By Lawrence Wood, Telford College principal and chief executive

It has been an incredibly busy and rewarding start to the new academic year for the Telford College team.

Last week we were honoured to welcome HRH The Princess Royal to our new Station Quarter campus in Telford town centre, where she performed the official opening of the building.

She met some of the first students in our digital and maths skills hub, which is upskilling young people and adults and supporting local employers to develop and grow.

Partnerships with the business community are absolutely crucial for us; they play a key role in helping us to design and deliver our curriculum, so that we can equip people with the skills they need.

A crucial element of this is helping people to find the right course for them – and this is where our programme of open events and ‘tasters’ come in, promoting courses for adults, school leavers and apprentices.

For adult learners, we are proud to be offering degree-level study opportunities right on your doorstep, partnering with universities such as Keele and Wolverhampton.

We are holding an advice evening at our Haybridge campus on October 23 to explain more about these flexible higher education programmes in areas such as health and social care, early years, business, and digital studies.

We have part-time studies, modular studies, hybrid studies and lots of flexible programmes to designed to fit around people’s busy lifestyles.

Apprenticeships are a crucial part of our Telford College curriculum too, with more than 20 career pathways.

We were delighted to see so many of our apprentices – as well as employers who partner with us – recognised at the first Shropshire Telford & Wrekin Apprenticeship Awards.

Special congratulations go to Luke Courtnell of McPhillips, Abigail Jones of i2r, and Kiran Kaur of Trench Tots who collected trophies, as well as Tom Miles, Zoe Gray, Francesca Farruggio and Mitchell Taylor, who all received commendations as shortlisted finalists.

For secondary school leavers, meanwhile, we have also reintroduced our ‘twilight tasters’ sessions this year to offer a bite-sized preview of education opportunities available on their doorstep.

We ran our first twilight tasters earlier this week, and have further sessions planned on November 20 and January 29. You’ll find details about foo of these events on our website.