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Skills Minister visits Stockton Sixth Form College

Stockton Sixth Form College welcomed Skills and Equalities Minister Nick Boles on Friday 7th November.

Mr Boles joined Conservative MP for Stockton South James Wharton to meet with Principal Joanna Bailey, before touring college facilities and meeting with students.

Nick Boles MP holds a role shared between the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and the Department for Education (DfE). His responsibilities include further education, vocational qualifications, apprenticeships and careers advice and guidance.

The Conservative MPs learned how college staff are preparing for radical changes to post-16 qualifications for 2015, including expanding the range of vocational courses available to local students and working closely with partner schools to prepare pupils for studying linear A-levels and reformed BTEC qualifications.

The college also showcased how free college meals are offered to eligible students; an initiative brought in by the Coalition government in September 2014 which currently benefits over 150 learners.

Joanna Bailey, Principal at Stockton Sixth Form College, said: “We are extremely fortunate that the Minister has taken time out of his busy schedule to visit us, seeing for himself the very many benefits that a sixth form college has to offer and, in particular, the transformational journey that Stockton Sixth Form College is making.

“We feel very well supported by our constituency MP and proud to be part of a close-knit Stockton community which itself is undergoing a huge regeneration and resurgence of fortunes.”

Nick Boles MP said: “It was good to visit Stockton Sixth Form College, which is doing a whole range of innovative things and great work ensuring key skills in English and Maths are supported. I was also really pleased to join students for lunch and try my first parmo! It was great and won’t be my last.”

James Wharton, MP for Stockton South, said: “I wanted to bring Nick to see the good work students and staff are doing, with the recent Good Ofsted grade this is a local college going from strength to strength and as the area’s MP I want to give all the support I can.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Samantha Hockney .