About Westminster Kingsway College
Overview
Westminster Kingsway College is a large general further education college (GFE) in central London. It was established in 2000 when two separate long-established colleges of further education (FE), Kingsway College and Westminster College, merged to create Westminster Kingsway College. It operates on sites across Camden and Westminster, including a new building at King’s Cross completed in 2009.
The college enrols around 14,000 students (including on higher education provision). Over half the learners are aged 16 to 18 and around a third of the learners are over the age of 21. The college offers courses that lead to a wide range of vocational, academic, professional and technical qualifications. Many learners enrol on foundation or intermediate level programmes.
An increasing number of work-based learners follow apprenticeship programmes in a range of subject areas. The college also provides community programmes at centres across both boroughs.
Both Westminster and Camden have areas of affluence close by areas of high deprivation, which are characterised by high levels of child poverty, poor-quality housing, and crime. Just over a quarter of residents are from minority ethnic backgrounds and more than half the learners at the college define their ethnic origin as other than white. Most local businesses have fewer than 25 employees and business services, retail and hospitality are the largest employment sectors. There are sixteen local authority secondary schools in the two boroughs, and all but one has sixth form provision. The college employs around 600 staff and has a turnover of £36M.
The college is led by the Principal and Executive Team of Vice and Assistant Principals (VAPs) and Directors. The Assistant Principal: Victoria Centre has overall responsibility for HE provision.
A number of Heads of Faculty report to the VPs. Heads of Faculty are supported by Business Managers and Programme Managers.
The college’s most recent Inspection Report
The college’s most recent Inspection Report (April 2011) can be seen via the following link:
In summary, the college was graded overall as ‘good’ with the curriculum area of Hospitality being graded as ‘outstanding’ and the college’s collaborative work with partners also judged as outstanding.
College mission and values
The college mission is to support all of its students in realising their ambitions as students within a diverse and fully inclusive educational community. The college seeks to ensure that its values - respect, support, creativity and excellence - underpin all its activities.
It has defined its key purpose in the following way: Education, Enterprise & Employability for Life.
The college’s corporate strategic objectives for 2014-2017 are:
- Providing young people with the skills, qualifications and enterprising outlook, which give personalised pathways to employment or further study;
- Providing adults, including those who are workless or low-skilled, with pathways to sustainable employment and career development;
- Providing employers with affordable training enabling them to thrive in the London economy;
- Providing the Hospitality sector with high quality training tailored to its needs and its employees with pathways to the highest technical and professional skills.
Our teaching centres
The King’s Cross Centre (KCC) (Grays Inn Road, WC1): Size: 13,500 sq.m
The KCC offer includes 16-18 Foundation & Entry Level programmes, A & AS Levels; media and Music; English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL); Vocational Programmes including Business, IT, Leisure & Tourism, Science, Health & Care; Access to HE Programmes; Vocational Science provision in Pharmacy; Visual and Performing Arts programmes; provision for 16-18 and adult students with Learning Difficulties and Disabilities (SLDD).
The Soho Centre (SC) (Peter Street, W1) Size: 2,150 sq.m
The SC houses the School of Languages and the curriculum offer is predominantly ESOL. The SC also has a small creative lab which provides access and opportunities for the college, local businesses and external organisations to use media and digital equipment.
The Victoria Centre (VC) (Vincent Square, SW1) Size: 8,450 sq.m
The VC offers a wide range of programmes in Hospitality and Catering; Leisure and Tourism; Business; Information Technology (IT); Higher Education (HE) and ESOL.
Regent’s Park Centre (RPC) (Drummond St/Longford St, NW1) Size: 3,350 sq.m
The predominant curriculum offer at the RPC is ESOL.
Further information
Structure
Please click here to download the structure chart.