Context and Place. Northern College for Residential Adult Education is based at Wentworth Castle, Stainborough, Barnsley. Founded in 1978, the College is a regional provider, offering a range of provision for adults on a residential and non-residential basis across South and West Yorkshire. Northern College is a relatively small College circa 3,000 enrolments per year and this creates a strong community feel. The College also holds a non-devolved AEB funding allocation. The College prepares adults to re-enter education, gain employment or to make career changes through an immersive residential learning and support experience. The College is set in acres of National Trust gardens and parkland that students can access as part of their studies at Northern College. Northern College is the only adult residential College in the region and as such has a unique role in contributing to meeting local skills needs. Through residential education Northern College can offer a transformative learning experience, we accelerate personal growth, facilitate networking, and provide opportunities for specialised and immersive learning. In March 2023, the College was inspected by Ofsted and judged Good across all areas and as making a reasonable contribution to the skills agenda. The College offers a range of courses for adults from entry to higher level programmes (in partnership with the University of Huddersfield) enabling adults to succeed in line with their goals and ambitions. The College specifically supports skills growth in the key sectors of Health and Social Care, Business and Management and Education. Enabling inclusive growth is at the heart of the West Yorkshire Combined Authority (WYCA) and South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority (SYMCA) Adult Education Budget (AEB) commissioning strategies, as well as the individual Local Authority skills strategies, and is a central pillar of the Northern College curriculum. Providing adults with an opportunity to learn and raising the aspirations of some of the nation’s most disadvantaged communities is vital if the UK is to bridge the current skills and productivity gap which evidence shows is holding back the economy. The College is focused on reaching these adults. According to NOMIS data (May 2022), Yorkshire and Humber continue to lag behind national averages for working age population qualified to level 2, level 3, and level 4 and above with the gap widening at each level point, to a 5% point difference at Level 4 and above, (only 31% o...
Context and Place. The Adult Learning and Skills Service as part of North Yorkshire Council provides largely Education and Skills Funding Agency funded adult and community learning provision, with additional income from dedicated project work, supporting apprenticeships and the support for those learners aged 19-25 with Education Health and Care Plans. The graphic above from North Yorkshire Council: Our plan for the future of North Yorkshire Council Plan 2024-2028 provides significant context to the opportunities and challenges within the region. We are a world- renowned tourist destination, combining natural landscapes and coastal areas with vibrant market towns and active communities. The economy of the region is shaped by successful small and micro-businesses, working alongside significant public sector and large-scale industry. These opportunities provide a strong platform for growth and investment driven by a single unitary authority and now in partnership with the City of York and a Mayoral Combined authority. Our service, and its partnership with City of Yorks’ York Learning service, has a major role in enabling residents across the region to achieve the best they possibly can and benefit from our thriving economy. Our offer is delivered face to face from venues across the county, these venues include community centres, libraries and council owned buildings and increasingly other important community hubs such as foodbanks. Since the pandemic a large proportion of delivery takes place online but as a service it is a strategic aim to widen the mode of delivery, increasing face to face delivery but also expanding our blended, bite- size and on-demand provision. North Yorkshire is home to 4 General Further Education Providers in Harrogate College, Selby College, Scarborough TEC and Xxxxxx College, but due to the sparse nature of the region, large parts of the community will have to travel out of county to their nearest GFE, (provided by Darlington, Middlesbrough, East Riding, Xxxxxx Xxxxxx and Xxxxxxxx Riverside). The region is home to three universities and is served further by HE institutions outside of the region. There are 40+ Training Providers operating in the county offering apprenticeships and accredited adult learning courses. Our passion for adult learning continues to drive us to deliver effective programmes of learning to a range of adults with a particular focus on those from disadvantaged and marginalised communities. We want to offer inclusive services with...
Context and Place. QE is a specialist sixth form college with an inclusive mission. The College’s catchment area is economically diverse but includes some of the most disadvantaged wards in the country. Of the 316 Local Authorities, Darlington is the 70th most deprived, placing it in the bottom 25% nationally (ONS). The percentage of students from ethnic minority groups at the College is higher than that of the local population at 11.6% in 2021/22. The prior attainment of students with regards to their average GCSE score also illustrates the inclusive nature of the College. Despite the fact that fewer than 50% of our students come from a family with parental experience of Higher Education, the percentage of QE students progressing to UK HE institutions is 9% higher than the national rate (DfE destinations) and our students outperform both the state sector and sixth form college sector performance averages whilst in Higher Education (HESA 2023). The vast majority of provision currently offered by the College is at Level 3. The College offers 30 Advanced Level subjects, 9 Level 3 Applied General subjects, resit GCSEs in English and Mathematics and a one-year pre-degree Art Foundation course. The College plays an essential role in the local community, which is recognised by key stakeholders including employers, education providers and civic and community groups. The nature of our vision and curriculum make QE an ideal college from which to gain a place at university and in 2022 our students progressed to 92 different Higher Education institutions. Our contribution to the skills agenda is therefore national as well as local and successful HE progression forms a very important part of our strategy. This is of particular importance to the local area given that in 2020 just 33.2% of Tees Valley’s work age residents were qualified to degree level compared to 43% nationally (Tees Valley Trailblazer LSIP). Other Teesside QE in numbers Provision mix Applied GCSE A Level Intake Darlington Co. Durham North Yorkshire Prior attaintment (average GCSE score) 7.0 - 9.0 3.0 - 4.9 5.0 - 6.99 Level Level 2 Art Foundation Level 3 Year 1 Intake 1120 1100 1080 1060 1040 1020 1000 980 960 940 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 Destinations 2022 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 % Nine students with Education Health Care Plans in 2022-23 5 6 7 8 9 Enrichment Over 40 different enrichment activities open to all students… Combined Cadet Force Duke of Edinburgh Future Engineers Student Association Volunteering Over 60...
Context and Place. The Xxxx Xxxx Centre is one of only ten organisations nationally, four of which are in London, designated under the 1992 Further and Higher Education Act as an Institute of Adult Learning (IAL) which are recognised for their expertise in delivering a curriculum to meet the needs of adults. Like the other London IALs, we offer a curriculum that includes functional skills and employability skills programmes alongside the innovative and often bespoke range of non-accredited and ACL provision that characterises the work of the IALs. The Centre currently delivers across two buildings, one in north Southwark at Blackfriars Settlement and the other in Holborn in the south of Camden. As a result of the completion of a major capital development supported by grants from the GLA and ESFA, we are due to vacate our central London base in Holborn in July 2023 and move to East London to our new centre in Stratford with delivery planned from September 2023. We also deliver provision in partnership with approximately 40 community partners throughout the East London region aimed at widening participation and engaging with the most disadvantaged and those furthest from education and training and work. In 2020/21 restructuring of the academic team realigned the structure with the future needs of the community and local and national priorities. This structure is now embedded with the organisation. The curriculum is divided into five curriculum areas which reflect the cohort of students accessing learning and to give focus to priorities such as covid recovery and our move to east London and a new area: Community Outreach, Essential Skills (including Additional Learning Support), Work Skills and Employability, Arts and Wellbeing and Professional Qualifications, Humanities and Social Sciences. Each curriculum section also contributes to the growing programme of Community Outreach courses aimed at widening participation. The Settlement is governed by a Board of 16 trustees, which meets at least five times a year. Skills and expertise on the Board include adult education, community development, business, law, accountancy, marketing, audit and risk. Who we serve The Centre’s distinctive programme and excellent public transport connections, including at its new site in Stratford, ensure it attracts a student body composed of residents and commuting workers from all London boroughs and beyond, illustrating the regional (rather than strictly local) role of the Centre. In 2021/22, the C...
Context and Place. Bexhill College is a Sixth Form College which operates in the eastern side of East Sussex. Its core purpose is the provision of high-quality education for 16 – 19-year-olds. The College recruits’ students from Rother (Bexhill, Battle, Robertsbridge, Rye), Hastings and Eastbourne. We also provide a post 16 education option to students from further afield locally as well as welcoming an increasing number of international students. In total, our students come from 53 different secondary schools. The College offers a broad range of courses to meet the needs of the local community. The core focus of the College work is with the 16-19 age group offering a broad range of academic and vocational courses across foundation, intermediate and advanced level including T levels in Health Care, Early Childhood Education and Business. The College attracts approximately 2200 full time, 16–19-year-old students of which approximately 90% are studying advanced programmes and the remaining 10% at intermediate/foundation level. The broad curriculum offer reflects the needs of the young people in the area and ensures progression opportunities are available for students from the wide range of secondary schools we recruit from, each of whom, have different pre 16 curriculum and outcomes. The entry requirements aim to ensure students are on the right course for their ability and future aspirations and so enables student success and progression. The College provides Study Programmes at levels 1, 2 and 3, with flexible combinations of academic and vocational options. In addition, GCSEs in English and Maths are offered, with significant numbers of students resitting these qualifications. All funded Study Programmes are full-time. As of September 2023, our average GCSE point score on entry is 5.41. The breadth of the curriculum with the opportunity for students to take almost any combination of subjects, along with the high-quality pastoral and academic support, is the unique selling point of the College. The College has a reputation for consistently high results. The College offers over 80 different courses across A level and vocational courses at level 3, 2 and 1. The College operates on a single site. The College moved to new purpose-built accommodation in August 2004. The College has excellent facilities including a sports hall, all weather pitch, film studio, dance studio, laboratories as well as general classrooms. Since 2004, the College has continued to develop the campus and f...
Context and Place. Xxxxxx Xxxxxx Xxxxxx Keynes is situated in the South-East of England, between London and Birmingham. The following map illustrates its geographical position: Xxxxxx Keynes • In October 2022, Milton Keynes was awarded city status, which reflects the growing population and economy over the past 10 years. • In Milton Keynes, the population size has increased by 15.3%, from around 248,800 in 2011 to 287,000 in 2021. This is higher than the overall increase for England (6.6%), where the population grew by nearly 3.5 million to 56,489,800. • At 15.3%, Milton Keynes' population increase is higher than the increase for the Southeast (7.5%). • As of 2021, Xxxxxx Keynes is the 30th most densely populated of the South East's 64 local authority areas, with around seven people living on each football pitch-sized area of land. • There has been an increase of 43.6% in people aged 65 years and over, an increase of 11.6% in people aged 15 to 64 years, and an increase of 12.3% in children aged under 15 years. This compares with a 20.1% rise across England. • According to the latest 2021 census, the population in Xxxxxx Keynes is predominantly white (72%), with non-white minorities representing the remaining 28% of the population. • The median average age in Xxxxxx Keynes in 2021 was 37.8, with over 18s representing 79.7% of the population. • In 2021, the urban population of Milton Keynes was approximately 227,168 or 91%, while the rural population was around 21,653 or 9%. • The largest religious group in Xxxxxx Keynes is ‘Others’ who account for 44% of the population according to NOMIS data from the 2021 census. • English is spoken as the main language by 87.4% of people in Xxxxxx Keynes and spoken either well or very well by 11% of the population. 1.5% reported having poor English language skills, and the remaining 0.25 no English at all. This equates to approx. 1000 people. This number has potentially increased in the past two years due to an increase in refugees from Afghanistan and Ukraine. • According to mid-year population estimates published by the ONS in 2019, males account for 49.4% of Xxxxxx Xxxxxx'x 288,201 population, while females made up 50.6% of the total. • Xxxxxx Xxxxxx'x age structure shows the working-age population to be 189,721 which is 65.8% of the population. People under the age of 16 represent 20.3% of the population, and over 65s represent 13.9% of the population. The percentage of the population that is of working-age has decreased over the last 1...
Context and Place. Hampshire, the home of FCoT, is a fairly affluent county. However, the College’s two campuses are located within the Borough of Rushmoor which has three areas of multiple deprivation that are in the 20% most deprived in the country: • Cherrywood xxxx (Ranked 3,693 most deprived of 32,844) • Aldershot Park xxxx (Ranked 4,053 most deprived of 32,844) • Wellington xxxx (Ranked 5,123 most deprived of 32,844) Amongst other activities, the College hosts meetings with elected councillors where participation and outcomes from our communities, are shared and discussed. Additionally, the UCF funded by EM3 LEP and FCoT, supports place shaping, raising aspirations and improving the number of residents retained locally through the level 4 and 5 skills needed by local businesses. Section 52B of the Further and Higher Education Act 1992 (reinforced in the Skills and Post-16 Education Bill 2022) places a duty on governing bodies of FE institutions to review how well the education or training meets local needs. Governing bodies should also consider what action might be taken in order to meet those needs better. FCoT annually reviews its curriculum and takes steps to ensure it is responsive to local, regional and national needs. As an example, since 2016 the College has been embedding the use of LMI in annual curriculum plans, using: • Career Industry Advisory Committees (CIAC) and an annual Career Industry Advisory Board (CIAB) • Priorities for the Government, EM3 LEP, HCC, Rushmoor Borough Council, and Xxxx District Council. This approach ensures the stakeholder voice informs the College’s offer. As can be seen in the 16+ demographic trends below, 16-17 participation is expected to be broadly steady across the College’s combined catchment areas, over the next 10 years.
Context and Place. Xxxxx Xxxxxxx College is a sixth form college located in Winchester. Of its 4,394 full time learners, only a quarter are drawn from Winchester itself. The College draws students from across Hampshire, and has 70 boarding students. These are all ESFA funded students and we do not have Tier 4 status, so have no international students. The College’s intake spans Hampshire and the Southampton and Portsmouth unitary authorities, with small numbers of students from Dorset and Wiltshire. Our recruitment ‘heat-map’ reveals significant ‘hot-spots’ of recruitment some distance from the College with Salisbury, Basingstoke, Eastleigh, Southampton and Fareham seeing significant numbers of applications. In socio-economic terms, the College’s intake is well above average. Using the IDACI measure which looks at the income context of the communities from which students are drawn, 60% of students are drawn from the top 25% of districts nationally. Our three largest contributors are the 11-16 schools in Winchester: Kings School, The Westgate School and the Xxxxx Xxxxxxxx School. One thing that makes Hampshire unusual is the very small number of schools with a sixth form, and the fluidity of movement for post-16 study. Our location (200 metres from Winchester Railway Station) provides easy access for students from across Hampshire. 880 have railway season tickets (processed by the College) and we liaise with local bus providers to ensure bus provision matches student applications. 14% of our students were previously educated in the independent sector. The boarding provision at the College has its origins in the military connections to Winchester, and in the past many students were the children of forces families. The withdrawal of UK forces from Germany (in particular) has reduced the proportion of students from a military background, but boarding remains full. Much of the decision-making process around curriculum offer is driven by national intelligence about curriculum routes for 16-18 year olds derived from interaction with the Sixth Form Colleges Association, the Association of Colleges, the Wessex Group of Sixth Form Colleges and the Hampshire Principals Group. Senior Managers at the College are on the AoC Sixth Form Colleges portfolio group, the HE in FE group, the SFCA Curriculum and Quality Policy Group and the SFCA Governance Policy Group. This underpinning knowledge is complemented by interaction with students about course choices, direct interaction with universiti...
Context and Place. Essex is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the xxxx, Xxxx across the River Thames estuary to the south and Greater London to the south and south-west. Currently Greater London, along with Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, are devolved authorities. Proximity to London is significant, with high levels of commuting to the capital or home-based working for London-based employers. Similarly, proximity to areas such as Cambridge, Hertfordshire and Suffolk are factors for people commuting in and out of Essex. In the context of the Local Enterprise Partnerships, Essex is part of the South East Local Enterprise Partnership (XXXXX). Although there are a number of high-profile large employers in Essex, the table overview illustrates the large presence of small and micro-businesses. Essex has a slightly larger proportion of micro-businesses than the regional average, with small businesses often requiring additional support to engage with the skills system and to provide opportunities such as apprenticeships. In general, the number of businesses in Essex has steadily increased, from 51,600 in 2011 to 66,800 in 2020. The Essex Skills Plan 2022-23 highlights that skills levels have improved but are still generally below the national average, although there are variations at district level. ACL Community Essex County Council commissions Adult Community Learning Essex (ACL Essex) to provide learning across the county, with Southend and Thurrock unitary authorities having their own ACL provider. Essex is a large county with a population of around 1.5 million (working age 16-64 910,000) . It has a wide range of communities spanning rural, urban and coastal areas with widely varying qualification levels and areas of significant social deprivation ACL Essex is primarily a direct delivery service and has nine adult community learning centres in most of the major cities/towns in Essex. In support of the levelling up agenda, ACL Essex also offers courses at other community venues across the county including libraries, community centres, schools and care providers. ACL Essex is graded as ‘good’ by Ofsted. The diagram highlights the spread of ACL Essex’s learner’s pre-pandemic, along with the indices of multiple deprivation across the county. This effectively highlights the uneven spread of deprivation across the county. Data from Essex County Council, Strategy In...
Context and Place. The City of Newcastle Upon Tyne Forty-four per cent (44%) of Newcastle residents have a degree level qualification and are doing very well economically. However, we still have a very large proportion of residents who need specific, additional support and training to ensure that all our residents have an equal opportunity and access to high quality, sustainable employment. The picture is very mixed within the city of Newcastle upon Tyne. Whilst there is much to be proud of within the city, there are clearly some less favourable statistics here. Many of our residents do need lots of support to ensure that we do have an inclusive economy and that all are able to access good quality employment opportunities within the city. The foundational economy, which creates and distributes goods and service that we rely on for everyday life, accounts for around 40% of Newcastle’s jobs with our hospitals alone providing 9% of our city’s employment. Other examples of the foundational economy are: care and health services and food. Our foundational economy spans public, private and community sectors to provide valuable goods and services that are essential for our daily lives. The city also supports a very vibrant night-time economy with many opportunities within the hospitality and leisure industries. To combat some of the divide detailed above Newcastle City Council have developed the Newcastle Inclusive Economic Strategy; Wealth that flows to all (published in March 2023) – Newcastle Upon Tyne. This strategy document states that: - ‘This economic strategy has been designed to ensure access for all to opportunities to improve their economic position as an individual or business, through education and development. The strategy includes provision for the most disadvantaged learners ensuring that all Newcastle residents have an opportunity to improve their life chances through securing good quality employment. We are a hardworking and resilient city, with real economic success stories to tell, and with communities that unite to support each other in hard times. But figures of 42% child poverty rates and a 13-year difference in life expectancy for adults between our most and least deprived wards, tell us something is structurally wrong with the way that wealth and wellbeing flows in Newcastle. We can all see the great potential in Newcastle. We need a shift in mindset so that we can all seize it and maximise it for the benefit of every person, no matter where they live in our...
