Vision West Nottinghamshire College

Vision West Nottinghamshire College
Established 1928 as a Technical College
Type Further Education College
Principal & Chief Executive Dame Asha Khemka, DBE, OBE
Deputy Principal (Teaching) Patricia Harman
Vice Principal (Business) Graham Howe
Chair of the Corporation Board Nevil Croston
Location Derby Road
Mansfield
Nottinghamshire
NG18 5BH
England
Local authority Nottinghamshire
DfE URN 130777 Tables
Ofsted Reports
Students about 19,000 full and part-time
Gender Mixed
Ages 14–65
Website Vision West Nottinghamshire College

Vision West Nottinghamshire College is the trading name of West Nottinghamshire College, a further education college having two main campuses in Mansfield, with smaller sites at nearby Sutton in Ashfield and Kirkby in Ashfield, Nottinghamshire, England.[1]

The College of Further Education was formed in the 1970s[1] by combining elements of an old Technical College dating back to 1928[2] and adjacent College of Arts dating from 1930[3] in Mansfield town centre with a newer, main Technical College established in 1960 at a large development on former farmland at Derby Road, on the outskirts of Mansfield.[4][5] Both sites remain in use, and the college provides dedicated shuttle buses from the different sites.

The Derby Road Campus in 2005, showing adjacent farmland in the foreground, with Derby Road running directly alongside at the rear of the building

College

The college offers further education to about 19,000 students in full- and part-time education including courses for 14- to 16-year-olds in collaboration with local schools. The programmes include the majority of 'A' Level courses, access to higher education,[5] and vocational apprenticeships which include bricklaying, plumbing, carpentry, gas fitting, painting and decorating, construction management, driving passenger vehicles, forklift truck driving and railway engineering.[6] A variety of community and adult courses is also provided across the local area. The college has a Centre of Vocational Excellence (CoVE) status for engineering, specialised construction, logistics and care.[5] A 2008 Ofsted report accorded the school Grade 1 (outstanding) on all inspection points,[5] but at the 2012 inspection the college ratings lowered from Outstanding to good overall with some satisfactory areas and some inadequate.[7]

Former Technical and Art College site, Chesterfield Road South, Mansfield

Names

After opening as a newly built Technical College in 1960,[4] the Derby Road site became locally known as Derby Road Tech. West Nottinghamshire College of Further Education was founded in 1976 as the result of a merger of West Nottinghamshire Technical College[8] and Mansfield College of Art (sometimes called College of Arts[9]), previously Mansfield School of Arts.[10]

A change in the law – the Further and Higher Education Act 1992 – allowed colleges to become Incorporated and run semi-autonomously, in this case becoming the Corporation of West Nottinghamshire College,[11] with finances changing from local authority control to that of the Further Education Funding Council in April 1993.[12]

The college renamed itself Vision West Notts in September 2011.[13] Shortly after, however, the college adopted its current trading name of Vision West Nottinghamshire College.

The formal title is West Nottinghamshire College, as cited in the Ofsted report of June 2012,[5][11] although it is often referred to as 'West Notts College'[1] and other variations, particularly in its two main social media presences.

Campuses and sites

Shuttle buses waiting for students to embark in Mansfield town centre

The main college campus is the Derby Road campus in the south of Mansfield; the Chesterfield Road campus is in Mansfield town centre. There are several smaller sites including a Logistics and Construction Academy in Kirkby-in-Ashfield for 600 students known as Station Park Campus, and around 100 further affiliated outreach venues in the Mansfield and Ashfield area and the largely urban corridor along the M1 motorway route between the counties of Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire.[5]

Royal visit

On 20 February 2009, the college's Construction and Skills Logistics Academy was visited by the Prince of Wales, who unveiled a commemorative plaque to mark his visit.[14]

The Inspire and Achieve Foundation

In 2009, college principal Asha Khemka established the Inspire & Achieve Foundation, a registered charity to improve the prospects of young people from regeneration areas such as Mansfield.[15][16]

Dame Asha Khemka, Principal

Principal Asha Khemka, an OBE since 2009, was awarded a DBE in the New Year Honours list 2014. She has been Principal and Chief Executive of West Nottinghamshire College since May 2006, succeeding Di McEvoy-Robinson.[16]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Telegraph. Vision West Nottinghamshire College guide. Retrieved 2013-12-31
  2. ↑ 'Our Mansfield and Area' website administered by Mansfield District Council Museum Annals of Mansfield - 'Timeline' "24 October 1928. The Mansfield Technical College, Chesterfield Road South, was officially opened by Lord Chelmsford" Retrieved 2013-12-31
  3. ↑ 'Our Mansfield and Area' website administered by Mansfield District Council Museum Annals of Mansfield - 'Timeline' "19 November 1930. The Nottinghamshire County School of Art, at the rear of the Technical College, was officially opened by Mr. T. L. K. Edge" Retrieved 2013-12-31
  4. 1 2 'Our Mansfield and Area' website administered by Mansfield District Council Museum Annals of Mansfield - 'Timeline' "15 November 1960. West Nottinghamshire Technical College, Derby Road, officially opened by Mr. (later Lord) Alfred Robens" Retrieved 2013-12-31
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Ofsted Retrieved 12 October 2010
  6. ↑ wnc press release Retrieved 12 October 2010
  7. ↑ "West Nottinghamshire College inspection 2012." (PDF). OFSTED. Retrieved 13 July 2012.
  8. ↑ 1973 Mansfield Directory, Street Plan and Guide, published by Linney of Mansfield. p.29 and p.108 West Nottinghamshire Technical College, Derby Road, Mansfield. Principal: Mr R. F. Beaton
  9. ↑ 1973 Mansfield Directory, Street Plan and Guide, published by Linney of Mansfield. p.71 College of Arts, Chesterfield Road South, Mansfield. Principal: Mr E. S. Morton
  10. ↑ "Students and staff celebrate art school memories", West Nottinghamshire College, 27 June 2014. Accessed 11 January 2015.
  11. 1 2 West Nottinghamshire College. Report and Financial Statements for the period ending 31 July 2011. Retrieved 2013-12-31
  12. ↑ 'Our Mansfield and Area' website administered by Mansfield District Council Museum Annals of Mansfield - 'Timeline' "1993, 1 April. West Nottinghamshire College was transferred from local authority control to that of the Further Education Funding Council." Retrieved 2014-01-26
  13. ↑ Summers, Nick (23 September 2011). "When FE colleges choose not to call themselves ‘colleges’". FE Week. Retrieved 6 March 2014.
  14. ↑ Royal visit Retrieved 12 October 2010
  15. ↑ Inspire Achieve Foundation
  16. 1 2 Chad, local newspaper, 31 December 2013 New Years Honour for West Notts chief Retrieved 2013-12-31

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Friday, February 26, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.