Coventry Technical College

Beats me how Coventry can do without a technical college. Presumably industry is a no-no there now.

Good work all - great photos Midland. Those Premier Inns are going up everywhere. Wonder if the rooms have any interesting features? Anyway glad the building is in use again and saved even though they've tried their best to destroy it with the lump next door. I only went inside once to see a show - seem to recall plenty of wooden panelling.

We now have City College Coventry.

Hello all. Please take a look at these stats for Coventry & Warwickshire. LINK These stats are for Coventry & Warwickshire, but that is a good representation for a college to use as a colleges in Coventry draw students from outside the boundary. There are still a lot of manufacturing jobs. A look at this BBC report is also interesting. LINK The huge change in manufacturing has been where none skilled labour has been replaced with skilled. Skilled labour training today needs a much broader approach than in the nineteen thirties, when the Coventry Tech' openned its doors. A big challenge for our future labour force is multi-language communication. It is largely the finance, banking & world money transacting that has kept English as the basic world language of commerce, but that is now more uncertain for the future, as business is centring itself further & further east.

Just didn't think it fitted well with government calling for more apprenticeships.

The school attached to Coventry Technical College (JTS) was based on the concept of the German Technische Hochschule. I passed the entrance exam in 1945 and under the supervision of that great humanitarian headmaster 'Knocker' West, was taught English by Hugh Tilley who had been a telephonist in Churchill's War Rooms and a serving officer in Burma; pattern making and carpentry by Mr Gough and Mr Cox; the mathematics of gears and levers in mechanics; history by Mr Burdett who played rugby for Leicester; German by 'Jerry' Deane, who I suspected of being a crypto Nazi, and set on the path to my future career by 'Ned' Sparkes, with chemistry. I got my school uniform from Batts Outfitters in a prefabricated shop on bombed-out Corporation Street. We changed into our sports gear in the bushes and played rugby on Hearsall Common, and in 1948, of the 25 of us in the fifth form, 23 passed 'School Certificate' (a better record for that year than either Bablake or Henry VIII). The school was closed in the early fifties and, in an excess of educational levelling, disappeared into the comprehensive system. During its existence it had produced a Harwell nuclear physicist, the head designer for Jaguar cars, the chief engineer of Courtaulds, and in my years alone among my small group of friends; a professor of physics, a classical guitarist (still teaching in Australia), and a professional soldier in the Royal Warwickshire Regiment. The huts at the back were occupied by the girls of the Commercial School who provided after-hours companionship before they moved to new premises and we moved into the huts. And despite my future in science I won the school art prize in 1948. Quite an education. Derrick Hill. CChem. MRSC.

I think that sums it up very well. In the 60s, it taught courses at all sorts of levels, and an important feature of all was that they were practical skills to suit people for their working life. If anyone wanted to better themselves, they could; but there were courses to fit with every level of aspiration. I fear that "modern" thinking about suiting especially school-leavers for industry won't come near the quality achieved by the "Tech". That needs today are a little different is no doubt true; but a good institution like the "Tech" still has a place. Our local equivalent is thriving, and even attracting foreign students. I find it difficult to understand why Coventry "Tech" couldn't also thrive.

It's frustrating when you know you have a photograph but can't find it. I knew that I had a image of Knocker West so after a lot of searching, here it is. It was a Woodlands School Trip to Italy in 1958 and also shows 'Taff' Thomas enjoying a glass of red.

The commercial side of the old technical college became the Commercial High School, later renamed Churchfield High School in Brays Lane (the former Stoke Park premises)

...but it can.... and indeed it is! It became the City College Coventry after its merger with Tile Hill College in 2002. Following the new buildings completion in November 2008, students and staff from The Butts Centre moved into their new premises in January 2009. According to the 2010 Ofsted report, among the courses on offer are:- Motor vehicle and public service vehicle repair and maintenance, vehicle body repair, welding and fabrication and electrical engineering from foundation to advanced level! It goes on to state that..."Success rates on advanced level courses and specialist courses in Body Vehicle Repair are particularly high." Coventry's technical expertise lives on!!! (next time you are standing in your local supermarkets checkout queue, turn to the person standing behind you and tell them about it!)

Hi all, The very sad news of the passing of Sir Patrick Moore, takes me back to my tech'-days. I was a member of the Astronomical association & was privileged to visit him at his home, which was then in East Grinstead. They had organised the coach trip.

Memories of the Tec include the canteen for lunch. At the beginning of the week you would buy 5 tickets for half a crown (12.1/2 p), i.e sixpence a meal. These we would sell on and with the sixpence would go to cafe on the corner of Upper York St. (Col Tec?) and settle for a batch and chips. I passed the entrance exam in 1946 and joined the building form of the school, there was one building form and 6 engineering forms. The form master was Pop Parbury and the form room was B34b on the first floor. Entrance to the school for assembly was via the back door to the theatre, the protestants would be in the stalls and the catholic and other religions would be in the circle. It was not until your last term were you allowed to enter the school through the front door of the college. Recently I stayed at the hotel and relived memories by walking up the wonderful staircase to the first floor. The class rooms have been cut down in size, the ceilings lowered and converted into very nice bedrooms. When nodding off to sleep during "Outlines to Architecture" by Mr Cox, I never thought that one day I would be paying to sleep in the "Tec."

I remember that cafe very well indeed. When I was on day release nearly 50 years ago we would go in there for sausage batches, they were lovely. After eating we usually went to the pub (I think it was using the Summerland name at that time) to play darts. We would then go back to afternoon lessons which became quite hard to concentrate in what with full bellies and a beer or two inside us as well. I still play darts nowadays against one of my opponents (and a classmate) of that time. In fact, as it happens I am playing against his team tonight. Happy days

It may well have been the Summerland but there was another pub opposite the Tech called the Union Arms which was very popular with students. The pub was closed in 1965 when the road was widened. Pictures of Coventry

Somewhere in my house I have a copy of a newspaper photo of myself and a fellow GEC apprentice standing outside the Tech. This would have been in 1962 and we had just enrolled for that year's ONC course. The photographer grabbed us as we came out of the front entrance and 'posed' us in front of a large group of bikes propped up against the railings. We had to 'pretend' to be studying our enrolment paperwork. I can't remember if the newspaper was the Coventry Standard or the Telegraph. I must try and find that photo.