STUDENTS and staff at South Worcestershire College are celebrating a turnaround in fortunes after a successful Ofsted inspection.

The college, which has campuses in Davies Road, Evesham, and Albert Road North in Malvern, was last visited in October 2012 when its overall effectiveness was deemed ‘inadequate’.

But inspectors were impressed with the improvements they saw on their latest visit and have rated the college ‘good’ in all areas.

The result makes it the only general further education college with a ‘good’ Ofsted rating in the county.

The Inspection, in November, found standards had been raised leading to increased quality of teaching, learning and assessment and better outcomes for learners and teachers were found to be well qualified and vocationally experienced.

It also judged the good education and training provided supports the local community well.

The inspectors said: “The development of students’ personal, social and employability skills is strong and links with employers are good and a high proportion of students progress into work.

“Since the last inspection the proportion of learners achieving high grades has increased markedly and is now well above the national rate.”

The report also says the majority of students are successful and teachers consistently provide constructive and useful feedback to help students improve and make good progress.

However inspectors identified a need for apprentice success rates to be improved, saying while some are very successful, others are low.

Principal Viv Gillespie said: “The outcome is a credit to the whole college and our results now put South Worcestershire College in the very top ranking for further education colleges across the country.

“We are proud to provide high-quality education and training for our younger students, apprentices, adults, employers and communities.”

The college has upcoming apprenticeship and open evenings on Wednesday, January 29, at the Malvern campus, and Thursday, February 6, at the Evesham campus.

Both run from 5pm until 7pm, for further details call 01386 712600 or visit sworcs.ac.uk.