He was elected by members of the Highbury College Board at a meeting on December 17.
Doel said: “I am looking forward very much to working with Board colleagues and with the College staff led by the Interim Principal, Penny Wycherley, to continue to best serve the College’s students and their communities, as well as the many employers with which the College works to great effect.
“I am also looking forward to renewing contacts with the College’s local partners and stakeholders.”
Since leaving the chief executive role at the Association of Colleges in 2016 after spending eight years at the helm, Doel became a Further Education Trust for Leadership (FETL) professor of leadership in FE at University College London.
This followed the new interim chair’s 28-year career at the Royal Air Force.
He was also a governor of Cambridge Regional College, a trustee of education charity CVQO, the Challenge Network and Royal Society for Blind Children, as well as an independent member of the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education’s audit and risk committee.
Penny Wycherley, Interim Principal and CEO of Highbury College, added: “Martin is a very talented addition to our Board and we enthusiastically welcome the invaluable insights and experience he will bring to the leadership of this amazing College.
“Our thanks go to the former Chair, Tim Mason, who has contributed so much time and dedication to this role and we look forward to our continued work together.”
Wycherley took over Stella Mbubaegbu’s responsibilities as principal at Highbury College earlier in the month after the latter was suspended last month.
At the same time, Highbury’s chair Tim Mason announced he would also be stepping down.
It follows intervention from the FE Commissioner, who recently moved Highbury into “supervised college status”.
The FE commissioner was sent into Highbury by Department for Education minister Lord Agnew, who said he was “deeply concerned” after FE Week revealed that its principal had claimed expenses of £150,000 over four years, following a year-long freedom of information battle.
Included in the spending were numerous first-class flights, stays in five-star hotels, travel in luxury cars, a £350 bill – including a £45 lobster and nearly £100 on cocktails – at a Michelin-starred restaurant and a £434 pair of designer headphones.
In October Mbubaegbu, who was awarded a CBE in the 2008 New Year honours for services to further education, announced her intention to retire from Highbury in the summer next year.
In the same month FE Week also revealed that the college applied to the Education and Skills Funding Agency for up to £5 million to replace “non-compliant” panelling which, according to the architects, “failed” a safety test.
The cladding at the halls of residence for students under the age of 18 is the same type as that used on Grenfell Tower in west London which caught fire in June 2017.
In addition, Highbury is locked in a legal battle with a state in Nigeria and this newspaper found it had substantially lowered its expectations of recovering the £1.4 million it claims to be owed. Leaders believe they now have a “medium opportunity” of recouping just £872,000.
The college recorded a £2.48 million deficit in its 2017/18 accounts. Leaders axed its sixth form and had to make staff redundant this year owing to financial pressures.
Highbury’s Ofsted grade dropped from ‘outstanding’ to ‘requires improvement’ in June 2018.
An investigation has been launched at Gateshead College after it had an unexplained deficit in the last financial year.
FE Week also understands its finance director went on sick leave following the revelations.
The grade one college confirmed it has been working with the ESFA and FE Commissioner.
A spokesman for Gateshead College said: “There was an unplanned deficit in the last financial year and an investigation by a team of independent forensic accountants has been commissioned by the Governors to establish the explanation for this; for obvious reasons we can’t comment further until that is concluded in January.
“As soon as the situation came to light, the college re-modelled its budget and produced a sound 3-year financial plan on confirmed income which returns the college to a financial position showing a surplus by 2020/2021.
“These plans have been shared with the ESFA and FE Commissioner who we are working closely with.
“This situation will not affect the education and training we offer our students and customers, which remains our paramount concern.
“We remain a college which is performing at the very highest level in relation to its students and it is our priority to make sure it continues to do so. Our student achievement rates are amongst the highest in the country and are sustained year on year, we have exceptional staff and student numbers are growing.”
Gateshead College received an ‘outstanding’ grade from Ofsted following a full inspection in July 2015.
The college also has the highest paid college leader according to published accounts last year.
Principal Judith Doyle CBE received a salary between £340,001 and £350,000.
The college’s financial statements for the year ended July 31 2018 also confirmed six other key management staff, including the Accounting Officer, were paid between £110,001 and £190,000.
Robert Halfon, the former education minister who chaired the Parliamentary education committee for the past two-and-a-half years, is seeking re-election to the role.
The Harlow MP confirmed to sister newspaper FE Week that he will run “on a platform of the education ladder of opportunity, with rungs on skills, social justice, standards and support for the profession”.
Select committee chairs must seek re-election at the beginning of each new Parliament.
Arrangements for elections have not yet been announced. The House of Commons must first decide which party will get leadership of each committee, though education is expected to remain under Conservative control, as it has been since 2010.
He beat opponents Nick Boles, Tim Loughton, Rehman Chishti, Stephen Metcalfe and Dan Poulter in a vote of MPs to land the role of the cross-party committee.
He served as skills minister from July 2016 to June 2017, and was previously a minister without portfolio and deputy leader of the Conservative Party.
In the education sector, Halfon is perhaps best-known for his “ladder of opportunity” catchphrase, and for his willingness to clash with ministers from his own party, and even his former colleagues, when they appeared as witnesses.
A private provider in the north east has stepped in to save 11 workers from redundancy by acquiring a branch of another training firm that was being closed following a bashing from Ofsted.
Learning Curve Group has agreed to take on the lease of the Hartlepool office that is owned by Total Training Company (UK) Limited and keep all provision active and jobs secure.
Total Training was shutting the branch after being rated ‘inadequate’ in its first full inspection last month. It was found to be making ‘insufficient progress’ in an early monitoring report in February.
The provider subsequently handed back its two adult education budget contracts which came to a combined total of almost £2 million to the Tees Valley and West Midlands Combined Authority.
Learning Curve successfully applied to take on the Tees Valley contract, the amount of which has not been disclosed yet.
Brenda McLeish, chief executive of Learning Curve, said that after securing this contract, the “opportunity to step in and keep this centre going makes complete sense for us”.
“We already deliver provision in Hartlepool within a number of sectors including beauty, health and social care, childcare and mental health; helping over 753 learners reach their potential each year,” she added.
“It’s especially heart-warming to be able to provide some positivity for the town during the recent uncertain political climate and especially at Christmas time – ensuring employment security for the existing workforce at the centre.”
Total Training is a family-owned provider that delivers training in the construction industry. It has other training centres in the Midlands. FE Week understands these will stay open.
The West Midlands Combined Authority told FE Week it has not yet redistributed the £1.8 million AEB contract that Total Training held, but this will be done “over the coming months”.
A spokesperson previously told FE Week they would keep working with Total Training to deliver commercial “short, two to four-week, job-focused training for Construction Skills Certification Scheme cards and progression into jobs”.
Learning Curve said it is hoping to extend the commercial and adult education provision offered by the Hartlepool centre, to add to the “already successful courses in forklift driving, warehousing, employability and groundworks alongside accredited CITB Health and Safety provision”.
Ben Houchen, Tees Valley Mayor, said: “I’m really pleased that this important training provision will continue so that the people of Hartlepool can continue to receive the training needed to take advantage of the jobs being created in the Tees Valley.”
Total Training has been approached for comment.
PICTURED: Brenda McLeish (on fork lift) chief executive of Learning Curve Group with the staff who have been saved from Total Training
The education secretary is expected to continue in the role until at least next February, when a wider cabinet reshuffle is anticipated.
As before the election, Williamson has overall responsibility for further education, apprenticeships and skills.
However, the education secretary is currently without special advisers.
Richard Holden, his former media adviser, became an MP at the election, winning the seat of North West Durham from Labour.
FE Week’s sister paper FE Week has also learned that Katharine Howell, Williamson’s former policy SpAd, has not returned to her job at the DfE following the election.
Elsehwhere in the department, Nick Gibb remains in post as schools minister, while Michelle Donelan continues to act as children’s minister while Kemi Badenoch is on maternity leave.
Donelan will continue to support Williamson as skills lead, including on T-levels, apprenticeships and adult education.
Lord Agnew is still the academies minister, with responsibility for the further education provider market including quality and improvement.
Boris Johnson has come under fire this week after the former education secretary Nicky Morgan was given a seat in the House of Lords and allowed to continue serving as culture secretary.
Morgan, who had previously said she would not serve under Johnson but accepted a cabinet job in July, stood down from the House of Commons at last week’s election.
As 2019 draws to a close, we are taking a look back at the stories of the year, as told through the medium of FE Week’s cartoons.
Sir Gerry Berragan, boss of the Institute for Apprenticeships, and prime minister Boris Johnson, racked up the most appearances, with six and five respectively.
Other sector figures to have been immortalised in cartoon form this year by the talented Bill Houston include former skills minister Anne Milton, shadow education secretary Angela Rayner and Ofsted chief inspector Amanda Spielman.
Read on to recap on the year in FE Week cartoons.
Edition 266 – January 11: Former FE Week senior reporter Jude Burke provided some mystic guidance for the year ahead in FE.
Edition 267 – January 18: The Department for Education wrote to schools ignoring the Baker Clause by not offering careers advice and preventing FE providers from talking to students about technical education.
Edition 268 – January 25: The Education and Skills Funding Agency U-turned on plans to bar 16- to 19-year-olds who passed GCSE maths and English from following level one study programmes. Julian Gravatt, deputy chief executive of the Association of Colleges, said it was a “good move”.
Edition 269 – February 1: Develop, one of only two independent training providers which were set to deliver the first three T-levels from 2020, warned it might have to pull out after being frozen out of infrastructure funding by the DfE.
Edition 270 – February 8: A tender was launched by the Department for Education for suppliers to research whether apprenticeship delivery is being adjusted to account for apprentices’ prior learning, a sign that funding over-claims could be clamped down on. Edition 271 – February 15: College leaders applied pressure on the chancellor for a raise on Valentine’s Day. FE unions joined the Association of Colleges in paying a visit to the Treasury to hand-deliver a card to raise the profile of the Love Our Colleges campaign.
Edition 272 – March 1: Labour launched its second National Education Service consultation in the space of a year to explore how to move to a system “empowered” by “local accountability”.
Edition 273 – March 8: The government was “strengthening” the approvals process for its register of end-point assessment organisations to make conditions more vigorous to ensure there will not be “any rogues slipping through the system”.
Edition 274 – March 15: FE Week’s editor Nick Linford and managing director Shane Mann joined a team from South and City College Birmingham to cycle the 100-mile Velo Birmingham and Midlands and raise funds for the charity Cure Leukaemia.
Edition 275 – March 22: The Public Accounts Committee grilled officials about “the value” of the apprenticeships programme and the effectiveness of its “oversight”.
Edition 276 – March 29: Headhunters claimed the chief executive of the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education would step down when his contract is up. A job advert was posted on the Civil Service Jobs website earlier in the month.
Edition 277 – April 5: The skills minister and the chair of the education select committee, Robert Halfon, clashed after Anne Milton refused to say how much extra FE funding she requested from the Treasury.
Edition 278 – April 26: An end-point assessment organisation was facing a potential fine of £50,000 after “technical issues” affected its delivery of apprenticeship assessments. The notice of intention to impose a monetary penalty on the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives was the first such fine floated by Ofqual.
Edition 279 – May 3: The government had to promise a last-minute gift of £4.55 million to avoid the National College for High Speed Rail being unable to sign off last year’s accounts. The college then announced plans to ditch “high speed” from their name.
Edition 280 – May 10: A leading manufacturer of heavy trucks and buses warned that cutting the funding band by £3,000 for an apprenticeship that it helped to develop threatens its industry’s long-term skills strategy. Scania (Great Britain) Limited, the parent company of which has nearly 50,000 employees globally, addressed an open letter to Damian Hinds, Anne Milton and Robert Halfon.
Edition 281 – May 17: The ongoing financial scandal which engulfed Hadlow College led to it becoming the first to be taken through the new college insolvency regime.
Edition 282 – May 24: Chief executive of WorldSkills UK, Dr Neil Bentley-Gockmann, discussed how the competition has been a springboard for some countries to reform and develop their skills training.
Edition 283 – June 7: Skills minister Anne Milton and schools minister Nick Gibb backed Conservative leadership contender Michael Gove to be the next prime minister.
Edition 284 – June 14: Conservative leadership favourite Boris Johnson said he would “do more to fund our amazing FE colleges” if he won the race to be the country’s next prime minister.
Edition 285 – June 21: Steve Frampton continued as president of the Association of Colleges for a second year, after his only challenger pulled out at the last moment. Trafford College Group principal Lesley Davies withdrew on the last day of voting due to “personal reasons”.
Edition 287 – July 5: The chair of major high-street employer Ryman, ex-Dragon’s Den star Theo Paphitis, accused the Institute of Apprenticeships and Technical Education of “damaging” apprenticeship quality.
Edition 289 – September 13: A college’s future was in doubt after officials demanded it paid up to £20 million back to the government following investigations into a major subcontracting scandal. Brooklands College was told to pay the funding clawback owing to its dealings with mysterious training firm SCL Security Ltd.
Edition 290 – September 20: Angela Rayner, the shadow education secretary, repeatedly refused to rule out scrapping Ofsted and said Labour was “looking at all options” for an overhaul of the school and college accountability system.
Edition 291 – September 27: The University Vocational Awards Council, the Association of Employment and Learning Providers and the Association of Colleges united to call on the government to fund 16 to 18-year old apprentices through general taxation.
Edition 292 – October 4: FE Week editor Nick Linford and managing director Shane Mann jokingly offered Boris Johnson some advice at the Conservative conference.
Edition 293 – October 11: Addressing the first day of the Federation of Awarding Bodies’ annual conference, Ofqual’s chief regulator Sally Collier criticised the “rather superficial media coverage” of a recommendation by the independent commission on exam malpractice around banning watches in exams.
Edition 294 – October 18: Colleges will have to keep on running T-levels for at least 20 years if they want to avoid handing back millions in capital funding.
Edition 296 – November 8: Ofsted praised the environment in new inspection reports. Language was one of the most significant changes to reports since the framework was rolled out in September. A spokesperson explained that the new style was intended to give a better “flavour” of what it was like for students at the provider.
Edition 298 – November 22: Ofsted was criticised by an experienced turnaround principal for inspecting colleges just before mergers at the Association for Colleges’ annual conference. He compared Ofsted to “a sword of Damocles for a college in intervention”.
Edition 299 – November 29: FE Week editor Nick Linford questioned the Conservative election pledge for 50,000 more nurses, saying it sounded similar to a previous manifesto target for 3m more apprenticeships.
Edition 300 – December 6: Shadow skills minister Gordon Marsden said Labour would not prevent independent providers from accessing public funding if the party won the general election, even though its manifesto pledged to “reverse the privatisation” of FE. He added “it will be a mixed universe of these various bodies”.
Edition 301 – December 13: Gordon Marsden and Anne Milton were two high profile FE casualties as the Conservatives secured a 76 seat majority in a dramatic general election. The Conservative party and prime minister Boris Johnson now have a number of new FE promises to fulfil, including a £3bn National Skills Fund.
The college sector will play a major role in transitioning the economy to meet carbon reducation targets. But are they ready for the responsibility? JL Dutaut takes a look
The big news story as this, the 301st edition of FE Week and the last of 2019, goes to print is the impending election result. It is an election in which environmentalism may have come of age politically, but also one in which climate change has played little part relative to other issues, Brexit above all.
The political agenda reflects the public’s attitudes, and although the environment is strikingly more important to voters today than just two years ago according to a 7 November YouGov poll, still only 25 per cent place it in their top three electoral issues.
In a recent series of FE Week opinion pieces penned by college leaders across the British Isles about what they wanted from politicians’ election pledges and beyond, not one mentioned environmental issues.
Yet 2019 is also the year that in less than a week – on 28 and 29 April, and then on 1 May respectively – the Scottish and Welsh assemblies and the House of Commons became the first nations in the world to officially declare a state of climate emergency, only a few months behind Bristol, the first city in Europe to pass such a declaration.
The declaration does not compel the government to act, and therein lies a problem, but this hasn’t stopped others from taking their cue, without waiting to be coerced or cajoled.
Just a quarter of voters consider the environment a top three issue
Among them are the higher and further education sectors. A month ago this week, the Environmental Association for Universities and Colleges (EAUC), in partnership with the Association of Colleges, GuildHE and Universities UK, launched a climate commission.
Applications to take part close on the day this article goes to print, and its deliverables won’t be clear until January, but it already has some discernible aims. According to commission steering group member, Ian Munro, the outputs have to “support institutions to adopt and put into place actions that will effect rapid change ahead of COP 26 [the UN climate change summit] to be held in Glasgow 2020.”
And the launch event has already made clear the need to “to develop a framework that will enable institutions to develop long-term plans for significant positive impact on the environment; not only reducing their own carbon footprint but also delivering on ambitious direct and indirect emissions reduction targets for 2030.”
Actionable plans within a year, and substantial impact within the following decade.
Too ambitious?
Meanwhile, the independent commission for the college of the future, which launched a month before an emergency was declared, makes no mention of climate change among the “seismic shifts happening across the UK” on its website’s ‘about’ page to this day.
In its November report, the environmental emergency is not one of its five key strands. Nevertheless, the language in which the strands are expressed is clearly influenced by this pressing new discourse. There is a call for a “sustainable funding and regulatory framework”, and another for “a coherent skills ecosystem”.
According to commission director, Lewis Cooper: ““The climate crisis has come up frequently in conversations we have been having with college leaders, staff and students. There is clear recognition that colleges have a big role to play in mitigating future climate change whilst also adapting to the extremely significant pressures on our communities over the next decade and beyond.”
EAUC CEO, Iain Patton speaks at the climate change commission’s launch, flanked by (L to R) Lizzy Houghton, University of Manchester Students’ Union Officer, Amy Brazier, Portsmouth College student and Lord Deben, Chair of the Committee on Climate Change
Thankfully, the sector isn’t without help. The Society for Education and Training’s annual conference in November included sessions on education for sustainable development, which is already impacting teacher and college leaders’ reflective practice at all levels nationally.
But writing in these pages, the organisation’s Cerian Ayres warned that while most colleges start with a curricular response, they “quickly find that they cannot change curriculum in isolation”.
Privately, schemes like EcoCampus have arisen to provide consultancy, training and resources to support colleges to become more environmentally friendly. EcoCampus also provides the kind of framework the EAUC commission is hoping to develop, with bronze, silver, gold and platinum awards.
Unfortunately, according to its latest register, of the 40 campuses that have been awarded at least at bronze level, only four are in the FE sector. The rest are universities.
Dig a little deeper, and it turns out all four of those are part of the Newcastle College Group. Deeper still, and it transpires that the online register isn’t totally up to date because, according to NCG’s new chief executive, Liz Bromley, all seven of its campuses are now part of the scheme, and “most are now working towards gold or platinum awards”.
Only four of 40 bronze campus awards went to the FE sector
The colleges are operating at different levels within a clear framework for progress. This echoes the importance of local action on this global issue, as demonstrated by Bristol and the slew of town and city councils following in its wake. It also clearly chimes with Bromley’s model of leadership. “It’s about local impact that’s appropriate for each one, while having a consistency across the colleges,” she says.
The scheme’s accessibility helped to push the idea of sustainability onto and up the agenda at NCG long before Bromley joined four months ago. Group energy and sustainability officer, Matthew Ward adds that a lot of it is about “policy and procedures, recognising and formalising what we’re already doing.”
Any challenge can seem too ambitious if the first step isn’t clear, but as all good teachers and leaders know, good guidance and celebrating successes along the way can achieve the impossible.
The art of the possible
To Bromley, like Cooper, the college sector is central to transitioning to a sustainable, low-carbon economy. The students they serve are a cross-section of those best placed to make that change happen.
“Our campus students tend to be younger, and to them climate change really matters as an issue,” says Bromley. This is the generation of Greta Thunberg and climate strikes. If NCG weren’t acting, it’s probable its students would be making them. But that isn’t a problem for the group, whose ecological credentials predate Extinction Rebellion and the youth climate movement by three years.
“And our older students are working or preparing for industries where sustainability is really important – developing and making electric cars and designing and constructing environmentally friendly buildings.”
NCG chief exectutive, Liz Bromley, with group energy and sustainability officer, Matthew Ward
Bromley, who has been in post only four months, is clearly passionate. She tells me with pride about Carlisle’s plastic eradication programme, that started with cutting plastic bottles, and is now reaching for a net-positive status through staff and student engagement in community clean-ups.
NCG are also investing in a “fleet of electric vehicles”. For a college group whose campuses cover the length of England, that is no mean feat. Why do it? “Because of the on-the-job training element of apprenticeships, a lot of our carbon emissions come from students’ transport between campus and workplace.”
Yet, if only because of its training divisions that cover almost all of the parts of England and Wales that its colleges don’t reach, there is little chance that NCG can really go carbon-neutral alone. Again, Bromley is ahead of the question. “All our courses are co-created, and our challenge is to make sure that employer engagement is tied into our vision. Our educational mission doesn’t stop with our students.”
Much of the discourse around the climate and environment emergency is alarmist, and often focused on what isn’t being done. The fear alone can make rabbits in the climate crisis headlights of many of those who could act with great impact, including many young people, whose protests perhaps also speak of a level of disempowerment.
Education could well be the new ‘art of the possible’
That’s why, to Bromley, it’s about “changing learners’ mindsets as well as employers’ practices to ensure the skills sector is responding to the climate crisis.”
At NCG, as well as a group energy and sustainability officer to focus minds, the environment is a standing point of agenda for the principals’ curriculum advisory group to ensure that all areas build sustainability into all aspects of teaching and learning.
“It’s a question of civic commitment,” says Bromley. “Higher education have sustainability targets, but colleges do a lot without recognition. Further education funding is too low compared to HE, and our sustainability targets should be funded in the same way.”
Given the skills sector’s vital position at the intersection between education and industry, there is a lot of sense in this comment. With college leaders like Bromley and her team, as well as many others already transforming their colleges and communities, with sector leaders like Ian Munro and Steve Frampton from AoC on the climate change commission, and Lewis Cooper and the commission for the college of the future, education could very well be the new “art of the possible”. And particularly further education.
Beyond Brexit and weeks of electoral promises, this could yet be the issue that truly puts the sector at the centre of the political map. It’s certain to feature increasingly in the next centenary of FE Week editions.
Hayley Wilcox, Director of quality and operations, InterLearn
Start date January 2020
Previous job: Interim director of quality, InterLearn
Interesting fact: She is an avid supporter of Derby County football club, and has even seen them play at Wembley before.
Dr Cilla Ross, Principal, Co-op College
Start date: December 2019
Previous job: Vice principal, Co-op College
Interesting fact: She inspired a group of young women impacted by the pit closures in South Yorkshire to go on to study, and saw them graduate from Sheffield University years later.
Thomas Hamilton-Dick, Deputy principal – curriculum and innovation, North Warwickshire and South Leicestershire College
Start date: Spring 2020
Previous job: Executive director of curriculum, Nottingham College
Interesting fact: He has a background in the media and once worked in the USA as commercial camera operator.
Dean Hardman, Director of sport and student experience, Association of Colleges
Start date: February 2020
Previous job: Head of commercial and member engagement, England Athletics
Interesting fact: He won a sitcom writing competition in 2009 for his piece on a Nigerian hairdresser, a Latvian minicab driver and an English slacker living together.
A college has rescued an independent provider from going bust, saving around 70 jobs and the learning of “hundreds” of students and apprentices.
Middlesbrough College has purchased the business and assets of its neighbour TTE Technical Institute for an undisclosed fee.
TTE had run into financial difficulty, largely due to a “significant” deficit in its defined benefit pension scheme. Martyn Pullin, David Willis and Iain Townsend of FRP Advisory were appointed as joint administrators on 13 December.
The private provider’s brand, its existing workforce and facilities will now transfer to Middlesbrough College’s ownership and continue to operate, which will be welcomed news to learners and staff ahead of Christmas.
Zoe Lewis, principal of Middlesbrough College, said: “TTE has an incredibly strong reputation for providing skills locally, nationally and internationally – and we’re going to build on that.
“The TTE team is highly respected for delivering world class training and that will continue as normal while we invest in staff, equipment and facilities.
“We will also continue to deliver and grow TTE’s international business – which works with companies in West Africa, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Asia.”
TTE Technical Institute, which incorporated as Teeside Training Enterprise in 1989, claims on its website to be the UK’s “leading provider” of technical training to the oil and gas, process, manufacturing and engineering sectors.
It had direct contracts with the Education and Skills Funding Agency worth £1.6 million in 2018/19, £1.5 million of which was for apprenticeships. The provider is currently rated ‘good’ by Ofsted.
A spokesperson said Middlesbrough College has renegotiated the lease on TTE’s premises, which are also based in Middlesbrough, “securing a future £250,000 investment in the buildings”.
The college, rated ‘good’ by Ofsted, is one of the first to have been selected to deliver T-levels – from 2021. A spokesperson said the college is also in the “final stages” of being selected as the Tees Valley hub of the North East’s forthcoming Institute of Technology.
Lewis added: “TTE has played an absolutely central role in developing the skills that grow the engineering, oil and gas, process and manufacturing sectors here in the Tees Valley and further afield.
“And Middlesbrough College, as a specialist STEM college, is already poised to deliver cutting edge T Levels and host the Institute of Technology facility – the match is perfect.
“We’re extending a very warm welcome to the TTE team and now our focus is on growing TTE’s strong brand and building on its outstanding legacy for skills training.”
Martyn Pullin, joint administrator, said: “We’ve been working with the management team at TTE for a number of weeks in an effort to find a way forward for the business and have been liaising closely with the Pension Protection Fund during that time.
“We’re delighted to have secured a deal with Middlesbrough College which will ensure that TTE continues to provide vital training and apprenticeship programmes for the North East.
“We wish the team at Middlesbrough College every success as they take the business forward.”
