Express & Star

City of Wolverhampton College is now rated one of country's best

A Black Country college's dramatic upturn in fortunes has continued after it was named one of the best in the country.

Published

City of Wolverhampton College is in the top 15 per cent of all colleges in England and Wales in terms of success rates for 16-to-18-year-olds, according to new Government figures.

College bosses have spoken of their delight at the news, hailing the rating as a step in the right direction. It marks a further feather in the college's cap as it comes on the back of a glowing report from the Further Education Commission, as well as a good report from Ofsted.

At the end of 2012 the college was 185th on the list. It had received a damning Ofsted report and had pitifully low success rates, while courses were grossly under-subscribed across the board.

The college rose to 160th on the list the following year, but it has now leaped into 32nd position in the country and in the top three in the West Midlands.

College principal Mark Robertson said the new figures provided further evidence the college was moving in the right direction.

"I expect us to be in the top 20 by this time next year," he said. "Our journey is still ongoing and I want to see us continue to improve."

Last week it emerged college bosses are in talks to take over the Royal Hospital site currently in limbo after Tesco abandoned its £60 million supermarket plan.

They want to move from the current Paget Road site to a bigger, state-of-the-art campus in the city centre by 2018. Mr Robertson said: "Applications for places on some of our courses are three times the level of last year.

"We have outgrown Paget Road and feel a location around the city centre would help us continue to grow and be able to provide for the huge demand we have for our courses. I want the college to become a centrepiece for education in the Black Country.

"In Wolverhampton there are still one in five people without any qualifications at all.

"We want to help those people to better their lives."

Sorry, we are not accepting comments on this article.