Principal, Priestley College

Mike Southworth is currently Principal and Chief Executive of Priestley College in Warrington, a position he has held since 2002.  The College has some 2200 sixth form students and a further 800 part-time adult learners.  In 2007 the College was judged ‘Outstanding’ by Ofsted and subsequently gained ‘Beacon’ status in May 2007.

Mike left school aged 16 and worked in retail banking for 3 years.  During this time he studied on a day-release basis at a Further Education College before attending the University of Lancaster from where he graduated in economics in 1982.  In 1990 he was awarded a MPhil research degree.

Prior to his current role as a Sixth Form College Principal, Mike has worked since 1983 in a number of large Further Education Colleges and also in the University sector.  He has been a school governor for many years; a LSIS Quality Improvement Adviser; a Sixth Form College Principal Representative on the North West AoC and a member of the Warrington 14-19 Governance Group.