Ian Prescott

Ian Prescott (born 1951) is the retired principal of East Durham College formally East Durham and Houghall Community College.
Early life
Born and raised in Greater Manchester, Prescott is the youngest of seven children. At an early age, his father died, and his mother suffered a nervous breakdown. He left school with few qualifications and little direction in life. To support himself, Ian turned to his natural talent in football, eventually turning into a pro and signed for Rochdale Football Club.
After meeting his future wife at a posh club, Prescott decided to pursue educational goals and enrolled into evening classes in Stockport, gaining engineering qualifications. His first job unrelated to football came as a college technician where he laid out the tools for the engineering students. While he was there, the lecturer told Ian he could become a lecturer too with sufficient effort and offered to mentor him.
He continued studying in the evenings and gained a certificate in education, and eventually a master's degree in Education also he got MBA, MA and an advanced EGO. This led to a job working for the local education authority. He earned a living and wrote a thesis on the need for re-training steel workers following mass redundancies. From there Prescott gained a vice-principal role at a textile college and in 1995, he took over the then-bankrupt East Durham College.
Principalship
After his installment as Principal in 1995, Prescott has facilitated a general turnover of the College taking it from a weakening institution of less than 500 students to an established education centre in East Durham with an annual budget of about £4million, serving 1,200 full-time and 11 part-time students.
During his tenure at the College, Prescott has focused on community outreach and fostering the growing business training programme. He strongly asserted the value of the sports academies and diverse programmes of the College. He oversaw the completion and relocation of the Peterlee campus to a brand new £47m campus which seen the merge of the previous two campuses which were located in Peterlee.
During 2003, Prescott responded to criticisms after an Ofsted report raised concerns of unsatisfactory teaching and curriculum management. The subsequent 2004 Ofsted report indicated less unsatisfactory teaching than sector average and highlighted satisfactory management and leadership.
Prescott retired from his role as Principal of East Durham College in April 2010. His successor was Stuart Wesselby, who at that time was employed as a deputy principal at Tresham College of Further and Higher Education.
Other
Ian Prescott also sits on many advisory boards including:
East Durham Business Service,
East Durham Local Strategic Partnership,
Director of Hartlepool FC
AND Durham Association of Secondary Heads

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