Skills pledge as South Tyneside College boss moves up

Alison Maynard, principal of South Tyneside College since August 2017, has become deputy chief executive of Tyne Coast College.

Tyne Coast College was created last year by the merger of South Tyneside College and Tyne Metropolitan College in North Tyneside to cater for 16,000 students from across the North East.

Ms Maynard’s new role is to advance the delivery of a vocational skills agenda which supports the North East’s economic growth ambitions.

She said: “My goal has always been to increase opportunities available to people of all ages to improve their skills.

“That is best served by delivering high-quality vocational training in partnership with the region’s employers, something South Tyneside College and Tyne Coast College specialise in.

“The North East has a skills shortage in certain sectors, but that runs alongside a huge demand for learning and massive potential for learners to achieve their ambitions.”

Ms Maynard joined South Tyneside College in 2012 as director of curriculum and quality, and co-founded Career College North East (CCNE), a learning scheme unique for teaching engineering, advanced manufacturing and computer science, to 14 to 19-year-olds.

Tyne Coast College aims to cut across geographical boundaries to deliver a diverse and innovative vocationally-driven curriculum, backed by close links to employers.