Telford college leaders say 'we're on right track'

And staff at New College in Wellington insist they are continuing to work to provide the best options for pupils to prepare them for future work or studies.

Interim principle Martin Smith, vice principle for curriculum and student experience, Jean Wright, and quality and performance vice principle, Andy Graham, spoke of the challenges faced by the college. It comes after the college was told by Ofsted it requires improvement in a number of areas but was rated "good" for personal development, behaviour and welfare.

Inspectors also praised the "exemplary" behaviour of students. Mr Smith said: "We're going in the right direction and we are going to continue to do so.

"The senior management team said it was pleased with the positives picked out in the report and is consistently working to improve the colleges grade from three to two. The team also said it continues to look at ways to improve their offering for students and give them the best chance for the future."

Ms Wright said: "In our apprenticeships programme, we work with local companies to choose apprenticeships and courses that meet local need and that has been very successful.

"We also work with young people to get them in the right courses for different careers and to get them into higher education."

Currently the college is involved with the Aspire to HE programme with the University of Wolverhampton which provides funding create programmes in a bid to meet Government targets to double the amount of young people from disadvantaged backgrounds reaching higher education by 2020.

Ms Wright added: "Telford has a lot of clever young people who through Aspire we will be able go into further education and not just at the University of Wolverhampton.

"We have 300 pupils per year applying for further education."

The college has plans to introduce more work experience for students to help give them the edge when going to higher education or to prepare those going into work.

Ms Wright said: "The pupils are very aware of the community. We have a student council who are elected representatives and we also have a large volunteer programme. At the end of February we are planning a equality and diversity week." The college plans a merger with Telford College of Arts and Technology in August.