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England’s best colleges celebrated at No10

News Release issued by the COI News Distribution Service on 15 March 2010

Leaders of the highest performing and most quickly improving colleges in England are celebrating the institutions’ achievements in Downing Street today.

Principals from the colleges will meet with Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Business Secretary Lord Mandelson and Further Education Minister Kevin Brennan.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown said:

“These colleges are among the very best and most improving in the country and I am hugely impressed by their commitment to helping people get the skills, the training, and inspiration to achieve their full potential.

“The principals, staff and students should be very proud of their achievements, and I am delighted to celebrate their success here in Downing Street.

“Colleges are at the heart of their communities, helping people through the recession and key to the UK’s economic recovery. Training the next generation of engineers, scientists, teachers and designers, they are developing the skills we need to prosper in the decades ahead."

Lord Mandelson said:

“It is right that we celebrate excellence and these colleges are beacons of success that we can all be proud of.

“They are playing a major role making sure people have the skills they need to fulfil their potential and drive the economy forwards. The success of these colleges and others like them will help everyone share in the proceeds of growth.”

Further Education and Skills Minister Kevin Brennan said:

“Further education and sixth form colleges help individuals realise their potential, boost people’s jobs prospects, strengthen local communities and help employers get the skilled employees they need to grow.

“The colleges here today are among the very best in the country, and I am proud of their efforts to serve their students with high quality education and training.”

At the event will be representatives of 73 colleges, as well as organisations including the Association of Colleges, 157 Group and the Sixth Form College Forum.

Association of Colleges chief executive Martin Doel, said:

“Colleges are widely recognised as having been the success story of education over the past five years, with the colleges attending the Prime Minister’s reception being model examples of this improvement. It is good to see their success and the work of their staff and students being celebrated by the PM.”

In November 2009 the Government published Skills for Growth, an ambitious vision for giving people and businesses the skills they need to help drive economic growth.

Commitments include giving every adult a personal skills account, so students can shop around for training with new information on how well different courses and colleges can meet their needs.

Notes to Editors

The reception takes place from 3pm to 4.30pm on Monday 15 March. Pictures will be pooled, please speak to No 10 press office for details.

The colleges invited to attend were rated as the highest performing and most quickly improving during the last two Ofsted inspection cycles, by achieving:A grade 1 (outstanding) or 2 (good) for overall effectiveness and orA grade 1 for overall effectiveness and for their capacity to improve

There are 360 further education colleges in England, alongside another 1400 independent training organisations who receive government funding.

In the next financial year, investment in further education and skills for 2010-11 will be £4.4bn.

The Train to Gain budget for 2010-11 will be £983m, supporting over 1.3m places for learners.

100,000 more young people are studying in further education colleges than 10 years ago.

Contacts:

BIS Press Office
NDS.BIS@coi.gsi.gov.uk

Joanna Fletcher
Phone: 020 7215 5951
Joanna.Fletcher@bis.gsi.gov.uk