employers to provide a range of training frameworks for young and adult Apprentices starting their career or developing their skills in their professional role. 

Debbie Ward, Director of Apprenticeships and Community, said “We are delighted with the results, the team have worked incredibly hard with some amazing Apprentices and employers over the last year to ensure quality provision is delivered from start to finish. It’s fantastic to see this reflected in the achievement rates for both overall and timely performance, putting us top of the table of FE College Apprenticeship providers in GM.”

Staff and students at Salford City College are thrilled with the results from the Department of Education for 2015/16, with the sense of pride being felt across each Centre and department.

Michael continued, “This really is a joint success of everyone in the College, every member of staff, whether they are support staff or teachers and every student who has put the work in and given 100% to their studies. We must now strive to keep achieving and keep scoring those top-mark achievement rates.”