Canterbury College, Kent

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Canterbury College is one of the major providers of Further and Higher Education courses and training in Kent, England with more than 12,000 students each year (approx. 4,000 full-time and 8,000 part-time) and 800 staff.

The College is situated just a short walk from the centre of Canterbury, a lively city with a large student population.

The College is resourced with real working environments for a range of vocational courses including: Hairdressing and Beauty Salons offering treatments to students, staff and the general public; a Florists shop with private and corporate clients; a popular a la carte restaurant with views over Canterbury Cathedral. The new Technology and Motor Vehicle centres provide students with modern, custom-built workshops, laboratories and lecture rooms.

Canterbury College also offers its students the widest range of trips and activities of any College in the South East. Over the past year there have been trips to a variety of West End Shows such as Mary Poppins and The Lion King as well as concerts from Pink to Iron Maiden. There have also been trips to see the Brazil v Portugal football match and the Harlem Globetrotters. The College also co-ordinates and promotes the Duke of Edinburgh’s Gold Award Scheme for students and anyone in the Canterbury area. The College also has excellent links with VSU, a charity which provides a range of volunteering options from animal welfare through to working with children or elderly people.

Canterbury College’s provision ranges from A Level and vocational courses for school-leavers and adults through to day-release courses for industry and commerce and in-house training and assessment for companies. Last year nearly 300 companies used Canterbury College to train their staff. January 2007 saw the launch of faculty Stakeholder Groups where representatives from local businesses are invited to meet with staff to advise and support the planning, content and delivery of learning and to ensure that our students have the relevant skills to meet their needs.

The range of courses on offer continues to grow and amongst others, 2006/7 saw the launch of the highly successful BTEC National Diploma in Media (Games Development), the first of its kind in the area.

Canterbury College also offers a range of Higher National Diploma, Foundation Degree and BA (Hons) degree courses in subjects ranging from Business to Music Production. The College’s Information and Communication Technology Centre in Rutland House is home to most of the College’s HE Courses and Corporate Training Centre which offers a wide variety of practical, cost effective courses for business including Business Management, Sales and Marketing as well as ICT course such as ITQ, Cisco Networking and a range of courses for HM Prison Service.

Canterbury College was the first College in Kent to achieve the Investors in People award in 1995 and in May 2007 was re-awarded the standard for the third time. The College holds the Charter Mark for customer service, the Matrix Award for Information Advice and Guidance and is a Centre of Vocational Excellence for Travel and Tourism courses. In 2005, it also gained the prestigious Action for Business College accreditation.

Its satellite, Sheppey College is based in Sheerness and offers state of the art technology in a purpose built learning environment. Sheppey College offers courses in various subject areas which have been developed to meet the needs of the whole community from school-leavers to adults. In 2003, the College opened its Skills Centre providing courses in construction crafts, hairdressing and beauty therapy. In October 2006, Sheppey College celebrated its 10th anniversary.

The College is now reaching the conclusion of phase 2 its £50 million re-development project which will see the opening of a range of new buildings including an Arts and Media centre in the Autumn term and new refectory, Student Support Centre and Learning Resources Centre in January 2008