Guinness World Record attempt as College changes name
North West Kent College has today (14th September 2015) changed its name to North Kent College
and celebrated by attempting to break a Guinness World Record.
The College are attempting to make the World’s largest currency symbol using students and staff to
make a giant £.
The change comes as the College celebrates another year of student academic and progression
successes, and reflects recent achievements such as the Ofsted ‘Good with outstanding features’ of
March 2014.
The £ was felt an appropriate symbol for a number of reasons:
• Graduating students go on to earn as much as £21,000 as a starting salary at 18 for Legal
Secretaries, while Accountants start between £12,000 and £25,000
• Many hair and beauty students open their own salons and generate incomes immediately
• Apprentices can earn as they learn
• The College’s undergraduate programmes are a fraction of the cost of Universities, saving
students money on fees and accommodation
• £90million has been invested in new facilities over recent years
On a wider basis, an EMSI report from July 2014, indicates the following financial benefits of an NKC
education as:
• Learners will increase their future earnings by coming to College – Every £1 that learners pay
for their education at NKC yields £4.80 in higher future wages. This translates to a 14.1%
annual return on their investment
• The accumulated impact of former NKC learners who are currently employed in the regional
workforce amounts to £365.6 million in added income in the NKC Service Area’s economy
each year
• Altogether, the economic contribution of the College to the local business community in the
NKC Service Area is £389.4 million each year
The College has rebranded with a new logo and a simple, vibrant, contemporary new look, plus a
new mobile enabled website www.northkent.ac.uk with social media feeds and online application
functions.
Principal David Gleed comments “We’ve invested £90million in new facilities at our Dartford and
Gravesend Campuses and we felt it was time to reflect the high industry-standard learning
accommodation we now have, with a new modern brand and change the name to reflect our wide
catchment area across the whole of the North Kent and South East London Thames corridor.
We are anticipating that the number of young people in our catchment area will increase further as
Ebbsfleet Garden City grows and when London Paramount break ground mid-way between our 2
campuses. It’s important to recognise therefore that North Kent will become a significant location in
the region and that we are the key FE College to cater for the educational needs of this growing
community.
We’re really proud of our recent Ofsted report and with our students achieving fantastic academic
successes and progression over the last few years, the timing is right for us to celebrate our impact
with a new name and brand.”
The College continually invests in new technology and ways of communicating with students and
potential students, as young people become more technology savvy, “as an education establishment
teaching young people vocational skills to get them ready for the world of commerce and industry, it
is vital that we develop new teaching and learning technology that is ahead of the game. We
endeavour to immerse our students in the latest IT, increasing their chances of success and
progression to a career or University. The new website is indicative of this aim, being fresh and
current, and enabling greater engagement across our communities” comments Sean McCormick,
Executive Director of Facilities and Resources.
The name change will also help differentiate North Kent College from the other Kent FE Colleges of
West Kent, East Kent and Mid Kent.
The World Record attempt will take place at 1pm on 14th September 2015 at both the Dartford and
Gravesend campuses. The current record stands at 351 people, so each campus will attempt to
better this figure.
Some Further Education and Higher Education places are still available for this academic year – apply
now on www.northkent.ac.uk or call 0800 074 1447
The next Open Days for September 2016 intake are on Wednesday 4th November at Dartford
Campus and Wednesday 11th November at the Gravesend Campus.