Bracknell and Wokingham College

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Bracknell and Wokingham College is a further education college based in Bracknell, Berkshire. The college became Bracknell and Wokingham College in 1993. ^[1]

[edit] Overview

The main College site at Church Road is presently undergoing a multi-million pound rebuild, due to hit completion by 2010. By the time the work is finished, the college will be hoping to encourage more students from the local schools to go there, instead of opting to stay on at sixth form. This should, in effect, make it one of the most facility-rich colleges in the region, although local people have expressed some concern that the size of the building is roughly the same size as the previous one, bringing into question the exact point of the work in the first place. Furthermore, plans to keep young people in education until they are 18, presently a government policy for 2012, make the current construction seem all the more ill-conceived, primarily as the size of the new building may not be able to cater for such a rise in pupil numbers. The new building will consist of, amongst many other things, a sports hall and a new, improved canteen.

In terms of its size and scale, Bracknell and Wokingham College is considerably smaller than any other college in the region. It has continued to maintain a good reputation, receiving a strong report from OFSTED following its inspection which took place towards the end of 2007. Departments within the college include motor vehicles (mechanics), Leisure and Tourism, Art and Business.

In April 2008, a large proportion of the college's staff decided to take strike action that had been backed and organised by UCU (The University and College Union). The staff, unhappy at low pay and a failure by the government to improve lecturers' basic salaries, took the action at the same time as many other FE Colleges across The UK. Despite reasonable support for the industrial action, a significant proportion of teaching staff still decided to cross the picket line.

According to its website, the College has around 850 full-time and 14,000 part-time students enrol each year. Whilst it has two main campuses on the outskirts of the town centre, its largest being the Church Road site, the college also operate a number of other buildings across the Bracknell and Wokingham area. When the rebuild work reaches completion in 2010, the intention will be to consolidate the majority of the progammes being run at the different centres into their Church Road site.