The background to our partnerships with schools:

Working in partnership with other learning providers is seen as a positive way of engaging more learners and providing more localised facilities.  Here at Catten College we believe that innovation is the key to successful learning experiences and partnership working is an excellent way to achieve this. So, with this in mind, way back in 2001, we forged an alliance with four Tendring schools (Clacton County High, Colbayns, the Harwich School and Tendring Technology College) in the form of the Coastal Education Training Partnership; taking on students from school years 10 & 11 for BTEC and NVQ vocational training to run alongside their GCSEs.

The four courses we offered back then were BTEC Introductory Certificates in Business, Retail & Administration; Health & Social Care; Sport & Leisure and the NVQ Level 1 in Hairdressing. All these courses required students to spend part of their week at school, part out in the workplace and part at Catten College.

The initial experiment deemed to have worked overall (some failures / dropouts being, perhaps, inevitable), we have expanded the range of courses offered and are currently working with 12 schools from the Tendring, Colchester, Maldon and Witham areas; working with approximately 80 school students.

Training within schools:

To help facilitate training, problems with travel from outlying districts and general needs of schools, we teach hairdressing at two schools, having also opened a training salon (The H & C Academy) on the premises of, and in conjunction with, the Harwich School.

The H & C Academy teaches sixth form students the NVQ 2 in Hairdressing over a one year period on an intensive two day per week in-salon course. One other day per week, students here are taught units towards beauty qualifications (facials, makeovers and manicures). The salon is open to members of the paying public (and bookings can be made by calling 01255 245463) so that students can have the experiences of, amongst other things, stocktaking and learning about  business and cash flow alongside the practices and theory of hairdressing and beauty therapy.

Other partnerships:

2004 saw Catten College establish the Braintree, Colchester and Tendring (BCT) Consortium with Colchester Institute, Braintree College, Career Track, Essex Chambers of Commerce and Easi Hairdressing Academy; to deliver Apprenticeships and Advanced Apprenticeships across North Essex.