So, the results are safely in your pocket and the years of preparation have led to this, your new life as an undergraduate. Your parents have packed enough food and warnings to last a lifetime and you have a neat little pile of sparkling new pots, pans, cushions and household gadgets you never knew existed that will shortly be scattered around your Halls of Residence or shared house being soundly abused by your flat/housemates. All sorted ready for next week when you’ll leave home and set off on this amazing adventure, and we at Northampton College wish you a great adventure.
But, maybe this isn’t your story. Maybe you don’t want to leave Northamptonshire or maybe you’re not in a position to do so. Maybe you had your heart set on studying here in Northampton but didn’t get the right grades or the course you wanted failed to materialise. And maybe now you’re sloping along to your part-time job while you try not to panic about what you’ll do next and how you’re going to get into the fabulous career you always dreamed about.
Well, the good news is that these days you can pursue Higher Education and skills training in so many more ways than before, and colleges such as Northampton College offer brilliant opportunities to get high level qualifications equal to degrees, for a fraction of the cost and in small groups taught by industry professionals.
We’re well worth checking out if you want to live and work in Northamptonshire while studying to get your foot in the door of the Arts, Business, Care or Engineering industries.
We offer Higher National Diploma courses in areas as diverse as Commercial Photography, Music Production, Digital Fashion, Technical Theatre, Theatre Practice, Musical Theatre, Dance, Care Management, Business Management, Digital Film Production and Engineering (which you can study as part of a Higher Apprenticeship).
In fact, in last year’s National Student Survey, our HND students rated the preparation they get for future employment in the subject areas of choice as ‘exceptional’, that’s way higher than the average for the sector.
Vocational training is a cornerstone of all of our HNDs and our graduates (from over 20 years) now run model agencies; work for the BBC and other major broadcasting and news corporations; tour as professional performers and have contracts with music labels across the world.
So, whether you’ve already signed up to an HE course at Northampton College or you think you might be interested in joining us, you’ll probably want to know what we’re getting up to this week in the run up to our new academic year.
We’re currently getting everything ready for our new cohort of higher education students who will join us next Monday (25th) for Welcome Week. This is the name we give the first week which is designed to settle our students in and give them a taste of what they’ll be doing. We will also explain how different higher education is compared to what’s gone before.
You may know it as Freshers’ Week but we prefer our more modern name for it!
During Welcome Week, you get the chance to meet your teachers, become familiar with your timetable, find your way around the college, get enrolled (very important!) and get your purple Higher Education lanyard which will make it clear to everybody at the College that you are an HE student and, as such, that you are entitled to a host of advantages and special treatment that other students don’t get (we’ll tell you more about them during Welcome Week).
As a culmination to the week, our Arts students spend a day at Northampton’s Royal & Derngate theatre, where they work on a joint project which gives everyone a chance to work in their chosen area to create a dazzling show in one day. It’s a chance to experience the way we work and the skills you’ll be getting over the two years of your programme.
As Director of Higher Education I’m really looking forward to the new year of our higher education programme and to welcoming our newest cohort of HNC and HND students, so if you’re already signed up to join us, come and introduce yourself, and if you haven’t yet decided where to go post A levels, get in contact with me to find out more about what we can offer you.
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