This September, NMITE welcomed its largest-ever intake, with student numbers up 63% year-on-year, and several milestones achieved:
- Record number of mature students – bucking the national trend of falling mature enrolments
- Local enrolments more than doubled – delivering on NMITE’s founding goal to boost skills and regenerate the Herefordshire economy
- First international students – signalling growing global appeal
- RPEL (Recognition of Prior Experiential Learning) uptake rising – allowing career changers to use work experience instead of A Levels for entry
Just four years after opening in 2021 with 27 students, NMITE now offers four accelerated degree programmes and expects to reach almost 200 students enrolled across cohorts this year.
The model is proving its value: NMITE’s first graduates this year secured jobs with Balfour Beatty, KIER, Mondelēz International and Oakwrights, showing employers are snapping up its work-ready graduates from day one.
James Newby, President & Chief Executive of NMITE, said:
“This year’s enrolment proves there’s real demand for our skills-based approach. With more diverse learners choosing NMITE, including those who thought higher education was closed to them, we’re creating opportunities that simply didn’t exist before.”
With its first graduation in May and its recent appointment as a Knowledge Base by Innovate UK, NMITE is fast becoming a leader in skills-based, inclusive higher education.