There is a particular kind of pride in seeing a local institution held up as an example for the rest of the country — and Waltham Forest College has just earned it.
The college has become one of only two in the country, and the only one in London, to achieve Skills Builder Flagship status. The award recognises organisations showing an "exceptional, strategic and sustained commitment to developing the essential skills that learners need to succeed in education, employment and wider life".
Those essential skills are the ones that rarely appear on a certificate: speaking up in a room, listening properly, solving a problem when the instructions run out, working alongside people you did not choose. They are also, increasingly, what employers say they are looking for.
The recognition arrives at a moment when further education is being asked to do more than teach a trade. Technical and vocational expertise still matters enormously, but so does the ability to carry transferable skills into a labour market that keeps changing shape underneath everyone.
Waltham Forest College says it has put the development of those skills "at the heart of its approach to student experience and progression, recognising that technical excellence and essential skills must go hand in hand". Its approach, the college says, "supports learners to understand the skills employers value, develop them progressively and apply them in authentic educational, workplace and real-world contexts".
Amir Ahmed, vice principal at Waltham Forest College, said: "At Waltham Forest College, we have deliberately taken a whole-college approach to essential skills. We want every learner to understand not only what they can do, but how they can articulate and demonstrate the skills they bring to an employer, university or future career."
He was quick to share the credit with staff.
"This award recognises the commitment of colleagues across the college who have made essential skills a core part of the learner experience," he said. "It is a fantastic achievement, and we are proud to contribute to the national conversation about how further education can best prepare learners for the future and look forward to continuing to share our practice and learning with the wider sector."
For students walking through those doors this September — many of them the first in their families to go into further education — it is a quiet reassurance that what they are being taught is being noticed well beyond the borough.
