Annual Review 2012-13

The past twelve months have been very eventful for the college, and whilst we dealt with the everyday challenges, we also had some unique events take place to mark the year.
Possibly the most challenging was the visit from Ofsted in April 2013, which at the time the report was published put the college in the top 15% of General Further Education and Tertiary colleges in England, based on the results of Ofsted’s new inspection regime which was introduced in September 2012. The Ofsted inspection found that all areas of the college were ‘Good’ or better, noting the college’s many ‘outstanding’ features and the awarding the Visual Arts area the highest grade of ‘Outstanding’.
The growth of the Dudley Learning Quarter continued during the year after planning permission was granted for Dudley Advance, its new Centre for Advanced Manufacturing & Engineering Technology. Sited on Priory Road, Dudley Advance will provide a specialised training centre to support the local and national engineering, technology and manufacturing sector.
Development of Dudley Enhance also commenced, offering a purpose-built resource centre for A level students due to open in Autumn 2014. Situated between Dudley Sixth and Dudley Advance, Dudley Enhance will ensure students are provided with the best possible learning environment to support their studies.
Alongside all these exciting developments our financial stability has enabled us to consolidate the final phase of the Learning Quarter development, with the addition of the Centre for Building Technologies, due to open in 2017.
Dudley College also celebrated becoming one of only 36 UK colleges in 2013 to join the prestigious Peter Jones Enterprise Academy, and being the only college within the West Midlands. The Enterprise Academy is the brainchild of Dragons’ Den star, Peter Jones, and focuses on supporting young people to set up and run their own business whilst gaining a qualification.
Alongside this year of activity, we have continued to successfully develop a diverse curriculum, supporting a record numbers of learners on full and part-time programmes and apprenticeships, whilst improving success rates and the diversity of the college population. Underpinning all this fantastic work is a dedicated workforce, who are passionate about changing and improving the lives and opportunities of our learners.
I am justifiably proud of all that the college has achieved over the last year and delighted to be able to share our successes with partners, stakeholders and the local community.
Lowell Williams
Principal
Browse the complete Annual Review 2012-13.