It’s a double day of celebration for East Durham College as it prepares to both open its doors to students returning to face-to-face teaching, and also celebrates its all-women leadership team in time for International Women’s Day (8th March 2021).
In accordance with government guidance, the college will resume its face-to-face teaching on the 8th, welcoming back students across the college’s 3 specialist campuses offering a range of industry-standard facilities.
Following the appointment of a new Vice Principal of Finance and Business Planning over Christmas, all the college’s top positions are now held by women; a great achievement that the college will be celebrating on social media as part of IWD. Over Christmas Sarah Judson was appointed to join our team, taking over from Brian Fitzgerald who retires in April after years with us at EDC.
The College Leadership Group is led by Principal and CEO Suzanne Duncan who has been in the role since 2012. Hartlepool-born Suzanne has over 25 years’ experience in the further education sector and joined the College after previous roles in other colleges and also in OFSTED and EDC itself as a former Assistant Principal.
Suzanne said “East Durham College is and always has been a place where every individual is pushed to achieve their goals and thrive in their careers, and today we turn that focus specifically on women. International Women’s Day is an important celebration of the accomplishments women have made, in the hope that it inspires the next generation to go even further. It’s great that as a college leadership team, we can inspire the talented young women in this college, and hope that every student leaves us feeling empowered and equipped to take on the world of work in whatever sector that may be.”
“Celebrations like today are important for us, as we want our students not only to focus on academic excellence, but to engage with society in a deeper, meaningful way. We were delighted recently to win a coveted national Beacon Award which recognized how well our students contribute to the local community.”
All students in the college have lessons with a specialist team of progression coaches, where discussions about societal issues are held, and students are pushed to respond to this by organizing their own social action projects. This scheme helped the college triumph at this year’s AoC Beacon Awards, winning the Pears #IWIll award for student engagement & social action. Local women’s refuge organisations were among charities helped by the projects.
