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15 July 2019

If you have been reading the press or local social media posts recently, you would be forgiven for thinking that the College is on the brink of closure. I can assure you this is not the case at all. 

Please do not be alarmed, and do not react to these misleading headlines. The headlines do not reflect the up-to-date picture and current financial position of the College.  

You can be confident that the College is not closing and that we are a trustworthy College, with tutors, staff and managers who are totally dedicated to ensuring every student achieves their goals and maximises their potential while studying with us. This position has not changed because of a few misleading headlines.

To put the College’s situation into context, many FE Colleges across the country, and more locally, are also experiencing financial pressures and challenges. This just reflects the position of many other publicly funded organisations and it is true of many businesses. This is, unfortunately, nothing new for the further education sector, and is not something the College was unaware of.

The FE Commissioner report, only just published, is now slightly out of date, and the College has moved forward significantly since the FE Commissioner’s initial visit back in January 2019.

Over the last six months, the College has taken a variety of significant measures to reduce costs and improve its financial position going forward, some of these measures were difficult decisions to have to make. However, we have taken this necessary action to ensure that the College is directing all its financial resources in the right areas, and most importantly, to the benefit of our students and their experience and success whilst in our care.

We have made good progress already, and the new recovery/business plan that we are implementing will only strengthen this position. We expect to break-even or be in a better position over the next financial year.

Of course, we will have to work hard to make sure that we achieve the targets within the plan or make timely adjustments in order to maximise our position if the plan is to properly succeed, but we can do that. 

I want to reassure all of our employers and stakeholders, but especially our current students and those new applicants planning on studying with us in September that your decision to choose St Helens College, is the right one! Nothing has changed since you made your choice. St Helens College is still the right college for you!

We thank you most sincerely for choosing us and we are really looking forward to welcoming all of our students in September. You can be confident that we will help every one of you achieve. Come to St Helens College and we will help you to be the very best that you can be!

Monica Box,

Principal