80 is a number we are proud of but there are better numbers for us to celebrate and talk about. There’s the number of lives we have shaped and the number of opportunities we have created. There’s the number of businesses that we have supported and the number of careers we have grown.
These numbers are really worth celebrating.
It’s the smallest number too. The number one. Changing one life. Helping one business to succeed. Making one extra person feel part of our community.
So in 2025 we will be taking the opportunity, in our anniversary year, to celebrate this.
Your 80th anniversary stories
As part of our 80th anniversary, we’d like to tell the stories behind our 80 years from our past and present staff, students and apprentices. How did Gateshead College change your life or make you feel part of our community? We’d love to know why Gateshead College is a special place to you and hear all your fond memories.
Submit your story below or write a letter addressed to:
Verity Dodd Quarryfield Road Baltic Business Quarter Gateshead NE8 3BE
Our roots go back even further than 80 years. In the 1920s technical evening classes ran at various sites across Gateshead including buildings on Team Valley and Durham Road under the banner of Durham Road Technical School and the Technical Institute.
Following the war the demand for technical education became so great that plans began to form for a new state of the art site and in 1945 we officially became known as Gateshead Technical College.
Further education was focused on providing skills to meet demands of post-war construction and, much like today, many trades people were taught their skills through apprenticeships, of which Gateshead College was a pioneer.
We worked hand in hand with local engineering firm Sigmund Pumps with the college’s first apprentices learning their trades as fitters, turners or toolmakers at their factory on Team Valley on evening or day release.
In 1955, a central campus on Durham Road was officially opened by his Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh.