Tyne Coast College offers a new and exciting vision for education and training in the North East.
Our diverse and innovative vocationally-driven curriculum, close links to employers and ambition to deliver outstanding provision, puts students on a clear course to academic attainment and career success.
South Tyneside College is a leading centre of educational excellence which has created success by combining high-quality teaching with a modern vocational curriculum responsive to the skills needs of learners and employers equally.
Though its foundations reach back to 1861, it is embedded firmly in the present and future through a progressive and exciting package of learning that delivers a vast range of mainly vocational qualifications.
Its achievements in enhancing education and training were recognised at the TES FE Awards 2017, where it was named the best college in the country and the best for overall provision of Further Education.
At the forefront of modern learning through apprenticeships, traineeships and other technical programmes, it is also responsible for bringing new initiatives to the North East’s educational landscape.
The college has also invested heavily in a highly innovative science and criminology department which includes a superlab to train a new generation of skilled lab technicians in a state-of- the-art 'real life' high-tech laboratory, and other major improvements have been to recreational and sports areas.
Other in-demand departments include business and accounting, music and music technology, media production and computer games, motor vehicle, electrical and electronic engineering, and hairdressing and barbering.
Its ambition to be the best has been supported by recent capital investment of £21m in new facilities, which has included upgrading of its world-famous South Shields Marine School with the latest advanced technology, creating an Advanced Engineering Training Centre, and investing in a welding department that is the third largest in the UK.
The diversity and quality of study means that it attracts around 11,000 full and part-time students from over 100 countries each year, including many who come to enjoy the world’s best maritime training at South Shields Marine School and at its linked Marine and Offshore Safety Training Centre.
The college supports learners’ life and career ambitions through degrees, foundation degrees, marine advanced courses, higher national certificates and diplomas, professional diplomas, and BTECs, and Access Programme to Further Education which helps adults improve their qualifications to get to university.
To strengthen and support links to employers, it has a specialist team which is proactive in forging new partnerships, especially in sectors where job opportunities exist or are being created, such as engineering and IT.
After completing their Higher Education course, 93 per cent of students move into employment or further study. Adult Apprenticeship provision is particularly high performing, as Standards achieve at 85.2% against a national average of 53.6%. Across all Apprenticeship delivery, that figure stands at 70.2%, compared to a 62.5% national average.
Tyne Metropolitan College (TyneMet) has a strong reputation for developing and delivering high-quality education and training which meets the skills needs of employers across the North East.
It is a leading STEM provider, with specialisms in engineering, sports science, mathematics, and science, but its strong and varied curriculum also includes expertise in the delivery of A Levels, engineering and sport.
Investment in buildings and equipment, such as the IGNITE Stem and Innovation Centre, has supported development of engineering routes into industry and the delivery of trade skills such as brickwork, plastering and wood occupations and building services, and close engagement with schools helps pupils to move towards careers in engineering, digital and technological industries.
Significant business partnerships include those with Siemens PLC, British Gypsum and Northern Power Grid, and its curriculum is fully designed to meet the evolving needs of employers, address regional skills gaps, and help more young people progress to university or gain employment.
Rated ‘good’ by Ofsted, Tyne Metropolitan College operates from three principal sites from where it meets the education and training requirements of almost 4,500 full and part-time students each year.
At Coast Road Campus in Wallsend, North Tyneside, it delivers a mix of vocationally-based curriculum and specialist A Level provision, Access to HE programmes and creative arts specialist facilities. To support the need for construction skills, we invested £2.6m into a purpose-built construction centre, TMC in 2019.
Other important facilities include the North East Sports Academy (NESA) which boasts strong partnerships with sporting organisations and has a major focus on academic excellence and competing, playing and participating in sport.
A review of TyneMet by the Quality Assurance Agency, found it met all expectations, with five areas of good practice identified, and it also received the STEM Assured.
The college achieved Investor in Innovations status, which recognises innovation in practices, teaching and learning, curriculum development and business support operations. It also won the National Association of Colleges’ Sport College and Employer Relationship award.
TyneMet also enjoys good partnership working with JobCentre Plus which supports young people who are not in education, employment or training (NEETs) and the long-term unemployed, and has well-established High Needs Provision for learners up to the age of 24.
South Shields Marine School is one of the world’s foremost maritime training centres, with an enviable global reputation for excellence which attracts students from over 100 countries each year.
Long-established and close links to the world's major shipping companies, and industry-leading training programmes which cover the entire spectrum of marine education and nautical sciences – including navigation, operations, marine engineering, electrical engineering (ETO), communications, safety training, and catering – support progression to into well-paid careers at sea.
The school runs cadet programmes and other professional industry training, including officer trainee through to senior officer certification and honours degree level, with an extensive range of short courses for the marine, offshore and leisure markets, also available. It meets all current national and international standards, provides a realistic training environment that equips students with the skills and qualifications they need, and is recognised for its programmes to upskill experienced seafarers when they require new skills and qualifications.
It also has lecture theatres equipped with high specification IT and media resources which allow for interactive teaching and close monitoring of the progress of students.
Such is the marine school’s reputation that it played a pivotal role, at the request of the Ministry of Defence and its partners, in the safe construction and passage to sea of HMS Queen Elizabeth, the UK’s largest ever aircraft carrier which moved from its berth at Rosyth on the Forth into the North Sea in June 2017.
From a second site, the Marine and Offshore Safety Training Centre (MOST) which operates by the banks of the Tyne in South Shields, it delivers training to international shipping and maritime industries.
The facility which has a 4m-deep environmental pool for survival training, full scale access ladder to replicate windfarm access arrangements, a variable wave pattern generator, wind, rain, light and sound effects, and an eight-seater helicopter escape module, provides the most realistic training environment possible for people working in offshore industries, with more 100 companies and over 3,000 students using it each year.
Queen Alexandra Sixth Form College is no longer taking applications for AS and A levels. The brand - and its associated provision - will cease in July 2024.
