City of Bath College is a Further Education college in the centre of Bath, Somerset, England.
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The college was formed in 1892 under the combined names of Bath City Science, Art, and Technical Schools. Its creation arose out of the need to encourage young people to take an interest in the Sciences, and for them to be made aware of the Technical innovations that were occurring at the end of the 19th century. In April 1896 these new Schools occupied the new north extension of the Guildhall, Bath. In 1910 Long Acre, Walcot was taken over as additional accommodation for technical training mainly as a domestic science college. In 1914 the Old Jail at Twerton was converted and opened as Twerton Technical Institute. In 1927 a Junior Bath Technical School opened at Bath Technical College and in 1929 a Junior School of Art, (Bath School of Art and Design) followed with the Junior School of Homecrafts being established in 1933. In 1934 the Domestic Science College moved from Long Acre, Walcot to Brougham Hayes, Lower Oldfield Park. This building originally housed the Somerset Industrial School for Boys in 1832. [1] It was founded to accommodate 180 boys, it had originally been built as a barracks. These Technical Schools evolved into the new Bath Technical College, which moved from the North Wing of the Guildhall in 1935 to Lower Borough Walls, taking over the buildings that were vacated when the Royal United Hospital moved to the new hospital in Combe Park.[2][3] Avon Street became the latest site of the College, when it was constructed as a new purpose built facility during the 1960s re-development of Bath.
City of Bath College now has approximately 2,000 full-time and more than 6,000 part-time students. It employs nearly 500 staff. [4]
The College offers a range of vocational courses covering business and professional courses, computing, IT, media, performing arts, music, catering and hospitality, hairdressing, beauty and complementary therapy, floristry, construction, engineering, carpentry, stonemasonry, sport, travel and tourism, uniformed public services, art and design. In January 2011, Ofsted once again graded the College's Art and Design department as 'outstanding'. Courses are also offered at a range of levels from Entry Level through to Foundation Degrees, HNDs and professional qualifications. [5]
The College occupies several buildings. The Allen building (A block) houses the refectory and Shrubbery restaurant which is a training restaurant for catering students. The building is also home to sports and hair and beauty students. On the top floor is the Academy, a training hairdressing and beauty salon. Macaulay building houses the College learning resource centre, the Student Advice Centre, additional learning support departments, the student participation team and the students' union. Herschel building was formerly the sixth form centre, and now houses art, media and the College management team. The Westgate building currently houses Sixth Form classes. The classrooms are also used as exam rooms. John Wood building provides some addiitonal classrooms. The Construction Skills Centre at Bath Trade Park provides state of the art carpentry and stonemasonry workshops, plus classrooms and study areas.
MAPA is the newest building. It is home to the College's music and performing arts courses and replaces the Gainsborough building. This building is split into three different sections, performing arts takes around half of the space with its rehearsal room, performance space and sprung-floor mirrored dance studio. Music is next door with three professional recording studios, performance venue, four rehearsal rooms and film editing facilities. College House is mostly staff offices and the International Office.
In early 2011, Kings building, which used to house the gym, was demolished to make way for a new three-storey building due for completion in November 2011.
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