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Watford's West Herts College principal Elizabeth Rushton to retire

2:39pm Thursday 2nd September 2010 in


West Herts College principal Elizabeth Rushton will retire later this year.

Mrs Rushton, who has been at the college for six years, has spearheaded the development of its £74million Hempstead Road campus and secured “outstanding” status from the government.

She said: “I feel now is the perfect time to hand over. I am extremely proud of what the college has achieved and its current position, yet know that the right person will continue to take it forward. I will go on with my duties as Principal until the appropriate person is appointed and the handover is complete.”

Comments(9)

fugu says...
7:01pm Thu 2 Sep 10

“I feel now is the perfect time to hand over." - So would I, just in time for the college (part of Watford's planning department's commitment's to the IKEA school of architecture.) to completely miss it's targets of places taken up. I tried looking for some courses on Physics, Chemistry or Environmental Science? No. Electronics, History, Literature? No. German, French or Urdu? No. Horticulture, Gardening or Biology? No. But there were courses for Beauty & Holistic Therapies (mumbo jumbo), Counselling, Crafts, Floristry (That's not even a word!), Hairdressing, Hospitality and Catering, Marketing, Media & Photography, Performing Arts and Music, Train to Gain (no idea) and Travel. When Watford is a sea of unemployed florists, hairdressers, beauticians, travel agents, and hospitable fast food outlet workers trying to market themselves with music and performing arts and you start wondering why all the real businesses left Watford you'll might think back to this and wonder; "Did we really need to train 30 Florists every year? There ware only 8 Florist shops in Watford. That's nearly 4 Florists per shop per year! What the hell were we thinking?"

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thomas.howard says...
8:07pm Thu 2 Sep 10

Fugu,

Did you look for an English grammar course? :p

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TRT says...
9:42am Fri 3 Sep 10

Are they still running publishing?

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fugu says...
9:46am Fri 3 Sep 10

I did, there isn't one. I learnt all my grammar from the Watford Observer.
:)

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fugu says...
9:51am Fri 3 Sep 10

TRT wrote:
Are they still running publishing?
They do "Creative Media Production (QCF) - Print Based" if that's the same thing

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fugu says...
9:58am Fri 3 Sep 10

...and, believe it or not - "Thermal Auricular Therapy (QCF)- Ear Candling". An actual qualification in sticking wax paper cylinders in other people's ears and setting light to them. It draws out evil spirits and destroys tumours, don't you know. We're all doomed!

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curly62 says...
2:06pm Fri 3 Sep 10

A little unfair, I think. The college does run vocational courses in hair and beauty, catering and sport and leisure. It also offers qualifications in Business and administration, ICT, Travel and tourism, Public services, Electrical engineering, plumbing and building etc. They decided to drop A-levels as the take up for many courses wasn't good and the results were low because many of the students were only doing them at college because they had failed to get into sixth form at school. Remember, this is first and foremost a Further Education college for those aged 16-19. It does offer some HE courses and part-time adult learning courses as well but that is not it's core purpose. They also have a commitment to providing courses aimed at helping people to improve their work-related skills, basic literacy and numeracy, and for those with special educational needs. There are plenty of other colleges easily accessible to Watford offering other courses so why not try one of those? No college can offer everything. And as for the Ear-candling - not everybodys cup of tea of course but if there is a demand for it, why not? I think you will find that this is not a full-time course!

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curly62 says...
2:06pm Fri 3 Sep 10

A little unfair, I think. The college does run vocational courses in hair and beauty, catering and sport and leisure. It also offers qualifications in Business and administration, ICT, Travel and tourism, Public services, Electrical engineering, plumbing and building etc. They decided to drop A-levels as the take up for many courses wasn't good and the results were low because many of the students were only doing them at college because they had failed to get into sixth form at school. Remember, this is first and foremost a Further Education college for those aged 16-19. It does offer some HE courses and part-time adult learning courses as well but that is not it's core purpose. They also have a commitment to providing courses aimed at helping people to improve their work-related skills, basic literacy and numeracy, and for those with special educational needs. There are plenty of other colleges easily accessible to Watford offering other courses so why not try one of those? No college can offer everything. And as for the Ear-candling - not everybodys cup of tea of course but if there is a demand for it, why not? I think you will find that this is not a full-time course!

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Veritas says...
3:19am Sun 5 Sep 10

I'm surprised they don't run a dodgy traffic warden course in how to
scr== the motorist, as they will have plenty of customers to practice that on around the college.

Or how about some courses in running a Council(local government) or better still
Planning, as a few of the council
employees need some refresher training?

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