Nottingham College


Nottingham College is one of the largest further education college 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 11 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 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 overall, having been rated as 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.

A-level courses

s are the traditional entry route to universities, and a sixth-form college such as this, 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, but 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 recognised by the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education in partnership with higher education institutions including Nottingham Trent University and Edexcel. The foundation degree law course, developed with Nottingham Trent University and introduced in 2004, was the first to be nationally recognised by the Law Society.

Locations

Nottingham College currently has eleven centres around the city. The aspiration is to consolidate many of these into one, the "City Hub" that will open in September 2020, 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, it is the main 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 at 25 Stoney Street. Specialised facilities include a three-camera TV studio, a radio broadcasting station, and fashion design/manufacturing studios.

Lace Market Gallery

This is a traditional white cube gallery space with polished hardwood floors, high ceilings and large windows. The gallery features guest artists as well as a variety of student shows. Exhibitions normally change every two weeks.

Adams Restaurant and Brasserie

This restaurant provides students on the catering and hospitality courses with opportunities to practice in a real working environment. It is open to the public.

Nottingham English School

The English as a Foreign Language courses are provided at the Adams Building. The centre is accredited by the British Council.

Basford

The Basford centre is situated off Stockhill Lane, on the north-western edge of the city. It focuses 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.

Beeston High Road

The Beeston centre is Nottingham College's administrative hub for business support departments including Finance, Human Resources, Marketing and other professional services.
The centre is situated on Chilwell High Road adjacent to the Central College stop on the Nottingham Express Transit tram system.

Clarendon

The Clarendon site, just off the Mansfield Road, combines performing arts and music, Early Years and Education, hairdressing, catering and beauty therapy.
The Nottingham College Academy of Performing Arts and Music has purpose-built facilities including a large multi-purpose theatre seating up to 300 people, a smaller theatre seating up to 84 and computerised box office. There are also dance studios, drama rehearsal rooms, industry-standard music recording studios and music technology suites.
The Academy of Food, Drink and Visitor Services has specialist facilities for hospitality and catering including a purpose-built demonstration theatre and preparation and patisserie kitchens. The Academy has links with local industry including Woodborough Hall, Bluu, Restaurant Sat Bains and Hart's.
The nearby Berridge Centre on Stanley Road, Forest Fields was formerly the co-educational Forest Fields Grammar School. Between 1895 and 1955 it was High Pavement Grammar School, a boys grammar school.

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 comprises 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 in central Nottingham. From 1895 until 1955, the school was in Stanley Road in Forest Fields, then moving to the Bestwood Estate.
With the introduction of comprehensive education in Nottingham, the grammar school became High Pavement Sixth Form College, 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.

Maid Marian Way

The centre provides courses in Access to Higher Education, Business & IT, Photography, ESOL, Foundation Learning, Health & Medical Sciences and Health & Social Care.

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 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.

City Hub project

The College's location estate will include a purpose-built state-of-the-art 'City Hub' in Nottingham city centre. The City Hub will offer new facilities and resources for students and provide community facilities such as a new training restaurant, café and performing arts centre. Building work started on the £58 million City Hub in May 2018 and was originally set to be completed by September 2020 but due to the COVID-19 pandemic construction work has been delayed. The new opening date is set to be January 2021 for the start of the Spring Term subject to any further delays.
It is a six-storey building designed by the Sheffield architectural practice of Bond Bryan. It is being constructed by Wates and will additionally provide training and employment opportunities including 24 work placements, 16 new jobs, 13 apprentice placements and training for 11 NVQs.
The City Hub project is part of the wider Broadmarsh regeneration plans, led by Nottingham City Council.

NILA

The New College Nottingham International Lifestyles Academy 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 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 priorities. The college in 2014 decided to withdraw from the project.

Notable alumni

Former students of the college include: