Tyne Metropolitan College’s Men’s and Women’s Football Academies finished the season having both reached the quarter-finals of the ECFA Premier League national play-offs, where they faced eventual finalists York College and John Madejski Academy respectively.

Both Men’s and Women’s Academies represent the College in the ECFA category 1 League, which aims to provide a high-quality male, female football competition pathway for further education students, which is accessed by providers from across the country. Leagues are divided into regions with the league winners, runner-up and best placed finishes qualifying for the play-offs in which the best teams across the country come together to compete.

The Men’s Football Academy successfully qualified through their group and were subsequently drawn in the last 16 against group 2 winners Balby Carr Academy of Doncaster. Tyne Met came away that day with a comfortable 4-1 victory with goals from Regan Patterson (2), Cameron Cunningham and Paul Van-Z, although they were eventually defeated in the quarter-final against group 3 league winners and eventual national finalists, York College.

The Women’s Football Academy, who were competing at the ECFA Cat 1 level for their first season, topped their group as league winners. This led to them qualifying for the Premier League quarter-finals where they took on southern opposition in the form of John Madejski Academy who eventually went on to be crowned ECFA National Champions. The College has also recognised individual success, with former Burnside Business & Enterprise College learner Katie Barker having been selected for the ECFA national squad as well as making her debut for Sunderland Ladies in a fixture against Aston Villa ladies earlier in the season.

The College have also seen their Male and Female learners benefit from their unique partnership with USA scholarship company Pass4soccer, who waive their consultancy fees for Tyne Metropolitan College learners. Callum Harley, a goalkeeper who studies on the College’s Football Excellence programme, will move across to Mississippi. Kira Whittle, who studies a Level 3 BTEC Extended Diploma in Sport (Coaching, Development and Fitness) is moving to Missouri to commence studies in September 2018.

The College’s Sports department, who have around 250 students studying different courses in the 2017-18 academic year - a large number of whom are student athletes involved with the Football Academies - pride themselves on the quality of the academic studies that they offer as well as the range of sporting benefits that learners can access from being part of the programmes.

Some of the key academic achievements from the 2016/17 academic year for 16-18 year old students in the sports department included:

• 94.5% achievement rate for Sports programmes – 5.5% above the National rate.
• Out of the 6 colleges located in Tyne and Wear and Northumberland, we ranked Number 1 for our achievement rate.
• We had the 18th highest achievement rates for Sports programmes nationally (out of 193 Further Education colleges).
• 96.1% Retention rate for our students – this means that we retained 96.1% of students that were studying with us in October. At this point in the 17/18 academic year, our retention rate is currently 98.2%.
• 88% of our completing students had a positive destination at the end of the 16/17 academic year, including:
o 60 learners who progressed to university / Higher Education
o Learners progressed into full time, part time and roles as an apprentice in organisations such as Primary Schools, sports clubs, leisure centres and gyms.

As well as the option of specialising in a vocational course at the College, learners wanting to participate in the Men’s and Women’s Academy also have the choice of studying A-Level provision at the College’s Queen Alexandra 6th Form site in North Shields. The Summer of 2017 seen the best ever set of AS and A Level results at their Queen Alexandra 6th Form which included.

• 89.6% pass rate on AS Level programmes – 8.7% above the national rate.
• Achievement rate (86.1%) at AS Level was 11,7% higher than the national average (74.4%).
o Queen Alexandra Sixth Form College was the 6th best college nationally for AS achievement rates (National Achievement Rate Tables 2018)
• 27% achieved higher grades on AS Level programme – 3% higher than national rate.
o 50% learners achieved higher grades in French (24% above national rate).
o 50% learners achieved high grades in Biology (28% above national rate).
o 50 of Leaners achieved high grades in English Literature (24% above national rate).
• 99.6% pass rate on A-Level programmes – 1.9% above the national rate.
• Achievement rate (98.3%) was 6.5% higher than the national rate (91.8%).
o Queen Alexandra Sixth Form College was the 9th best college nationally for A Level achievement rates (National Achievement Rate Tables 2018)
• 41% achieved higher grades on A-Level programmes – 2% above national rate.
o 100% learners achieved higher grades in Biology (63% above national rate).
o 67% learners achieved higher grades in Maths (20% above national rate).
o 67% learners achieved higher grades in Chemistry (25% above national rate).
• 96.2% retention rate at AS Level (4% above national rate) and 99.6% at A-Level (1.3% above national rate) - this means that we retained 96.2% of students at AS and 99.6% at A-Level that were studying with us in October.
• 89% of learners accepted into their first choice University course.
o 55% applied to Russell Group Universities and of those 85% were accepted to the degree programme of their choice. 
• 39% of learners achieved above their national target grades based on prior achievement. This was a 6% improvement form 2015-16.

Both Men’s and Women’s programmes also have representation in the North East College’s League that caters for all learners that want to continue playing Football whilst studying in post-16 education. We are still recruiting for all academies for next academic year and will be hosting camps over the Summer where you can find out more information on how our student athletes combine their studies alongside their chosen Sport.

If you require further information on the range of courses on offer at Tyne Metropolitan College (www.tynemet.ac.uk), Queen Alexandra Sixth Form (www.queenalex.co.uk) or the TMC (www.tmc-campus.co.uk) please visit our website and visit the ‘school leavers’ section.

Furthermore, if you have any queries or would like to book onto either of the Summer camps or would like further information regarding our partnership with Pass4soccer please contact Marc Nash (Men’s Football) or Carl Chater (Women’s Football) on the Following Emails.

Marc Nash - marc.nash@tynemet.ac.uk

Carl Chater – Carl.Chater@nufc.co.uk