Award win confirms Wirral college’s ‘remarkable’ careers achievements

Birkenhead Sixth Form College has won the Sixth Form Colleges Association Award for Social Mobility 2023, recognising its huge success in students progressing to the country’s top universities.

The Sixth Form Colleges Association (SFCA) represents nearly 120 sixth form colleges and other providers of ages 16 – 19 education across the country, and their annual awards are for exceptional work in the sector. The Social Mobility award win is a celebration of Birkenhead Sixth Form College’s place in the community as a raiser of aspirations and a facilitator of opening doors for young people.

More than 500 students from the College go on to study for undergraduate degrees after finishing at the College, with many being the first generation in their families to do so.

Student progression to the esteemed Sutton 30 universities, revered as the best institutions in the country, was deemed ‘remarkable’ by the SFCA, with the College outstripping the national average of students heading to the ‘red brick’ Higher Education providers.

The SFCA award win comes after the prestigious Educate North Awards named the College ‘College of the Year 2023’ for being a ‘truly outstanding sixth form college’ in wake of students’ achievements last summer and throughout the year. While the national picture saw a marked decline in high grades due to students sitting actual exams for the first time since Covid restrictions, the College’s high grades rocketed by 15%.

The SFCA said: “This year’s winner for social mobility is Birkenhead Sixth Form College, both for their targeted work on university aspirations with students from less affluent backgrounds, and their general approach of providing an excellent comprehensive education, which has yielded brilliant results in difficult times.”

Principal at Birkenhead Sixth Form College, Mike Kilbride, said: “We as a College exist to enhance young people’s lives. We work in the belief that every person can succeed given purposeful hard work and the right teaching, support and guidance.”

Mike continued: “What a testament it is to the teachers at the College that they can raise the aspirations of both the most fortunate and unfortunate in experiences in education before joining us, and this award is just recognition of that. You can come to us from a high-performing grammar school or an underperforming high school, and our teaching and all-round College offering will bring the best out of you, personally and academically. 

“I would like to thank all the staff for this award win. Their work each and every day with young people serves this community in such a positive way that it will have an effect for generations to come.”