Telford College Seventh Form opens its doors in UK first
A college in Telford has become the first in the country to offer students a programme of courses as part of a seventh form.
Telford College launched its first day of seventh form this week, attended by 500 students.
Similarly to sixth-form colleges, the seventh form courses will span over a two-year-period and will be classed as full-time education five days a week.
It aims to give students the opportunity to study courses with a more hands-on approach, learning real life business skills from people in the industry before seeking a job.
Aimed at school leavers aged 16 to 18 who wish to study academic/A level provision within the college, it also focuses on giving students the chance to see what a future career in different sectors may be like before opting to study the subject as a full degree.
College marketing manager Tom Bower said: "The provision is aligned to grouped career pathways (professional service, creative, sciences etc) to give students an indication as to where they will progress after they complete their two-year A-level courses at the college and progress on to a full degree at university, an apprenticeship or employment."
Holly Davies, head of seventh form at Telford College, said: "It's been a lot of planning and hard work, but it's very exciting to finally see everything put into place.
"This doesn't just focus on the academic side of education, it focuses on the person as a whole. This means that students will have a career mentor and work with employers to have real-life projects - it'll be more than just passing exams which is obviously very important, but we also want to offer the wider experience.
"Employers keep telling us that students need to have study skills and people skills as well as just the sheet of paper saying they can do the job, so we thought we'd get people in from the industry to tell students what the careers are really like.
Stepping stone
"This is an ideal stepping stone between college and university. You've got to come somewhere new, meet new people, make new friends and have new teachers."
The seventh form currently has twelve industry mentors as well as a range of guest speakers and university visits planned throughout the year.
Neale Dayus from ReAssure Ltd, an insurance company in Telford, is a former pupil at Telford College and has been drafted in as an employer mentor to give students an insight into the working world.
"Our initial focus is really on employer mentors for students that want a taste of what a career really involves," he said.
"We'll come into some tutor lead sessions to spend an hour once a week with the students to run some exercises such as mock interviews and industry-based projects.
"It's very clear that as we move into the digital age we need this new generation of talent to come through, but that doesn't always require a university degree.
"It's becoming more frequent that we're seeing the students have some absolutely fantastic ideas that are good enough to be taken straight into business."
