James Watt College Celebrates 65th Birthday
Wednesday 19th June will see James Watt College, one of the Birmingham Metropolitan College campuses, turn 65 years old!
Look out for birthday greetings on social media where there will be messages from former and current students on this landmark birthday.
Follow @BMetC and bmetcollege on Instagram to keep up with the celebrations on the 19th June.
James Watt College has been a fixture in north Birmingham for decades, since it was opened as Brooklyn Technical College on June 19th, 1954.
It was in 1992 that Brooklyn Technical College became known as North Birmingham College, which was the only college north of the city offering construction courses at the time.
Plans for the dissolution of North Birmingham College were submitted to Parliament on May 19th, 2003.
The plans were approved and on August 1st, 2003, North Birmingham College was dissolved and all its property was transferred to Sutton Coldfield College.
Matthew Boulton College and Sutton Coldfield College began collaborating on providing courses, with plans to merge coming about.
The merger was approved in June 2009 by the Secretary of State, creating Birmingham Metropolitan College. It was through this merger that James Watt College received its current name.
Whether known as Brooklyn Technical College, North Birmingham College, Sutton Coldfield College or James Watt College, this building has served to educate and nurture thousands of young minds over the last 65 years.
2019 is an important year for the college as it is also the 200th anniversary of the passing of James Watt, the inventor, engineer, and chemist that the college was named for.
Patrick Geary, Principal of James Watt College offered up his thoughts on both of these occasions by saying: “It is an honour to be a leader in a college with a rich heritage that is very important to this community.
“This gives the college the opportunity to celebrate its own history, while commemorating the man whose creativity and innovation embodies the same spirit we hope to inspire in our students.
“65 years of helping students to achieve their goals is definitely something worth celebrating and we hope to continue for many more.
“Having the chance to acknowledge both the history of the college and the man it was named after is really delightful and we hope to do justice for both.”
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