A MATURE student has slammed Swindon College for what he says are continued failings in their engineering department.

In August, former IT worker Paul Tracy, 48, enrolled in the first year of what he hoped would be three years of study as he looked to make a career change.

After continued frustrations with the teaching he has received and the lack of response to his complaints, he has now vowed not return to Swindon College after this year.

Paul said: “The year stared with missing teachers and covering teachers delivering different subjects to what was on the timetable.

“Our maintenance unit started with a missing teacher, eventually one arrived but he was given a different timetable to all the students so we didn’t get taught during his first week at the college.

“When we eventually did get to the right place and right time we found ourselves with a teacher who couldn’t speak good enough English to even read his own slides let alone teach us the material.

“On top of that he couldn’t read our assignments and to this day has not provided me with any feedback for my work.

“The college sacked our Maths and Mechanical Principles teacher but the substitute teach can only teach maths and when we got a replacement they could only teach maths but not mechanical principles.

“Another teacher photocopies my notes at the end of each class so he knows what he has taught us.”

Paul is studying a 90 credit BTEC Diploma in Engineering, the course is due to finish in a month yet the students still have a number of assignments outstanding.

All the marked work has to be externally moderated before the qualification can be awarded and he says the students are now genuinely concerned that there is not enough time for them to be taught the material and complete the work in time.

Paul added: “We literally do not have the time to complete the outstanding assignments, there are seven still to do across four subjects.

“I’ve gone to so many people now – teachers, the head of engineering, college directors – nobody talks to anyone and nothing that I’ve been promised has happened.

“I won’t be coming back to Swindon College, I’ve signed up with the Open University instead.

“How this college ever got an outstanding I have no idea, I am 100 per cent sure they wouldn’t today based on their very poor management of the engineering department.”

Nick Hardman, director of learning at Swindon College, said: “Swindon College is aware that a number of concerns have been raised this academic year by one of our students currently studying on a Level 3 Engineering programme.

“We have been in correspondence with the student in question to discuss and address these concerns via the appropriate channels, and we are confident that we are now close to finding a resolution.

“We are committed to providing an excellent learning experience at Swindon College and where we do have challenges we will work quickly to find and implement a solution.

“It is unfortunate that due to the recent fire we had to relocate some classes and this did cause disruption for a limited number of programmes.

“We do have excellent staff retention but there have been two staff changes within the academic year for the Level 3 Engineering programme, where staff do naturally progress.

“We are committed to quickly replacing them and all staff within the Engineering department are well qualified to teach and are specialists within their subject areas.

“Our quality processes ensure that all staff are observed by college managers and peers on an annual basis to maintain an excellent teaching and learning environment.

“We acknowledge that some catching up is needed for the Level 3 Engineering programme and a plan has already been prepared to be discussed with the group.

“This plan will detail the revised timeframe, additional support and resources that will be put in place to ensure that the students are all well supported to achieve to the best of their potential.

“I have encouraged the student to meet with me again so that I can go through the plan with them individually to allay the concerns that they have and hope they will feel able to take up this invitation soon.”