Page 12 - HB- Further Education

Redditch Heritage Further Education in Redditch

1963 by the Rt. Hon. Sir Edward Boyle, the Minister of Education. By 1960, however, the
College Governors were already asking for the second phase of buildings.

In the late 1960s the Department of
Education and Science emphasised the
greater utilisation of resources in FE to
keep down costs when demand for FE
courses was increasing. Thus 1966
Pilkington Report prompted the
Worcestershire Local Education
Authority (LEA) to rationalise courses.
In 1967 Worcestershire LEA moved
Redditch College’s Higher and Ordinary
National Certificate courses in
Production Engineering, as well as the
General Course in Engineering, to
Bromsgrove College where similar
courses were offered.

New buildings, Archer Road, 1971. From 1973
the tower block was known as B block.

Traditionally part-time courses were held in the evenings, but national statistics suggested
that insufficient teaching hours contributed to the low rate of successful course
completions. In the 1960s various government measures contributed to the increased
number of students on block release and part-time day courses at Redditch. The arrival
of established firms in Redditch also contributed to the increase in student numbers. In
1970 the first new large factory in Redditch was occupied by a division of BKL Alloys of
Kings Norton, engaged in heavy engineering, and Halfords, a national distributor of motor
accessories, moved its headquarters and warehouse from Birmingham to Redditch. This
was followed by a factory and offices of Alfred Herbert, the Machine Tool Group, and Serck
Industries, manufacturer of car radiators, bumpers and number plates. There were
also the GKN offices for Research and
Development purposes and offices for
British Leyland.

The second instalment of college building
involved liaison with the Redditch
Development Corporation as Redditch was
designated a New Town in 1964. In 1965
a letter was sent to the County Education
Officer, pointing out that the new town
centre was as yet undecided and the
college site was undefined. (The new
town centre was later focused on the old
town centre.) The College Principal was
concerned about the accommodation in
the following years before an enlarged, or
new, college was built.

Staff rooms and tutorial rooms were in the two
college houses.

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