New courses for young people and adults covering everything from business to health are being offered by a North Walsham sixth-form college.

Paston College is widening its choice of higher education-linked courses, which was one of the aims of its merger with City College Norwich last year.

The new offer for full-time 16 to 19-year-olds - available from September 2018 - includes an additional A Level that could be taken as part of a full A Level programme, plus the introduction of two new full-time vocational Level 2 courses: A Level History of Art, Level 2 Business and Level 2 Health & Social Care.

For lerners aged 19 and over who are considering a change of career or who would like to start working towards degree-level study in the future, the following pre-access courses are planned for the summer and autumn terms: Level 2 Pre-Access Award (units including: Investigating a Career; IT Communication Fundamentals; Communicating Information); available to start in the autumn term: Level 2 Pre-Access Certificate/Diploma (in some or all of the following areas; Humanities, Social Science and The Arts; Health Sciences; Science and Engineering).

The pre-access courses, along with appropriate GCSE English and maths grades, will enable progression onto a full-time Access to Higher Education pathway with City College Norwich.

Six-week leisure courses, running on Tuesday evenings, will start on may 1. These will include: Arts & Crafts: Crochet for Beginners; Arts & Crafts: Printmaking for Beginners; Arts & Crafts: Sewing for Beginners; Creative Writing for Beginners; Digital Photography and Photoshop; Improving your Mobile Phone Photography; Introduction to Film Editing

Corrienne Peasgood, principal, said: 'Following the priorities set out by the area review of post-16 further education and training,

'I am delighted that we have made this important start in widening the learning opportunities available in north-east Norfolk.

'These new courses bring greater choice of A Levels at Paston College, whilst introducing new vocational options for 16 to 19-year-olds and new pathways for adults seeking to move on to Access to Higher Education courses.

'We can't wait to welcome lots of new faces to our college, including in the evenings through our newly launched suite of leisure courses.'

Visit www.paston.ac.uk/adultcourselaunch for more information.