Darlington College, Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form College, Darlington, Cleveland College of Art and Design, Middlesbrough, New College, Durham City, and Gateshead College - among the best (From The Northern Echo)

Darlington College, Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form College, Darlington, Cleveland College of Art and Design, Middlesbrough, New College, Durham City, and Gateshead College - among the best

8:51am Tuesday 16th March 2010 in

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GORDON BROWN yesterday heaped praise on five of the region’s colleges, describing them as key to the UK’s economic recovery.

The five – Darlington College, Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form College, Darlington, Cleveland College of Art and Design, Middlesbrough, New College, Durham City, and Gateshead College – were honoured as among the best in the country.

Their principals were invited to Downing Street after achieving either a grade one (outstanding) or grade two (good) for overall effectiveness, or a grade one for their capacity to improve.

The praise comes as the Government looks to further education and sixth form colleges to persuade more teenagers to carry on studying until the recession is over.

An extra 34,000 places were created in classrooms or on training courses across England last autumn, under what ministers called a September guarantee of a studying place for every 16 and 17-year-old.

Speaking at the reception, Mr Brown said: “These colleges are among the very best and most improving in the country and I am hugely impressed.

Colleges are at the heart of their communities, helping people through the recession and key to the UK’s economic recovery – training the next generation of engineers, scientists, teachers and designers.”

Business Secretary Lord Mandelson said: “These colleges are playing a major role making sure people have the skills they need to drive the economy forwards.”

The principals at No 10 were Tim Fisher (Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form, Tim Grant (Darlington College), Martin Raby (Cleveland College of Art and Design), Richard Thorold (Gateshead College) and John Widdowson (New College).

Last autumn’s package delivered an extra 5,132 college and training places in the North-East and 8,024 in Yorkshire, according to Schools Minister Ed Balls.

Ministers said they have increased investment in further education and skills this year – to £4.4bn – but there is uncertainty over an inevitable funding squeeze in the next parliament.

Colleges have also had to wrestle with the fiasco of their rebuilding programme, which led to four projects being effectively scrapped. Plans to revamp buildings at Darlington (£6m), Gateshead (£10m), Stockton (£23m) and South Tyneside (£89.2m) had to be shelved until at least next year.