Why students and employers love B&FC during national #CollegesWeek

Blackpool and The Fylde College (B&FC) is proudly supporting national Colleges Week and the #LoveOurColleges campaign.

The event runs until Friday 19 October 2018 and aims to raise the profile of the FE sector and the 2.2 million people who benefit from education, training and skills development every year. 

As part of event, the Love Our Colleges campaign is encouraging college employees to share positive stories about their institution and is supported by college employees, students and education unions.

B&FC is supporting Colleges Week and promoting student success stories which show how the work of the College contributes to improving lives and communities.

Simon Hughes, Vice Principal Quality and Curriculum at B&FC, said:

“Colleges Week is a fantastic national initiative and provides an additional platform to showcase all the positive work that B&FC does to ensure our students have the best possible experience and our employer partners get the highly skilled workforce they require.

“It’s wonderful to hear all the comments from students who have been inspired to go on to achieve great things during their time here. But it’s equally fantastic to hear the positive experiences employers have had of working in partnership with us.

“As the anchor educational institution on the Fylde Coast and the largest college in Lancashire, B&FC is a major part of our community. Not only do we provide high-quality education and training to provide a highly skilled workforce for industry, our students and staff are also involved in a very wide range of community projects which not only add value to their own development, but contribute to improving our society.”

Why our community loves B&FC!

Connor Campbell, Level 3 Game Design Development, 18, from South Shore, said:

“Game design is a hard industry to get into but the College has taught me relevant skills that you wouldn’t get in other places and really prepared me for working in industry.

“It was good to do so much time in industry because we really got the experience of being in a work environment and work on development projects.”

Elaine Wright, BA Hons Health and Social Care (Adult), 52, from Cleveleys said:

“I didn’t do particularly well at school. I struggled with exams and left when I was 17. I’m much better with coursework and assessments.

“The learning and support from my tutors has been brilliant.

“This sector needs people who are well trained and have the right skills and the staff at B&FC are absolutely fantastic and really know what they’re talking about.”

James Bleakley, Level 3 Construction & The Built Environment, 19, from Thornton Cleveleys, said:

“I liked working with materials at school but this course opened my eyes to other careers, like quantity surveying. My tutors organised a lot of work experience for me, then helped me to secure an apprenticeship as a quantity surveyor with Holden and Lee, who are now paying for me to do a degree.”

Alyce Wynne, BEng Hons Engineering (aerospace), 23, from Cleveleys, said:

“My tutors had excellent technical expertise and you could always go to them for help if you were struggling.

“I’ve always enjoyed maths and that really helped, particularly as we got towards the end of the programme where there was a lot of theory involved.”

Sian Nicholson, Level 3 Photography, 18, from St Annes, said:

“My course is brilliant and I really enjoy all the extra-curricular activity at B&FC. I’ve been a student ambassador at events, a student rep and worked on health and safety projects. It has really helped my confidence and I would encourage everyone to push themselves to get involved in college life, even if it doesn’t come naturally.”

Bernard Kellett,  Early Careers Manager at BAE Systems, said:

“BAE Systems benefits greatly from working with the College.

“The main thing is we’re getting academically qualified trainees into the business, people with good degrees and a good foundation in the business vocational side.

“The results have been outstanding.”

Keith Tidmarsh, Apprentice Training Manager at Westinghouse Springfields, said:

“We have had a long and beneficial relationship with B&FC, and have been sending apprentices to study their engineering technical certificates at the College for more than 25 years, progressing many of those individuals through the Engineering Higher National

Certificate programmes.

“In more recent years – with the development of B&FC’s degree programmes – Springfields has also had the chance to offer its employees the opportunity to study engineering degrees part-time.

“Much of Springfields’ engineering workforce qualified through programmes at B&FC and we see the benefit of a local college providing quality learning opportunities.”

Kate Shane, head of the Blackpool Cluster, Merlin Entertainments, said:

“B&FC is really in tune with what businesses need now for their workforce. We’re very lucky to have an ongoing relationship with the College. It’s ticking all the boxes.”