Access to Music (no
Access Creative College
was a UK-based independent training provider which specialised in industry-focused

popular music Popular music is music with wide appeal that is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. These forms and styles can be enjoyed and performed by people with little or no musical training.Popular Music. (2015). ''Fun ...

and creative education. It operated across England with dedicated music colleges in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

Brighton Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

Darlington Darlington is a market town in the Borough of Darlington, County Durham, England. The River Skerne flows through the town; it is a tributary of the River Tees. The Tees itself flows south of the town. In the 19th century, Darlington underwen ...

Great Yarmouth Great Yarmouth (), often called Yarmouth, is a seaside town and unparished area in, and the main administrative centre of, the Borough of Great Yarmouth in Norfolk, England; it straddles the River Yare and is located east of Norwich. A pop ...

Lincoln Lincoln most commonly refers to: * Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), the sixteenth president of the United States * Lincoln, England, cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England * Lincoln, Nebraska, the capital of Nebraska, U.S. * Lincol ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, with ...

, and

York York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...

. Its head office was in Birmingham. Access to Music was funded by the Education Funding Authority (EFA) and the

Skills Funding Agency The Skills Funding Agency was one of two successor organisations that emerged from the closure in 2010 of the Learning and Skills Council (England's largest non-departmental public body or quango). The agency was in turn replaced by the Educa ...

(SFA) and worked in partnership with other UK educational institutions, including

Birmingham City University Birmingham City University (abbrev. BCU) is a university in Birmingham, England. Initially established as the Birmingham College of Art with roots dating back to 1843, it was designated as a polytechnic (United Kingdom), polytechnic in 1971 and gai ...

(BCU) and the

Royal Northern College of Music The Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM) is a conservatoire located in Manchester, England. It is one of four conservatoires associated with the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music. In addition to being a centre of music education ...

(RNCM).

History

Access to Music was founded in 1992 by John Ridgeon to promote and improve popular music education in the UK. The first Access to Music head office was in Leicester. The music school formed a partnership with

Leicester College Leicester College is a further education college in Leicester, England. It is one of the largest colleges in the UK, with more than 26,000 students, 1,600 staff, plus an annual budget of over £50million. It has three main campuses in the city ...

followed by partnerships with regional colleges. The second Access to Music centre opened in Bristol in 1999 and the York and London branches opened in 2002. The first Access to Music award ceremony, hosted by Sir

George Martin Sir George Henry Martin (3 January 1926 – 8 March 2016) was an English record producer, arranger, composer, conductor, and musician. He was commonly referred to as the "Fifth Beatle" because of his extensive involvement in each of the B ...

, took place in London in 2003. Subsequent award ceremonies took place in various locations around the country, including

O2 Academy Birmingham O2 Academy Birmingham is a music venue located in Birmingham, West Midlands, England. Former venue (until 2009) Live music on the site of the O Academy Birmingham's former Dale End venue dates back to 1964 when the venue was first opened a ...

and

Liverpool Sound City Liverpool Sound City is an annual music festival and industry conference in Liverpool, England. Founded in 2008 by Dave Pichilingi (also founder of Modern Sky UK), Sound City was located in Liverpool City Centre venues, such as The Kazimier, T ...

, and have been hosted by BBC Radio DJs

Lauren Laverne Lauren Cecilia Fisher (née Gofton; born 28 April 1978), known professionally as Lauren Laverne, is an English radio DJ, model, television presenter, author and singer. She was the lead singer and additional guitarist in the alternative rock ba ...

and

Edith Bowman Edith Eleanor Smith (born January 1974) is a Scottish radio DJ and television presenter. She hosted '' Colin and Edith'', weekday afternoons, weekend breakfast, and ''The Radio 1 Review'' on BBC Radio 1 until 2014 and has presented a variety of ...

. The music college expanded to Brighton and Lincoln in 2004 with centres opening in both cities. In 2009, Access to Music was acquired by Armstrong Learning, a Manchester-based education and training provider. In 2011, the head office re-located from Leicester to Birmingham, with an administrative centre established in Manchester. In 2011, Access to Music launched a new centre in Darlington based at The Forum Music Centre which later closed. In 2013, the college in Norwich moved from its King Street location to Epic Studios. The York centre created and organised Access to Music's first trade fair at York St John University in early April 2014 and Access to Music presented a Masterclass at the first Brighton Music Conference, an electronic music event. In the summer of 2014 plans were finalised for a new centre in Manchester, opening in early October. The centre was situated in the basement of the St. James's Buildings on Oxford Street, the former location of the music venues Jilly's Rockworld and Music Box. In September 2017, Access to Music released its 2018 further education prospectus under a new brand name of Access Creative College. It updated its website shortly afterwards. The name change was introduced to reflect a broader

curriculum In education, a curriculum (; : curricula or curriculums) is broadly defined as the totality of student experiences that occur in the educational process. The term often refers specifically to a planned sequence of instruction, or to a view ...

offer covering the wider creative industries, including games development,

digital media Digital media is any communication media that operate in conjunction with various encoded machine-readable data formats. Digital media can be created, viewed, distributed, modified, listened to, and preserved on a digital electronics device. ' ...

marketing Marketing is the process of exploring, creating, and delivering value to meet the needs of a target market in terms of goods and services; potentially including selection of a target audience; selection of certain attributes or themes to emph ...

, events and

drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been ...

. Access to Music ltd does not follow national FE pay scales for its large cohort of teaching staff and does not recognise teaching unions in its centres. In February 2020, Access to Music launched a new joint venture partnership with South Essex College to take over the delivery of apprenticeship training for the creative industries on a national basis, under the

National College Creative Industries National College Creative Industries, formally the National College for the Creative and Cultural Industries, is a college providing technical skills for the creative industries, based in Thurrock, Essex, England. It was established in 2016. It is ...

brand.

Courses and accreditations

Access to Music delivered courses at both

Further Education Further education (often abbreviated FE) in the United Kingdom and Ireland is education in addition to that received at secondary school, that is distinct from the higher education (HE) offered in universities and other academic institutions. I ...

(FE) and

Higher Education Higher education is tertiary education leading to award of an academic degree. Higher education, also called post-secondary education, third-level or tertiary education, is an optional final stage of formal learning that occurs after completi ...

(HE) levels. It also designed its own FE music curriculum in partnership with Rockschool, the UK's only rock and pop accrediting body and

Edexcel Edexcel (also known since 2013 as Pearson Edexcel) is a British Multinational corporation, multinational education and examination body formed in 1996 and wholly owned by Pearson plc since 2005. It is the only privately owned examination board ...

. The HE curriculum was designed in conjunction with RNCM and BCU. Further Education * Level 1 – Introduction to Music * Level 2 – Music Performance, Music Technology and Music Business * Level 3 – Music Performance, Music Business, Music Technology (Music Production and Sound Engineering) and Vocal Artist * Level 4 – Artist Development Higher Education *

BMus Bachelor of Music (BM or BMus) is an academic degree awarded by a college, university, or conservatory upon completion of a program of study in music. In the United States, it is a professional degree, and the majority of work consists of presc ...

Popular Music Performance, in partnership with BCU * BA (Hons) Music Business, validated by BCU, and Popular Music Performance, validated by RNCM Access to Music was inspected by the

Independent Schools Inspectorate The Independent Schools Inspectorate (ISI) is approved by the Secretary of State for Education – under section 106 of the Education and Skills Act 2008 – to inspect independent schools in England. These schools are members of associations, w ...

in late 2012 and was found to exceed expectations in the following categories: * The quality of the curriculum, course provision, teaching and learners’ achievement * Students’ welfare, including health and safety * The effectiveness of governance, leadership and management Access to Music was also awarded a 'Good' grade in an

Ofsted The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) is a Non-ministerial government department, non-ministerial department of Government of the United Kingdom, His Majesty's government, reporting to Parliament of the U ...

report following an inspection in March 2013 and in May 2016.

Notable alumni

Notable alumni include: * Sonny Wilson Millionaire Philanthropist *

Ed Sheeran Edward Christopher Sheeran (; born 17 February 1991) is an English singer-songwriter. Born in Halifax, West Yorkshire and raised in Framlingham, Suffolk, he began writing songs around the age of eleven. In early 2011, Sheeran independently r ...

Ria Ritchie Ria Ritchie ( ; born 23 September 1987) is an English singer-songwriter and recording artist. Signed to Takeover Entertainment in 2011, she released her debut single, entitled "Only One", in May 2012. Life and career Early life Ria Ritchie was ...

Jess Glynne Jessica Hannah Glynne (born 20 October 1989) is an English singer and songwriter. After signing with Atlantic Records, she rose to prominence in 2014 as a featured artist on the singles "Rather Be" by Clean Bandit and " My Love" by Route 94, bot ...

Rita Ora Rita Sahatçiu Ora (born Rita Sahatçiu; 26 November 1990) is a British singer and songwriter. She rose to prominence in February 2012 when she featured on DJ Fresh's single, "Hot Right Now", which reached number one in the UK. Her debut studi ...

, singer-songwriter/actress *

Vanessa White Vanessa Karen White (born 30 October 1989) is an English singer who rose to fame in 2008 as a singer in the girl band The Saturdays. She is signed to "Salute the Sun" as a solo artist. White began her career as a theatre actress at an early age, ...

, singer-songwriter

Event Participation

Access to Music has appeared or participated at the following events: *

Brighton Electric Brighton Electric is a music studio complex in Brighton, UK, founded in 2000. The main premises was built in 1897 as the Brighton Corporation Tramways head office. Details The main premises was built in 1897 as the Brighton Corporation Tramw ...

Glastonbury Festival Glastonbury Festival (formally Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts and known colloquially as Glasto) is a five-day festival of contemporary performing arts that takes place in Pilton, Somerset, England. In addition to contemp ...

Latitude Festival The Latitude Festival is an annual music festival that takes place in Henham Park, near Southwold, Suffolk, England. It was first held in July 2006 and has been held every year since, apart from 2020, when it was cancelled due to the COVID-19 ...

The Great Escape Festival The Great Escape Festival is a three-day music festival held in Brighton and Hove, England every year in May. It is operated by MAMA Festivals and showcases new music from a variety of genres. The festival was founded in 2006 and roughly hosts ...

Education partners

Creative & Cultural Skills Creative & Cultural Skills is one of the Sector Skills Councils established by the UK Government in 2005 to foster the development of a skilled workforce. Function It covers crafts, cultural heritage, jewelry, design, music, performing, literary ...

European Social Fund The European Social Fund Plus (ESF+) is one of the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIFs), which are dedicated to improving social cohesion and economic well-being across the regions of the Union. The funds are redistributive financ ...

NCUK NCUK - The University Consortium is an organisation in the international higher education sector which specialises in offering university pathway qualifications, support, and services for international students through its global network oStudy Ce ...

PGL (company) PGL Travel Ltd is a company founded in 1957 and is a provider of school activity courses and summer camps for children in the United Kingdom. Along with NST, European Study Tours and StudyLink it is a part of the HB Education group, owned by M ...

References

{{Reflist Music education in the United Kingdom