Eastleigh College Strategic Plan 2019 to 2024
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EASTLEIGH COLLEGE STRATEGIC PLAN 2019 TO 2024 Approved by Board 3 July 2019 EASTLEIGH COLLEGE - STRATEGIC PLAN 2019 TO 2024 1. INTRODUCTION Eastleigh College equips over twenty thousand students every year with knowledge and skills by providing excellent teaching, learning and assessment delivered by well qualified staff, in industry standard facilities with a clear line of sight of progression to work. The College has a symbiotic relationship with employers locally, regionally and nationally. We train young people, apprentices and adults in partnership with business. Many employers in the region are also dependent on us for their ongoing training, updating, certification and licencing needs and have worked with the College for many years. The College continues to offer opportunities post 16 from entry level to higher education including study programmes for 16-18 year olds, classroom learning, work based learning, leisure and commercial courses for adults and employers and apprenticeships for both young people and adults. Eastleigh College is committed to social mobility and increasing life chances. We actively promote and support our learners in lifelong learning Eastleigh College was graded Good in the last Ofsted inspection in December 2018 and has mature quality improvement and quality assurance processes. The strategy is based on an underpinning ambition that we will regain outstanding status as quickly as possible. Our planning is focused on creating the conditions where excellence is enabled and expected. The residential provision, College House, is inspected as a residential care home every three to four years and has been Ofsted Outstanding on each inspection since 2008. The last outstanding inspection at College House was in June 2019. The College’s last QAA Inspection for Higher Education was in October 2017. This resulted in the best possible outcome of full confidence in both academic standards and academic experience. Outcomes for learners have continued to be strong. In 2017/18 the all ages achievement rate for classroom learning was above the national average at 88% and the all ages overall apprenticeship rate was 71.1%, again above the national average. Employer engagement, responsiveness and the ability to land commercial opportunities is excellent. Staff proactively work with employers to develop programmes that support the growth of their businesses and this work underpins both funded and full cost delivery. The College FE Choices results for 2017/18 were 89% for Learner Satisfaction and 88.2% for Employer Satisfaction; placing the College as one of the best in the region. The College is financially stable and achieved surpluses between 2014/15 and 2017/18. The impact of changes in the funding regime for apprenticeships and the lack of an increase in the base rate for 16 -18 year olds led to a significant reduction in the College’s income in 2018/19. The anticipated income for 2019/20 is further reduced and the College is realigning its cost base accordingly. Growth opportunities through government funding are currently limited and the policy environment is uncertain in this respect at this moment in time. Implementation of electronic systems for ease of use and to improve business efficiencies remains an important priority through the life of this strategy. The College’s key strengths are: • Governance, strategic planning and risk management. • Organisational agility, responsiveness, commercialism and employer engagement. • Mature operational processes and procedures, and a culture of continuous improvement. • Learner attendance and workplace values. • Overall education and training (classroom based) achievement rates that are above national averages. • Overall apprenticeship achievement rates that are above national averages. • High and improving pass rates. • Learner positive destination rates. • Dual profession teaching and assessing staff. • Sub-contractor management. • Excellent industry standard facilities at both the Chestnut Avenue and Winchester campuses. 2. THE EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT 2.1 A period of significant uncertainty This Strategic Plan is written with the backdrop of significant national uncertainty. Brexit has been postponed until October 2019 and the full implication for the further education sector of the country’s withdrawal from the European Union is difficult to interpret. It is assumed that skills training for both young people and adults will remain a Government priority in line with the Industrial Strategy but there are many other pressures on public spending. There is significant curriculum reform and investment in the introduction of new, more substantial Technical programmes (Tech levels) for young people intended to place technical education on a level with academic pathways. These will be implemented during the life of this plan. There has also been a period of transition in Apprenticeship qualifications to employer led “Standards” with end point assessment rather than the traditional “Frameworks”. The FE sector is finding it a challenging environment as funding has remained static for many years despite rising costs. The area based reviews have led to a number of college mergers both nationally and in the Solent and M3 LEP regions. As demonstrated in 2018/19, the College remains open to exploring potential opportunities that are in the College’s interest. The delivery of technical and professional education and training for full time local 16-18 year olds through study programmes remains a priority for Eastleigh College. There is a small demographic uplift in the numbers of learners in the schools during the life of this plan and major housing developments underway leading to a potential rise in numbers from 2020. The introduction in May 2017 of the Apprenticeship Levy and the Institute of Apprenticeships changed both the funding mechanism and the delivery model of apprenticeships. Eastleigh College has been successful in securing some substantial levy contracts. However non levy has been more difficult, based on employer feedback this is largely due to current policy constraints, the College’s experiences in this area have mirrored the national picture. Prior to May 2017 Eastleigh was the third largest college provider of apprenticeships in England with up to 9,000 apprentices in learning at any one time. At the end of 2018/19 this has fallen to an average in learning figure of 3,000 apprentices. The apprenticeship reforms have seen a shift to the limited adult education budget to fund adult classroom based learning delivered both at the College and the workplace. Opportunities for growth in adult training continue in full cost commercial contracts and there is also the potential to exploit digital learning. The College will also continue to work actively to secure new Apprenticeship levy contracts and growth aligned to LEP priorities where matched to the College’s expertise. New levy employers and growth aligned to LEP priorities will be sought through the College’s local and regional employer contacts, and through its connections with the employer base of the sub-contract network. The transition to devolve part of the adult education budget to the mayoral commissioning authorities and the Greater London Authority (GLA) is now underway and the College currently has a contract with the GLA for its London based direct delivery and sub-contracted provision. Discussions are ongoing as to the future of funding for this provision. It now seems unlikely that the remainder of the country will follow devolution to local skills planning during the lifetime of this strategy. The College recognises that there is potential for growth in higher education particularly by working in close partnership with a local university with similar values, ambition and provision. Such a partnership has the potential to improve the progression pathways for learners adding substantial value to their careers and to the regional economy. The College has recently signed a strategic memorandum of understanding with Portsmouth University and this relationship is set to develop during the life of this strategy. In Eastleigh and the Solent, Eastleigh College is renowned for its high quality, technical and professional training in industrial standard facilities with expert professional staff. This service remains in high demand despite the uncertain climate as there are excellent job opportunities and potential for business expansion for those with the right skills. 2.2 The Solent Eastleigh College is in an area of economic growth where there is an expansion of businesses and significant house building. The Solent LEP’s Transforming Solent Strategic Economic Plan and its growth ambitions highlights the following sectors as being of strategic importance: marine and maritime; aerospace and defence; specialist IT and digital, advanced manufacturing; engineering; transport and logistics; low carbon; the visitor economy and creative businesses. There are plans for improvements in the transport infrastructure across the Solent and to the Midlands and London and ambitions for Eastleigh to grow as an economic hub. The Solent Skills Strategy identifies that the Solent has relatively high employment rates with low levels of unemployment but there are more people in low level jobs than average with lower than average earnings. The growth in jobs in the next decade will outstrip the growth in working population and over half the job openings will require higher skills, particularly in business management and science,