Launching next year, Beyond Blanchelande is a holistic programme that aims to fully prepare students for life after leaving the grant-aided college. As well as A-levels the college will offer V-levels in finance and accounting and education, alongside level three Leiths Professional Cookery courses and Lamda speaking in public courses which the college already offers. There will be other unusual opportunities for students to earn UCAS points.
‘We’ve got a lot of students who don’t want to go to university necessarily,’ said director of studies Jane Grange. ‘Nationally, lots of children don’t any more, it’s not the right route for everybody, because it doesn’t necessarily make sense to go through a degree if you’re not exactly sure that you want to do that subject.
‘Even if students do want to go into university, things are so much more competitive these days that just having a degree is also not quite enough, so we’re trying to think about getting a whole package for students together that really prepares them for life beyond school and also life beyond universities and preparing them to go to the best universities.’
As well as the qualifications, students will also have the opportunity to take regular work placements with a range of companies.
‘We’ve got lots of good companies on board who would be really keen because a lot of companies have said we want students who are ready to come into work. Doing one week of work experience can be brilliant, but it’s only one week, and it’s so different working somewhere for a week compared to actually going into it and seeing the rhythms of the year and how things change,’ said Mrs Grange.
‘I think that the work landscape is changing and that students are going to need to hit the ground running, perhaps much more so than 10 years ago with the advent of AI and fewer entry level jobs that we’re all hearing about. We want to make sure that students are ready for a competitive environment.’
Mrs Grange said this was a huge development for the college, but one that felt like a natural next step.
Many students have been inspired by the new offering, and are excited by the prospect of taking different qualifications and work placements.
‘There are lots of different options to choose from because if you want to do something that’s a bit different you can’t really do it anywhere else,’ said Year 10 student Florence Sparkes, who is interested in creative subjects, with a dream of becoming a West End actress.
Ewurama Gyesi-Appiah, also in Year 10, said that she thought work placements would be really beneficial.
‘I think it’s great to have some early experience so you actually know what you’re doing when it comes to the time of having to work,’ she said.
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