At this point in the college year, our priority is ensuring our students are settling well into their new courses. If you follow us on Twitter (@westlocoll) you will see many examples of how we’re achieving that.

We also reflect on the year that has just finished to understand how we can continue to improve our students’ experience of college. The following numbers present a high level picture of activity at West Lothian College in 2018-19.

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Highest ever number of student enrolments at 8,988, up a thousand over the year

• 2,171 full time and 6,817 part time enrolments
• An increasing proportion of our full time students (90%) live in West Lothian
• Half of our part time students live outside West Lothian

Increasing demand for courses

• Overall steady demand for full time courses – stable for full time HE (higher education) qualifications, although declining for full time FE (further education)
• Significantly rising demand for part time courses

Top destination for school leavers in West Lothian

• 550 out of 1,905 school leavers chose West Lothian College making us the number one destination of all colleges and universities
• The number of school leavers who chose West Lothian College was almost the same as the total number (552) who moved onto more than ten universities across Scotland
• 72% of the 763 school leavers who moved onto college chose West Lothian College
• Of those who didn’t 15% went to Edinburgh College, 4% went to City of Glasgow, 3% to SRUC and 2% to Forth Valley

School leavers represented a quarter of full time students in 2018-19, meaning

• The majority of full time students were not school leavers
• One third of full time students were over the age of 25
• 60% of all students (including part time) are over 25

Increase in work-based learning

• 1,205 employees in 26 companies in West Lothian took part in 127 courses through the Flexible Workforce Development Fund
• We delivered over 900 SVQs (Scottish Vocational Qualifications) to employees in 170 companies across Scotland

Continued growth in apprenticeships

• We had nearly 300 modern apprentices in training, including 145 new starts
• There were 171 foundation apprentices, including 95 new starts
• An increasing number of students progressed onto graduate apprenticeships

We trained 2,215 Children’s Hearing Scotland panellists across Scotland

123 students and 34 staff took part in 18 Erasmus visits to 10 countries

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Welcoming to all | Students at the centre | Always striving for better