Celebrating Success

The Vocational Academy at West Kent College provides inspiring provision for 14-16 year old students. Participating schools in the area allow students to attend a day release programme, studying a course in Construction, Motor Vehicle, Catering or Hairdressing.

These courses offer a taste of their options for the future, encouraging them to progress further in their ambitions and realise their direction before finishing secondary education.

The 14-16 department at West Kent College strives to recognise the efforts and achievements of all their students by holding an annual ‘Celebrating Success’ event. This is a very motivating, exciting and prestigious occasion, where representatives from participating schools, College staff, parents and guardians and the students themselves attend.

Celebrating Success 2010 was a hugely successful event. The awards were presented by Mark Hicks (pictured top), a self-made businessman from Cable and Crimping Services Ltd, who after leaving school with very few qualifications returned to West Kent College to study engineering. The students were not only recognised for completing and achieving a qualification, but were acknowledged for their dedication and commitment to the course. Most students are now hoping to continue their studies at West Kent College.

The students that attend the Vocational Academy develop, mature and complete the programme with a positive attitude and direction for the future. Now that’s a success to celebrate!

Best of SkilledUp Final

Pupils from colleges across Kent converged upon the Tunbridge Wells campus at North Farm on Wednesday 23rd June for the Best of SkilledUp Final. SkilledUp is a competition for construction craft students to complete a specific project, competing against each other and against the clock. The final showcased the work of each college’s finalist in the four trades: Brickwork; Carpentry; Joinery; Painting & Decorating. The five colleges participating were: West Kent, South Kent, Mid Kent, Thanet and North West Kent.

The 20 competitors worked tirelessly throughout the day to produce excellent examples of their trade. Winners were: Brickwork – Adam Rigden, Thanet College; Carpentry – Charlie Connor, North West Kent College; Joinery – Chris Ward, MidKent College; Painting & Decorating – Aron Baker, North West Kent College.

Thanks go to the fantastic local employers and sponsors of the event: Wates Group, Makita, Brewers, Simpsons York and Galliford Try for supplying judges, prizes and awards presenters.

The Mayor of Tunbridge Wells, Councillor David Jukes, visited the event and commented: “I was very impressed with the standard of work being produced by the students today and by the traditional construction industry skills that they have acquired. Although things have moved on since I was a craft apprentice, it was encouraging to see that the skills required to produce items of quality have not diminished. Well done to all of the students and also to the staff, whose enthusiasm is infectious and encourages the students to be proud of their achievements. Well done also to the companies still offering apprenticeships, as without these dedicated people the depth of skills that we still harbour in this country will be lost."

The new building in Tonbridge - come and see for yourself!

The new building at Brook Street opened last month and here’s a selection of photographs taken by National Diploma Photography students to give you a flavour of what it’s like inside and out.

Their tutor, Nigel Carr, said: “The students had been set a project titled 'Structures, Constructions and Deconstructions' and I thought the new building was an ideal opportunity, for those that were interested, to research innovative photographers work and explore photographing architecture… Only this morning I found two of the students taking self motivated photographs of the building.”

The photos were taken by Dan Wheeler, Andy Robertson, Kieren Plowright, Carrie Coupland and Ele Parkman-Mayne.

The large, modern college building already feels like home and we’ve had fantastic feedback from students, staff and visitors. Inside we are using the latest technology to support students in bright and airy classrooms with numerous open learning and breakout areas. We also provide opportunities for people outside of the College to use our facilities with a 500-seat art centre, a restaurant which is being run by Whiting & Hammond, hair and beauty studios, Costa coffee and Optimise gym.

If you’d like to take a look around the new building, whether you want to study here or use it for business, then we have an Open Day on 3^rd July from 10am-4pm. Alongside this we have a number of exhibitions including the excellent Art and Media Show and Enterprise Factor (look out for the windmill and robots). Everyone is welcome. You can read more about the Open Day here. We are running simultaneous Open Days at all our campuses – North Farm at Tunbridge Wells is also open from 10am-4pm where the Motor Vehicle and Construction Crafts courses will be on display. Ashford, Folkestone and Dover will be open from 10am-1pm.

For more details about the Photography courses available at West Kent College then read here.

The final building work at the College will be finished by September 2011 - exciting times ahead!

Art and Media Show

The Art and Media Show takes place in Tonbridge from Wednesday 30^th June until the Open Day on Saturday 3^rd July. The show is part of the annual end of year celebration and there will be displays of Photography, Fine Art, Fashion, Graphics, Animation and Media work. The show will take place in Speldhurst, Ashurst and the new building - ask at reception for details of what's going on where. It’s open from 10am-4pm daily and everyone is welcome.

See you there!

For more information about our Art and Design courses then see here. For anyone interested in joining the College on one of these course, this is the ideal chance to see what sort of things you could be doing as part of your course.

New College Course Comes to the Aid of Local Parents

The College enjoyed great success on Saturday at the launch of a new First Aid Course designed for parents.

The two-hour course, which was delivered at the College’s brand new campus in Tonbridge, provided parents with the confidence to act positively in an emergency situation. Among the topics covered were principles of first aid, rescue breathing and chest compression, choking, and the recovery position.

The course was enjoyed by all of those who attended with one Mother saying: “All parents should attend this course – it could save a child’s life”.

Course tutor, Yvonne Hughes, said, “I’m so pleased at the success of this course, it’s a great way for parents to learn how to react in an emergency. I hope that plenty more parents take up the opportunity to undertake this training.”

The course will be running on the following dates over the summer:

Wednesday 4th August 6pm – 8pm

Saturday 7th August 10am – 12pm

For more details or to book a place contact the Business Development Department on 08000 858554 or email busdev@wkc.ac.uk.
Look here for more First Aid courses.

Broken Beauty

'Broken Beauty', the special effects show, took place on Wednesday 9^th June at the Brook Street campus. It featured a show of cuts, burns, bruising and fashion make-up, as well as horror movie style make-up – definitely not for the faint hearted!

Visitors not only watched live demonstrations of special effects make-up, they experienced it too. College staff plus existing and prospective students chose to be made ‘beautiful’ or ‘gruesome’ by the highly skilled special effects make-up artists from the Intermediate Beauty course, and were also treated to manicures by the Level 1 beauty students. 

In addition to studying make-up, this group of students have been studying customer service and event planning, and used their new skills to plan the entire event themselves. They certainly took their customer service approach to new levels; the students even baked their own cupcakes to give their event visitors. All students involved worked really hard, on what proved to be a ‘truly special’ special effects event!

The students would also like to say a big thank you to Will Hutchinson, who helped to produce their poster, and to Vanessa Sumner and Tina Chatfield-Keller, photography students, who took photos at the event.

Ann-Marie Fisher

Visiting Lecturer

Here are the Beauty courses available at West Kent College.

An Update on the College Closure

Apologies to everyone for the inconvenience caused by closing the Tonbridge campus yesterday, but this was necessary to allow a thorough investigation of the incident that occurred on Saturday 15^th May.

A flash fire started in a Low Voltage (LV) electrical cupboard as an electrician was in the process of transferring the power source to provide electricity to one of the old buildings at the Brook Street campus, injuring the man in the process.  

The report we received yesterday confirmed that the injured man - a sub-contractor of Galliford Try - has undergone an operation and was in a stable condition. Another man – who helped pull his injured colleague from the fire - was taken to Kent and Sussex Hospital in Pembury, but was later discharged.

The Health and Safety Executive started their investigation on Monday 17^th May and it would not have been appropriate for students and staff to be on site until the inspectors have given their permission. Also, as the fire happened in the building’s electricity supply room, this had an impact on all electricity services in the College.

Bill Fearon, Principal of the College, said: “I would like to assure staff and students that the new build satisfies the very latest and most stringent safety requirements and regulations. The way in which the incident was dealt with by those concerned showed the value of the new build accommodation and equipment and the measures and procedures our expert advisers and contractors have implemented.     

“I would like to thank the many staff who helped manage the situation and get us back up and functioning within hours of the approval to turn the power supply back on, which was received on Monday evening. It obviously was a very unpleasant incident but gives confidence that our response procedures worked so effectively. Our thoughts are now with the injured man and everyone at the College wishes him well.”

Brook Street campus closed all day to all Students, Staff and Visitors on Monday 17th May

Due to an electricity failure at West Kent College, Brook Street, the site will be closed to all staff, students and visitors all day on Monday, 17th May. The North Farm site will be open as usual and Lyons House remains open for exams.

A further announcement regarding the planned re-opening of the site on Tuesday will be communicated via the College website on Monday. We apologise for any inconvenience caused and thank you for your patience.


Update: Due to a number of comments deemed inappropriate for this post, all have been removed and full comment moderation is in place. If you have further comments on the new build at Tonbridge then you can contact info@wkccampus21.org, where your emails will be looked at and responded to individually.

Principal Welcomes Staff and Students to Newly Merged College

As of midnight on 31st March 2010, West Kent College and South Kent College have merged organisations. Bill Fearon, the Principal of the new College, has welcomed staff and students, saying it is business as usual. 'Everyone needs to focus on achieving the best student results for the rest of this academic year, and look ahead to enrolment for the 2010/11 College year,' he said.

Already plans are in place to develop a new brand and choose a new name for the merged Colleges, to be announced at the start of the September term. The new College will have campuses stretching right across Kent, from Tonbridge and Tunbridge Wells to Ashford, Folkestone and Dover.

Mr Fearon said: 'There will be mixed feelings from all concerned with the ending of the two neighbouring Colleges that were West Kent College and South Kent College, but we have already secured six governors from SKC to join WKC colleagues on the new College Board.

'I have been heartened in recent weeks by the positive attitude of staff from both Colleges, and the desire to meet new colleagues and begin the harmonisation process as soon as possible is particularly evident. I can’t wait to see the early benefits of the merger, and subsequently the much needed stability that a large college can bring to students and staff alike.

'We will be strong from the outset in engaging with employers, including apprenticeships and tailored training programmes, and we will prioritise development of good, effective working relations with schools, academies, universities, local authorities and a wide range of community and stakeholder groups across the wide geographical area of the new College.'

Mr Fearon also added: 'I would like to thank Monica Box for her commitment and achievements as Interim Principal of South Kent College. Not least amongst her achievements has been the development of a good foundation for improvements in the experiences, engagement and success rates of learners across the South Kent centres, and an enhanced reputation for Further Education in the local communities. Like all colleges, we have tough challenges ahead due to the cuts in funding in ‘10/11 and beyond, but because of our new-found strength we have many opportunities to work with partners across a range of existing and new educational markets.'

Latest Images of the Tonbridge Campus

The building work at the Tonbridge campus on Brook Street continue at apace and look more impressive by the day. The top levels of the new building have now been handed over and will soon be occupied by staff and students. Here are some of the latest aerial shots.