NORTHERN REGIONAL COLLEGE
DEVELOPMENT PLAN
2010/11 – 2012/13
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CONTENTS
Page
1. Introduction & Background 4
2. External Environment 5-8
3. Governance 9-12
4. Organisational Structure 13
5. College Vision, Values and Strategic Objectives 14-16
6. Curriculum Planning: 17-21 (6.1) Achieving targets (6.2) Vocational Qualifications reform opportunities
7. Essential Skills 22-24 (7.1) Meeting targets
8. Post Primary Collaboration 25 (8.1) Plan of engagement
9. Higher Education in Further Education: 26-28 (9.1) HE Enrolment & Curriculum Plan (9.2) Meeting curriculum performance indicators (9.3) New developments to support business and economy
10. Economic Engagement 29-33 (10.1) Description of Economic Engagement (10.2) Relationship of Economic Engagement to Curriculum Planning (10.3) Detail of support to Employers and funding sources (10.4) Employer satisfaction targets
11. Learner Access & Engagement 34-36 (11.1) Description of partnership with 3rd party (11.2) LAE targets for 2010-11
12. Community Engagement: 37-40 (12.1) Improving access (12.2) Targets for Community Education provision and performance Measures (12.3) Cultural Diversity
13. Additional Learning Needs 41-44 (13.1) SLDD discrete provision (13.2) SLDD mainstream provision
14. Information and Learning Technology (ILT) 45-47 (14.1) MIAP confirmation (14.2) ILT progress (14.3) ETI inspection issues
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15. Estates Strategy 48-52 (15.1) Key Estates objectives (15.2) Accommodation Utilisation (15.3) Cost analysis of existing estate (15.4) Planned maintenance programme (15.5) Schedule of Accommodation
16. Workforce Development 53-55 (16.1) Workforce Development Strategy
17. Data Management 56-57 (17.1) Action Plan for data management improvement
18. Finance 58-61
Appendices 62
1. Strategic Objectives and Corporate Targets 63-64 2. NRC Current Economic Engagement (Workforce Development 2009-10) 65-69 3. NRC Current Economic Engagement (Enterprise) 2009-10 70-73 4. Self Evaluation Report – Whole College 2008-2009 74-85 5. Quality Improvement Plan 2009-10 – 2012-13 86-95 6. Planning, Monitoring and Review Cycle 96 7. Estates Floor area and FTE per Campus 97 8. Governing Body Strategic Review 98
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1. INTRODUCTION & BACKGROUND
At the time of preparing its last College Development Plan, Northern Regional College had commissioned an update of the Due Diligence report produced prior to merger in 2007. This update confirmed the Governing Body’s concerns regarding the financial viability and stability of the College. Following discussions with DEL it was agreed that the College would produce a five year Business Improvement Plan.
Work on the Business Improvement Plan commenced in September 2009. A preliminary report was presented to DEL in December 2009 and further meetings held with the Acting Permanent Secretary in February 2010 to discuss policy issues which had emerged in the work on the Plan. A final draft of the Business Improvement Plan was approved by the Governing Body on 3 March 2010 and submitted to DEL on 5 March 2010.
The contents of the College Development Plan for 2010/13 must be seen in the wider context of the Business Improvement Plan. A further related document is the Strategic Outline Case (SOC) which the College is currently preparing in support of its plan for estates development. The SOC will be submitted to DEL by the end of March 2010.
Alongside the production of the BIP and CDP the College will continue to plan in accordance with its own internal planning cycle which begins with a Strategic Review conducted by the Governing Body. This is followed by an internal Management Conference which generates a comprehensive and integrated operational planning process throughout the organisation. This will produce a series of operational plans which will be linked to the three-year strategic objectives through a set of Corporate Targets for 20010/11. A College Corporate Plan will be brought to the Governing Body for approval in June 2010.
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2. EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT
The Northern Regional College is currently operating in an environment which is presenting significant challenges. Forecasts indicate that growth in the Northern Ireland economy will not be significant in 2010 and that further significant job losses can be expected. Northern Ireland may however be less impacted than other UK regions by the continued slowdown due to having a greater proportion of the economy within the public sector. While public sector spending is unlikely to increase in the forthcoming review the sector remains relatively cushioned In comparison to the private sector.
The Consumer Price Index (CPI), the Government's target measure of annual inflation was 2.9 per cent in December 2009, a rise of 1.00 per cent since November 2009. The Retail Prices Index (RPI) also increased in December to 2.4%, from 0.3 per cent in November. This was the largest monthly rise in inflation since 1979. Although the significant rises in CPI and RPI are largely due to the fall in prices experienced in December 2008 as a result of the reduction in VAT and sharp falls in the price of oil at that time, the increase in costs currently being experienced are very relevant to NRC and in particular in relation to estates costs. The increase in the rate of VAT in January 2010 and potentially further increases in the price of fuel may add to this threat.
The RPI rate in September 2009 on which payment of state benefits for the financial year 2010/2011 is based was however negative. It is therefore likely that the increase in benefits such as state pensions, child benefit etc may be minimal. This may lead a greater challenge for the College in relation to improving the numbers of enrolments for part-time courses (see section 6 Curriculum Planning).
Interest rates remaining at 0.5 % present a challenge to the College as there is corresponding reduction in interest income from the investment of cash reserves.
The low rate of interest and the substantial level of quantitative easing have contributed to a significant depreciation in the value of Sterling especially against the Euro. While there is considerable pressure at present on the Euro due to economic instability in southern European countries, the current value against the pound will affect the College.
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A positive aspect to the fall in the value of sterling against the Euro is that funding for the Kite Project (see Section 10 Economic Engagement) is in Euro and consequently the funding will provide more income to the College than previously anticipated.
The fall in the value of Sterling has improved the competitiveness of export led industries although the full benefits of this have not been realised due to the global fall in demand for locally produced goods and services. Nevertheless the demand for training in particular from the NRC Centre of Excellence in Manufacturing Engineering remains strong from exporting organisations such as Ryobi, Schlumberger and F G Wilson, with a focus on the Business Improvement Techniques (BIT) programme (see Appendix 2).
The Northern Ireland seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for the third quarter of 2009 was estimated at 7.2 %, a rise of 3 per cent from the same period the previous year. While the NI unemployment rate remains below that of the UK average, the catchment area for the Northern Regional College has been particularly badly affected by this rise in unemployment.
The NRC has established an Economic Engagement Department as part of its Support and Development Directorate. This comprises of a Head of Economic Engagement and three managers with responsibilities for KTP/Upskilling, Innovation and Entrepreneurship and DEL Training Contracts. The Head of Economic Engagement is also secretary to the NRWDF and as such is central to co-ordinating any developments planned to address skills gaps in the region, with the WDF, employers and curriculum managers. Two managers have an external facing role with employers undertaking training needs analysis, discussing potential bespoke training with business and industry and the NRC curriculum teams as well as supporting SME and local business with innovation programmes. The challenge that the economic climate is presenting to local business and industry is being addressed at sector level through Rapid Response Northern Ireland (RRNI) programme in which NRC is a major participant. As such NRC is well placed to identify and respond to any particular employer based training needs or any retraining request identified as a result of the economic downturn.
NRC delivers training through the ApprenticeshipsNI and Training for Success programmes to a substantial number of students, estimated at approximately 10% of the total across the province. Training is largely in the areas of Construction, Engineering and Motor Vehicle and the College also has partnerships with the Electrical Training Trust (ETT) and Plumbing &
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Mechancial Services Training (PMST). However, employment in the Construction industry has continued to fall with the rise in claimants from the construction industry comprising 44% of the overall rise in claimants. The College has experienced a further significant downturn in the demand for construction and engineering related apprenticeships and indeed some apprentices have lost their jobs.
The College continues to manage the DEL guidelines for contingency arrangements to maximise the opportunity for apprentices who have lost employed status. The new Programme Led Apprenticeship provision was also introduced at NRC in September 2009. This programme was designed to facilitate the opportunity for trainees to acquire skills and training within an Apprenticeship Framework without employed status. While a work placement is a component of the programme to allow for experience with employers there are difficulties in securing relevant placements at present.
The College has experienced a decline in the demand for both vocational and non-vocational part-time courses during the academic year 2009/10. The Employment Equality (Age) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2006, prohibited benefits being offered to persons using Further Education on the basis of age and following advice from the Equality Commission, NRC in conjunction with other colleges in the sector operated a policy by which reduced fees were offered solely on the basis of income. The College will now be doing an impact assessment of the operation of this policy to ascertain if the decline in enrolments has been more focussed on particular age groups.
The numbers of Year 8-12 pupils in post Primary and Special Schools in the North Eastern Area Planning Group has declined year on year from 28,935 in 2003/04 to 27,310 in 2007/08. This is an overall decline of 2.16% over the 5 year period.
The numbers of Year 13-15 pupils has increased from 5294 to 5473 since 2007/08. These trends reflect the numbers of students recruited to full-time FE courses in the Northern Regional College. The College is closely involved with the production of Area Based Plans which structure the provision within each learning community area and which will enable schools to provide compliance with the Entitlement Framework by 2013. This close involvement will ensure that NRC is at the heart of the 14-19 agenda (see Section 8).
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The overall decline in pupils in the years 8-12 may have been thought to have resulted in a negative an impact on full-time College enrolments from 2009/10 onwards; however the propensity of students to remain in education has increased and the lack of suitable employment opportunities in the economic downturn has resulted in increased enrolment in first year classes. It is expected that this trend will continue in 2010/2011 (see section 6 Curriculum Planning).
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3. GOVERNANCE
Responsibilities of Governing Body
The Governing Body is responsible for securing the efficient and effective management of College activities; agreeing and monitoring its strategic direction; ensuring the effective use of resources; and ensuring that an appraisal system is operating in the College. It is also responsible for the appointment, promotion, discipline and conduct and grievance of College staff.
The Governing Body is fully involved in the College planning process. A key point in the College’s annual planning cycle is the Governing Body’s Annual Strategic Review Workshop, which reviews the progress with the main strategic challenges facing the college and establishes the strategic objectives, which are then used to develop the three-year College Development Plan.
Composition
The Governing Body of the College consists of the following categories of membership: a) Ten members who are, or have been engaged or employed in business, industry or any profession; b) The Principal of the College; c) Two members, being permanent members of staff of the College. One elected by the academic and the other by the non-academic staff of the College; d) One member, being a student of the College and elected by the student body; e) Two members nominated by the North East Education and Library Board; f) Two members co-opted by the existing members.
The position of Chair is currently held on a temporary, Acting Chair, basis pending the outcome of the Department’s Review of Governance.
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Monitoring Role
The Governing Body has an on-going monitoring role to perform. It is responsible for monitoring:
• Curriculum targets and performance in respect of enrolment, student retention, achievement and progress; • Financial objectives, targets and performance indicators, and monthly/quarterly financial reports to ensure the solvency, proper stewardship of public funds and asset; • Staff recruitment, appointments and promotions; staff part-time/full-time ratios; staff absence; and adherence to employment legislation in respect of Equality, Health and Safety and Fair Employment; • Estates and facilities management including property maintenance and the regular review of capital projects; • Quality assurance including action plans following each college inspection; • Internal control systems elicited from Internal Audit Reviews; • Risk assessment and risk management. • College overall performance against strategic objectives detailed in the CDP
The Governing Body receives regular reports, papers and presentations on these issues from appropriate senior members of staff, representatives from the Education and Training Inspectorate and the Internal and External Auditors.
Monitoring Own Performance
The Governing Body is required to monitor its own performance. In recent years the Governing Body has had Governance Healthchecks administered by the Learning and Skills Development Agency in order to capture governors’ perception of Governing Body performance, to assess the contribution of individual governors and to evaluate the quality of information provided to the Governing Body. On completion of the exercise LSDA prepares a report for each participating board, which Is issued to each College. This enables benchmarking activity across the sector and highlights areas in which action is required by the Governing Body to improve the effectiveness of individual governors and the Governing Body as a whole. In addition to the Healthchecks all members of the Governing Body attend training courses and workshops relating to audit, education, finance and staffing matters.
The Governance Healthcheck exercise, conducted by LSDA, will continue to be used on an annual basis to examine inter alia: governors’ responsibilities in monitoring finance, curriculum, human resources, estates and facilities; and quality assurance.
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The Governing Body is also working with the College’s Quality Improvement Unit in the production of a Self-Evaluation Report, one of the outcomes of which will be the development of an action plan as a means of improving individual and corporate performance.
A representative of the Department carries out an annual appraisal of the Chair of the Governing Body. In addition the Chair of the Governing Body conducts an annual appraisal of members of the Governing Body.
All Committees of the Governing Body have prepared Action Plans for 2009/2010, which have been approved by the Governing Body. These will enable Committees and the Governing Body to monitor effectiveness at the end of the academic year.
Meetings
The Governing Body has been scheduled to meet on six occasions during 2009/2010. A similar schedule of meetings is planned for 2010/2011.
The Governing Body has delegated certain responsibilities, subject to the restrictions imposed by the Articles, to a number of sub-committees, Audit Committee, Education Committee, Finance and General Purposes Committee and Staffing Committee. The Committees were scheduled to meet as follows during 2009/2010: Audit (five occasions), Education (five occasions), Finance and General Purposes (seven occasions) and Staffing (five occasions). A similar schedule is planned for 2010/2011.
The Audit Committee operates as an advisory body to the Governing Body and the Accounting Officer. The Committee is responsible for reviewing the effectiveness of the college’s accounting procedures and systems of internal control. Whilst Executive Officers attend meetings of the Audit Committee as necessary, they are not members of the Committee. The Committee meets, from time to time, with auditors on its own for independent discussions.
The Finance and General Purposes Committee supervises all matters relating to the finance and accounts of the College, the investment of its funds, and the receipt of its income and the expenditure thereof. The Committee is responsible for advising the Governing in relation to all Governance matters.
The Staffing Committee is responsible for drawing up arrangements for the recruitment, appointment and promotion of staff.
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The recently established Education Committee oversees the College’s curricular provision, with a focus on its quality and appropriateness for the community it serves. Its role is to advise the Director on the general oversight of the academic work of the College.
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4. ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE
The Northern Regional College has an Executive Management team comprising; the Director/ Chief Executive, the Director of Finance and three Deputy Directors having strategic management responsibility for the Curriculum, Planning and Resources and Support and Development respectively. The four second tier managers supervise a team of thirteen third tier managers who each have strategic responsibility for specific functions within the College. These eighteen managers comprise the Senior Management Team of the College. The specific posts and hierarchical structure for the senior management team can be seen below:
Director/Chief Executive
Deputy Director Deputy Director Deputy Director Director of Curriculum Support & Development Planning & Resources Finance
4 Heads of Head of Economic Head of HR Management Accountant Faculty Engagement Head of MIS/Exams Financial Accountant Head of Student Services and Marketing Head of Estates
Head of Quality Improvement Head of ICT Infrastructure
Each member of the Senior Management Team has representation for their functional area on the Executive Management Team. All members of the Senior Management Team contribute to the planning process within the College and the strategic direction of the College.
The College restructuring process is now complete
The current (as at February 2010) staffing within the College is as follows.
Staff Group Full Time Part Time Totals
Senior Management 18 0 18 Academic Staff 244 *352 596
Support Staff 228 **181 409
Totals 490 533 1023
* (94 ALs and 258 part-time lecturers) ** Includes 38 casual invigilators
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5. COLLEGE VALUES, ASPIRATIONS AND STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES
In June 2008 the Senior Management Team drafted the Core Values and between June and August 2008 under the auspices of Learning Skills and Development Agency (LSDA) a Cultural Survey was carried out to ascertain the NRC ‘current reality culture’ and ‘vision culture’. In December 2008, the Senior Management Team in conjunction with the Pacific Institute developed vision statements for consideration by the whole College. In January 2010 the College’s Governing Body reconsidered the College ‘vision’ and has proposed a set of aspirational statements which would encompass the ethos of the College and provide positive drivers for the future. The College values are indicated below:-
College Values
As a teaching and learning organisation the College will be: • Committed to respecting and supporting others • Creative and innovative • Customer focused • Striving for excellence • Valuing staff and team work
Personal Work Values
As a member of staff I will display these values in my every day work: • Responsibility • Reflective practice • Openness and transparency • Respect • Integrity
In addition there is one all embracing organisational and personal work core value of promotion of effective communication and positive action.
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The formulation of the Strategic Objectives is part of the College Planning, Monitoring and Review Cycle (see Appendix 6). The Northern Regional College’s Strategic Objectives for 2010-2013 are a progression from those of 2009-2012 having taken into consideration, FE Strategy and Policy, the changing external environment, the emerging culture and structure of the organisation and the outputs of the planning and review processes from the previous twelve months.
Strategic Objectives 2010 – 2013
1. Develop and support the continuous improvement of the quality of the entire student learning experience 2. Develop and deliver a curriculum and associated provision which is aligned to the needs of business industry and the community 3. Establish support and embed an organisational and management culture in line with the College’s vision and values. 4. Implement the approved ILT Strategy and address data management issues across all areas of the college activity. 5. Establish and progress an approved estates strategy appropriate to the strategic development of the College. 6. Ensure financial stability in order to support the achievement of the College’s strategic agenda.
Corporate Targets Separate Corporate Targets in relation to each of these objectives are outlined in Appendix 1. These Corporate Targets have been informed by the Operational Plans for each Department. These Operational Plans were developed by each academic and support area and are a response to the Strategic Objectives. The Economic Engagement Department provided support at this stage to ensure that operational plans are responsive to the needs of industry is fully integrated to the planning process.
In September 2009 Curriculum Teams completed their Self Evaluation and Review (SER) reports and following a pilot led by LSDA for Self Evaluation and Review for support departments, staff development in the production of SER’s has taken place. The completion of SERs for support departments is currently underway.
The SER evaluation and review process has been the basis of the Whole College Quality Improvement Plan which is attached at Appendix 4. The Key Areas for Quality Improvement (QI:)indicated in this plan have been identified as a result of SER responses, issues identified as part of the Risk Management process, responses to feedback from students and staff etc.
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The College is committed to improving communication at all levels within the organisation. A range of strategies and tools are utilised to facilitate improvements in this area. All departments within the College have an Internal Communication Plan which is reviewed and updated annually. During 2009 / 2010 the College introduced and has started to make us of Video Conferencing. This is now widely used for meetings and at course team level and is proving an effective communication tool.
The Staff Intranet hosts a wide range of useful College related information and links to relevant material sources. It is established as a key communication tool and enables consistency and continuity in a wide range of College activities, such as meeting planners, calendars, agenda and minute templates.
The College Marketing Strategy sets out in it’s objectives to support the strategic and operational objectives of the College. The five corporate marketing objectives are as follows:
1. To promote the College provision and service offer in line with key strategy documents through target marketing and an effective marketing mix. 2. To protect and develop the College Corporate Identity and branding portfolio in line with the Corporate Image. 3. To prioritise public relations as central to all College activities. 4. To continue to develop relationships with key stakeholders and opinion leaders. 5. To work closely with the internal market so that marketing becomes embedded in organisational culture and thinking.
The new marketing team structure is central to the deliverance of this strategy. The College Marketing Team has three Marketing Co-ordinators in place. These co-ordinators are specialists in the areas of e-Marketing & Market Research, Public Relations & Events and Publications and Advertising. Such specialisms facilitate more targeted marketing activities. Development of the NRC brand and communication of its values are key to all marketing activities. The NRC brand believes in being excellent, progressive, effective, entrepreneurial and accessible.
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6. CURRICULUM PLANNING
6.1 Achieving Targets
(a) Factors determining the targets
The curriculum delivery targets for Northern Regional College in 2010/11 and subsequent years are based on the performance of the College in 2009/10 as shown by the FLU figures from the February 2010 lift and the projections to the year end. The targets are determined by four main factors which impinge on the future curriculum provision of the College.
(1) A comprehensive course review was conducted in 2008/09, the purpose of which was to establish what curriculum the Northern Regional College would offer, how it would be offered and where it would be offered. During 2009 some courses were consolidated, where necessary, on fewer campuses while other courses were extended to further campuses where a proven demand existed. The College developed a comprehensive course evaluation model and all courses were subjected to a performance check which included analysis of student numbers, the quality and financial viability of the provision. Essentially this check determined whether a course would run, whether it would run with minor changes or whether major action in terms of marketing or quality improvement needed to be taken. This same approach to course viability has been adopted in preparation of the CDP for 2010/11 – 2013 and all full and part-time courses have been assessed for viability and to accurately predict recruitment in 2010/11. This process has been overseen by the Curriculum Management Team (comprising the Deputy Director for Curriculum and the four Heads of Faculty) in conjunction with other senior managers.
(2) In addition to the individual course viability approach, the College has also embarked on a Business Improvement Plan (supported by Grant Thornton) which aims to return the College to a sound financial basis within a five year period. The existing curriculum offer has been analysed in detail to determine its effectiveness and efficiency in the use of resources and to identify which areas of provision are financially viable. The outcomes of this exercise have had an impact on the curriculum targets for 2010/11 and beyond.
(3) The College has major accommodation problems at its campuses in Antrim, Ballymena, Ballymoney and Coleraine and is in the process of developing a Strategic Outline Case (SOC) in conjunction with the Southern Regional College, for consideration by DEL, which will address how these problems might be alleviated. Specifically the College is considering what curriculum will be offered and where. The targets set in the CDP for 2010/11 and beyond take this into account.
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(4) The needs of students and employers have been identified and taken into account. In the case of employers these needs are partly gauged by course teams in their regular dealings with employers on matters such as recruitment, work placement and project work. In addition the needs of employers in the area covered by the NRC are identified by the College’s Economic Engagement Unit through its partnerships with key stakeholders such as:
• Sector Skills Councils (SSCs) • Northern Workforce Development Forum. • Local council economic development units • SME support agencies • Investni • LSDA • DEL Careers service
The information relating to skills needs is fed back to the Curriculum Management Team by the Economic Engagement team. This takes place via the College Economic Engagement Working group and, depending on need, individual smaller team meetings. These processes enable economic engagement to be at the heart of curriculum development, operational planning, target setting and allows for client responsiveness and where necessary tailored solutions to be provided.
The College Marketing Strategy aims to engage learners across a number of different markets to support Curriculum; Further Education, Higher Education, Training, Part-Time provision, Employer Engagement, Essential Skills and other discrete provision. This involves deciding which marketing mix is appropriate, beneficial, and feasible for the College. Market Research is central to supporting target marketing and resources in this area have been deployed in particular to researching the Higher Education market. The College has also engaged the services of a PR Agency which will support the marketing team and the Directorate in positioning NRC as the leader in the Sector and in the mindsets of its various target audiences. Key to this strategy is the profiling of Student and Staff achievements and success stories.
(b) Setting and achieving the targets
The curriculum targets which have been set for 2010/11 and subsequent years have been based on the College’s performance against the targets set for 2009/10 and the four factors noted above.
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Using all this information, the targets for enrolments and FLUs have been built up course-by- course and aggregated to produce the targets as laid out in the FLUs analysis template.
Based on figures from the November lift of FLUs, projected to June 2010, the College has exceeded its FLUs target for 2009/10 by a small amount. This reflects a very strong performance in full-time recruitment in FE particularly at levels 2 and 3. Part-time recruitment is down for a further year although the rate of decline has slowed. The level of activity at Level 1, both full-time and part-time fell below target.
Recruitment to Priority Skills areas, particularly IT, was strong in 2009/10 and the College is projecting an increase by June 2010 on its FLU targets.
These factors lead the College to conclude that it can increase its enrolments and FLUs in its full- time provision while halting the decline in part-time provision and achieving some modest increases at Levels 1 and below. The College is therefore projecting a small increase in its FLU target for 2010/11 and the rationale for this is set out below:
(1) At Level 3, 2-year courses showed an increase in recruitment to their 1st year in 2009/10 and these increased numbers will feed through into the 2nd year in 2010/11 producing an increase in FLUs before the recruitment of new students is considered.
(2) Recruitment to 1-year courses at Level 2 also showed an increase in 2009/10 and a larger number of these students will be progressing to Level 3 courses in 2010/11.
(3) Strategies to improve retention in 2009/10 including implementation of Admissions and Attendance Policies have been put in place and initial results show improved retention rate contributing to higher numbers progressing into 2010/11.
(4) Separate Level 1,2 and 3 Committees monitor the provision and ensure that multi-disciplinary approach is adopted in relation to the holistic student experience.
(5) The College has considered rationalisation of its special needs provision. This would mean that all discrete curriculum provision for those students with special needs would be through FE. This would boost numbers at Level 1 as well as being a much more cost-effective method of delivery. An additional FLU bid would not be necessary in relation to this as there would be further rationalisation of the remaining full-time ‘A’ level provision. There would be an immediate effect in relation to September 2010 and it would also effect subsequent years due to student progression and additional recruitment to year one of the course
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(6) The College has considered consolidation of the NRC Hospitality and Catering curriculum provision onto 2 sites from September 2010 rather than on the existing 3 sites. The FLUs released by this move can fund an increase in FE Engineering provision at Level 2.
(7) The changes in FE provision for 2010/11 are designed to fit into a reduced number of campuses and are consistent with the proposals outlined in the SOC.
(8) The College will also push up its FLUs from part-time courses through several measures:
• A review of the ways in which fees can be paid to improve uptake;
• Concentration on recruitment to those vocational courses which are identified as most relevant to the needs of the economy and which provide the greatest value added for the student.
6.2 Vocational Qualifications Reform Programme (VQRP)
The current College student information system (QLS) is capable of supporting a unitised curriculum and consequently will enable the adoption of the Qualifications Credit Framework (QCF). The system also supports the requesting of Managing Information across Partners (MIAP), Unique Learner Numbers (ULNs), storage of the ULN and inclusion of the ULN in data transfer to and from awarding bodies. The College is registered with MIAP as a Learner Registration Body and has piloted obtaining MIAP ULNs and verified that these can be recorded in QLS.
The College’s QCF working group which comprises representatives from the curriculum, economic engagement, MIS, student services, quality assurance and careers is coordinating the VQRP process. For 2010/11 the College through the QCF working group will be concentrating on the movement of existing courses on to the Qualifications and Credit Framework (QCF).
For September 2010 the College will:
• Move all existing provision to the QCF version where this is available – contingency plans are in place where it appears that a QCF equivalent is not likely to be in place for September 2010 recruitment; • Provide training for all staff;
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• Ensure all promotional material carries the new QCF titles where these are available at time of going to print – where titles are not available, this will be highlighted and advice given to prospective entrants;
• Ensure that all prospective students and their advisors are made aware of the changes brought about by VQRP;
• Make arrangements for new quality assurance systems to be introduced as required by awarding organisations;
• Discuss with employers how the flexibility of the QCF can be used to ensure that employers get the qualifications which are best suited to their needs;
• Offer a revised range of qualifications within the entitlement framework to schools based on the greater flexibility of the QCF.
It is anticipated that the introduction of a unitised curriculum through VQRP will enable future provision for employers to be tailored and the specific needs of individual students to be more easily accommodated.
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7. ESSENTIAL SKILLS 7.1 Meeting Targets
The College is on target to meet or exceed its enrolment target for 2009/10, representing a 26.5% increase in enrolments between 2007/08 and 2009/10. The adult Essential Skills recruitment is climbing towards the target, and is up by a total of 55% between 2007/08 and 2009/10. The performance of Essential Skills in 2008/09 shows improvement over 2007/08, with significant gains in retention and success rates in Adult Numeracy, FE 16-19 Literacy and FE 16-19 Numeracy. In Adult Literacy there was an improvement in retention, but, although the numbers of achievements rose significantly, there was a small decline in the rate of achievement. The area of Adult and FE Day ICT is relatively new and there is no benchmark, but while retention rates are very good, success rates are disappointing.
Many processes and procedures have been standardised across NRC for 2009/10, but some aspects are still under development and will be completed by the end of 2009/10. Considerable development has been completed in regard to MIS processes and reporting for Essential Skills, and data has been available more readily, and, in regard to performance data, several months in advance of previous years. The introduction of Essential Skills ICT to training programmes has been successfully implemented, and a Level 4 training programme is in operation which is enhancing the skills of staff and ensuring DEL qualification requirements are met.
The main Essential Skills quality improvement initiative planned for 2009/10 was the advance scheduling of Essential Skills prior to commencement of courses and the registration and enrolment of Essential Skills classes on registration day. This objective was intended to ensure several objectives: • That classes would commence early in the academic year and be integrated into the timetable for full–time students • That tutors would proceed with initial assessment, teaching and learning at an early stage. • That the timetabling of Essential Skills would support motivation, attendance and retention. While this worked well in some areas, further progress is required to embed the importance of priority timetabling for essential skills in the 2010/11 year.
Other planned developments were curtailed for budgetary reasons: the provision of a new structure of support by tutors for subject leadership and quality assurance; and additional administrative support staffing.
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The College’s Operational Plan for Essential Skills is now reflected in an Action Plan developed for DEL, including targets for improving performance.
In planning for Essential Skills in 2010/11 the College has adopted the following significant strategy developments.
First, an initiative is under way to secure a greater degree of commitment, cooperation and ownership of Essential Skills across the staff of the college. Commitment to this process was offered in December 2009 by the Governing Body and this has continued in early 2010 with senior managers. Further work is planned with middle managers and course teams, assisted by the Quality Improvement Unit. The aims of this initiative are: • To develop commitment among managers and staff to the inherent value of Essential Skills. • To develop greater ownership of Essential Skills at middle management and team level. • To secure support for planned and integrated timetabling to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of Essential Skills provision. • To secure support for robust attendance and student discipline in Essential Skills classes. • To improve relationships and support between vocational and Essential Skills tutors.
Second, based on the work above, more rigour and consistency will be sought in the planned and integrated timetable for Essential Skills in 2010/11.
Third, there will be embedding of a model for providing subject leadership and quality assurance, which has been developed using the provisions of the recently implemented Lecturer’s Contract,.
The main development objectives for 2010/11 are thus: • Full implementation of the planned and integrated timetable for Essential Skills. • Monitoring and reviewing the impact of the initiatives in 2009/10 described above. • Embedding and improving standard policy and procedures. • Embedding new attendance and retention policies for NRC. • Developing communications, through the work of the Essential Skills Committee, among curriculum, MIS, Examinations, and training operations to provide ever more timely and reliable data and achieve better outcomes for students.
The College expects to reach or exceed the enrolment target of 3400 in 2009/10. In 2010/11, recruitment of 3438 students is projected (an increase of 1.1%), of which 2100 will be in full-time day education (no change) and 1338 will be part-time adults (an increase of 11.5%). Enrolment in essential skills for training programmes for 2010/2011 is expected to remain on a par with the enrolment of 982 in 2009/2010
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It is anticipated that the additional 138 FLU-funded Essential Skills enrolments will be primarily in the part-time adult (post-19) market and they are expected to arise from the Learner Access and Engagement initiative (LAE) and further engagement with employers.
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8. POST PRIMARY COLLABORATION
8.1 Plan of Engagement NRC is fully committed to working in partnership with local Post-Primary schools in the delivery of a wide range of programmes which are recognised by the Department of Education as being vocational and which fit within the College’s plans for vocational provision. To date the NRC has been actively involved from planning at Education and Library Board level to planning within each of the ten area learning partnerships which fall within the College’s area.
1) NRC has contributed extensively to the production of Area Based Plans (APB) for each learning community. These Area Based Plans set out a structure for learning within an area in order for schools to provide compliance with the Entitlement Framework by 2013. All ABP identify NRC as a major educational provider.
2) The college continues to host large learning consortiums, working collaboratively across six Learning Communities, to provide wider learner choice and sustainable curriculum at Key Stage Four (KS4).
3) The College has established an Entitlement Framework strategy which sets out the criteria for working with schools – for 2010/11 the first priority will be working with schools at KS4 to provide vocational options with particular emphasis on priority skill areas followed by vocational options at 16+
4) The College is in the process of introducing a range of new Level 2 course in partnership with Learning Communities. These courses are largely being offered on a collective basis to learning communities.
5) The College is working to deliver relevant combinations of the revised Occupational Studies units to each Learning Community
6) The College is committed to developing e-learning solutions to the problems associated with the delivery of a vocational curriculum. These solutions will be particularly appropriate where small numbers of learners are located in geographically diverse locations. This will mainly be through the use of video conferencing and learning materials available on the College’s Virtual Learning Environment (VLE).
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9. HIGHER EDUCATION IN FURTHER EDUCATION
9.1 H.E. Enrolment & Curriculum Plan
In 2009 the Curriculum Management Team in conjunction with other senior managers conducted a curriculum review of HE to produce a coherent plan for the future development of HE across the area served by the NRC. This review took into account the enrolment trends and viability of the courses as well as information from employers and trends in the local and regional economies. Arising from the review, the College identified several factors which impinge on the future shape of HE in NRC.
• In terms of full-time HE courses, the College was overly dependent on courses in construction, engineering and IT • The College’s part-time provision was likewise too dependent on the same range of curriculum areas outlined above • The current downturn in the economy is likely to restrict the number of potential students in both full-time and part-time courses particularly in construction and engineering. • Demand from local employers in the areas of business, retail, child care, tourism and sport and leisure is not currently being met.
The College’s aim for the 2009/10 year was to put in place a plan to make full use of the College’s MaSN cap. As a result of engagement with key stakeholders the following new developments in Higher Education were put in place for 2009/10.
• Full-time HNDs in Business at the Newtownabbey and Coleraine Campuses were offered for Sept 09. The courses recruited successfully at both locations, mainly from previously untapped demand among former students • Provision for Sports Studies was rationalised and the full-time Foundation Degree in Sport and Exercise was successfully started • A placement or sandwich year was introduced into the HND in Built Environment at the request of industry, so that on completion of the HND, the students were better equipped to find work and be a productive member of staff from the start of employment • A Foundation degree in Retail was developed, with NRC as lead partner in conjunction with Foundation Degree Forward (FDF) and Skillsmart (the SSC for retail). NRC Economic Engagement staff and staff from the School of Business worked with Skillsmart to support the development of this new degree for Northern Ireland. This degree has just been validated by University of Ulster (UU) and the first cohort of students from the retail sector is now enrolling for the degree.
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As a result of these measures the College deliberately recruited slightly above the MaSN in order that the full-time numbers will be at the MaSN cap by the end of the academic year.
Given that the College achieved its MaSN in 2009/10, it is intended to run the same provision in 2010/11. The difficulties in recruitment in areas such as engineering will be offset by the recruitment of 2nd year classes in Business and Sport.
The College’s HE Committee has investigated the reasons for the decline in part-time HE and formulated a marketing strategy to increase enrolments on existing courses. In addition the College will have new 2nd year cohorts in IT and intends to recruit to NEBOSH Level 6 in Occupational Health and Safety, an additional class of C&G 9407 and 2 classes of C&G 9485/6.
9.2 Meeting curriculum performance indicators - identification of local education and skills needs
Local education and skills needs are identified through a number of sources; the College is represented on business networks, committees of local councils, funding bodies and sector representative groups including health and education. In addition the Economic Engagement Department has a specific remit to support the College and curriculum management in the identification of the needs of employers in the area served by the College (see section 10).
The information relating to skills needs is fed back to the Curriculum Management Team by the Economic Engagement team. This takes place via the College Economic Engagement Committee and depending on need individual smaller team meetings. These processes enable economic engagement to be at the heart of curriculum development, operational planning, target setting and allows for client responsiveness and where necessary tailored solutions to be provided.
9.3 New developments to support Business and the Economy
As described above NRC works hard to ensure that its Higher Education offering meets the needs of industry and the community.
In October 2008 NRC Curriculum & Economic Engagement staff took part in a workshop event, organised by the Chair of the Northern Workforce Development Forum, with representatives from the 5 priority skill areas, plus retail. The aim of the workshop was the identification of key actions that the SSCs and NRC could take to address skills needs. While many of the issues identified may not be addressed by HE provision it was an example of how NRC is constantly aiming to ensure dialogue takes place with key stakeholders.
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NRC believes that the spread of HE provision across a range of vocational areas demonstrates that it is working closely with a range of employer bodies to meet their skills needs.
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10. ECONOMIC ENGAGEMENT
10.1 Description of Economic Engagement
Economic engagement is a central focus of the Northern Regional College and this is demonstrated through the College’s second Strategic Objective which is ‘to develop and deliver a curriculum and associated provision aligned to the needs of business industry and the community’. It is within this context that the Economic Engagement Department supports the College and curriculum management to identify the needs of employers in the area and thus ensure an appropriate College response.
This Department, led by the Head of Economic Engagement has two managers who have particular responsibility for identifying local education and skills needs within the College curriculum including higher education. Noteworthy that a third manager within Economic Engagement has responsibility for Training contracts thus emphasising the close links between employer requirements and Apprenticeship and TfS training.
The Economic Engagement Manager (Enterprise) – focuses on the needs of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), enterprise and entrepreneurship and relationship building with local councils and SME support agencies such as Local Enterprise Agencies (LEAs).
The Economic Engagement Manager (Workforce) – focuses on workforce upskilling, knowledge transfer partnerships, relationship building with Sector Skills Councils and supporting the Northern Workforce Development Forum.
This Economic Engagement Department identifies employer needs through developing partnerships with key stakeholders such as:
• Sector Skills Councils (SSCs) • Northern Workforce Development Forum. • Local council economic development units • SME support agencies • Investni • LSDA • DEL Careers service
NRC enjoys dynamic and close working relationships within the Northern Workforce Development Forum (NWDF). The NWDF is helping to identify and highlight skills needs in the region and has been instrumental in supporting NRC in the delivery of innovative solutions to employers such as the
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development and launch of a fast-track Maintenance Engineering Adult Apprenticeship and the roll out of Business Improvement Techniques (BIT) training. The good practice within the NWDF and NRCs contribution to the forum is widely recognised. An example of this good practice is that the College will be hosting a workshop on behalf of the NWDF on 1st March 2010. The workshop will be facilitated by Oxford Economics who have been commissioned by DEL to research skills needs in the region. The event will involve employers and Sector Skills Councils from the construction, engineering, hospitality and tourism and retail sectors in considering research on the skills needs of the region.
In addition to the work with the NWDF the NRC Economic Engagement Department contacts employers directly to assist them in identifying the support they require.
The process is also assisted through NRC representation on and attendance at
• A cross College NRC Economic Engagement Committee has also been established to extend good practice in the management of employer engagement activities across all vocational and support areas. • economic development forums/ committees within Councils • regional development forums such as the North East Partnership sector skills forums • workshops addressing Matrix/ Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) issues
Labour market intelligence is used by the Department to provide a context within which informed decisions can be taken in relation to the development of provision. The team also considers the impact of emerging policy such as the Matrix Report and the Skills Strategy.
NRC supports employers in a variety of ways and information on this support is available via the Business Support section of the NRC website. Support includes;- • Training needs analysis/business review • Delivery of bespoke training such as the mapping & delivery of engineering NVQs for over 100 employees within FG Wilson • Lecturers into industry • Promotion and delivery of the Innovation Voucher Scheme • Provision of workplace Essential Skills • Bespoke leadership and management training • Support in the preparation of training plans for submission to Investni • Collaborative projects with companies, UU/ QUB through the ‘Connected’ programme
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• Delivery of Innovation Fund projects both internally and across the sector in collaborative bids such as Rapid Response Northern Ireland (RRNI) and ‘Carbon Zero’. • Development of new processes and up skilling of employees via ‘KITE’ - € 3.9 million project funded under Interreg IV in partnership with IT Sligo and Ayr College • Placement of lecturer into Ryobi on a part-time basis to develop training packages paid for by the company. • Trainees / students on work placement • Students undertaking projects for companies.
A full listing of current economic Engagement activity is included in Appendix 2
10.2 Relationship of Economic Engagement to Curriculum Planning
The Economic Engagement Department provides feedback on a regular basis throughout the year to the curriculum via a number of mechanisms including two cross College multi disciplinary teams; the Economic Engagement Committee and also the Higher Education Committee (see Section 9.2)
The feedback also forms part of the annual planning cycle when strategic objectives and operational plans and targets are being set (see Appendix 6).
The information gathered is used to develop the NRC Economic Engagement strategy that has several key objectives which in turn are also reflected in the Faculty and School Operational Plans.
The Continuous Professional Development (CPD) strategy within NRC ensures that staff have the competence required to meet industry needs. NRC also takes advantage of the staff development opportunities available through LSDA such as ‘Lecturers into Industry’ to support this strategy.
In order to develop an appropriate response to employer needs both curriculum and economic engagement staff work together, with the client, to find the best solution. This often means that solutions are tailored.
In response to a request from People 1st, (the SSC for Hospitality & catering) to promote catering as a career option NRC has played an active role in the roll out of the Junior Chef Academy. This programme is aimed at school age pupils.
As a result of NRC engagement with key stakeholders there have been a number of developments during 09/10:
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• Partnership between NRC/ Belfast Metropolitan College (BMC) and FG Wilson to map and deliver NVQs to over 100 employees in the workplace.
• In response to demand from the manufacturing sector NRC is at the forefront in delivering BIT accredited courses to employers such as Ryobi, Dale Farm & Michelin.
• After consultation with the Quarry products association and the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB), NRC is delivering a series of specialist workshops focusing on the use of sustainable materials in the construction industry.
• Hosting skills competitions in areas such as construction and engineering at the request of the SSC for Science, Engineering and Manufacturing Technologies (SEMTA) and CITB in order to raise the level of skills among students and promote the role that both industries play in the N. Ireland economy.
10.3 Details of support to Employers and funding sources
The NRC Economic Engagement Department has devised a standard Service Level Agreement (SLA) in order to record the nature of the support/ provision to be delivered and the agreed contract terms including price. This is used for contracts with all external organisations.
Records of all Economic Engagement activity correspond to DEL guidelines and all enrolments are recorded on the NRC Management Information System (MIS).
In addition NRC is considering the implementation of an open source Customer Relations Management (CRM) system which will record levels of engagement by client and which will interface with the existing MIS system.
The extent of provision across a range of vocational areas demonstrates that NRC is working closely with a range of employers and employer bodies to meet their skills needs (see Appendix 2).
10.4 Employer satisfaction targets The NRC Economic Engagement unit has introduced a 360ْْ evaluation mechanism which it uses to evaluate employer satisfaction with the provision. This mechanism includes evaluation of employer and learner reviews, value added to the learner/ employer and College self reflection.
The 360ْْ evaluation mechanism will include analysis of responses to the employer satisfaction survey developed by LSDA and in use for the first time this year.
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The effectiveness of this mechanism in determining the level of employer satisfaction is also under review by the College’s Quality Improvement Unit.
NRC has set an interim satisfaction target that 75% of all employers and other organisations that use NRC services to support economic or skills development, rate our provision as satisfactory or above however as full year data is not yet available, it is not possible to assess the performance against this target.
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11. LEARNER ACCESS & ENGAGEMENT
11.1 Learner Access and Engagement Partnerships
General FE
The Workers Education Association (WEA) was awarded the contracts for recruiting ‘hard to reach learners’ for the Learner Access and Engagement – General FE programmes throughout the geographical areas covered by the Northern Regional College. The WEA holds these contracts until 31 August 2011. The College in conjunction with the WEA is improving access to learning throughout the geographical area for those who are reluctant to make use of the FE provision. NRC management meet regularly with the WEA to look at overall targets and to ‘iron out’ out any arising operational issues. The Head of Faculty for the curriculum area with responsibility for the LA&E [FE general contracts], sits on the Neighbourhood Renewal Partnership Boards that represent the northern and southern contract areas [Ballymena & Coleraine] and have tried to promote the scheme through representation on these Boards.
Shared marketing and other information and close cooperation between the NRC Community Education Coordinators, the WEA Project Development Officers and community organisations enable signposting groups of learners to appropriate employment related provision available through both NRC discrete community provision and conventional general FE provision. The role of NRC Community Education Coordinators is to facilitate such provision including identifying vocational areas where demand is not met by the current College offer and providing for these. After recruitment the NRC community education team work closely with tutors delivering the programmes and WEA mentoring staff to ensure that the learners are supported in order that they achieve successful outcomes.
A formal review of the performance to date of the WEA in relation to targets set showed mixed results. Achievement of contracted targets for 2008/09 was disappointing with only 7% of the original contracted targets having been achieved. However, this must be looked at in the context of regional difficulties that arose in the contract awarding process, which meant that WEA did not commence work in the contracted areas until well into the college 2008/09 year, coupled with the inevitable settling in difficulties that arose on initially taking up the contract.
Review of performance in the 2009/10 college year has shown mixed results. WEA, as at the end of December 2009 had achieved 35% of revised target figures bringing in 52 eligible learners in the contract area covering the southern catchment of the NRC. It is expected that WEA should achieve the revised target figure of 150 learners in this contract area by the end of August 2010.
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In the contract area covering the central catchment of the NRC, WEA as at the end of December 2009, had achieved 13% of the revised original contracted target figures bringing in 19 eligible learners. It is going to be difficult for WEA to achieve the revised target figure of 150 learners in this contract area by the end of August 2010.
In the contract area covering the northern catchment of the NRC, WEA as at the end of December 2009 had achieved 9% of the revised original contracted target figures bringing in 9 eligible learners. It is going to be difficult for WEA to achieve the revised target figure of 100 learners in this contract area by the end of August 2010.
Based on performance to date the targets expected throughout 2010-2013 are displayed in the table at the end of this section.
Essential Skills
Fastrack to IT Northern Ireland (FITNI) was awarded the contracts for recruiting ‘hard to reach learners’ for the Learner Access and Engagement – Essential Skills programmes throughout the geographical areas covered by the Northern Regional College. FITNI holds these contracts until 31 August 2011.
Like WEA, FITNI was not able to commence work on the Essential Skills contracts until well into the 2008/09 college year. Development since then has been slow. The factors contributing to this seem to be: • A lack of understanding by FITNI at the early stages regarding the constraints of Essential Skills funding, resulting in inappropriate marketing and recruitment of Community centres and learners for short courses that fell outside the contracts. • Variation in the infrastructure provided by FITNI across the NRC contract areas. • Difficulties in communications between centres, FITNI and NRC. • Constraints at NRC in management and staffing resulting in low levels of responsiveness in some cases.
NRC meets with FITNI on both an operational and senior management level on a regular basis. Operational meetings serve to discuss and resolve operational practicalities. Senior management meetings serve to review the relationship, monitor progress on contract targets, overcome operational difficulties, and agree policies and processes.
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No enrolments were recorded in the 2008/09 year of contract, and by the start of the 2009/10 year, only 4% of the target of 600 enrolments across the three contract areas of NRC had been realised. As a result of a formal review of the contract in late 2009, a new target of 100 enrolments was set for the first half of the 2009/10 year. Near the conclusion of that period, about 50% of the target has been achieved, and so we do not anticipate more than 100 enrolments in the whole of the 2009/10 year for all NRC contract areas. Furthermore, almost all of the enrolments achieved and predicted are in the Essential Skill of ICT rather than Literacy or Numeracy.
11.2 LAE targets for 2010-11
2010/11 is the final year of the LAE contracts. A sound understanding of the issues, an agreed process and set of procedures, and a strong working relationship is being established. Enhanced levels of performance for 2010/2011 are anticipated resulting in a modest improvement in enrolments, as shown in the table below.
2010/11 2011/12 2012/13 Contract Contract completed completed Learner Access and Engagement – General FE: Enrolments 250 N/A N/A Retention 80% (200) N/A N/A Achievement 80% (160) N/A N/A Learner Access and Engagement - Essential Skills: Enrolments 200 N/A N/A Retention 75% (150) N/A N/A Achievement 85% (120) N/A N/A
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12. COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT 12.1 Improving Access Community education provision aimed at improving access for all learners, especially those with low or no qualifications, throughout the geographical areas serviced by the Northern Regional College is facilitated by a dedicated unit. The structure of this unit has been agreed as an interim measure for 20010/11 and its operation will be reviewed for appropriateness throughout that year. The dedicated community education unit is housed within the School of Hair & Beauty, Therapies, Access and Community. This ‘school’ in turn exists in the larger NRC ‘faculty’ structure within the Faculty of Social Care, Early Years, Hair & Beauty, Therapies, Access and Community. The Head of School [Principal lecturer], assisted by two Community Education Coordinators, manages operational issues and reports to and advises the Head of Faculty who is responsible for contributing to the strategic direction of this area of the curriculum through membership of the Curriculum Management Team headed up by the Deputy Director for Curriculum matters.
In the interim structure one Community Education Coordinator will assume responsibility for support in the management, administration and promotion of community education provision within the geographical areas contained within the Ballymoney, Carrickfergus, Coleraine, Larne and Moyle, Borough Council areas. The other Community Education Coordinator will assume responsibility for the same support of community education provision within the geographical areas within the Antrim, Ballymena, Magherafelt and Newtownabbey Borough Council areas. The two Community Education Coordinators will be supported by one full time dedicated administrative/ MIS support post.
The Head of Faculty with responsibility for community Education is a member of the two main neighbourhood renewal partnerships which represent the neighbourhood renewal areas [NRA’s] that exist within the catchment of the NRC, i.e the newly reformed Coleraine Neighbourhood Renewal Partnership [covering Coleraine Churchlands and Coleraine East NRA’s] and the Ballymena Partnership [covering the Ballee and Ballykeel NRA’s] Through membership of these partnerships The Head of Faculty acts as formal point of contact for the NRC and the other statutory providers and community representatives in these areas, to try and facilitate both vocational, leisure and essential skills provision throughout these communities. The community education coordinators in turn have a wealth of experience in these community areas gained from their previous roles within the NRC legacy colleges.
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Community Education provision consists of development and delivery of relevant programmes identified by the NRC Community Education Coordinators in partnership with all relevant outside bodies such as statutory agencies, community and voluntary groups, other educational establishments [excluding provision clearly covered by NRC Entitlement Framework arrangements], church groups, etc. This is not an exhaustive list of partners and generally the provision will be accommodated in locations outside of the NRC’s own premises as this is often appropriate for the type of learners being facilitated. Programmes are delivered by a dedicated team of full and part time tutors some of who have many years experience in this specialist type of curriculum delivery, and others new, but bringing specialist skills and knowledge to the team. The programmes facilitated are increasingly [but not wholly] accredited qualifications on the Qualifications and Credit Framework in vocational areas likely to promote employment prospects with learners who have low or no qualifications. The level of qualifications are reflected in this usually being at entry level, level 1 and level 2. The work of this dedicated community education unit is complemented by and currently facilitates the Learner Access and Engagement provision within the NRC geographical areas.
NRC’s Community Education Coordinators have a good knowledge of and background in promoting Essential Skills in the community, and there are very good working relationships between staff working in the dedicated community unit and in Essential Skills, which is housed within another school within the NRC Faculty structure. This means that access is promoted to college provision through community engagement, and referrals are regularly made to the School of Essential Skills to provide Essential Skills in community venues.
The Head of School and Faculty responsible for community education also work closely with the NRC Economic Engagement Centre to improve access to all learners within the communities that the NRC serves. A recent application by the Economic Engagement unit for funding from the Big Lottery has resulted in receipt of substantial funding to deliver programmes under the Northern Ireland ‘Live & Learn’ programme. This programme aims to increase learning opportunities and promote well-being among Northern Ireland’s most disadvantaged communities. Through this program the Big Lottery makes grants available to voluntary and community sector partnerships or to partnerships between the statutory and voluntary and community sectors. Live and Learn funds projects that offer families and communities a chance to develop new skills at different stages in their lives. NRC Economic Engagement Centre has secured funding, for the next five years, for this program as the lead partner in the newly established Magherafelt Lifelong Learning Community. This ‘Community’ consists of: • The five post primary schools in the Magherafelt District Council area (i.e. St Mary’s Grammar, Rainey Endowed Grammar, Magherafelt High School, St. Pius X College and Sperrin Integrated College)
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• Magherafelt District Council • Oakleaf Rural Community Network • Magherafelt and Cookstown Volunteer Centre • Magherafelt Business Forum • Northern Investing for Health Partnership • Educational Guidance and Support for Adults (EGSA) • DADS (Dyslexia and Dyspraxia Support) The general aim of the partnership is to ensure that the people and communities of Magherafelt and Antrim [NB project extends to his area in year 2]; particularly target groups of the project are genuinely engaged in decisions in relation to the development, implementation and review of the project. NRC sit on the partnership and as lead partner have recruited and employed a Project Manager to liaise with the learning community in the delivery of learning programmes for the community. The project manager is now subsumed within the line management of the Head of School and Faculty responsible for community education within the NRC, and it is planned that the work of the project is linked with the general delivery of the community education unit and to use the lessons from the project’s experience to inform future development of community provision throughout the whole of the NRC.
12.2 Targets for Community Education provision and Performance Measures
2010/11 Community Education – General Vocational & Recreational [Non Essential Skills & excluding Learner Access & Engagement] Enrolments 700 Retention 560 [80%] Achievement 448 [80%]
12.3 Cultural Diversity
The College’s response to issues of cultural diversity is primarily focussed through the Equality Unit which was established within the Finance Directorate during 2009. The main purpose of this Unit is to mainstream and embed equality throughout the College so as to ensure that equality is at the heart of all NRC business. Mainstreaming requires that all those planning, implementing and evaluating service delivery, properly consider the effects of policies and decisions on the nine equality groupings. The Equality Unit’s mission is to ensure that the College provides a supportive, fair, inclusive and
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welcoming environment for all staff, students and visitors free from any form of discrimination or harassment.
The College continues to mainstream Equality and Good Relations in a variety of ways. Key developments during 2009/10 were • The development of an Equality Action Plan which was approved by Governing Body and progressed and monitored throughout the year. • The establishment of a new Policy Development Process to ensure that the College provides an auditable trail in terms of development, equality screening approval, implementation and review of College policies. • The re-establishment of a College Equality Working Group to mainstream the equality duties throughout the organisation. • The awareness raising with staff via training and the production and distribution of an Equality Information Booklet. • The continued collaborative working with fellow Colleges, other public authorities and voluntary organisations in progressing the Equality duties. • The increased interaction with students through induction, fresher’s week and production of student film.
In 2010/11 the Equality Unit will develop a further action plan which will focus on: • Further training and communication to promote equality – through awareness raising events and e-learning. • Embedding equality within curriculum provision through the personal tutorial programme and rolling out of the student equality and diversity film. • Consulting with relevant stakeholders in a more efficient and effective way. • Continuing to implement and progress the College’s Disability Action Plan.
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13. ADDITIONAL LEARNING NEEDS
13.1 SLDD discrete provision
Within the NRC discrete provision for Students with Learning Difficulties and or Disabilities (SLDD) is housed within the School of Hair & Beauty, Therapies, Access and Community. This ‘school’ in turn exists in the larger NRC ‘faculty’ structure within the Faculty of Social Care, Early Years, Hair & Beauty, Therapies, Access and Community. The Head of School [Principal lecturer] assisted by a senior lecturer, manages operational issues and reports to and advises the Head of Faculty who is responsible for contributing to the strategic direction of this area of the curriculum through membership of the Curriculum Management Team headed up by the Deputy Director for Curriculum matters.
The curriculum review which was undertaken in 2009 took into consideration the possibility of standardising the full and part time SLDD provision throughout the NRC. As part of this process the management team has sought the views of many stakeholders including existing NRC lecturing staff with experience of working with students and parents of current students with learning difficulties and or disabilities. The College cooperated with the Education and Training Inspectorate (ETI) in 2008/09 with a view to building on the best practice established by the various legacy colleges in order to enable a common approach to provision in this area. Through an ongoing business improvement planning process NRC is currently evaluating models for delivery of its discrete full time SLDD provision. Throughout 2009/10 progress has been made towards harmonising all inherited provision from the legacy colleges with an anticipation that this process will continue into 2010/11, paying cognisance to the reform of vocationally related qualifications through the introduction of learning programmes to the Qualifications’ Credit Framework. The Head of Faculty is a member of an NRC project board set up with guidance from LSDA to manage the introduction of the QCF and the implications for learning programmes throughout 2010/11 and beyond.
The planning, delivery and recruitment to the curriculum offer in this area will continue to be developed in conjunction with stakeholders including the Northern Health and Social Care Trust. The Head of the School in the NRC responsible for discrete provision for students with learning difficulties and or disabilities is a member of the Fuller Adult Lives Subgroup, set up by the Northern Health and Social Care trust to carry out the recommendations of the Bamford Review.
The long established links will be maintained with centres including Mountfern, Millbrook Resource Centre, Armour Day Centre and Rathmoyle Resource Centre in the Ballymoney and Coleraine areas, Castletower and Kilronan Special Schools in the Ballymena and Magherafelt areas, and centres
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including, Hillcroft, Rostulla, Riverside and Jordanstown Special Schools for the curriculum in the Newtownabbey and Antrim areas. In addition to links with the special schools in all areas there are well established links with mainstream schools with many students progressing from special units or lower streamed classes.
In the Ballymoney and Coleraine area there are long established links with Sandleford Special School especially in relation to Maketon training and students are recruited with the assistance of the local Special Needs Careers advisor. There is also a recent link with Mencap (who in a two year transition project advise students on what provision is available in the area) parental information events are established in Coleraine and these events have now been extended to cover the Antrim area.
Students with learning difficulties and or disabilities, in particular students with moderate and severe learning difficulties who are unable to access mainstream provision may currently undertake learning through different programme models including Training for Success (TfS) and full and part time FE funded provision. The TfS provision through the Personal Development strand of ‘Skills for your Life’ is internally branded ‘Route to work’ and is offered at the Newtownabbey campus. In addition TfS Skills for Work is currently offered on the Antrim, Ballymena, Magherafelt and Newtownabbey campuses. The full time FE funded model is branded ‘Routeways’ is currently offered at the Ballymoney Campus. Programmes for learners, delivered through both of these training and FE models, include elements of a vocational nature, employability training, essential skills in literacy and numeracy as well as a recreational aspect and appropriate support through tutorial provision.
A part time programme entitled ‘Pathways to Working Life’ which includes study towards Essential Skills, BTEC entry level certificates in Life Skills and Skills for Working Life is targeted at young adults who have left school and is offered at the Newtownabbey Campus. The ‘Horizons’ programme which has been developed in conjunction with the local day centres is also at Newtownabbey.
The ’Post 19 Years Special Needs’ provision offered in the Antrim Ballymena and Magherafelt campuses enables students aged 19+ to follow a programme aimed at developing their skills for life and employability, for one day per week. Collaboration with the Day Opportunities Team and Triangle Supported Employment has resulted in candidates joining the ‘Wider Choices Programme’ which has replaced the ‘Adult Skills Training’ (AST) programmes originally set up in conjunction with day opportunities within the Northern Trust. Candidates come to the course on the recommendation of the Day Opportunity Coordinator with a desired outcome of achieving independent travel and to be in a position to take up employment on completion. ‘Wider Choices’ programmes are now operating in the Antrim, Ballymena, Ballymoney, Magherafelt, and Newtownabbey campuses.
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All programmes offered in this curriculum area within the NRC endeavour to enhance the learners’ employability prospects through achievement of essential skills qualifications and accredited courses that are on the National Vocational Qualifications framework, with many of these already having been replaced with qualifications that are on the Qualifications Credit Framework, including City & Guilds Awards & Certificates in Employability & Personal Development and Personal Progression through Practical Life Skills. In addition provision in NRC offers learners opportunities for work experience or realistic working environments where they can sample employment in vocational areas.
Determination of such provision has been developed over a number of years by experienced and dedicated teams of staff who have successfully delivered the programmes assisted by relationships that have been established with both special and mainstream schools in the area. The Head of School also sits on a committee with the NEELB Transition Team, for an annual careers event aimed specifically at pupils from mainstream and special schools. The NRC would be one of the major exhibitors at this event each year.
13.2 SLDD mainstream provision
The College welcomes applications from people with a disability, learning difficulty and/or medical difficulty and endeavours to provide any specific equipment or technology required to assist study. Individual support is provided for those students who have a specific learning difficulty such as dyslexia or dyspraxia, or who have a visual impairment, speech or other communication difficulty.
The Education Support section has qualified staff who respond to student needs during the admissions process as well as on course. All students declaring an education support need are invited to a confidential interview with a member of the Education Support section. Where appropriate, evidence of the particular disability and assessment of need is obtained e.g. a psychological assessment or doctor's letter. Individual requirements are negotiated – depending on the nature of the disability this could include adjustments to teaching rooms; the provision of modified teaching materials; and the provision of concessions for examinations such as rest breaks or the aid of an amanuensis (scribe).
The Education Support section continues to maintain links with the Statutory and Voluntary organisations to ensure a continuum of appropriate support. There is close liaison with the Education and Library Board Transition Teams in order to advise and set up appropriate support for prospective students transferring from school.
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The Education Support section works closely with the Essential Skills teams to provide support for students if they have any difficulties with study skills or problems with numeracy and literacy. These skills are vital to ensure understanding, progression in their curriculum area and full participation in the social life of the College. Some students may be required to attend support courses as a condition of enrolment on a main programme of study. A cross-College multidisciplinary team focusing on aspects of Level 1 provision has been established to facilitate increased awareness of the support services and integration with curriculum.
13.3 Careers Education, Information, Advice and Guidance
The Careers Education, Information, Advice and Guidance service resides within the Education Support section in order to foster an independent and inclusive ethos for student guidance. The aim is to offer holistic support to students.
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14. INFORMATION & LEARNING TECHNOLOGY
14.1 MIAP confirmation (see Section 6.2) 14.2 ILT progress
Northern Regional College’s ILT Strategy for 2010-11 has the following aims:
1. Developing a capable and sustainable infrastructure that provides an equal and high quality service to all campuses and students. 2. Developing staff skills in ILT in conjunction with developing pedagogical expertise. 3. Developing student skills in ILT for learning and employment. 4. Supporting students in their learning and staff in their management and monitoring of student progress. 5. Provide a student-driven environment where course content is delivered at the learners’ optimum pace and blended learning is an accepted norm in which ILT is a commonplace and integral support to learning.
Priorities for 2010-11 will be:
1. To implement and build upon the recommendations made following recent ETI inspections and the RSCNi HealthCheck 2. Implementation of electronic registers as a means of monitoring and improving attendance and retention 3. The embedding of the NRC’s e-ilp and its development for student support services 4. To further develop dedicated technical support to assist staff in the development of appropriate and relevant ILT resources to enhance teaching and learning across all vocational areas 5. Use ILT staff development to • Enable course teams to develop good ILT pedagogy, share best practice, promote consistency across all vocational areas and campuses. • Embed the college VLE as a course team activity in the majority of course provision, including the use of its communications and e-assessment facilities.
In Jan 2010 the RSCNi carried out a full ILT HealthCheck and graded the College against the fourteen IQRS Appendix B3 markers. Their assessment has been accepted by the College as the new baseline to work from. In the academic year 2010-11 NRC is aiming to achieve the levels shown with a view to attaining embedded status in all areas if possible.
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IQ:RS Dimensions NRC Jan 10 NRC June 11 (RSCNi Baseline) Strategic Management Embedded Embedded Operational Management of ILT Transformative Embedded Curriculum Development Transformative Transformative Staff Development Transformative Embedded Learning Resources Management Transformative Embedded ILT Support Systems Transformative Transformative Physical Resources Transformative Embedded Record Keeping Transformative Embedded ILT Quality Improvement Transformative Embedded External Links Transformative Transformative Learner Achievements Coordinated Transformative Teaching and Learning Transformative Embedded Assessment Embedded Embedded Learning Experiences Transformative Embedded
In some cases the January 2010 baseline is a general indication of the level of development, consolidation at this level may be required.
14.3 ETI Inspection issues in relation to ILT
The College has had several recent inspections and surveys which covered ILT provision as follows:
October 2008 – Evaluation of Strategic and Operational Planning for ILT – Phase 2; May 2009 – Inspection of PSA Level 2 Programmes; September 2009 - Evaluation of Strategic and Operational Planning for ILT – Phase 3; December 2009 – Survey: Evaluation of the Effectiveness of the Processes for Admissions and Enrolment and the Provision of Learning Guidance and Support for 16-19 Learners.
While the outcomes in relation to ILT provision were good, a number of areas for improvement were identified. These areas and the action taken by the College are listed below. The actions are also reflected in the priorities for 2010/11 listed above.
• Provision of further staff development in ILT pedagogy and the sharing of best practice.
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In addition to its programme of staff development in ILT, the College has used its ILT Co- ordinator and 8 ILT advisers to target the areas where support is needed and this support has then been delivered by the ILT advisers. As advisers come from the various areas of the curriculum they are able to set all development work in the context of the relevant curriculum area and to provide a channel for the dissemination of good practice. Advisers have worked with individuals and groups.
• Provision of time and dedicated technical support to assist staff to enhance teaching and learning through ILT The College established a specialist support post to provide technical support, particularly in relation to the use of the VLE but also to support the e-ISLA and the introduction of the e-ILP. This has proved to be a very effective way of supporting teaching staff and the College is extending the duration of the post.
• Focused use of the e-ISLA to engage students more effectively in their own learning The College established a small, multi-disciplinary team to revamp the tutorial process and in particular to provide a scheme of work within which the e-ISLA became the central means of delivering the tutorial programme. This has now been updated with the implementation of the e-ILP and the scheme is being used by course teams to engage students in setting targets and monitoring and evaluating their own progress.
• Inequitable access to appropriate computer facilities The College inherited different levels of access to IT on its various campuses and has been trying to ensure greater equality of access across the campuses and vocational areas. This process has not been helped by financial constraints which have curtailed the purchase of new equipment. The College has, however, put in place a number of measures to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of IT use and plans to extend this approach in 2010/11. Specifically the College has brought together small clusters of computers to form additional IT rooms, set up a timetabling group to plan the central timetabling of IT rooms, established a set of timetabling criteria to improve access to IT rooms, redone schemes of work to identify times when access to IT is necessary and times when it isn’t and ensured access to IT for Essential Skills and tutorial classes.
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15. ESTATES PLANNING & MANAGEMENT
15.1 Key Estates objective
The key estates objective for NRC is ‘the establishment and progression of an approved estates strategy appropriate to the strategic development of the College’. The College is currently preparing a Strategic Outline Case which will develop an estates strategy in order to address the problems which have been inherited by the Northern Regional College from its legacy colleges. The SOC is being prepared in conjunction with the Southern Regional College (SRC) in order to provide the most cost effective solution.
Within this outline case the following objectives have been identified:-
Adequacy of existing estate – to improve the fabric of the overall estate and facilities available in both regions by addressing underinvestment in legacy campuses;
Scale and functionality – to provide accommodation that is consistent with projected enrolments and the associated spatial requirements in accordance with the DEL Schedule of Accommodation;
Condition of facilities – to provide high quality college facilities that is fully compliant with the requirements of current and future health and safety legislation;
Fitness for purpose – to provide accommodation that is fit for purpose to deliver further and higher education programmes and which creates an ambience and learning environment that is appropriate to the age profile of students and is also suitable to demands (including specialist needs) of the subjects being taught;
Equality of access and location – to ensure facilities are accessible to all in line with government policy on social inclusion and social need and meets the requirements of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 and that the location of accommodation is acceptable to all members of the community;
Affordability - to ensure estates provision is affordable and sustainable in line with financial forecasts and achieves value for money;
Rationalisation and cost effective use of accommodation – to examine the potential for the rationalisation of college accommodation and to optimise operational efficiencies, eradicate duplication of resources and the sub optimal use of space;
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Enhancing College image and reputation - To provide a learning environment that will be attractive to students and staff and will enhance the image and reputation of the colleges on both a regional and national level through:
• Visibility of location
• Quality of design and build; and
• Quality of location frontage Flexibility – the accommodation should be sufficiently flexible to allow for changes in future enrolments, including expansion or downsizing, changes to course provision and developments in teaching methods;
Ease of implementation - to provide the accommodation in a manner that minimises disruption to the education of students during the implementation phase and allows for continuity of provision; and
Environmental sustainability - to incorporate and promote sustainable and environmentally friendly features into new and refurbished college buildings to reduce waste, energy and other environmental costs.
The SOC has also identified the space FTE’s for 2008/09 and 2009/10 to date for all campuses and their respective outputs in Net FTEs. A detailed analyses has also been undertaken of the accommodation demand on each site by SoA Vocational Area (see Appendix7).
15.2 Accommodation Utilisation
Utilisation of NRC accommodation has been measured in two ways:- 1) Using the DEL /ETi Schedule of Accommodation 2) Measurement of occupancy of every teaching area in the College estate by Day of week Each day Monday to Saturday Monday to Friday Times • Each Hour • 8am to 5pm • 8am to 5pm • 9am to 4pm • 4pm to 7pm • 5pm to 7pm
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• 7pm to 9pm • 5pm to 9.30 pm
Any combination of the above parameters and trends in the utilisation from 2008/09 academic year onwards are available for analysis purposes.
The data collected will enable reliable analysis of future accommodation needs.
15.3 Cost analysis of existing estate
A complete cost analysis of the existing estate has been undertaken. Where data was available, the costs of the estate have been benchmarked against those of other colleges in the sector. This benchmarking exercise has indicated that NRC costs are higher per square metre than average within the sector and that the size of the estate is not commensurate with the measured activity levels (4)
Estate efficiency measures which have been calculated include:- • Insurance premium per 1000m² • Property costs per m² • Property costs per FTE • Property costs per space FTE • Property costs as a % of total operating costs • Reactive maintenance as a % of total maintenance • Energy costs per campus • Energy costs per m²
15.4 Planned maintenance programme
A planned maintenance survey was carried out by the constituent Institutes which now make up the NRC as part of respective Economic Appraisals. From the respective surveys general and specific needs were identified. These are summarised below.
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Northern Regional College existing campuses
Campus: sq. metres Condition Notes: (1) Antrim 6,569 High non DDA compliance (1) Ballymena, Café Lamont 1,031 Fit for purpose (1) Ballymena, Farm Lodge 11,808 High maintenance burden (1) Ballymena, Trostan Avenue 7,941 Not fit for purpose (2) Ballymoney 5,951 Not fit for purpose (2) Coleraine 7,274 DDA and fit for purpose limitations (3) Larne 1,123 Fit for purpose (1) Magherafelt 5,903 Fit for purpose (3) Newtownabbey, Felden 8,389 High maintenance burden (3) Newtownabbey 17,915 New extension plus refurbishment (2) Portrush 448 Not fit for purpose Total 74,352
Notes: (1) North East Institute Economic Appraisal – June 2006 (2) Causeway Institute Economic Appraisal – June 2004 (3) East Antrim Institute Economic Appraisal – November 2004
The NRC is completing a Business Improvement Plan which identifies the extent of the Estate required for effective and efficient delivery of its projected portfolio of education and training. This plan will inform the College as to the profile of a planned maintenance programme which matches the utilisation profile of its present buildings over the next five years.
The College continues to operate (1) a planned maintenance programme which enables it to satisfy statutory requirements and which minimises risk to its core business across all sites, (2) a planned maintenance programme informed by an annual survey of all the accommodation in the college. The College is challenged in providing an appropriately maintained estate due to large number of widely dispersed campuses with the duplication of services this entails and the wide variation in standard of the accommodation. Indeed it was noted that there was a ‘need to monitor and address the wide variation in the quality and upkeep of the accommodation’ (ETi Report of an Interim Follow-up Inspection in Provision for Priority Skills Area Level 2 Programmes).
The significant cost entailed in both reactive and planned maintenance of an aging estate is a particular issue within the tight financial environment in which the College is currently operating.
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15.5 Schedule of Accommodation
A full Schedule of Accommodation for all campuses for 2009/10 has been prepared. A schedule of accommodation modelling facility which enables accommodation options identified under the SOC to be analysed for efficient use of accommodation, is being used.
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16. WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT
The College is committed to the appropriate development of it’s workforce to achieve its full potential, move towards excellence and achieve its strategic objectives and targets.
Workforce development is a means to ensure that the College, as an organisation, has a workforce that is adequately equipped with the knowledge, skills, expertise, competencies and working practices to perform at a high level in their current and future work roles. It will ensure that the present and future staffing needs of the college are met, and will build a ‘learning organisation’ by facilitating the learning, growth and continued development of all staff. The aim is that College continuous professional development should ultimately be linked to the College corporate targets and the raising of quality standards in all areas.
The College makes use of a number of ‘tools’ to help it identify the training needs of all staff. The online ‘Skills Audit’ carried out across the sector during 2008/ 2009 for all teaching and support staff with the assistance of the Learning and Skills Development Agency (LSDA) was a main source of data. Training needs were also identified through information extracted from Self Evaluation Reports, External Verifier Reports, RSCni Health Checks, ILT Strategy, Eti inspection and survey visits, College Quality Improvement Plan and the Essential Skills Quality Improvement Plan. The outcomes from internal audit reports into key services of the College have also highlighted training needs. Training needs have also resulted from staff redeployment due to the restructuring process.
The skills needs identified by the Economic Engagement Department through it’s activities outlined in Section 10 also informs the Continuous Professional Development (CPD) strategy within NRC. This ensures that staff have the competence required to meet industry needs. NRC also takes advantage of the staff development opportunities available through LSDA such as ‘Lecturers into Industry’ to support this strategy.
The re- introduction of staff appraisal schemes for both support and teaching staff from 2009 onwards will be an additional source of information relating to the training and development needs of all staff within the College.
Having identified the extensive range of training needs through the methods indicated above, it is necessary to prioritise it’s workforce development programmes in order to deploy resources as effectively and efficiently as possible and to ensure that DEL policy requirements are met. Key priority areas over the next three years are;
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• Quality of learning and teaching • Economic engagement • ILT and e-learning • Implementation of the Essential Skill in IT • Reform of Vocational Qualifications (VQRP) • Leadership & Management • Teacher Training qualifications
The Deputy Director Support and Development and Head of Quality Improvement work closely with LLUKNI in the development of the National Occupational Standards for Learning and Delivery which underpin qualifications. The launch of the new LLUKNI Professional Standards for Teachers, Tutors and Trainers in May 2009 has had, and will have an effect on the workforce development relating to teaching and learning. This can most readily be seen in the introduction of the new two year Post Graduate Certificate in Education provided by the University of Ulster based on these standards. The College has a statutory requirement to ensure that all permanent teaching staff employed by the College have a recognised teaching qualification; therefore attendance at the University is a mandatory requirement for teaching staff without such a qualification. Internally within the College staff development events will be held to raise awareness of the new standards and in particular the core values that underpin these; work has already commenced on this.
Workforce development in relation to the VQRP has already commenced within the College. A number of in-house awareness raising sessions were held during 2008 / 2009 attended by staff from across all areas of the College; there was also attendance at Awarding Body events. A series of ‘QCF Readiness’ events were held across all campuses from November 2009 to January 2010; these have been facilitated by the Learning Skills Development Agency and Council for the Curriculum, Examination and Assessment. There will be ongoing engagement with individual Awarding Bodies to support course teams and vocational areas as they move to the new framework over the next three years.
As part of the Essential Skills agenda there is a commitment by the College to up - skill staff to ensure effective delivery of the Essential Skill in ICT. This has already commenced in 2009 / 2010 and will be continued in a planned way over the next two years.
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The College is committed to developing its workforce and will allocate £145,000 to the budget for direct staff training and development. In addition the College will allocate a minimum of £150,000 for internal staff development.
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17. DATA MANAGEMENT
NRC recognises the need for effective data management and is undertaking a programme of activities to evaluate the timeliness and accuracy of the College’s data. The programme of activities includes the following:
(i) Quality Assurance exercises including audits to verify that data on information systems reflects what is happening in the classroom (ii) Development of extensive exception reports to identify potentially inaccurate data (iii) Review of processes and procedures to identify best practice and inconsistencies and develop efficient, consistent, clear and unambiguous processes and procedures that are in line with DEL policy for the merged NRC (iv) Review of the current software to ensure it is being used effectively (v) Review of timescales relating to the receipt and production of data by MIS and exams (vi) Review existing reports and delivery methods available to assist staff in obtaining data they require and where appropriate and possible identify data required on a regular basis and push this out to staff.
This programme of activity will continue during 2011/12 and will be complemented with a programme of monitoring activities to ensure timeliness and accuracy of data is maintained at as high a level possible subject to the resources available.
During 2010/11 and continuing through 2011/12 and into 2012/13 the college will take the following steps:
(i) Continued development of an Information Services team under the direction of an Information Services Manager to deliver the reporting and data analysis services required by the college. (ii) Review of all provision across all college activity (curriculum, support, management and governance) to identify data management related Key Performance indicators (KPIs) including those to monitor and maintain effectiveness of business processes, and increasingly move towards data management by exception. (iii) Improved communication across all areas of college activity promoting a greater understanding of each area’s role and how decisions made by one area can impact on others and hence the whole College.
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(iv) Extending reporting and data analysis services across all college data (e.g. using timetabling information to report to estates on close to real-time use of college estates facilities). (v) Developing a college data warehouse to assist with trend analysis, future predictions and delivery of data in a format relevant to the recipient of the data.
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18. FINANCE
Financial Performance
The College reports its performance based on a financial year from 1 August to 31 July. Figure1 summarises the financial performance of the College since merger. The figures are sourced from the audited financial statements of each college.
ACTUAL 2009 ACTUAL 2008 £’000 £’000
Income DEL grants 23,788 27,642 Education contracts 5,581 4,281 Tuition fees and charges 1,819 2,310 Other income 1,115 1,315
Total Income 32,303 35,548
Expenditure Staff costs 24,045 24,348 Other operating expenses 8,997 9,577 Net depreciation 436 578 Exceptional items 130 1,704
Total Expenditure 33,608 36,207
(Deficit)\Surplus -1,305 -659
Reserve Opening reserve at 1 August 3,781 4,273 Historical cost surplus for the year -1,305 -659 Notional charge in I&E 459 167 released to pension reserve
Reserve at 31 July 2,935 3,781
Figure 1.
Income and Expenditure
Income for the College for 2009 decreased by 9% from 2008. However expenditure, excluding exceptional costs, has decreased by approximately 3% since 2008. The main decrease in costs has been the decrease in staff costs realised as a result of rationalisation following merger.
An “Organisational Benchmarking and Consultancy Review” was commissioned by the Temporary Executive Committee of the newly created Northern Regional College. This Review was carried out by Tribal Education Limited in May 2007. The report stated:
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“Northern Regional College needs to instigate staff cost expenditure controls and Tribal estimates that efficiency savings in this area of at least £0.75m will be required in 2007/8 to redress the balance and offset the impact of DEL funding reductions (8% sector wide)”.
The consultation with stakeholders required during the restructuring process delayed the implementation of the proposed management structure and the savings identified as required by Tribal were not realised in 2007/08. However 21 redundant posts were identified in 2007/08 and the resulting redundancies realised savings of approximately £0.8m in 2008/09.
Income from the Entitlement Framework Programme has risen from a combined income of £800k in 2005/06 when the programme was first mainstreamed to an income of approximately £1.5million for the year 2008/09. The introduction of this programme and its rapid development has raised challenging staffing and accommodation issues for the College.
Income from Training programmes contributes more than £4million annually to the College income.
Income from commercial bespoke courses (cost recovery courses) was almost £0.4million in 2008/09, reflecting the College’s commitment to the “FE Means Business” strategy.
Financial Issues Facing Northern Regional College
The following are a list of the key issues facing Northern Regional College:
• Decreasing income from DEL recurrent grant;
• Increasing staff costs;
• Increasing fuel and transport costs;
• Withdrawal of DEL financial support for IT, Estates and Redundancy costs;
• Extensive accommodation is not “fit for purpose” and therefore College is carrying unnecessary estates costs;
• Funding concerns over Training and Entitlement Framework Programmes;
• Decreasing part time market;
• Uncertainty of effect of economic downturn on ability to generate new cost recovery income.
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Key Financial Strategy for 2010/13
The key financial strategy adopted for 2007/08 was to maintain a break-even position for “normal operations”, and the use of reserves to fund “exceptional merger costs”. This strategy has been adhered to.
For 2008/09 the strategy was to realise the savings of the redundancies identified in 2007/08 and to maintain all other costs. This includes reducing the level of part time lecturing costs to allow for staffing efficiencies.
The strategy for 2009/10 was to realise the savings required to implement the new Lecturers’ contract and hold all other costs. In particular, there was to be minimum investment in IT infrastructure and estates maintenance.
A Due Diligence report was commissioned by the Temporary Executive Committee in 2007 prior to merger. This report was carried out by Grant Thornton and highlighted the following areas of concern for the Northern Regional College:
- Estates - Staffing - Affordability
The Governing Body commissioned an update of the Due Diligence Report in April 2009 to assess progress in addressing the issues identified in the original Due Diligence Report. The findings identified that whilst the College had controlled costs effectively through a re-structuring process, the underlying estates problems of not-fit–for–purpose accommodation and duplication of provision and services was having a negative financial impact on the College. Following dialogue with the Department for Employment and Learning, a five year Business Improvement Plan was commissioned in September 2009. This plan is scheduled to be submitted to DEL in February 2010. The financial strategy for 2010/2015 will be identified in this plan.
The financial impact of the strategy is compared to the current risks facing the College, as defined in the College Risk Register. The results of this comparison are detailed in table 1 Risk and Financial Impact overleaf.
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Table 1: Risk and Financial Impact
Ref. Risk Financial Impact 1 Financial constraints resulting in The College could face reducing services not being effectively reserves and cash balance to nil, and delivered or DEL break-even target therefore restricting the ability of the not being achieved College to deliver DEL policy. The College could also incur financial costs of financing debt arising from such a position. 2 The Staff Profile will not support The College is being constrained by College objectives high short term costs, e.g. redundancy costs, in its ability to change the profile of its staffing complement. 3 The College Estate is not fit for The College is incurring unnecessary purpose to meet College objectives costs for duplication of provision and services as a result of inappropriate accommodation. 4 Training Programme not achieving The College has to subsidise the targets in a cost effective manner delivery of Training Programmes from the funding received for FE/HE programmes. 5 Changes to DEL Policy and Related Any changes to DEL policy, or funding Funding could affect the outcome of decisions being taken by the College to achieve financial stability. Also the need to achieve financial stability may affect the College’s ability to fully deliver DEL policy. 6 Decline in PT enrolments Impacts on the fees generated, the ability to fully utilise current staff and an over-reliance on FT students. 7 Lack of Contingency Planning Could result in unexpected financial costs.
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APPENDICES
Appendix 1 Strategic Objectives and Corporate Targets
Appendix 2 NRC Current Economic Engagement (Workforce Development) 2009-10
Appendix 3 NRC Current Economic Engagement (Enterprise) 2009-10
Appendix 4 Self Evaluation Report ~ Whole College 2008 – 2009
Appendix 5 Quality Improvement Plan 2009-10 – 2012-13
Appendix 6 Planning & Review Cycle
Appendix 7 Estates floor area and FTE per Campus
Appendix 8 Governing Body Strategic Review
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Appendix 1: Strategic Objectives and Corporate Targets
Strategic Objective Targets 2009/10 1 Develop and support the continuous improvement of the quality of (i) Implement action plans arising from all quality inspections and the entire student learning experience. prepare for 2009/10 inspections.
(ii) Review mechanisms for student feedback and representation, identify and begin implementation of actions for improvement.
(ii) Implement an agreed programme to recognise and promote student achievement at all levels. 2 Develop and deliver a curriculum and associated provision which is (I) Complete Phase 2 of curriculum review for input to 5 year aligned to the needs of business, industry and the community. Financial Plan.
(ii) Achieve FLU targets in CDP.
(iii) Agree sector performance indicators for retention, success and achievement and achieve above sector average in each.
(iv) Re-design College’s curriculum in line with requirements of Vocational Qualifications Reform Programme.
(v) Implement NRC Economic Engagement Strategy across the College including response to Economic Downturn.
(vi) Implement and review new Lecturers’ Contract. 3 Establish support and embed an organisational and management (i) Vision and values to be disseminated as part of revised culture in line with the College’s vision and values. communication Strategy.
(ii) Establish Self-Evaluation procedures for all support services to
complement curriculum procedures and incorporate outcomes in
planning process.
(iii) Achieve Investors in People accreditation in line with agreed
timetable.
(iv) Implement an agreed programme of equality and diversity
awareness for all students and staff.
(v) Extend principles of risk identification and recording to the management of all College departments.
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4 Implement the approved ILT Strategy and address data (i) ILT Strategy to be reviewed and Action Plan for 2009/10 to be management issues across all areas of the College activity. implemented.
(ii) Implement College Planning calendar and review all data requirements in relation to timing and accuracy.
(iii) Agree with sector future MIS system support and development. 5 Establish and progress an approved estates strategy appropriate to (i) Economic appraisal to be completed in association with 5 year the strategic development of the College. Financial Plan.
(ii) Agree timetable to progress College Estates Strategy including new build.
(iii) Support completion of Newtownabbey new build and prepare for occupancy in Summer 2010. 6 Ensure financial stability in order to support the achievement of the (i) Complete and gain DEL approval for 5 year Financial Plan. College’s strategic agenda. (ii) Deliver agreed financial targets for 2009/10.
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Appendix 2: Northern Regional College Current Economic Engagement (Workforce Development)
Northern Regional College Current Economic Engagement (Workforce Development) 2009-2010 Economic Area Details of Activities Employer links / Forum Links Targeted outcomes / timescales Engineering Delivery of the Business Improvement Ryobi Training of employees at all levels in Techniques –B-IT NVQ Training Programme the organisation to enhance team performance and improve productivity.
Progress 9 Employees Completed B-IT Training 09/10/09
Second Cohort started 12/10/2009
Engineering Delivery of the Business Improvement Dale Farm Training of employees at all levels in Techniques –B-IT NVQ Training Programme the organisation to enhance team performance and improve productivity
10 Employees completed Jan. 2010
Engineering Delivery of the Business Improvement Spring farm Architectural Training of employees at all levels in Techniques –B-IT NVQ Training Programme the organisation to enhance team Mouldings Limited performance and improve productivity
Programme 1 started October 2009
Estimated End Date February 2010
8 Employees to be up skilled
Engineering Delivery of the Business Improvement O’Kane’s Poultry Training of employees at all levels in Techniques –B-IT NVQ Training Programme the organisation to enhance team performance and improve productivity
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DEL provisional offer funding 20 employees
Started: Jan 2010
Engineering Delivery of the Business Improvement Wrightbus Training of employees at all levels in Techniques –B-IT NVQ Training Programme the organisation to enhance team performance and improve productivity
DEL provisional offer funding 20 employees
Start Date: Jan 2010 Engineering Delivery of the Business Improvement Michelin Training of employees at all levels in Techniques –B-IT NVQ Training Programme the organisation to enhance team performance and improve productivity
Started Jan 2010
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Engineering Delivery of an up-skilling project aimed at FG Wilson NRC to design and deliver an up- functionally qualifying employees across a skilling project to 132 employees; range of disciplines to NVQ Level 2 and 3 standards. All delivery conducted will be • NVQ Level 2 - 76 Candidates mapped across to Cat UK training provision. • NVQ Level 3 – 56 Candidates
Functional Areas • Mechanical Assembly • Electrical Test • Electrical Assembly • Paint • Fabrication and Welding • Machine Operator Engineering Delivery of a Testing and Code Welding SDC Trailers 6 employees up-skilled in Testing and Training Proposal Code Welding
3 Days Testing onsite at SDC • Horizontal Vertical Fillet
welds – 10mm and 6mm low carbon steel • Lap Weld- 10mm and 6mm low carbon steel
• Vertical down fillet- 6mm low carbon steel
4 Days Weld Testing at NRC Felden • All fillet weld test subjected to Nick Break and Macro Etch destructive testing • All butt weld subjected to root bend destructive testing
Engineering Delivery of a Testing and Code Welding MDF Engineering 6 employees up-skilled in Testing and Training Proposal Code Welding
3 Days Testing onsite at SDC • Horizontal Vertical Fillet
welds – 10mm and 6mm low carbon steel • Lap Weld- 10mm and 6mm
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low carbon steel • Vertical down fillet- 6mm low carbon steel
4 Days Weld Testing at NRC Felden
• All fillet weld test subjected to Nick Break and Macro Etch destructive testing • All butt weld subjected to root bend destructive testing
Business and Delivery of Food Safety Level 2 training Northern Childcare Partnership 30 employees across a range of programme to a range of employees within a Childcare organisations to undertake Hospitality Childcare Setting the CIEH Food Safety Level 2 qualification.
Start Date group 1 : September 2009 - 15 employees Start Date group 2 : February 2009- 15 employees
Community Delivery of a range of training programmes Northern Childcare Partnership 45 Childcare professionals to be up- aimed at up-skilling Childcare professionals skilled in the areas of storytelling, arts including storytelling, arts and crafts and and crafts and creativity between creativity workshops. October 2009 and March 2010.
th Start Date: 12 October 2009 End Date: 28th March 2010
Health and Social Delivery of a Vocationally Related Qualification Northern Health and Social Pilot Project (VRQ) Level 2 Health and Social Care 18 employees across a range of Care Progression Certificate aimed at providing lower Care Trust occupations within the health care level skilled employees within the Health Care sector to undergo the progression sector the opportunity to up-skill. certificate as a mechanism to
progress and up-skill in new areas.
Start Date : January 2010
Estimated End Date: December 2010
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Business Driver Vehicle Licensing Delivery of Business Administration NVQ NRC to deliver and assess the NVQ Level 3 Agency Level 3 Business Administration training programme to 12 employees at DVLNI.
Start Date: December 2009 Essential Skills Specialist support provided to 5 FG Wilson FG Wilson NRC provided 5 employees at the employees at the Larne Site Literacy and Larne FG Wilson site with specialist Numeracy. one to one tuition ES Literacy and Numeracy.
Start Date: October 2009
Essential Skills NRC to deliver Essential Skills ICT programme ASDA NRC to provide Essential Skills ICT to to introductory learners at ASDA Ballyclare ASDA Ballyclare.
th Start Date: 20 January 2010
Local Economic Businesses Engaged for information purposes; Hughes Christensen NRC provided one to one redundancy - Schlumberger Completions support to 25 employees facing Development - Patton’s Construction unemployment. Support included one Rapid Response NI - Hughes Christensen to one interviews, careers advice and - Paper jam Belfast planning and workshop sessions Project - O’Kanes Poultry funded under the Rapid Response NI - Dowd’s Electrical project.
Date: October 2009 – Ongoing
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Appendix 3: Northern Regional College Current Economic Engagement (Enterprise)
Northern Regional College Current Economic Engagement (Enterprise) 2009-2010 Economic Area Details of Activities Employer links / Forum Links Targeted outcomes / timescales EDP GO-For-IT Meetings with 3 Consortia re area based ENI and LEA Network First Pre-start awareness event (15) provision plan delivered and booked onto EDPMIS Pre-Start ENI Six monthly review and Internal meeting to programme re-profile budget (57K to 21K)
Six college EDP meeting set up – report to Draft Baseline report Sector Economic Engagement Team Gathered info to complete report on six college FE Economic Engagement activity to Sector Economic Engagement Team Sector Innovation Vouchers Meeting with Steve Firth re prawn processing Direct link with employer and To receive the approved LoN and Initiative (IVI) M/C and passed referral onto G Kane. Initial commence project in Jan 2010 Invest NI meeting to confirm understanding awaiting S Firth to make application
Meeting with Steve Firth and Eng Team to plan delivery of Innovation voucher for re prawn processing M/C
Submitted LoN to Invest NI for approval
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Enterprise Development Innovation Fund Y2 Pre-Incubation and Enterprise Champions appointed, plan Enterprise Champions delivered 5 Use of local employers to Enterprise developed for enterprise awareness workshops Enterprise Awareness sessions – 160 Development deliver session in EA workshop students in total
Meeting with Ballymena Borough Council ECOS Pre-Incubation on target for To develop a pre-incubation Jan 10, workspace UUJ organised to deliver EA module Jan 10.
Waiting outcome from EMT re funding
Review meeting with DEL agreed to Re-profile
budget and surrender 17K to DEL Re-profile budget (97K to 84K)
Meeting with G Kane re Innovation fund PIED
Technology/Knowledge transfer funding Two potential start-up businesses November 2009 claim completed supported to develop produce
Meting with Action Renewables and ETC to Direct link with business start- agree support – up Agreement on employer support
Review meeting with DEL agreed to Re-profile budget and surrender 20 K to DEL Re-profile budget remove phase two – (66K to 46K)
Cross Border Access to employer database
and started work on economic Networks Tender for consultants prepared, agreed and sent to potential consultants engagement analysis
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Carbon Zero – SLA agreed with SWC, Engineering manufacture commenced work on delivery plan Construction RSM breakfast seminar quote to Hospitality and Tourism hotels and Finance Meeting with RL and team to plan for RSM
Breakfast seminars
Sent to nine consultants
Steering committee meeting hosted at NRC. Targeting construction sector SWC Carbon Zero sustainable procurement Six college Enterprise – UKBI Pop-up through RSM agreed Six college Enterprise – UKBI Pop-up and flyers agreed Seek to develop strategy for Attended UKBI Conference and business start manned six college stand worked on ELVIS promotional pack
BMC Enterprise Other Attended Carbon Trust Seminar Meet local construction and Enterprise Development services companies activities Attended Make your Mark and All Island Potential entrants for competition Student Awards Launches
Attended Eircom Young Entrepreneur of Year Regional Final Strategy for NRC economic Attended Sector Economic Engagement engagement Committee Promotional material in EE activity
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Two case studies completed (Knowledge Transfer and Local Economic Development)
Innovation voucher and links
with Pullagh developed as Attended DEL Made Not Born Seminar Prepares presentation and attended Economic marketing material Engagement Committee
Attended UKBI Incubation conference with Meet local employers Enterprise Champions
Strengthen links with LEAs and form new partnerships with Joint proposal with Ballymena Business Centre to provide support to incubation centres on mainland Meeting with Ballymena Business Centre SMEs across Ballymena Council Area.
Local SME and micro businesses EU Funding Meeting with Engineering staff re planning for Developed links with FESTO, 4 staff attended a one week visit to EU Mobility Mechatronics Up-skilling FESTO in Germany including links to Mercedes and Siemens colleges schools and employers
EU Study Visit to Portugal Attended study visit in Portugal – Links with 12 organisations Enterprise skills Yes we Have – across Europe including host in completed group report Portugal with schools,
universities and incubation centres
Staff development session with A McKeown Target to complete a Comenius and (LSDA) re opportunities in 2010 Leonardo – Engineering Leonardo Partnership proposal companies
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Appendix 4: SELF-EVALUATION REPORT ~ Whole College 2008 – 2009
College Northern Regional College
Summary of IQ: RS Grades Awarded for SER
IQ: RS Sections IQ: RS Criteria Grades 1: How Effective is the Leadership and Management in raising 3 Section A : Leadership and Management achievement and supporting learners? 2: How well do learners achieve? 4 Section B : Achievements and Standards 3: How effective are teaching/training and learning and assessment? 4 Section C : Quality of Provision for Learning 4: How well do the learning experiences, programmes, and activities 4 meet the needs of the learners and the wider community? 5: How well are learners cared for, guided and supported? 3
6: How well are learners provided for and supported in their 4 Essential Skills requirements ? Section D : Use of Information Learning Technology 7: How is ILT used to enhance the learning experience? 3
Overall Grade 4
Key to Grades: Grade 1 – Outstanding Grade 2 – Very Good Grade 3 - Good Grade 4 – Satisfactory Grade 5 – Inadequate Grade 6 - Poor
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Section A: Leadership and Management
Key Question 1: How Effective is the Leadership and Management in raising achievement and supporting learners? Grade: 3
Quality Indicators for Leadership and Management? 1.1 Strategic Leadership 1.3 Staffing 1.5 Links and External Partnerships 1.2 Action to Promote Improvement 1.4 Physical Resources 1.6 Equal Opportunity 1.7 Value for Money
Main Strengths are the: Main Areas for Quality Improvement are the: • Good, effective communication between the Governing Body and Senior staff within the college; they have been involved in the setting of clear Strategic Objectives for the college
• Good, effective college management structure in place that is able to address all key functions; organisational, staffing and learner • Good support provided by the Line Management structure within the College • Clear and concise college planning/ monitoring and review cycle; • Need for clear articulation of ‘performance management and it includes self evaluation, financial monitoring of devolved measurement’ to link with the College planning / monitoring and budgets, operational and strategic planning and the development review cycle and the introduction of appraisal for all staff; link also of a corporate plan and corporate targets to workforce development requirements • Strong commitment to quality improvement across the College management team • Development and monitoring of key performance indicators across all areas of the work of the College, and the improved use of MIS to help inform curriculum KPIs • Regular monitoring of KPIs across all areas of the work of the College [curriculum and support services]
• Further embedding of all aspects of the work of quality
improvement across all staff and teams
• Very good processes are in place to ensure a consistent approach to the development of standardised NRC polices and procedures that are fully consulted on and meet the requirements of equality legislation • Well qualified, skilled, dedicated and motivated staff across all of NRC – College Development Plan 2010-11 – 2012-13 75
the areas of work of the College, achieved through robust HR policies and procedures and enhanced through attendance at staff
development
• Well planned and extensive programme of work-force development for all staff that is linked to the College key priorities and strategic objectives • Strategic review of all curriculum areas and all support services as part of the College Business Improvement Plan; this will ensure that the college makes most effective use of its resources and
ensures that its provision will meet the needs of the local and regional economy • Good links with industry and employers have been developed in most of the curriculum areas • Good relationships have been developed with key external • Continue the good work already begun in the development of key stakeholders in most of the curriculum areas and support services external stakeholder relationships to support the key activities of the College; very good examples of this can be seen within the entitlement framework, the links with the University of Ulster and the work of the Economic Engagement Unit
Key Sources of Evidence to Support Strengths • College Management Structure • College Strategic Objectives • College Planning, Monitoring and Review Cycle • Minutes of meetings from a wide range of teams across the College ~ Governing Body/ Senior Management Team/ Section and Department Meetings/ Team Meetings • Range of Self Evaluation documents across the College • Evidence from Business Improvement Planning process • External Verifier Reports • Eti Inspection and Survey Reports • Audit Reports • Staff Development Records ~ Reports / Uptake at events / Evaluations of events • Workforce Development Forum ~ website / events • Budgeting Procedures
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Section B: Achievements and Standards
Key Question 2: How well do learners achieve? Grade: 4
Quality Indicators for Achievement and Standards? 2.1 Social cohesion and economic development 2.3 Progression 2.2 Standards achieved 2.4 Achievement
Main Strengths are the: Main Areas for Quality Improvement are the:
• good internal and external links developed to ensure that a culture of inclusion, equality of opportunity and mutual respect are actively promoted
• Standardisation of MIS reports to ensure proactive use of data by • good retention rates of 85% on full time provision across the all staff to measure key curriculum performance indicators on an College on courses of 1 year duration ongoing basis • Poor to satisfactory success and achievement rates across all • excellent retention of 93% on part time Higher Education provision areas of provision across the College on courses of 1 year duration • Modest to satisfactory retention rates across all courses of 2 years or more duration • Use of the eilp for early detection of problems relating to retention and achievement • well motivated learners across a majority of the college provision; they are supported very effectively by staff and encouraged to achieve high standards • good clear progression routes for learners from level 2 to level 5 courses across a range of curriculum areas, for example business
studies , construction, engineering, health and social care, ICT, sports studies • good start has been made by a majority of curriculum teams to • Increased opportunities for curriculum teams to share resources, standardise assignments and assessments, share resources and share best practice and standardise approaches to assessment and best practice assignments linked with the introduction of the qualifications credit framework [QCF] • Good recruitment and enrolment across the College in all FE and HE fulltime courses
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Key Sources of Evidence to Support Strengths • Enrolment data ~ 2009 / 2010 • MIS data relating to retention / success and achievement 08 / 09 • Completed Curriculum SERs • External Verifier reports • Eti Inspection and Survey reports
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Section C: Quality of Provision for Learning
Key Question 3: How effective are teaching / training and learning and assessment? Grade: 4
Quality Indicators for teaching / training and learning and assessment? 3.1 Teaching / Training and Learning 3.2 Assessment
Main Strengths are the: Main Areas for Quality Improvement are the:
• Regular, planned team meetings occur across all areas of the work of the College; this has lead to good relationships and team working being developed
• Development of multidisciplinary teams across all levels of the College provision to help with integration and to focus on teaching and learning and the total student experience • Good or better quality of teaching and learning, and standards of • Increased focus on quality of teaching and learning with the re- work achieved in almost all of the lessons observed in the priority introduction of the probationary scheme for new staff and the skills areas inspected at level 2 in May 2009 introduction of the appraisal scheme for all tutors ~ both full and part time • Effective and appropriate use of the VLE to support teaching and learning in lessons observed as part of the ILT Evaluation in September 2009 • Good quality assurance processes have been developed to support internal quality assurance of assessment • Alignment of policies and procedures already developed to meet the requirements of the QCF and Academic Infrastructure • Development of a range of mechanisms to facilitate the ‘Student Voice’; key is the establishment of the Student Council and action • Embedding of all mechanisms to support the ‘Student Voice’ planning arising from student feedback
Key Question 4: How well do the learning experiences, programmes and activities meet the needs of the learners and the wider Grade: 4 community?
Quality Indicators for learning experiences programmes and activities 4.1 Curriculum provision 4.2 Learning experiences
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Main Strengths are the: Main Areas for Quality Improvement are the:
• Good range and variety of curriculum offering at all levels across • Ongoing review of the curriculum offering across the College as the College meeting identified needs within the local community, part of the Business Improvement Plan to ensure a ‘fit for purpose’ government targets and providing clear progression pathways and financially sustainable curriculum provision
• Effective ongoing review of delivery patterns and modules offered to ensure that they meet the needs of the learners, local economy and take into account the introduction of the Qualifications credit
framework • Variation in the quality and maintenance of the accommodation
across the various campuses of the College
• Need to provide students with appropriate social areas and extra – curricular activities
• Introduction of self evaluation to the support services within the • Embedding of the SER process within support services and College to lead to a greater focus on the quality of the student total development of KPIs learning experience and improved performance measurement
Key Question 5: How well are learners cared for, guided and supported? Grade: 3
Quality Indicators for care, guidance and support? 5.1 Pastoral Care 5.3 Additional learning support 5.5 Child Protection and Vulnerable Adults 5.2 Careers education, information advice 5.4 Diversity and guidance
Main Strengths are the: Main Areas for Quality Improvement are the:
• Appropriate and equitable structures are now in place across the • Embedding of and further awareness raising of the student College to provide a range of student support services to all support mechanisms across the College and developing effective students e.g. financial support , educational support and careers ways to support part time students advice and guidance • Review of the counselling provision across the College
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• Adequate start made within the College to a standardised approach to the student tutorial system across all fulltime • Integration of the pastoral aspects within the tutorial programme provision and provision of appropriate ‘signposting’ for tutors and other staff to ensure equality of impact across all curriculum areas
• Good support provided to all students by most staff • More structured approach within all curriculum areas to careers education and employability skills • Students enrolled at the College receive appropriate tailored advice, guidance and support both on entry to and during their studies
• Appropriate induction is provided for across the majority of the • Re-focus by the College on the process of induction for all curriculum areas which helps students settle into College routines students linking with the College Retention Strategy and establishes key early relationships ; positive introduction of • Proactive engagement by NRC student support services as part of Fresher Events on all campuses the Fresher Events and during student induction
• College commitment to diversity and inclusion with clear • Further work force development for all staff and in particular identification of a key role and structures to develop and embed embedding of cultural diversity within the curriculum
Key Question 6: How well are learners provided for and supported in their Essential Skills requirements ? Grade: 4
Quality Indicators for Essential Skills? 6.1 Provision of Essential Skills 6.3 Integration of Essential Skills within 6.2 Quality of Teaching and Learning curriculum provision 6.4 Achievement of Essential Skills
Main Strengths are the: Main Areas for Quality Improvement are the:
• Strategic and operational management of essential skills within the • More effective and efficient links to be developed between College vocational teams and Essential skills tutors to support the • Satisfactory retention rates of 79% across all types of Essential students in achievement of improved literacy, numeracy and ICT skills provision skills
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• Establishment of an Essential Skills Steering group • Good quality of teaching and learning by a majority of the essential • Poor to modest success and achievement rates within essential skills tutors skills across all areas of provision • Continued focus on teaching and learning
Key Sources of Evidence to Support Strengths
• QCF Project Team • Business Improvement Plan • eiLp • Feedback from students ~ Freshers Survey / Induction Survey • Range of policies and procedures • Induction programme details • Student Support Services – referral information and records • Minutes of team meetings • Eti Inspection and Survey reports • Edexcel Centre Risk Assessment • Staff Development records and reports • External verifier Reports • College Retention Strategy • College Quality Improvement Strategy
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Section D: Use of Information Learning Technology
Key question 7: How is ILT used to enhance the learning experience? Grade: 3
Quality Indicators for management, learning and achievement? 7.1 Course Management 7.3 Learner achievement 7.2 Enhancement of the learning experience 7.4 Quality of teaching and learning
Main Strengths are the: Main Areas for Quality Improvement are the: • Ongoing progress required to ensure ‘embedded status’ across all • Good strategic direction and management within the College of ILT areas of the work of the College and commitment to the ILT Strategy • Increasing use of the college VLE across most of the curriculum areas • College is substantially moving towards ‘ embedded’ status • Need to ensure prioritised planning, allocation and monitoring of • Evidence of tutors in various curriculum areas using a variety of scarce IT resources to ensure equality of access across all ILT related techniques, increasingly and appropriately to support campuses ~ innovative approaches to timetabling to ensure that IT teaching and learning resources are used to their maximum potential • Good, easily accessible, wide range of online resources available for staff and students which are being increasing used to support the total student experience e.g. staff and student Intranets and e- resources available through the College Libraries
Key Sources of Evidence to Support Strengths • Edexcel Centre Risk Assessment ~ Jan 2010 • RSCni Health Check ~ Jan 2010 • ILT Strategy • Minutes of ILT Committee meetings • Eti Inspection Reports and Surveys
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Key Priorities for Quality Improvement and Development during 2010 / 2011 as a Result of the Whole College Self Evaluation Report
Key Actions / targets to address Whole College Self Evaluation Report How will the ‘actions / targets’ be Key Staff Timescale / measured ~ Success Criteria Responsible Milestones Development and monitoring of key performance indicators across all • Introduction of corporate KPIs Executive areas of the work of the College, and the improved use of MIS to help that are monitored on a regular Management inform curriculum KPIs especially in the areas relating to success and basis by the Executive and Team , June 2010 achievement. Senior Management Teams Senior
• Identification of Corporate KPIs Management September 2010 • Monitoring of KPIs Team
Increased opportunities for curriculum teams to share resources, share • Increased sharing of resources, Deputy Director June 2010 best practice and standardise approaches to assessment and standardised assignments and Curriculum, assignments linked with the introduction of the qualifications credit assessments identified during Heads of Faculty framework [QCF] Eti inspections and visits Ongoing during
2010/11
Increased focus on quality of teaching and learning with the re- • Probationary scheme Head of Human January 2011 introduction of the probationary scheme for new staff and the introduction completed for all new tutors Resources, of the appraisal scheme for all tutors ~ both full and part time • Appraisal scheme completed • Probationary scheme introduced for key areas June 2011 • Appraisal scheme introduced for all teaching staff • Staff development on Lesson Observation provided to all line Head of Quality March 2010 managers carrying out tutor Improvement appraisal and tutor probation October 2010 Integration of the pastoral aspects within the tutorial programme and • Improved support for tutors Heads of Faculty, October 2010 provision of appropriate ‘signposting’ for tutors and other staff to ensure carrying out tutorial Head of Student equality of impact across all curriculum areas programme Services and • Positive feedback from Marketing students More effective and efficient links to be developed between vocational • Improved success and Deputy Director June 2011 teams and Essential skills tutors to support the students in achievement achievement data Curriculum, of improved literacy, numeracy and ICT skills • Positive feedback from Heads of Faculty • Vocational integration into Essential skills assessment and class- students work tasks
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• Staff development focus on support for literacy, numeracy and ICT skill development by all tutors within all vocational areas
Prioritised planning, allocation and monitoring of scarce IT resources to • Positive outcomes from ETI Executive September 2010 ensure equality of access across all campuses ; inspections and surveys Management • Timetabling efficiencies • Positive feedback from staff Team; • Strategic location of ‘small clusters’ of computers into larger teaching and students Head of IT classrooms Infrastructure Improvements in the quality and maintenance of the accommodation • Positive outcomes from ETI Executive September 2010 across the various campuses of the College inspections and surveys Management Team; • Positive feedback from staff June 2011 and students
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Appendix 5: Northern Regional College
Quality Improvement Plan 2009/2010 – 2012/2013
Strategic College Objectives
10 Develop and support the continuous improvement of the quality of the entire student experience. 11 Develop and deliver a curriculum and associated provision which is aligned to the needs of business, industry and the community. 12 Establish, support and embed an organisational and management culture in line with the College’s vision and values. 13 Implement the approved ILT Strategy and address data management issues across all areas of the college activity. 14 Establish and progress an approved estates strategy appropriate to the strategic development of the College. 15 Ensure financial stability in order to support the achievement of the College’s strategic agenda.
Improving Quality: Raising Standards
Section 1 Leadership and Management Section 2 Achievements and Standards Section 3 Quality of Provision for Learning
List of all the Key Areas for Quality Improvement (QI: )
QI: 1 Embed the use of Self Evaluation and Planning within all curriculum and functional areas of the college. QI: 2 Develop the leadership and management of the college – staffing capacity. QI: 3 Focus on the quality of learning and teaching and the total student experience. QI: 4 Implement and embed the Internal Communication strategy. QI: 5 Alignment of key policy and procedures across the college. QI: 6 Make use of feedback from all key Customers groups. QI: 7 Implementation of systems to allow robust monitoring of data and setting of key performance indicators. QI: 8 All learners to have Information, careers education, advice, guidance, pastoral and learning support. QI: 9 To embed all aspects of Quality Improvement within Economic Engagement activities. QI: 10 To develop a reflective, pro-active and responsive curriculum.
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Key Area for IQ : RS Section(s) Priority Resource Quality Improvement Implications QI: 1 Embed the use of Self Evaluation and Planning Leadership and Management: 1.1, 1.2 immediate Time commitment within all curriculum and support areas of the college. from Management
Action Target Outcomes Success Criteria- how will outcome Person(s) Responsible Timescale / (Link to Strategic Objectives) be measured Milestones Further refine and embed the Embedding of the SER process SERs completed by all support Senior Management May 2010 College Planning , Monitoring within support services and services. Team and Review cycle that development of Key encompasses Self Evaluation / Performance Indictors. Operational and Strategic Key Performance Indicators Senior Management June 2010 planning , performance developed for all Support Services. Team measurement and contributes to the College Development Plan (CDP), Quality Improvement and Corporate KPIs developed for the External Kite-marks. College. Executive Management June 2010 Team ( SO:1, SO:2, SO:3, SO:4, SO:5, SO:6) Timely monitoring of Corporate KPIs. Senior Management September 2010 Team and ongoing
Refinement of the Curriculum More evaluative and robust SERs September 2011 SER process in working with produced by Curriculum Teams ~ Head of Quality DEL [Andrew Thompson] major focus on quality of Teaching Improvement and learning.
Key Area for IQ : RS Section(s) Priority Resource Quality Improvement Implications QI: 2 Develop the leadership and management of the Leadership and Management: 1.3 Immediate / Time college – staffing capacity long term commitment from Management.
Action Target Outcomes Success Criteria - how will Person(s) Responsible Timescale / (Link to Strategic Objectives) outcome be measured Milestones Provide training and support Staff to undertake the ‘Inventing All staff within the Wider College Executive Management December 2010
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to leaders and managers at the Future’ programme developed Management Team to undertake Team all levels within the college. by DEL the programme.
(SO:1, SO:2, SO:3, Specific bespoke training to be June 2011 SO: 6) provided for NRC by the LSDA on 90% Middle Managers to undertake Head of Quality Leadership and Management LSDA training. Improvement aligned to LLUK standards. Specific reference to communication skills.
College Management Conferences Feb & June in to be held Management Conferences held bi- Director each year annually for all senior and middle managers linked to the planning and review cycle
Investigate, develop and implement All Senior and Middle Managers to September 2011 mentoring for all newly appointed have an allocated mentor. Head of Quality managers within the college ; link Improvement, Head of to introduction of probationary Human Resources scheme.
Appraisal scheme to be introduced Appraisal to be carried out with all June 2011 to all managers within the College; managers. Executive Management link to team and individual Team performance measurement and management.
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Key Area for IQ : RS Section(s) Priority Resource Quality Improvement Implications QI: 3 Focus on the quality of learning and teaching and the Leadership and Management: 1.1, 1.2 Immediate / £50 000 . Time. total student experience Achievement and Standards: all medium Quality of Provision for Learning: 3.1, 3.2, 4.2, term
Action Target Outcomes Success Criteria - how will Person(s) Responsible Timescale / (Link to Strategic Objectives) outcome be measured Milestones Develop a range of initiatives Tutors to undertake the UU 100% of all new fulltime curriculum Head of Quality September 2010 and strategies to focus staff Certificate in Teaching [CiT]~ to undertake the UU CiT during Improvement. at all levels, and within all supported by College Teacher first year of appointment. areas of the college, on the Tutors and Subject Teaching quality of learning and Mentors Staff development carried out with October 2010 teaching and the quality of Develop and implement a Lesson all line managers on lesson Head of Quality the total student experience. Observation scheme across the observation. Improvement college to supplement the work (SO:1, SO:2, SO:3, carried out on the Certificate in Improved student feedback on June 2011 S0: 4, SO: 5, SO:6) Teaching , introduction of the quality of teaching and learning. Quality Assurance probationary scheme and appraisal Manager for all tutors both full and part time. Eti feedback on quality of teaching and learning ~ most lessons observed good or better
Improved evaluative nature of the SER process for Curriculum Staff Curriculum SERs to focus on quality of teaching and June 2011 learning. Head of Quality Improvement
Ongoing staff development to be Key staff development and training delivered on teaching and learning. to be delivered on classroom June 2011 pedagogy; to include ILT PEL training to tutors to be rolled CPD Manager out by ILT Advisors.
December 2010 PL in ILT Refine and review the integrated approach to the Initial Induction of September 2010
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all new staff. Head of Quality Improvement; Head of Human Resources
Key Area for IQ : RS Section(s) Priority Resource Quality Improvement Implications QI: 4 Implement and embed the Internal Communication Leadership and Management: 1,1, 1.2, 1.3 Immediate / Time strategy. medium commitment term from Management.
Action Target Outcomes Success Criteria - how will Person(s) Timescale / (Link to Strategic Objectives) outcome be measured Responsible Milestones Implement the Internal Carry out a review and evaluation Increased effectiveness of Executive June 2010 Communication Strategy at of internal communication plans communication within the College Management Team all levels within the college. within each curriculum and support area to facilitate the (SO:1, SO:2, SO:3, SO:4, effective communication of SO:5, SO: 6) information both ‘up’ and ‘down’ and ‘across’ the organisation
Further development of the Staff Intranet as the key communication 100% of key documents placed Head of Quality tool for all key documents and onto the Staff Intranet Improvement / IT Sept 10 information Infrastructure Manager
Awareness raising among staff of the importance of internal communication. Internal communication workshop Head of Quality delivered as a session within the Improvement / CPD June 2010 Induction of all new staff Manager
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Key Area for IQ : RS Section(s) Priority Resource Quality Improvement Implications QI: 5 Alignment of key policy and procedures across the Leadership and Management: 1.1, 1.2, 1.6 Immediate – Time college. Quality of Provision for Learning: 3.2, 5.3, 5.5 medium commitment term from Management.
Action Target Outcomes Success Criteria - how will Person Responsible Timescale / (Link to Strategic Objectives) outcome be measured Milestones Alignment of all key policy Continue to align policy, All key policies and procedures Executive Management November 2010 and procedures across the procedures and processes across developed , tracked and reviewed Team, college and ensure that all areas of the College ensuring annually. Quality Assurance Manager there is a centralised alignment to external agencies and repository for these. legislation where applicable; particular reference to be paid to (SO:1, SO:2, SO:3, SO:4, the Qualification Credit Framework Key amendments made to NRC Head of Quality September 2010 SO:5, SO:6) [QCF] and the Quality Assurance quality assurance in assessment Improvement Agency Academic Infrastructure. policies and processes to align with the change in QCF and QAA
Key Area for IQ : RS Section(s) Priority Resource Quality Improvement Implications QI: 6 Make use of feedback from all key Customer groups. Leadership and Management: 1.2, 1.5 Immediate / Time Achievements and Standards: 2.1 long term commitment Quality of Provision for Learning: 4.2, 5.1 from Management.
Action Target Outcomes Success Criteria - how will outcome Person(s) Responsible Timescale / (Link to Strategic Objectives) be measured Milestones Embed the culture within Development and embedding Establishment and full working of the Head of Student Services November the college where obtaining of key mechanisms to support ‘Student Council’ and Marketing 2010
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and acting upon feedback the ‘Student Voice’ Student Support Manager from all key customer groups – both internal and Quality Assurance Manager external is an integral part of the college systems. Student surveys carried out at three December key times during the academic year ~ 2010 (SO:1, SO:2, SO:3, SO:4) Summary reports and action plans March 2010 produced June 2010 Head of Quality Improvement Staff Student Consultative meetings held on all HE courses ~ Summary February 2011 report produced Head of Quality All vocational areas obtain and Improvement 30% of learners and staff complete February 2011 Make use of the LSDA online LSDA surveys- to be used for external surveys of staff and benchmarking internally and learners externally.
Training Manager Online survey developed for Quality Assurance Manager February 2011 employers. Feedback obtained from employers.
Key Area for IQ : RS Section(s) Priority Resource Quality Improvement Implications QI: 7 Implementation of systems to allow robust Leadership and Management: 1.1, 1.2 Immediate / Time monitoring of data and setting of key performance Achievements and Standards: 2.3, 2.4 long term commitment indicators Quality of Provision for Learning: 4.1 from Management.
Action Target Outcomes Success Criteria - how will Person(s) Timescale / (Link to Strategic Objectives) outcome be measured Responsible Milestones Develop and implement MIS reports to be implemented Timely monitoring of curriculum Senior Management Team September 2010 systems within the college across the college that allow data on enrolment, retention, where robust monitoring of robust monitoring of success and progression. data becomes an integral curriculum data and key part of the role of all performance indicators for all
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Managers and all staff ; link support services Timely monitoring of all Corporate Senior Management Team September 2010 to development of key KPIs performance indicators across all areas of the college and internal and external benchmarking .
(SO:1, SO:2, SO:3, SO:4, SO:5, SO:6)
Key Area for IQ : RS Section(s) Priority Resource Quality Improvement Implications QI: 8 All learners to have Information, careers Leadership and Management: 1.2, 1.6 Immediate / Staffing education, advice, guidance, pastoral and Achievements and Standards: 2.1 medium Required. learning support. Quality of Provision for Learning: all of 5 Time.
Action Target Outcomes Success Criteria - how will Person Responsible Timescale / (Link to Strategic Objectives) outcome be measured Milestones All learners to have access Embed the Student Support Better understanding across the Head of Student Services October 2010 to an equitable, effective structures within the College College of the role of the College and Marketing , Heads of information, careers that will allow all learners access Tutorial provision. Faculty education, advice, guidance, to high quality information, pastoral and learning careers education, advice, Head of Student Services support system across all guidance pastoral and learning Careers education programme and Marketing , Heads of November 2010 vocational areas within the support developed for all learners Faculty college. Head of Student Services (SO:1, SO:2, SO:3, SO:4, Integrated and equitable and Marketing, Student SO:6) Counselling service developed for Support Manager June 2010 all learners Head of Student Services and Marketing Student Integrated and equitable Education Support Manager Support / Careers Advice and Financial services developed for December 2010 all learners
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Key Area for IQ : RS Section(s) Priority Resource Quality Improvement Implications QI: 9 To embed all aspects of Quality Improvement within Leadership and Management: 1.5; 1:1; 1:6 Immediate Time Economic Engagement activities. Achievement and Standards: 2.1 commitment Quality of Provision for Learning: 3.1; 4.1 from Management.
Action Target Outcomes Success Criteria - how will outcome Person Responsible Timescale / (Link to Strategic Objectives) be measured Milestones All economic engagement Develop within the Service 100% of economic engagement Head of Economic January 2011 activities will have built into Level Agreement aspects that activities will collect feedback from Engagement / Economic them ‘tools’ and will allow for a comprehensive the client receiving the training / Engagement Managers ‘mechanisms’ to assure the collection of data and feedback support – use to improve service / quality of the service that the relating to the service provided delivery. college provides and will by the college always strive for continuous 100% of economic engagement Head of Economic improvement. activities will obtain feedback from Engagement / Economic January 2011 the ‘employer’ – use to improve Engagement Managers/ (SO: 1, SO:2, SO:3, SO: 4, service / delivery. Heads of Faculty SO: 6)
100% of staff involved in the delivery Head of Economic of training as part of economic Engagement / Economic engagement will complete a Self Engagement Managers/ January 2011 Reflection form to reflect on their Heads of Faculty own strengths and areas for development and reflect of data relating to the training / support.
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Key Area for IQ : RS Section(s) Priority Resource Quality Improvement Implications QI: 10 To develop a reflective, pro-active and Leadership and Management: 1.1; 1.2 Immediate Time commitment responsive curriculum Achievement and Standards: All from Management. Quality of Provision for Learning: All
Action Target Outcomes Success Criteria - how will outcome be Person Responsible Timescale / (Link to Strategic Objectives) measured Milestones Curriculum areas across the Curriculum areas will ensure All curriculum provision will be part of Senior Management Team June 10 college will ensure readiness that their provision is part of the QCF for QCF; be fit for purpose the QCF and meets the and reflect the outcomes of requirements of QAA. the Business Improvement Planning process A standardised approach will Senior Management Team be taken to each curriculum Standardised assignments and October 2010 (SO: 1, SO:2, SO: 3, SO: 4, area across the College when assessments in all curriculum areas SO: 6) moving to the QCF Senior Management Team Sharing of resources across curriculum teams. Senior Management Team
Improvements in retention, success June 2011 and achievement rates across all areas of provision ~ to include Essential Skills.
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Appendix 6: Planning, Monitoring and Review Cycle
January a) Governing Body review of Strategic Objectives. b) College CDP, College SER, Quality Improvement Plan , FLU Bid commenced. c) Formalised half yearly Budget monitoring. d) Performance monitoring of KPIs, Operational Objectives, SER Actions e) College Training SER commenced.
February Oct / Nov a) Support Service SERs a) [College Output] Completed. College CDP, Whole College SER & Quality Improvement Plan and FLU bid to DEL b) Management Conference Aug / Sept a) Finalise statistics for and completion of curriculum SERs b) Support Service SERs commenced.
March a) [College Output] College Training SER to DEL b) Commence Operational June Plans a) Performance monitoring of Budget, KPIs, Operational Objectives , SER Actions b) Management Conference.
May April/May a) Corporate Plan and Corporate a) Operational & Strategic Targets completed Plans completed. b) Curriculum SERs commenced.
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Appendix 7 Estates floor area and FTE per Campus
Net FTE Net 2009 - 10 capacity Internal Gross area Net FTE Campus Sep 10 area (sq.m) (sq.m) output. Ballymena Off Campus 138.957 Trostan Avenue 990 7710 7941 885.046 Newtownabbey Off Campus 30.789
Newtownabbey 2511 17393 17915 1485.372 Ballymoney 788 5778 5951 552.797 Antrim 838 6378 6569 340.690 Felden 1121 8145 8389 86.933 Farm Lodge 1081 11464 11808 895.286 Larne 190 1090 1123 43.450 Coleraine 1058 7062 7274 837.713 Magherafelt 898 5731 5903 515.186 Café Lamont 134 1001 1031 16.802 Coleraine Community Education 37.464 Portrush 104 435 448 Total: 9713 72187 73904 5866.484
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Appendix 8 Governing Body Strategic Review
Our Learners Our Environment & Our Staff Our Resources Relationship Learner at the heart of Valuable partner active Employer of choice Financial sustainability all we do in economic and social development - FDI Maximise potential Major contributor to Professional Other sources of community planning development revenue Lifetime skills Lead role Valued and valuable Academic enterprise Successful Strong influence for the Inspirational teaching Being smart in the use achievement community of resources Individual achievement Promoting a Culture and ethos Positive image partnership model Quality living & Valued partner All inclusive single staff State of the art IT learning experience ethos Diversity Provider of choice Staff experience Provide attractive modern fit-for-purpose facilities Enhanced Maintaining NRC Sense of belonging Meet ever changing employability reputation and pride student demands Learning environment More selective in what Staff keep learner at Accessibility – location of choice for the we do heart of what we do and appropriateness community Clearly defined role for Flagship skills provision Transferable skills On-line distance FE – nationally and learning internationally recognised Listening to the voice Lobbying influence Maintaining staff Resources enhance of the student motivation student learning Quality of teaching & Value for money – Staff being innovative Maintain and upgrade learning public value and solutions focused buildings Develop and maintain Building NRC brand Re-motivating and re- relationships with energising students On-going culture of staff development Up-skilling Sense of achievement in role Staff awards Stimulation and reward
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