International Interest At College

INTERNATIONAL students are flocking to Tollbar BEC, New Waltham, to take up International Baccalaureate courses.

Vice principal at the collage, Heather Boothroyd, said in the last week alone students from Estonia and Poland had applied to come to the area to study.

The news came as it was revealed more students than ever are shunning A-levels in favour of the IB.

Nationally, almost 2,500 are choosing the qualification over the traditional exams - a 40 per cent rise in two years.

The IB - which involves pupils studying six subjects including English, maths, a foreign language and a humanity - is popular because it gives a greater weighting than A-levels in the UCAS university entry points system.

Tollbar BEC introduced the qualification this year in place of the traditional curriculum.

The college currently has 82 students taking the IB and reports that interest in the programme continues to grow both here and abroad.

Heather Boothroyd, vice principal of the college, said: "In terms of applications for the next academic year we've had around 130, which is quite similar to last year, but what we have seen is more interest from students abroad.

"Just this week we have had a student from Poland and an entry from Estonia.

"We've also got two students from lower down in the school who have joined in order to do the IB from Austria, so we are attracting international interest, which is fantastic.

"I think there's more interest being shown in the IB because it's recognised now as being the gold standard qualification, accepted by universities all over the world.

"And because the students continue learning maths, English and another language, employers certainly prefer it because it includes more of the skills in subjects that really matter.

"The students love doing the course too, they feel sense of pride in what they are doing."

Find out more:

To learn more about IB qualifications, call Tollbar BEC on (01472) 500505 or log on to www.ibo.org.

Article from The Grimsby Telegraph - Saturday May 23rd 2009