Furness College, Barrow-in-Furness

Furness College
Location
Channelside Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England
Information
Type	Further Education
LEA	Cumbria
Chair	John Butler
Principal	Anne Attwood
Gender	Mixed
Enrollment	4,250
Website	Furness College

Furness College is a college of further education in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria. It provides a wide range of vocational education and training to over 16s, notably working with BAE Systems to train apprentices for their shipyard in Barrow. The college also offers evening classes for the local community and runs HNDs in association with the University of Central Lancashire. It is one of two further education colleges in Barrow and the largest provider of education in South Cumbria.

Campus

Furness College is a further education college based in Barrow-in-Furness in Cumbria. It is the largest provider of education and training in south Cumbria offering a wide range of vocational courses to its 5000 students.

The college works closely with its local community providing a wide range of part-time and full-time courses to meet local and national needs. It has its own dedicated business development arm, Furness Training, which provides bespoke training to local employers to help meet their objectives.

The college has over thirty years’ experience of providing university degrees and currently has over 550 students studying at this level. The degrees are validated by the University of Cumbria, The University of Central Lancashire and Lancaster University.

The college is currently undergoing a campus transformation with a £42 million rebuild with the opening of its new build in January 2012. The remodelled campus will provide the people of Furness and south Cumbria with an educational environment where their experience of study will be related to the real world. The new build provides a prestigious education venue combining brand new workshops, salons (including a spa, sauna and steam room) new restaurant, dedicated university centre and the very latest in technology.

The next phase of the campus redevelopment will see the refurbishment of the College’s Learning Resource Centre in October 2012. This refurbishment will house brand new facilities and resources for Sport, Creative Media, IT, Early Years, Health & Social Care and Public Services. A major new part of this project will see the college’s sport facilities being developed to house a dedicated gym. In late autumn 2012 demolition of the remaining college’s twenty-year-old buildings will see further sport facilities emerging with the laying of an all-weather games pitch and landscaped grounds overlooking the channel

Courses

Furness College offers a wide range of vocational courses which can be studied on a part-time or full-time basis.

• Business Development - Furness Training works with the local business community to provide bespoke training courses
• School Leavers - a wide range of full-time courses are available from Art & Design through to Engineering, Health & Social Care, Sport and lots more.
• Apprenticeships - Furness College currently trains over 700 apprentices and works with over 400 employers.
• University Education - from foundation degrees to full degrees in a range of vocational areas.

Student Union

The Furness College of FE Students' Union is affiliated to the National Union of Students, and all students are members unless they chose to opt out.^[1] The college also has a wide-reaching welfare service for its heterogeneous student body.

Governance

The Board is responsible for overseeing the strategy and direction of the college. Anne Attwood is currently the Principal of Furness College.

Notable former teachers

• Richard Parsons, English educational study guide author.^[2]

References

External links

• Official Website

Coordinates: 54°06′57″N 3°14′31″W / 54.1158°N 3.2420°W / 54.1158; -3.2420