Published at 11:04, Thursday, 25 August 2011

IT seems that for most of this year I have been talking about money in one form or another, either because it’s too little, too much, or totally gone.

In my column in the last edition of Futures I announced that we had unveiled a bursary scheme to students aged 16 to 19 who were most in need of support after cuts to EMA (Educational Maintenance Allowance). Now I am also pleased to announce the measures we have put in place to support our higher education students.

From September 2012 we have set our full-time higher education fees at under £6,000; that’s more than £3,000 below the average £9,000 that students will face paying every year of their studies at other HE institutions in the UK.

This announcement comes at the same time as the release of the Government’s Higher Education White Paper which documents the proposed improvements for Further Education colleges around England. These include giving colleges more freedom to expand their Higher Education provisions.

Students might still be worried about paying course fees, but there are many financial options available. Full-time students at Lakes College won’t have to pay a penny until after they graduate and are earning over £21,000 a year. There are also grants and bursaries available to support budding scholars and we will be working with the National Scholarship Programme 2012-2013 to aid funding to those that need some extra help.

In addition to the financial help we are able to offer, we have also extended our provision to offer more opportunities to the young people of West Cumbria. Aspiring actors, sports stars and event planners will be able to follow their dreams by signing up to one of our new or adapted courses.

As part of our travel and tourism level two course, we offer an event-planning module. This is an industry that is very strong in our area with events run by Lakes Alive and Cockrock, not to mention the hundreds of other events as diverse as Cumbria produce shows to gurning competitions.

Students can learn the skills needed such as marketing, customer service and sales to break into this field.

Students enrolled on the new performing arts course will also be able to take advantage of the facilities in the new £1.2million vocational arts centre where they can learn skills in drama, dance and singing.

We have also set up to links with sports organisations Workington Reds football team and the Rugby Football League to enable our level two sports students to include specialist training in Rugby or Football and produce home grown sports stars. I look forward to hopefully welcoming some of you through the doors in September.

Published by http://www.cumberlandnews.co.uk