Belfast Metropolitan College

Belfast Met was founded as the Belfast Municipal Technical Institute in 1906 at the height of the city’s industrial might. Its proud heritage endures today and in 2017, the College was designated as the Curriculum Hub for the Digital IT sector in Northern Ireland. This has resulted in the College leading training in information and communications technology across the region, and it has been recognised by the government as a centre of excellence.

The Belfast Met ethos encapsulates its commitment to ensuring that every student, irrespective of background, gains the skills to get a job. An example of this dedication is a partnership with the BBC Academy and Accenture to bring the BBC’s Make it Digital traineeships to Northern Ireland as a way of enabling young people not in education, employment or training to take up career opportunities in the creative industries.

Belfast Met’s achievement is reflected in the dramatic increase in student success rates from 50% in 2010 to 96% in 2018. It is also one of the first UK Further Education colleges to offer Higher Level apprenticeships in cybersecurity. The College wants its students to improve the competitiveness of the economy of Northern Ireland and has generated around 40 small and medium enterprise development projects over the last five years, receiving a TES Award in 2019 for employer engagement and professional services.