Mediacove Celebrates its Achievement

The prestigious status of Centre of Vocational Excellence has been granted to the City of Wolverhampton College in partnership with Sandwell College as part of a £100 million government initiative.

After nearly two years’ hard work to achieve the award, a plaque celebrating ‘CoVE’ status was handed over to Ian Millard the Principal and Chief Executive of the City of Wolverhampton College by David Way, Executive Director, Black County Learning & Skill Council.

The Mediacove provides a Black Country learning hub with high quality technical facilities for training in journalism, media, music, television, multi-media, animation and photography. All this is part of the government initiative, designed to foster high quality training and education in specialist areas and put employers’ needs at the heart of the curriculum.

Securing CoVE status has enabled :-

An expansion of high quality of industry standard training and learning – this has been particularly important at level 3 where there has been an increase of 5% in students. In addition, several completely new courses have been developed such as a full-time National Council for the Training of Journalists pre entry course, Creative Photography, Adobe Photoshop and Radio Studio Production.

Capital injection has led to improved production facilities across the CoVE; notably in video production, digital photography and computerised music technology.

Improved links with employers in the media and music industry. For instance, Mediacove is currently working with 21 local and regional newspapers and has established an Employers’ Forum, which is actively assisting in areas such as curriculum design and ensuring that the needs of the industry are met.

The development of a website at www.mediacove.com. The site has been recording a high number of ‘hits’ and as such is the ideal place to explore the opportunities available within the CoVE.

David Way commented “We are delighted with the progress made by Black Country Mediacove and the enthusiasm and support from local employers to work with City of Wolverhampton College and Sandwell College to develop learning provision that better meets their individual needs and those of the Black Country economy”.