Nottingham College
Nottingham College is one of the largest further education and higher education colleges in the United Kingdom. Based in the city of Nottingham in England, it provides education and training from pre-entry through to university-degree level at its 10 centres in the city and around Nottinghamshire. History. Nottingham College is an amalgamation of two former further education colleges — New College Nottingham and Central College Nottingham. New College Nottingham. New College Nottingham (often stylised as ncn or NCN) was formed from Arnold and Carlton College, which opened in 1960; Basford Hall College of Further Education, which opened  1969; Clarendon College of Further Education, which was founded in 1919 and became a further-education college in 1948 whose current campus opened in 1960; and the High Pavement Sixth Form College, which was founded as a school in 1788 and has offered sixth form education since 1975; the current campus opened in 2001. In December 2015 New College Nottingham underwent its new inspection framework Ofsted inspection and received a Grade 2 (Good) overall, having been rated Good in all individual categories. Central College Nottingham. Central College Nottingham was a further education college based over ten sites in Nottinghamshire. The  college was formed from the merger of Castle College Nottingham and South Nottingham College. South Nottingham College was founded in 1970 in West Bridgford, while Castle College Nottingham was founded on 1 June 2006 from the merger of Broxtowe College and The People's College in Nottingham. The People's College was the oldest further education college in England, having been founded in 1847. Following a public consultation, which ran from December 2010 to January 2011, it was decided that Castle College Nottingham and South Nottingham College should merge. The colleges officially merged on 1 July 2011. The merged college  was renamed 'Central College Nottingham' in November 2012. 2017 merger. On 8 June 2017, New College Nottingham merged with Central College Nottingham to form Nottingham College, one of the largest colleges in the UK, with around 40,000 full-time and part-time students. The college today. The college is a general further and higher education college and offers a range of courses corresponding to the ISCED band 4 and 5. 2019 Industrial Action. In 2019, the college experienced one of the biggest strikes in further education since colleges were removed from local authority control in 1994. The strike by members  of the University and College Union (UCU) lasted for 15 days. The strike was a response to the decision by the college senior management and its governing body to impose new contracts on staff with the threat of dismissing those who refused to sign. The strike began with a boycott of the college’s all-staff professional development day - Festival of Learning - on 1 July 2019. In protest, the UCU branch organised its own Festival of Yearning on the park in front of the college’s Clarendon campus. The dispute has been documented by members of the UCU’s East  Midlands Retired Members’ Branch in an online pamphlet ‘From FE Revolution to FE Revolt 16 Days that Shook the Sector The 2019 Nottingham College Strike’, which looks at the dispute in the context of the recent history of further education in the city and gives an account of why the dispute happened and how it developed before and during the strike action.The title of the pamphlet is a reference to the CEO, John van de Laarschot’s claim in the Nottingham Post (28 July 2017) that under his leadership, ‘Nottingham College will lead a revolution’ in the further education  sector that would include ‘tough love’ for youngsters without the skills employers wanted.John van de Laarschot left the college in June 2022. Courses. A-level courses. A-levels are the traditional entry route to universities, and a sixth-form college has been the option chosen by students that want, at 16, to leave the security and restrictions of a secondary school. There are entry requirements to each course, students must have evidence of success at GCSEs, and normally have a pass of Grade C or above in a related subject. They will study 3 or 4 subjects. Nottingham College  offers over 20 popular subjects, including a limited range of languages and more specialised subjects. All the academic subjects are studied at High Pavement Sixth Form, though Art and Textiles at Stoney Street and Photography at the Adams Building. University-level courses. Nottingham College offers a range of university-level courses at undergraduate level recognised by the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) in partnership with higher education institutions including Nottingham Trent University and Edexcel. Locations. Nottingham College currently has ten centres around the city. Former key centres include Beeston, Clarendon, Clifton and Maid Marian Way. These were removed  from the college's estate to help fund and build the "City Hub" on disused brownfield land next to the Broadmarsh Centre and tram overpass at the foot of Lace Market Cliff. Adams Building. The Adams Building opened in 1998 with a focus for the College's Higher Education provision as well as art and design, fashion and textiles, business, digital media and GCSEs courses. Much of the provision is delivered in the Grade II listed seven-storey Adams Building, a converted lace factory on Stoney Street in the historic Lace Market, and at the nearby School of Art and  Design. Specialised facilities include a three-camera TV studio, a radio broadcasting station, and fashion design/manufacturing studios. Basford. The Basford centre off Stockhill Lane, on the north-western edge of the city, focusses on construction technologies with an emphasis on vocational courses. The centre has specialist facilities for bricklaying, plumbing, gas, painting and decorating, carpentry and joinery, plastering, refrigeration, tiling, welding, heating and ventilation and electrical services. In September 2015 the centre was refurbished. The £27m rebuilding project followed a £9m investment by the Skills Funding Agency. City Hub. The College's estate includes a  purpose-built state-of-the-art 'City Hub' in Nottingham city centre. The City Hub offers new facilities and resources for students, plus community facilities such as a new training restaurant (Fletchers Restaurant), café and performing arts centre. Building work started on the £58 million project in May 2018 and was originally set to be completed by September 2020, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic and restrictions, construction work was delayed. The new opening date was January 2021 to coincide with the start of the Spring Term. It is a six-storey building designed by the Sheffield architectural practice  of Bond Bryan. Constructed by Wates, it provided training and employment opportunities including 24 work placements, 16 new jobs, 13 apprentice placements and training for 11 NVQs. The City Hub is part of the wider Broadmarsh regeneration plans, led by Nottingham City Council. Highfields. Highfields is located on University Boulevard. Created in association with Toyota, the centre has ten workshops, a car showroom and a learning resource centre. High Pavement Sixth Form. High Pavement is a dedicated A-Level centre on Chaucer Street in the heart of the City's academic district. The £6.3 million building was designed by  Ellis Williams Architects; it has six floors with classrooms and computer suites, a Learning Resource Centre and a café. High Pavement history. The Sixth Form College was previously the 11–18 'High Pavement Grammar School', first established in 1788 as the 'Unitarian Day Charity School' behind the High Pavement Chapel on High Pavement, in the Lace Market area. From 1895 until 1955, the school was in Stanley Road in Forest Fields, then moving to the Bestwood Estate. High Pavement Grammar School competed in "Top of the Form" on the BBC Light Programme against Wyggeston Girls' School (it became Regent College, Leicester ) on Monday 14 November 1950; the programme had been recorded on 18 October 1950. The school team made it to the semi-final of the England section (with four sections for each nation) on Monday 11 December 1950, where the team was beaten 35-28 by Woking County Grammar School for Boys, who next competed against Manchester High School for Girls in the England final. With the introduction of comprehensive education in Nottingham, the grammar school became High Pavement Sixth Form College in 1975, and in 1999 merged into New College Nottingham. It moved to its current site on Chaucer  Street in 2001. London Road. The centre, which is five minutes from Nottingham station and tram terminus, is the college's technology centre. It has three automotive workshops with 32 ramps as well as general engineering facilities. Ruddington. This centre is home to Emtec Colleges Limited as well some of the industry's training providers. Training takes place in facilities in Ruddington where automotive training in conjunction with motor manufacturers has been taking place for over 15 years. Stapleford. The centre provides specialist facilities for students with a range of physical and learning difficulties and disabilities as well as for  other Foundation Learning courses. Wheeler Gate. Your Look Hair and Beauty Salon, located on Wheeler Gate (just off Old Market Square) is a modern industry-standard commercial salon dedicated to hair and beauty courses and open to the public. The salon was originally completed in September 2014 and was officially opened in November 2014 under the name Salon Central by British hairdresser Beverly C . NILA. The New College Nottingham International Lifestyles Academy (NILA) opened its campus in Gurgaon, India on 22 January 2013 in partnership with the Batra Group. NILA was NCN's first overseas campus and offered British higher -education qualifications (BTEC Higher National Diplomas) in Hospitality Management, Interactive Media, Retail Management and Fashion Management. Programmes were designed by the college in consultation with employers, in line with Indian National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) priorities. The college in 2014 decided to withdraw from the project. Notable alumni. Former students of the college include: