Walford and North Shropshire College

Background to the College

Walford and North Shropshire College’s mission is to serve the educational and training needs of Shropshire’s rural population. It is the product of a merger between a rural tertiary College and Shropshire’s land-based College in January 2001. Its main campus is based in the market town of Oswestry. In 2008-09 we have recruited over 1,300 full-time learners, of which the majority are aged 16-18 and effectively constitute a ‘sixth form’ of approximately 1,000. In addition, we recruit some 5,000 adult learners annually to further education, train to gain and adult safeguarded learning programmes. Annual turnover is approximately £12m.

In the last ten years the College has invested over £10m in its estate, with a major new building, extension and nursery at the Oswestry campus. In 2007 The Princess Royal opened the Harris Centre, a purpose-built facility at the Walford campus as a showcase for a range of sustainable technologies, which accommodates animal management and horticulture students along with a small zoo.

Since merger, all of the land-based curriculum has been retained and in some areas expanded. New programmes preparing youngsters to join the public services, automotive engineering and sport-related fields have resulted in a significant increase in both full and part-time student numbers. On the Walford estate there is a commercial dairy, sheep and arable farm of 180 hectares, a large equine facility, engineering workshops, and a horticulture centre in addition to the new zoo. There is residential accommodation for 85 students.

In the market town of Wem the College has a Learning Centre co-located with the town library. The Shipley Centre in south east Shropshire is co-located with a large commercial garden centre and delivers a broad range of courses including childcare and ‘return to work’. The Aspire Centre in Burford on the Shropshire/Worcestershire border delivers full-time automotive engineering courses to young people and ‘return to work’ courses for adults. In addition to its own campuses, the College makes PCDL provision in well over 50 community venues spread over a wide area of rural Shropshire.

Student achievement is at or above benchmark in most curriculum areas. The overall success rate in 2007-08 was 83%, some 3% above the national benchmark.

To complement its very broad further education curriculum, the College delivers a limited range of higher education programmes working with Staffordshire University and (subject to validation) Harper Adams University College.

The College employs approximately 280 full-time staff and a slightly larger number on part-time contracts. This reflects the very broad curriculum range and the geographically dispersed provision. Staff turnover is low and survey responses of staff attitudes and satisfaction levels compare favourably when benchmarked against other institutions. The Shropshire/Wales borderlands offer an excellent quality of life with good schools, relatively inexpensive housing and ready access to Birmingham, Liverpool and delightful countryside.

The College has been reaccredited for the fifth time against the Investor in People standard and in 2006 its Charter Mark status was renewed. Catering is out-sourced, but with that exception all staff are directly employed by the College.

In north Shropshire over 95% of VAT registered businesses employ less than 5 people. This has made it difficult for the College to address workforce development needs. Despite this, the Employer Engagement Team achieved its target for 2007-08 of training delivery valued in exceed of £600,000 per annum. The College has close working relationships with a number of large employers and runs innovative partnerships with two professional football clubs.