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Deeside College is a further education college situated in Connah's Quay, Flintshire, North Wales. It has recently received a multi-million pound makeover with a state of the art Learning Zone library, new coffee shops and A-Level centre.

Contents 1 Facts & Figures 2 Awards 3 History 4 External links

Deeside College has around 14,000 students and 30,000 enrolments based around its main campus in Connah’s Quay, the Mold Learning Centre, the Netcafe in Shotton and over 20 learning centres across the local communities of Flintshire. These include five learning centres set up with local employers, Airbus UK, Corus Colors, Castle Cement, Paramount Foods and Indesit, and training and development which takes place on employers’ premises.

Deeside College now has over 550 staff and an annual income of over £18m, of which over 30% comes from non-Welsh Assembly Government sources.

- Fforwm Award for Basic Skills 2006
- RoSPA Occupational Health & Safety Gold Award 2006
- Tourism Training Forum for Wales Exemplar Award 2006
- Wales Quality Centre Learning Prize 2005
- Beacon Award in Occupational Health & Safety and Environment Management training 2005
- Investors In People (IiP) including Recruitment and Selection model 2005
- City and Guilds Medals of Excellence for college staff Joy Parry and Marshall Clayton 2005
- NIACE ‘Tutor of the Year Awards 2005’ for Keith Stanley and Sue Horder
- The National Training Award for Wales and the UK in 2004 for its partnership with Airbus UK (innovative apprenticeship training)
- Fforwm award for “Innovative Developments in the Use of On-line Learning” 2004
- NWOCN Award for Quality in Access to Higher Education courses 2003
- NWOCN Award for Innovation 2003 for its voluntary sector development training programme
- Deeside College’s Learning Centre Manager for Airbus UK, Sue Horder, was awarded the Learning Resource Centre Manager of the Year award at the World Open Learning Conference 2003
- EFQM Wales Quality Award – Gold and Service Sector prize 2002
- Investors in People since 1996
- ISO9001:1994 for the Commercial Services department
- ELWa status as Centre of Excellence for Aerospace Engineering
- Basic Skills Quality Award for post 16 education
- Green Dragon Environmental Award level 4 introducing an environmental policy across the college
Positive about Disabled People showing a commitment to the recruitment and support of new and existing staff with disabilities

1952

Flintshire Technical College opens its doors to students
From 1952 to 1956, the college buildings gradually covered almost 20 acres. In 1959, the college could cater for some 1,000 full-time students and 7,000 part-time students. However, the first official Department of Education and Science return, made by the first Principal, Dr Lyons, at the time (following Acting Principal Fred Roberts), was made on a postcard to the DES and it was noted there were 357 girls and 459 boys in attendance and 27 staff.
The actual capacity envisioned a future of comprehensive training within a building large enough to cater for the baby boom once that cohort was over the age of 16. In 1956, Sir Miles Thomas opened the college and in his official capacity as Chairman of BOAC, cemented the links that the college would have with the Aviation/Aerospace industry for the next 50 years. Now in 2006 Deeside College supports the Airbus UK apprenticeship scheme, which is probably the largest in the whole of Western Europe.

1966 - 1974

Flintshire College of Technology
Imagine a further situation in the middle sixties of an institution, now called Flintshire College of Technology, wanting to become a college of advanced technology and with aspirations for North East Wales to have a university.

The Robbins report on the expansion of Higher Education in the middle sixties was out. Some of us can remember the University of the Air proposal and the vision of the then Prime Minister Harold Wilson, to begin the development of one of the largest universities of the air, now called the Open University. Flintshire College of Technology played its part in this expansion, offering HNDs and GRAD RICs in chemistry, and more advanced qualifications for the manufacturing hinterland of North East Wales.

The college was placed as a crucial education and training provider in the development of the North Wales economy and for a further 7 years became the prestigious college of “Advanced Technology”. Student numbers grew and came in from as far as Birkenhead, Preston, Anglesey, Aberystwyth and Hereford. Facilities expanded, residential blocks were built and people were trained on a gargantuan scale with both public and private finance.

1974 - 1993
Kelsterton College - North East Wales Institute (NEWI)
Textiles, steel making, steel coating, aeroplane construction and companies like Hawker Siddeley, John Summers, Courtaulds International were household names for Flintshire. Thousands upon thousands of iron and steel operatives crossed the Dee to be trained at the college; metallurgy research grew to satisfy the steel expansion and local government was ready for change.

A new county was formed on local government reorganisation in 1974. The new county of Clwyd – some say an acronym for ‘Come Live With Your Dreams’ - replaced Wrexham, Denbighshire and Flintshire and was a further manifestation of a new sub-region being created. Its birth pangs happened in a phenomenal fashion and the death throes of the old county revealed itself in a change from Flintshire College to Kelsterton College of Technology. And then, very quickly, the name changed once again to the North East Wales Institute of Higher Education embracing Wrexham Technical College, Cartrefle Teacher Training College, Wrexham College of Art and the Flintshire College.

So 1956, 1966 and 1974 are both the chronological landmarks and moreover, the definitive stages of the development of education and training in the region. Paralleled with this, was the mass expansion of Higher Education, Further Education, comprehensive schools and together, the vision so cherished by Dr Haydn Williams became a reality. Here was in Flintshire, and in Wrexham, the achievement and manifestation of his dreams.

From 1974, the North East Wales Institute expanded under the vision of another great leader in education, Professor Glyn O Phillips who took the institution forward and made it into a significant research based and practice based technological organisation which had a financial turnover equalling a great many universities close by, like Liverpool, Manchester and Bangor.

1993 - 1996
Deeside College
Twenty years later came the next major upheaval and change to local government organisation. The 7 counties of Wales, including Clwyd, were disbanded to create 22 unitary authorities and Flintshire was reborn, but not as an exact twin of the old ‘Flintshire’.

This change was a little different, for the new Flintshire was not a reincarnation of the pre 1974 reorganisation, as this time it did not embrace Rhyl or the Northern part of Denbighshire, which it did in the middle sixties and early seventies.

A consequence of this local government reorganisation was the determination to concentrate all Higher Education in Wrexham. This resulted in the disaggregation and consequent formation of Deeside College in 1993 which was enshrined in the legislation of 1992 – the Further and Higher Education Act. The College became a separate independent institution with its own board of governors and having corporation status. A new Principal was appointed, Dr Tony Walker, who served for 3 years until early 1997. The name Deeside College was chosen not just because it was geographically in an identifiable and supported industrial zone called Deeside, but also it was a deliberate departure from the names of the past and presented a greater vision for the sub-region of North East Wales.

During the time 1974 to 1993, Flintshire experienced the almost total collapse of steel making, as a consequence in part of a growing world-wide steel making market on the Pacific Rim and in Eastern Europe. Flintshire also experienced the collapse of its textile industries and the transformation of its aerospace manufacturing; Courtaulds Textiles had gone, Hawker Siddeley came and went and British Aerospace was born and matured into what is now Airbus UK. So, what was the purpose of Deeside College in 1993? What was its mission and how would it handle its new found status of independence?

1996 - 2003

Deeside College
Will Edmunds joined Deeside College as Principal/Chief Executive in 1997 during a time of great upheaval, following major changes to the funding systems implemented by the Further Education Funding Council for Wales, and an introduction of more change for further education. Deeside College was required to make significant and sometimes intolerable efficiencies and maximise income through increased numbers of students. Considerable investments were made to the students’ learning facilities, new stringent financial systems were put into place and a personnel and a finance department was set up. New outreach centres were opened across the county of Flintshire and Deeside College developed partnerships with local primary and secondary schools, libraries and community centres, in order to offer courses at local community venues. Student numbers rapidly increased by over 50%.

The college reinvested its hard earned income on a large scale into the transformation of its buildings and in the building of new enterprises for the community.

The first new enterprise was the building of The Deeside College Sports Stadium which was officially opened on 6 October 1998 by the Rt. Hon. Ron Davies MP, Secretary of State for Wales at that time, and the architect of the National Assembly for Wales. With a full size football pitch and an international running track, the stadium soon became home to the Connah’s Quay Nomads Football team and the Deeside Athletics Association, who continue to use the facilities.

In 1999, the recently established Mold Learning Centre was moved from St David’s Building, St David’s Square in Mold to Terrig House, Chester Street in Mold, which was originally the old police station building. Next to the bus station, this proved to be a popular location and the centre has quickly developed into a thriving community learning venue.

From 2000 to 2002, new learning centres were created in local companies like Airbus UK, Corus Colors, Castle Cement and Merloni Electrodomestici; (formerly Hotpoint/GDA), as part of a series of partnership arrangements which helped employees at all levels access learning, including those working on shift patterns. Deeside College was instrumental in improving the skills of the local workforce through these initiatives and through what is now the largest and most comprehensive work-based training programme in the whole of Wales.

In August 2001, the college’s Netcafe opened its doors in Shotton and offered drop-in computer facilities with a café, learndirect centre and classroom areas for short courses.

On 4 June 2003, the Deeside College Centre of Engineering Excellence was officially opened by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. This £8 million pound centre was fully fitted out with the latest high technology equipment for the motor vehicle, aero-engineering, electrical/electronic, fabrication and welding and gas installation fields. Specialist electronic, optronic and avionic equipment was also installed within these new workshops.

2004

Deeside College
With extensive partnership links across Wales, the UK and internationally, Deeside College has become a world-class provider of education, training and development and consultancy.

Deeside College draws considerable strength from its ability to provide modern and flexible learning environments. The college is working in partnership with local and national employers, with private training providers, secondary schools and the voluntary sector, to ensure that learning provision meets the needs of the local community and businesses across Wales and Britain.

In 2003, Deeside College had 30,000 enrolments based around its main campus in Connah’s Quay, its Mold Learning Centre, the Netcafe in Shotton and over 20 learning centres across the local communities of Flintshire.

International consultancy and development work continues and Deeside College has strong links with other educational institutions and business networks in South Africa, USA, Germany and Finland, to name but a few.

• Deeside College