The City of Bath College has been awarded the prestigious Association of Colleges (AoC) Beacon Award for Practical Teaching and Practical Learning.
The College is celebrating after winning the award in the area of stonemasonry for its Living Classroom philosophy where students undertake skilled work under real conditions of heritage restoration work.
Staff aim to motivate students towards the acquisition of technical and vocational employment skills which can enable access to professional careers.
The students are guided and supported by highly skilled practitioners and tutors, and become successful and confident skilled craftsmen and women who are able to gain employment.
The College was announced as winner of the coveted ‘Further Education Oscar’, sponsored by independent education charity the Edge Foundation, by Minister for Skills and Enterprise Matthew Hancock at the AoC Annual Conference in Birmingham on Tuesday, 19th November.
Principal Matt Atkinson said: “We are delighted to receive this highly prestigious national award that shows the high quality of our practical teaching.
“As a vocational college we are highly focused on preparing our students for the world of work and we have implemented a number of innovations to teach practical skills in real world settings.
“This is the second national award the college has received this year which demonstrates that the College continues to go from strength to strength.”
Jan Hodges, CEO of the Edge Foundation, said: “The “Living Classroom” initiative from City of Bath College demonstrates an excellent understanding of how to provide innovative delivery of high quality practical teaching and learning.
“The partnerships with heritage organisations and conservation companies give the student stonemasons first hand real world experience and access to experienced professionals and provide them with meaningful and challenging conservation projects to work on.
“I congratulate the College on their award which is greatly deserved. I am sure that the continued dissemination of the “Living Classroom” will be of benefit not only to future stonemasons but to a wide range of City of Bath College students.”
City of Bath College will host a local celebration event in the New Year and will be presented with its Beacon Award by Matthew Hancock MP at a national presentation ceremony at Westminster on February 5th 2014.
In achieving its first Beacon Award, the College’s good practice will now be shared with other providers in the sector to promote innovation for the general benefit of the wider learning and skills community.
Plans are already progressing for an extension of the ‘Living Classroom’ into a much broader project in collaboration with Bath and North East Somerset Council at Cleveland Pools in Bath.
Chair of the AoC Beacon Awards, Dame Pat Bacon, said the competition from colleges across the country was “as strong as ever.”
She said: “The winning entries this year are all fantastic examples of the ways in which colleges are demonstrating how thoroughly they understand and respond to the needs of their learners, wider communities and employers.
“I should like to congratulate all of the successful colleges and hope that they can make the most of the opportunity afforded to them through the Beacon Awards to help stimulate innovation and curriculum development across the sector”
Roger Marriott, AoC Beacon Awards Chief Assessor, added: “It is a privilege to be able to see, first hand, the many imaginative and creative approaches that colleges are adopting to support their learners.
“The dedication and passion shown by these winning colleges to ensure that individuals are given the opportunity to realise their full potential is inspirational and I hope that the wider sector will benefit as a result of celebrating their achievements.”
To apply for a Beacon Award, City of Bath College had to prepare a 3,000 word submission showing how its practical style of stonemasonry teaching and learning benefited students.
Assessors from the AoC and The Edge Foundation then visited the College to meet staff and students, observe a presentation on the outstanding work of the stonemasonry department and meet representatives from the National Trust and Nimbus Conservation on site at the Tyntesfield Estate.
