A Night to Remember!

Hartlepool College for Further Education celebrated a remarkable year, and that's the word - celebrate! So in that spirit, long speeches were avoided and highlights of the academic year were focused on.

Alan Wright presided over the evening in his inimitable style, with international rugby star Rory Underwood.

David Waddington, Principal and Chief Executive and Michael Bretherick, Vice Principal and Deputy Chief Executive welcomed friends from across the town, the region, the country and the continent. They took great pleasure in welcoming friends from Germany who had been visiting the College for a few days.

The welcome was also extended to the representatives of other partners in education and training without whom the year would not have been as successful.

Hartlepool College are proud of their work with local schools and with the University of Teesside. They have worked closely with local schools in developing courses and qualifications for young people, and particularly in developing the new Diploma qualifications for introduction from September 2008. The College have received a tremendous boost in the last few days with the news that the University of Teesside will now recognise the new advanced diploma in engineering as an entry qualification to degree programmes equivalent to three "A" levels.

The College will be working in the near future with their university partners to investigate ways of working ever more closely, and greatly expanding the amount of higher education available to people in Hartlepool.

Hartlepool College are very proud of their work with employers: with both those employers who have been longstanding partners such as Huntsman and Heerema, and with all companies and organisations who sponsor evenings like this one. Rory Underwood was interested to hear about a posting on the Ministry of Defence website last week announcing the partnership between the College, Babcock Engineering and the Royal Air Force in taking forward the development of aircraft engineering. The College now has over 200 employer partners, and looks forward to developing deeper and closer links.

2008 promises to be a year to remember, with the College's new 50 million pound building on the horizon, and new areas of learning to develop. The evening was all about celebrating the successes of the past year, and in some cases the past several years.

Long-service awards for 20 years distinguished service were presented to five individuals. Cliff Davison, Head of the Facilities Division, for his contribution in developing and maintaining our computer infrastructure. The contribution of the College's Sites Manager Mick Goodings, and his ever-reliable colleague Joyce Mayes, who between them have maintained the building as such an outstanding and welcoming environment. Brian Barnes has also completed twenty years service, in marketing and media, print, design services and in web management. And Ian Henry, Assistant Principal, celebrates twenty years of distinguished service, contributing hugely to the development of the College in ways too many to mention.