Skip to main content

• Home
• About Us
• Study
• Campus Life
• Support & Advice
• News & Events
• Vacancies
• Contacts

• School Leavers
  • School Leavers
  • Courses
  • Ways to Study
  • Student Finance
  • Support with your Learning
  • Our Facilities
  • Term Dates
• Adult Learners
  • Adult Learners
  • Courses
  • Modes of Attendance
  • Professional Development
  • Student Finance
  • Support with your Learning
  • Facilities
  • Term Dates
• Employers
  • Employers
  • Training Courses
  • Modern Apprenticeships
  • Vocational Qualifications
  • Back to Work Training
• International Students
  • International Students
  • Immigration & Visas
  • Finance
  • Cost of Living
  • English Language
  • Accommodation
  • Support Service
  • How to Apply
  • Useful Links
  • Contact Us

Thursday 7 July 2011

College Study Places FVC in Top Class

A UK wide study on recruitment equality, accessibility and diversity in further education college websites, places Forth Valley College in the first three in Britain and top in Scotland.

The report – in which FVC excelled in all areas with a total score of 78 per cent, the third highest overall - looked closely at website accessibility, availability of equality and diversity information and the recruitment sections of the colleges’ websites. Colleges were also judged on building accessibility and examples of good practice.

More than 100 further education colleges – most chosen at random, but some selected for examples of good practice – from around Great Britain were targeted for the independent screening exercise. It was carried out and funded by R21 Education, a specialist online education recruitment advertising firm and one of the leading job boards for further education colleges in the UK.

Overall scores for the colleges varied considerably ranging from 87 per cent down to 10 per cent, with the average score sitting at 45 per cent. There were three levels of success: Excelling (scores of 60% or above), Achieving (50% and above) and Developing (less than 50%).

Southampton City College came out on top and Kingston Maurward College were placed second in the report.

A total of nine Scottish colleges were involved in the study and only FVC and Coatbridge College managed to earn their place in the top 14 per cent and attain the ‘Excelling’ level status. However, Scotland had the highest home country average score of 48 per cent.

Mhairi Shillinglaw Forth Valley College Equalities Manager, said:

“I’m delighted that we have been recognised in this study and have scored so highly.  Accessible information is very important to us and it’s an on-going journey, but we have worked hard to make our website as accessible as possible and to share information on what we do in terms of equality work. 

“We meet the needs of a wide range of learners at Forth Valley College and we strive to keep up to date with emerging technologies that can help people access information in a way that suits them. It’s a real joint effort across different departments in FVC and it’s great to collaborate on something so important.”

The report’s author Anne Tynan said: “Forth Valley College staff – and students– are to be congratulated for such an excellent website. Staff from other colleges have told us that they will be looking at the top websites for ideas as to how they can improve their own sites. The college can expect many visitors, well done!”

Richard Collins Managing Director, R21education.com, said:  “We were delighted to see how well Forth Valley College have performed in the study. They have excelled at ensuring that equality, diversity and accessibility form a cornerstone of their recruitment processes, thus demonstrating their status as a leading college in this regard. Well done and keep up the good work.”

Tags: Awards

<  Return to news