At Hereford College of Technology, our employees receive a very high standard of work environment. Not only do they get to work very closely with the students, they provide a friendly face on the campus and provide a very high standard of teaching to the local students, and also to students who come from all over. The college currently employs 250 staff, half of which are teachers. All of our staff receive discounts in our Gym, and are part of our “Well Being” scheme, which puts healthcare first. This also includes free health check ups.
Students, make the lifeblood of the HCT campus. If there were no students, there would be no campus. So how do we entice students to come here? Well we do this by what we offer as a college. We offer 100’s of different courses to our students, which can enable them to start their dream jobs or to allow them to go onto higher education at a university. This produces a positive effect on the local community, because most of our students live in the local area and will thus transfer the skills they acquire here, to their local employer which provides a good boost to our local economy and attitude. Not only do we provide top notch teaching to our students, but we also offer wireless internet in EVERY single room on campus, and there is easy access to computers and laptops, and soon netbooks so that students may continue their work on lunch break or just to check e-mails. Also, every single classroom has been fitted with smart boards and brand new IT equipment on a whole new network. And if that isn’t enough, using Novell software, we have managed to secure access to students work from outside off college, all they need do is logon to the website using their credentials, and they can copy and upload any data they wish. Our students are also a really friendly group of people who enjoy coming to college and enjoy studying here.
Due to all of these points, we improve the community in general by educating local students, and providing jobs for the local people and by encouraging people to join in. As an added incentive for students, we also support the EMA [Educational Maintenance Allowance] scheme which provides students with either £10, £20 or £30 a week depending on income. This is provided if they turn up to all their lessons that week, and complete the work to a good standard. They will also receive two 100 bonuses at the start of January and at the end of their courses if they can maintain a 100% attendance record along with a good work completion rate. We also provide open access to our library and LRC [Learning Resource Centre] so that members of the local community can come in and research something they need. Alongside this students of one of our catering groups run and cook for our “Cider Orchard Restaurant”, whereby locals can stop by and get some food in a calming style environment at very low prices. The campus will also allow the usage of our Events Hall so that presentations or events maybe given. In the future, we plan to be able to offer a lot more courses so that students who have to travel to Worcester for a specific course, can come here instead.
