ONE of Bracknell’s main colleges has been given a seal of approval after employers rated it one of the best in Berkshire in an annual survey.

Bracknell and Wokingham College emerged from the recent Further Education Choices employer satisfaction survey with a score of 8.8 out of 10, ranking it the best college in the minds of employers in all of Berkshire.

The second highest ranked college was the Slough-based East Berkshire College, which was rated 8.1 out of 10 in the survey conducted by the Skills Funding Agency. 

The college, which has its main base in Church Road in Bracknell town centre, even exceeded the national average satisfaction rates for further education colleges, which is 7.9 and the average for all organisations including private providers, which is just 8.2 out of 10.

James Taylor, vice principal, was delighted with the result and said: “It’s always nice to receive positive feedback from employers. We know we offer a comprehensive professional service and the survey results confirm this. We tailor our provision to meet employers’ needs, which allows their employees to progress with recognised qualifications.

“The results show that the employers the college delivers to are extremely happy with the service they receive; and when comparing ourselves to our local competitors we are rated more highly when it comes to offering business training.”

Berkshire College of Agriculture came bottom in the county with a rating of 6.3 out of 10. Activate and Newbury College came in just under the national average with a rating of 7.4 each. 

Employers and clients of Bracknell and Wokingham College have praised the training it provides. 
KCA UK, a drug, alcohol and mental health services company, said: “We have had a great experience with the college from the start and arranging our initial assessments to being allocated an assessor to then actually starting working with the assessor.

"The assessor has been flexible and accommodating to our needs and has really understood the challenges of our service in the current climate.”

Berkeley Installations Ltd, an electrical and maintenance company, said the training was ‘fantastic’ and said: “The overall service and assistance received by the college for our training is fantastic. As a medium size organisation we would not be able to employ the apprentices without the backing received from the college staff.