Clay College, Stoke, offers a skills-based, full-time ceramics course taught by potters who make a living through ceramics, something unique in the UK. We run a two-year full-time Diploma course will be run for 14 students, with each year consisting of three 15-week terms.

The emphasis is on core skills and the use of materials. Students are taught all aspects of design, throwing, glazing, kiln building and firing, alongside traditional hand building and decoration techniques. This is augmented by modules focusing on business and marketing which will offer students the opportunity to become self-sufficient, developing their own business model to suit their work and sufficiently skilled to join a work force in a production pottery.

Alongside the course, we envisage hosting an artist-in-residence, overseas exchange programme and a programme of community engagement to reach young people living in the local area. We currently run evening classes, masterclasses, and lectures for the public.