BCE) at Shrewsbury College of Arts & Technology

A Case Study of Business & Community Engagement (BCE) at Shrewsbury College of Arts & Technology

John Burke & Clive Alderson 2009/01/30

Evidence from the JISC BCE User Needs, CRM and IPR studies has shown that institutions need help in understanding how to achieve alignment and integration of different processes, systems and operations in support of the developing BCE capability and infrastructure, especially within the information, administration and IT services. This project will gather evidence of current levels of integration and identify models of cross‐institutional business processes impacting on BCE activity. It will identify good practice and ways for improving processes to better integrate BCE with core activities. Page 1|36 www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk www.jisc.ac.uk/bce

Table of Contents Executive Summary ...... 3 Overview ...... 4 Statement of Importance ...... 4 The Project ...... 5 The Context...... 5 BCE within Shrewsbury College of Arts & Technology ...... 6 The Enquiry Process ...... 6 The Shrewsbury Project Structure ...... 7 Findings ...... 7 Policy & Strategy ...... 8 Overview ...... 8 Policy & Strategy at Shrewsbury ...... 8 Processes & Business Systems ...... 10 Overview ...... 10 Processes & Business Systems at Shrewsbury...... 10 Partnerships & Resources ...... 13 Overview ...... 13 Partnerships & Resources at Shrewsbury College ...... 13 Roles & Skills ...... 15 Overview ...... 15 Roles & Skills at Shrewsbury ...... 15 Performance Measurement & Reporting ...... 18 Overview ...... 18 Key Performance Results at Shrewsbury College ...... 18 Customer Perceptions at Shrewsbury ...... 19 Appendix A – Self‐Evaluation Workshop Results ...... 20 Appendix B – Process Map ...... 36

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Executive Summary Staff at Shrewsbury College of Arts and Technology took part in the Embedding BCE through Business Process Improvement and Internal Engagement Project in 2009, analysing the efficiency of the institution’s business processes with respect to BCE. The study found that although there is a variety of BCE work at Shrewsbury, it is generally characterised by off‐site course provision for adult learners. Their Employer Engagement Strategy incorporates an action plan, but there are few measures of the work, or metrics set as targets.

The college Business Development Unit’s remit includes facilitating BCE work; however, many interviewees were not clear about its role, and one respondent commented that, “there is no top‐down direction to engage with external groups and employers”. Unfortunately, priorities conflict in this area: colleges are encouraged to try to convert BCE work into LSC‐funded qualifications which can then be delivered at less cost to the customer, and against which the college is benchmarked; but colleges are also expected to generate substantial amounts of fee‐ income from employers.

The college’s Schools’ engagement with the Business Unit is ad‐hoc. In many cases there is a separation of services and delivery from the college’s core offerings. In particular an e‐NVQ system is popular with employers, in spite of its cost, as it is directly accessible and seen as separate to the college, so that the employer is seen to be offering a service to their staff in partnership with the college rather than simply sending the staff for training.

The terms and conditions of the college staff do not lend themselves to the flexible delivery required for effective BCE. There is some good practice in the School of Technology, where working practices may inform a transferable methodology; this includes the allocation of hours in the normal timetable for staff involved in employer engagement activities. A significant proportion of BCE work is carried out by sub‐contractors and external partners. However, this raises issues for monitoring, quality control and retention of IP which are yet to be addressed.

The lack of Customer Relationship Management software has made it difficult to coordinate with employers; however, it is shortly to be installed and expectations are high and will need to be managed during implementation. There was little evidence that information gained from knowledge transfer was currently communicated or disseminated across the College.

The college has established a number of strategically important partnerships to support the delivery of workforce development programmes. Partnerships have aided the College in delivering growth for the institution. However, senior managers admit that they need to be more proactive in identifying additional partners, and to prepare a plan for working with them. BCE and related activities are mainly conducted off‐site and therefore do not affect central services in the college. A review of the use of IT and learning technologies to support learners was underway at the time of the study. There are good links to community organisations and groups on a non‐ income basis, including student and voluntary placements, and local events.

The College has recently reorganised its management structure, in part in response to meeting the BCE agenda. The restructuring reflects the need to organise roles into an integrated approach for business engagement. The Business Development Manager has a challenge in raising the level of awareness of BCE opportunities amongst staff and highlighting the importance of BCE to the future growth of the College. It was indicated that a review of the measurement and reporting framework should be undertaken to improve information flow.

Overall, the College is constantly contending with the need to identify the most effective ways to optimise the use of resources around different parts of the business, while working within the limitations of staff contracts.

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Overview

Statement of Importance Evidence from the JISC BCE User Needs, CRM and IPR studies1 has shown that institutions need help in understanding how to achieve alignment and integration of different processes, systems and operations in support of the developing BCE capability and infrastructure, especially within the information, administration and IT services. These internal services are often not as responsive to BCE as they are to teaching and research because of uncertainty about policy, a perception of relatively reduced importance and the simple fact that BCE is not yet embedded in most institutions' organisational design, policies and practices.

Other related JISC projects2 have sought to identify top level institutional business processes and functions, and the international e‐Framework3 has process identification and improvement as its underpinning rationale, to enable technical interoperability and an internal service orientated approach.

The BCE Customer Relationship management (CRM) project4 is deriving process mapping and self‐analysis tools to help institutions manage an enterprise‐wide approach to CRM, before delivering some pilots to test effective approaches to CRM. Managing relationships, contacts and business intelligence is clearly core to BCE operations, so the CRM work is important in the context of this project, but here the focus is much more on the business processes implicated in all BCE operations, so interoperability with core institutional functions is main area of investigation.

Strategic change of the type spearheaded through BCE brings with it, not only the operational changes referred to above, but also changes in resources and resource profiles. BCE requires new and distinctive skill‐sets, which include negotiation, high‐level communication skills, brokerage skills and legal knowledge, as well as an understanding and experience of both business and academic sectors. The training and staff development needs are therefore considerable; a parallel BCE Programme activity 'Supporting Training, CPD and Staff Exchange for BCE Practitioners'5 is focussed on providing process, system and technology enhancements for existing training programmes, delivered by AURIL‐CPD, PRAXIS, the UK Universities CPD Network and others.

The increasing professionalisation of institutional Knowledge Transfer and workforce development practitioners, through professional bodies like the Institute of Knowledge Transfer and networks like the UK Universities CPD Network, adds to the gathering momentum of BCE activities. This makes it more critical that effective processes to support these activities are identified, integrated and communicated and effective change management processes adopted to minimise risk, ensure sustainability and ensure that the institutions have the operations suitably configured to deliver their strategies.

1 http://www.jisc.ac.uk/home/whatwedo/themes/business_community_engagement.aspx 2 Notably: http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/programme_jos/project_hilda.aspx 3 http://www.e‐framework.org/ 4 http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/funding/2008/03/circular308appendixg.doc 5 http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/bce/bcesupportingtraining.aspx Page 4|36 www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk www.jisc.ac.uk/bce

The Project The Embedding BCE through Business Process Improvement and Internal Engagement project is one of four projects managed by the Advisory Services of JISC. The project is being managed specifically by JISC infoNet (http://www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk), based at the University of Northumbria, with John Burke, Senior Adviser at JISC infoNet as Project Manager and Clive Alderson as Project Consultant.

Aims and Objectives of the project are:

1. Identifying the key business processes and system implications involved and analysing the related coherence and efficiency of these. This will be achieved through information gathering from a range of institutions across the sector, including some FE institutions and some from the devolved administrations; 2. Producing case studies which illustrate different models and degrees of business integration for different approaches to BCE. This will be achieved by working with a small representative sample of five institutions (including one English FE, one Scottish HE and one Welsh HE institution) to examine and document the 'as‐is' state of business processes around BCE activities; 3. Devising change plans in each of the five cases to enable BCE functions to be more effectively embedded by identifying areas for process improvement, actions, resources and change agents needed in each of the five cases which would result in better integrated strategic BCE operations; 4. Producing an infoKit which distils the learning from the above activities and highlights recommended business process improvement steps and methods for better integration of BCE operations within institutions; 5. Base‐lining and developing the level and nature of engagement between central functions, (including libraries, administration and information management/IT) and BCE operations; 6. Producing an infoKit for managers of the central functions within an institution, with advice and guidance on BCE and how to support it. This will demonstrates the benefits for the institution and promote enhanced internal engagement and better integrated BCE.

The Context Shrewsbury is the county town of Shropshire, one of Britain's most rural counties but good communication links mean it is not far in travelling time from Wolverhampton and Birmingham. Chester and Liverpool are also within easy reach, while the Welsh mountains and coast are to the west.

The business community is made up mostly of SMEs (98% of firms) whilst large firms employ 38% of the workforce. 85% of jobs are in the Services sector with 42% being Public Administration, Education and Health and 26.5% in Distribution, Hotels and Restaurants.6

The college has approx 1600 Full Time students and 10,000 Part Time students. Situated as it is, close to the English/Welsh border, its catchment area for Funding Council‐funded students is limited to the west, as students living in Wales are funded by a separate body and expected to attend a Welsh college.

6 Source: http://www.shrewsbury.gov.uk/public/Business/FactsAndFigures/ Page 5|36 www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk www.jisc.ac.uk/bce

BCE within Shrewsbury College of Arts & Technology The College is structured into five Schools, each with one or more Programme Areas:

 Technology

 Service Industries

 Arts, Media, ICT and Sport

 Learning Services

 Business Development The Business Development Unit co‐ordinates and delivers much of the BCE activity with varying amounts of work delivered and sourced within the other four Schools. It has been in existence for just over one year (14 months) and is currently co‐ordinating 42% of the college’s business in terms of financial income.

Whilst this is primarily from the Business Sector, the Business Unit includes the Programme Area of ACE/AES (Adult Continuing Education/Adult Essential Skills). ACE is a standard FE term and covers a whole raft of part time provision aimed at adults including both qualification‐based and non‐vocational leisure courses, many delivered within the community. The LSC withdrew funding for many such courses a while ago leading to a huge downturn in student numbers nationally, although many colleges, including Shrewsbury, converted courses to a full economic cost basis to prevent their loss altogether.

There is a wide range of activity within the Community of a non‐transactional basis which includes voluntary work by staff and students, student placements, and student involvement in local events e.g. arts and drama events.

There are some shared services with the local authority that shares ownership of the sports facilities, used during the day by the college Monday to Friday and at other times open to the local community.

The Enquiry Process A self‐assessment tool was developed using the EQFM Beta model to assist the college in assessing the perceptions of staff of the college’s performance under six main headings. This took the form of a workbook (Appendix A) with graded answers to a series of set questions related to the main headings and the workbook was completed by members of senior staff at a facilitated half‐day workshop towards the end of the college’s involvement with the project.

Prior to this workshop, the review of activity at Shrewsbury took the form of a number of interviews with key members of Shrewsbury staff by the JISC infoNet project staff. The responses to these interviews have been anonymised where possible and collated under the main headings of the self‐assessment tool to confirm or challenge the perceptions of those who undertook the workshop activity.

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The Shrewsbury Project Structure

Project Interviewees Greg Molan Project Director Ian Jervis Greg Molan Nick Austin Richard Banks Corrine Brown Bill Croxon Mike Edwards Project Consultants Project Manager Julia Harris Clive Alderson Ian Jervis Sue Hollins John Burke Sharon Humphries Val Maddox Harkesh Ram Debbie Richards Abigail Smith Charmian Turner Len Tildsley Dee Young

Findings In the following sections the major headings from the self‐evaluation tool will be used.

Under each heading comment will be informed by the views and information gathered during the interview process undertaken by the JISC infoNet project team. These have been anonymised except where identification of the interviewee is relevant to the weight that can be attributed to the statement and the statement itself is not contentious.

Questions from the self‐evaluation exercise, with the college’s own grading, strengths, weaknesses and areas for improvement, identified by college staff during the workshop are given as appendices to this case study. These present a picture of the perceptions of those involved in the workshop, who were members of the Senior Management Team at Shrewsbury.

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Policy & Strategy

Overview A strategy helps communicate the priorities of an organisation and sets out the strategic direction that the organisation needs to take in order to grow or continue to exist. Whilst a separate strategy for each identifiable area of work is not strictly necessary, an assessment of areas of work in terms of their importance and how they address an organisation’s strategic objectives, within the pages of a strategy can give a strong message to all levels of the organisation.

For this to happen, the strategy must be clear, focussed and, above all, communicated. Target setting, aligned to strategic objectives can be used within appraisal procedures, for example, to drive strategic vision and turn it into directed action.

Policy & Strategy at Shrewsbury The college does not currently have a paper strategy covering the full range of BCE work. There is an Employer Engagement Strategy which incorporates an action plan. This was approved by the Corporation on 12 December 2007 and has been updated since. Whilst this is a guide to priorities for the Business Unit and provides some reporting of progress to date against the action points, there are few measures and metrics either reported or set as targets. Some of the Progress to Date sections present further actions required rather than report on progress made. It is not known whether there is an updated document, perhaps not yet approved by the Corporation, that sets out actions for the current academic year.

There is a clear acknowledgement at senior levels that BCE work is strategically important and currently the only way open for corporate growth. Outside the Senior Management Team, there is a less well‐defined sense of the strategic importance and priority of BCE work. Some of this may be down to lack of clear communication at a strategic level, some of it due to a lack of desire for involvement and some due to uncertainty in the way in which some schools can involve themselves in this type of work.

There are difficulties in that the normal terms and conditions of lecturing staff, designed to support lecturers teaching classroom‐based full and part time students on mainly full or multi‐year academic qualification‐based programmes – do not lend themselves to flexible delivery with varying contact hours, the need for time to be regularly expended in non‐contact activities such as travel and with group sizes as low as one individual. However there are examples of good practice in the School of Technology where working practices may inform a methodology for involvement by mainstream staff.

To date the problems of inflexibility have been solved by contracting with third parties and sub‐contracts through companies such as Protocol. In this way a team of over 100 assessors has been used with only 27 desks allocated at the college for their use. Many of the assessors have no need to visit the college.

This has reinforced the perception of some staff that BCE activities are operated by a ‘separate part of the college’ and are ‘nothing to do with me’. It is seen by some as ‘off structure’. One senior manager thought that such perceptions were reducing; ‘The college is encouraging the Business Unit to be perceived as a conduit for this type of work as a cross‐college facilitator. At the same time however, the Business Unit has identified some new areas of work (logistics and warehousing) that do not easily fall under any existing Programme Areas.’

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How the Business Unit is depicted in both internal and external documents in terms of its place in the internal structure will convey a message to the rest of the college. For instance, the JISC infoNet project team were given an organisational structure diagram showing the Business Unit alongside the four Schools and if such a diagram is the standard way of depicting the unit, it is likely to be perceived more as an internal competitor than a facilitator without a clear strong message to the contrary.

There has been little evidence of bottom‐up pressure for involvement in BCE activities from mainstream lecturing staff. This could be because most staff already have fully committed timetables, or it could be because of a lack of knowledge or confusion as to whether such involvement is required. One interviewee suggested, ‘There is no top‐down direction to engage with external groups and employers’. There was a suggestion that there needed to be some communication with mainstream staff to help them understand the benefits of work outside the traditional 16‐18‐year‐old full‐time student cohort. Another comment was that college self‐assessment reports should be made available to all staff and be ‘readable and relevant’ (to help assess strategic importance of different types of work).

There is a very strong push to convert all work through the Business Unit to LSC‐funded NVQ qualifications. The advantages to the customer are that this work can be delivered at far less direct financial cost. The advantage to the college is that the work is then eligible for core funding and therefore recognised in terms of growth and student numbers. The advantage to the Economy is that the workforce is being developed to recognisable qualification levels that benchmark directly within Europe. However the UK Government have another priority, not always seen as positive within the college (or presumably by employers). ‘A major downside is that the Government is looking for substantial amounts of fee income from employers’ came from one interview. The Government clearly has two priorities that are mutually incompatible in this. Where employers are willing to pay for bespoke work, this is generally outside the qualification framework and therefore unrecognisable for benchmarking purposes.

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Processes & Business Systems

Overview The structures, processes, communications and use of technology to support the delivery of BCE activities. The project was to assess how closely BCE activities were embedded with mainstream processes and the impact of any different ways of working on mainstream activities and vice‐versa.

Processes & Business Systems at Shrewsbury A special unit – The Business Development Unit – has been created to co‐ordinate engagement with employers at Shrewsbury. This is shown in the organisational structure as being at the same level as the Schools – the top level of delivery units.

The unit includes Adult Continuing Education/Adult Essential Skills as a Programme Area, Trade Union Studies and has a staffing complement including a Head of Unit, Business Development Manager, NVQ Manager, Contracts Manager and Manager of Apprentice Programmes. A part‐time post is used to specifically market the college to employers. The unit is promoted as a co‐ordinating unit for all BCE activity undertaken elsewhere in the college, though some Programme Areas, notably within the School of Technology, have some long‐standing contacts and success in engaging in BCE activity.

Schools’ engagement with the Business Development Unit is ad‐hoc and discretionary. Whilst some interviewees thought that such engagement was encouraged, others thought differently i.e. ‘There is no top‐down direction to engage with external groups and employers’.

There is general acknowledgement that the terms and conditions for mainstream lecturing staff affect the college’s ability to adapt and be flexible in terms of time and location of delivery and therefore a significant proportion of work is carried out by sub‐contractors and external partners. This has necessitated new processes to deal with contractual issues which have been absorbed by support teams such as HR and Finance without obvious problems. It has, however raised issues for monitoring and quality control and retention of IP, which have yet to be fully addressed.

There is a greater reliance on mobile technology for those engaged in delivery and assessment outside college premises. Digital cameras are used along with mobile communication devices and laptop computers. All managers and off‐site staff have mobile computing devices push‐linked to college systems to allow sharing of calendars etc. The college intends to implement virtual desktop software to allow remote access to college networks. It is intended to use a Microsoft solution, bundled with the Server 2008 operating system. e‐Portfolios are used for both mainstream and BCE activity, with different Programme Areas favouring different e‐ portfolio solutions. In the Electrical Engineering Programme Area an e‐Portfolio system, Paper‐Free, has been designed explicitly by the industry. The e‐NVQ solution is being trialled in the Business Development Unit, this being a pay‐per‐user system, externally hosted and tailored to the particular NVQ being studied. Whilst relatively expensive this system has been the preferred solution for some employers, who are willing to pay the premium as it is directly accessible and seen as separate to the college.

This ‘separation’ of services and delivery from the core prospectus‐style offerings is further exploited by the Business Development Unit as employers feel more in control and more likely to engage if they can be viewed as

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offering a service to their staff in partnership with the college rather than simply sending, connecting or even co‐ ordinating employees as students of the college. The Business Development Unit will provide marketing materials to employers in the company style, using colours, logos and matching style to the extent of using company templates. Some marketing stands and display units can be loaned to employers for use on their own premises for this purpose. The Business Development Unit will also produce PowerPoint presentations on company templates for their use in promoting interest in employee engagement with the college.

The use of the college Virtual Learning Environment (VLE), Moodle for BCE activity is well embedded, for delivery of teaching materials, for coaching and mentoring. However ‘resourcing content is difficult’ was one comment whilst ‘a closer relationship between the Business Development Unit and those developing and managing the VLE’ was thought to be needed by one interviewee.

The use of NVQs for much of the BCE work has allowed a close match between BCE work and mainstream curriculum in terms of the process of course design and approval. The college has an in‐house piece of software called Provision Plan that allows what if? Scenarios to be simulated on target student numbers, costs, taught hours and retention and achievement rates to calculate viability and generate required teaching. The system feeds data directly into the student record system course file and, for mainstream courses, the system generates content for the college prospectus and compares teaching hours requirements with the availability of the full time teaching body to calculate part time teacher requirements. Expenditure headings feed into the budgeting process. The BCE course approval process is mapped in Appendix B.

The major student record information systems in FE are only now starting to integrate with BCE activity. Historically, student record systems in FE were developed to record classroom‐based qualification aim driven provision with some generic qualification aim codes created by the funding body for use where courses were non‐ qualification based. These systems were designed primarily to provide external data returns to the Further Education Funding Council and its successor the Learning Skills Council. At the same time systems were developed for a different funding mechanism delivering BCE activities led by various YT schemes under the Manpower Services Commission. When this provision was merged with the formation of the Learning Skills Council, there remained separate funding mechanisms, requiring different data sets to be reported. Only very recently have the traditional FE information systems, generically known as MIS Systems been developed to include the BCE data set and currently Shrewsbury is in the process of testing BCE (WBL) data on the MIS software (Eclipse) whilst running in parallel with the previous WBL system (Pellcomp Integrated Client Software [PICS]). However there will be some need for creation of internal reports from Eclipse to service internal need for information.

There is currently no Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software in use, although this is shortly to be implemented following a tendering process. Many interviewees mentioned their anticipation of this software and thus there is likely to be a wide and varied requirement with some high expectations to be managed during implementation. Lack of such software to date has made it difficult to co‐ordinate contact with employers leading to some duplication and increased risk of employers’ perception of a less professional approach.

There is some evidence of Knowledge Transfer and Exchange through membership of various bodies and forum activities. However this is not co‐ordinated across the college and there was little evidence outside the Business Development Unit of communication processes that would allow other staff to feed information to the staff member involved in such activities or for information gained to be disseminated within the college. Part Time

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courses are marketed with phrases such as ‘Break out of the office’ and ‘Meet and network with other managers’. Teaching staff are encouraged to ensure breaks are timetabled to allow for such networking.

There is some evidence of links with community organisations in some Schools, notably in Performing Arts and Art and Design programme areas. Involvement of students in local events outside the college is well established.

There are some shared services. The local Council have some control over the outdoor sports facilities and these are timetabled for college use during weekdays and for public use during evenings and weekends.

From 2009 the Police Force will be hiring college facilities to run closed courses for cadets. This strengthens relations between the college and a vital community organisation and it is hoped will engage interest amongst students in the Police Force, enhancing relations and encouraging recruitment into the Police.

The college has a quality review procedure for all work including BCE led by a Performance Manager. The process starts with the mainstream Enrolment activities in September with 1‐to‐1 meetings arranged with Heads of School and Programme Leaders to monitor against targets in November, February, May and July. BCE activity is included on each Performance Review Panel (PRP) meeting. The PRP comprises the Principal, Directors and Performance Manager.

A number of issues were identified by interviewees, not all of which are under the control of the college:

 College systems requirements negate the ability to respond quickly to requests for courses at short notice whilst employers want immediate answers  College opening hours are inflexible, with weekend and evenings required  Catering, some other college facilities and the general environment aren’t conducive to adult student needs  Costing difficult as: o Costs differ depending on which member of staff is used for delivery o Income per student differs dependant on whether they have existing qualifications, student age etc. o This means whoever deals with employers must be expert in LSC funding mechanisms  Courses must show short‐term benefits from customers’ point of view  Need to balance staffing profile, demographics, growing BCE activity, future direction  Barriers to working cross‐college at present – no way of sharing contacts, other information  Problems with getting other areas to engage with centrally co‐ordinated activities and facilities – BCE, Moodle, marketing information  Gaining commitment from tutors to keep in touch with employers  There is a need for better marketing intelligence to help Schools take advantage of employer needs  Programme Leaders currently have teaching hours timetabled, allowing little time for innovative activity. Whilst projects can be used for this they are by nature short‐term and not sustainable

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Partnerships & Resources

Overview The way the institution plans and manages external partnerships and internal resources is integral to the success of the BCE strategy. The model adopted at Shrewsbury College relies heavily on the use of external partners to support the delivery of learning and accreditation services.

In this section we have reviewed how the College structures and manages its supply chains and maximises the benefits from its partnership arrangements. This includes looking at how the institution defines, measures and controls the activities of partners and how supplier arrangements are organised. We have also reviewed the way Shrewsbury College manages its internal resources such as buildings, equipment, and finances to support the BCE agenda.

Partnerships & Resources at Shrewsbury College The College has established a number of strategically important partnerships to support the delivery of workforce development programmes particularly under the umbrella of the Train to Gain initiative. The use of partnerships has been an effective way to achieve growth both in terms of business volume and geographical spread. Utilising the combined skills and strengths provided by the partnership model is central to the College’s strategy. The College now feels that they need to be more proactive to identify the additional partners they need to be working with and to prepare a partnership plan for future action.

A key partnership agreement has been developed with Protocol who provide an agency service, and supply tutors and assessors to the education and training sector. This partnership is structured within a defined contract, with defined performance measures and service level agreement and planned monthly review arrangements. However, as regards some other partners, the terms of business are not as clearly defined or organised in such a formal approach. The arrangements for some short term sub‐contracted work are more ad hoc and not subject to any standard framework of business terms.

As referenced later in ‘Roles & Skills’, the use of the brokerage model for much of the workforce development delivery raises issues around the ownership of the process and the relationships with end customers. Safeguarding Intellectual Property and market intelligence is therefore an item for further review and development, as are considerations about sharing good practice both internally and across a disparate delivery team.

In terms of BCE and related activities, the majority of business is conducted off‐site and there is very limited interaction on College premises. Nevertheless, efforts are made to provide appropriate facilities such as catering for those events involving members of the business community, and for the community‐based activities which take place on campus. Overall, the BCE agenda does not appear to raise any worrying issues regarding use of equipment, materials or general resources. However, better use of IT and remote facilities as well as other learning technologies and services to support off‐site learners are being reviewed.

There are some good examples of links with Community groups and organisations where mutual benefit arises without there being any transactional activity. Some of these are mentioned towards the end of the section ‘Processes & Business Systems’, regarding shared services and student involvement in local theatre groups and local events. There are currently bids to gain Football Academy status through the Football Association and a Page 13|36 www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk www.jisc.ac.uk/bce

collaborative partnership with Condover Golf Club to gain Golf Academy status with the Professional Golf Association. There is also a link with FESCO, the Further Education Sports Co‐ordinator to address issues of obesity. There is evidence of collaboration with the British Youth Film Academy (BYFA) and with The Roland Academy from whom the college’s Rock School sources musical keyboards. There is a collaborative partnership with the local Circus School, through whose summer events students can become eligible to acquire Equity cards.

Membership of local and regional forums and partnerships helps the college exchange knowledge with other stakeholders and institutions. They are members of the Staffordshire University Regional Federation (SURF) and the local PCDL Forum.

The College is constantly contending with the need to identify the most effective ways to optimise the use of resources around different parts of the business. Further effort and focus upon risk management and contingency plans for different models of resource utilisation and control is planned.

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Roles & Skills

Overview A key enabler for effective engagement with the business and community sectors is the degree to which internal mechanisms and supply chains are structured and aligned with the demands, needs and expectations of the customer base. This can be a challenge to traditional staffing arrangements, the way roles are constructed and organised, and matching skills and expertise to the BCE strategy.

In this section we have reviewed how Shrewsbury College has modelled its organisation structure, management team, and HR policies to activate and deliver its BCE strategy. This has included a review of roles, responsibilities, key skills and expertise, and the organisation and structure of the service delivery chain.

Roles & Skills at Shrewsbury The institution has recently reviewed and reorganised its management structure to meet the current strategic challenge both in general and specifically with respect to the BCE agenda. In terms of BCE this has led to the creation of the Business Development Unit, which operates as one of five Schools within the organisation structure. The Business Development Unit has a Head of School who is a member of the Senior Management Team. This ensures that focus and thinking regarding BCE (particularly employer engagement and workforce development) are automatically fed into the decision making process at the highest level.

The Head of School is supported by a management team who are outward facing and spend their time dealing with enquiries and generating and developing networks and contacts in the pursuit of new business. This business development activity is supported by a number of cross college functions including marketing, front of house personnel e.g. call handling, and the NVQ Manager (who is responsible for the internal verification of quality and standards of delivery and results).

The restructuring reflects the need to organise roles in an integrated approach to ensure that key tasks are performed and channelled effectively. The unit provides a clear line of authority and responsibility for business engagement with a set of defined objectives. Cross college involvement is encouraged and promoted, however institutional growth through BCE is being led predominantly through the single focus of the Business Development Unit. Other Heads of School are not currently subject to any formal targets for generating additional BCE activity, although there is implicit acceptance and support for the view that all schools should participate and support college initiatives in this area. In particular, the School of Technology is active in working closely with employers to provide additional services and has allocated remission time from normal timetable for two members of their lecturing staff to support employer engagement activities.

Generation of revenue is the primary focus of the Business Development Unit, and the key roles are constructed around business relationship management functions. The Business Development Manager is tasked with locating, cultivating and converting new prospects into revenue generation. Significant effort and resources are required to maintain this function and the associated challenge of retaining business customers beyond the initial engagement. The skill‐set associated with this kind of work is commercially oriented, requiring a high level of communication skills and an understanding of and empathy with the attitudes and culture of the business environment. At Shrewsbury College the person recruited for this role has experience outside the education sector. Support for this role is given by the Business Development Co‐ordinator. As a partnership the two roles combine to manage the customer contact and business development process. Page 15|36 www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk www.jisc.ac.uk/bce

The Business Development Manager also has a cross college role, to recruit support and assistance for the delivery of the BCE strategy. This involves raising awareness about the activities of the Business Development Unit and consulting with teams across the organisation about target opportunities and the allocation of teaching or supporting resources with respect to specific contracts or customers. To date, generating enthusiasm amongst many of the teaching teams has proved difficult. However, this does not necessarily reflect a negative or obstructive attitude on the part of the teams, but perhaps indicates that there is more work to be done to raise the levels of awareness and understanding about the scope of work involved and the importance of BCE to the future growth and development of the institution.

Marketing forms another key role in the development of the BCE agenda and this function is managed as a central, cross college service with specific tactics for elements of the employer engagement strategy. The College Marketing Manager works closely with the Business Development Unit to identify short and longer term needs in terms of advertising, publicity, marketing literature (such as brochures, business cards, leaflets etc) and other requirements. There has been a drive to increasingly develop a professional approach to branding, image and presentation. Although this is not entirely due to increased engagement with the business sector, the impact of dealing with businesses and commercial organisations has been a major driver and has influenced attitudes regarding the way the College is promoted and positioned.

Other roles which are supportive to the BCE strategy include the Team Leader of Trades Union Studies. The work of this unit involves the provision of education, training and development for Union Representatives which brings direct contact with organisations in both the public and private sectors. A degree of synergy is therefore generated between this unit and the Business Development team in the form of shared contacts, market intelligence and referrals.

To a significant degree, BCE activity at Shrewsbury College, particularly employer engagement and workforce development, can be characterised as an off‐site, NVQ and short course based provision for adult learners. The nature of the work dictates that staff involved in the delivery of college services to business and community customers need to be flexible in terms of both their availability and in their ability to engage with different learner types in a wide range of learning contexts and environments. This, therefore, often calls for very different approaches to teaching and learning than the traditional college/classroom‐based, group centred, teacher‐led pedagogy adopted by most lecturers. Learning in the workplace on such programmes as Train to Gain places more emphasis on one to one interaction, and is focussed on observation, assessment, accreditation, and action planning activity. This appears to call on coaching, mentoring and advising skills rather than the tutoring and facilitation skills of the classroom lecturer. The different skill sets are not mutually exclusive, and therefore the same staff can potentially be utilised to deliver both the traditional post 16 curriculum as well as the employer‐ based workforce development programmes. However, at Shrewsbury College the issue is not so much the issue of expertise and skills, the main challenge is to provide a flexible teaching resource and deliver commercial success. The contractual framework under which most lecturers operate tends to militate against this and creates a number of operational barriers. Simple issues such as accounting for travel time (to work off‐site on employers premises for example) and working outside normal hours (operating within different employer work patterns such as weekend or night shifts) exerts organisational and financial pressure on the institution.

The model adopted by Shrewsbury College is therefore designed to deliver a pragmatic solution to the service and commercial demands of employer engagement and workforce development activity. A brokerage model has been established, where new business is sourced and organised by college staff who deal with the business level

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relationship management processes, and service delivery is arranged through a structure of subcontractors and agency personnel. This provides a framework where people and costs are matched directly to planned activities and can be allocated and withdrawn as required. Thus the two prerequisites, flexibility and commercial viability, are delivered. The model requires effective management processes and controls, particularly in the areas of planning, quality management, and the careful control of the relationship with the end customer. At Shrewsbury this requires the management of up to 400 delivery personnel, operating across a geographical area which includes the local region as well as the North East and South East of England, and the Midlands.

There are a number of disadvantages to using this model, primarily that staff are not permanent, full time, or based on college premises which means organising events such as meetings and staff development activities is extremely difficult. Another potentially damaging issue is the risk of losing control and ownership of knowledge and process management. Because the work on employers’ premises is being delivered by personnel who are effectively third parties, in some aspects process control has been delegated to the appointed deliverer. Management and coordination is therefore a major issue and a robust system to maintain institutional control of the customer relationship and learning process is in place.

The College has a well established policy of continuing professional development for core staff including a management development programme. Some elements of this programme are complimentary to the institution’s BCE aims, but a closer examination of the competences required to operate, in particular within the employer engagement and workforce development environment, is considered necessary. All core staff can then be mapped against an agreed competence framework to identify specific development needs.

The Senior Management Team is keen to see a greater amount of knowledge sharing across the institution to support and inform BCE activities. The general view is that further work is required to establish more effective mechanisms for communications and improvement/development.

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Performance Measurement & Reporting

Overview Robust performance measures and records are an essential part of the forward planning and improvement process. The results from current and past performance allow us to test whether our current plans are working and provide a clear picture of strengths and weaknesses as well as supplying the necessary information to inform future strategy and tactics.

In this section we have reviewed how the institution sets, measures, records and reports on key performance targets for BCE and how Customer Perception is measured and reviewed.

Key Performance Results at Shrewsbury College Overall, the institution has established a comprehensive range of measures to track the performance of specific elements of BCE activity. In particular, for employer engagement and workforce development there is data to illustrate the volume of new business, the revenue generated, the direct costs incurred, and the margin achieved across the portfolio. However these results are currently not made available within a single integrated report framework. The focus of reports is to provide a breakdown of single income and activity streams such as Train to Gain, ACL, AES etc. This approach is driven by the requirements and protocols of the different funding agencies which in turn drive the internal reporting and planning process.

A number of areas where results are not measured were also identified. These include historic and current market share, an allocation for capital expenditure and segmented cash flow performance. Although these measures would provide further useful insight into the BCE specific activities of the institution, a significant additional effort would be required to collect and record them. Any decision to broaden the current range of measures would therefore need to be based on a rational view of cost and benefit.

Results over a number of years are available and illustrate that performance has improved significantly, particularly over the past 2 years. Across the several streams of BCE activity the overall trend is positive and delivering growth for the institution. Nevertheless, some income streams have contracted over the past year including AES and ACL which are a cause for concern. A review of the whole strategy for adult learners is considered necessary to clarify the trends and any action or measures required and establish appropriate, stretching targets for all the programmes within the BCE portfolio. Although the institution is experiencing a growth period due to the effective delivery of the employer engagement strategy, the pace and extent of growth must be accelerated and sustained.

Although the institution does not formally benchmark results against other providers within the sector, a degree of informal intelligence gathering does take place. The competitive environment is reviewed at SMT meetings and in tactical discussions between the Principal and the Head of the Business Development Unit. This information is then used to inform marketing plans and the targets set for various funding routes and programmes.

Some additional information is available from the funding agencies to create comparative profiles between institutions showing for example the degree of dependency on “Train to Gain” funding as a proportion of total revenue. (Shrewsbury College of Arts & Technology is currently in the upper quartile for non‐dependency).

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Results are analysed to identify where improvements and growth can be achieved. However, comments received during the evaluation workshop included that although there was a breadth of quantitative information available, there may be gaps in the detailed qualitative information required to present the complete picture for effective review and planning.

Feedback suggests that a review of the measurement and reporting framework should be undertaken to establish exactly what measures are required and would be considered important and useful, and to agree the format and frequency of reporting and information flow. It was also felt that in order to facilitate the further embedding of the BCE agenda across the whole institution, there should be a greater emphasis on reinforcing the levels of awareness within all the Schools in the organisation regarding the key drivers and performance measures for this area of activity.

Customer Perceptions at Shrewsbury Gathering feedback and measuring indicators like customer loyalty, retention and repeat business provides the information needed to evaluate the perception the customers have of the services and products provided. The institution currently collects customer satisfaction data via course evaluation and feedback forms and dialogue with employers and other customers both during and after programme delivery. This information is used as part of the ongoing programme and customer relationship management and review process. Other measures used include customer complaints, business gained and lost, and customer accolades.

Based on the measures and feedback currently used, the institution has evidence to show that there has been some improvement in customer perception over the past couple of years.

Further work is needed in this area to identify those measures which would add value to the existing data collection framework. One possible area for development is the collection of customer feedback regarding different stages of the service delivery chain. For example, feedback on how well the initial contact was handled, how effective the marketing materials were, how easy/difficult it is to do business with the College, perceptions on customer service and facilities etc.

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Appendix A – SelfEvaluation Workshop Results

1. Policy & Strategy

Statement: We have a formal documented strategic plan with clear objectives for our BCE activities

Grade: 2

Strengths

• Directed strategy from LSC • Employer Engagement Strategy Weaknesses

• The Employer Engagement Strategy is wordy and implicit • No Business Development Strategy • The strategies in place are not widely disseminated • No structured overarching plan • Although there are lots of forums for focussing on and sharing strategy, these are not used effectively Areas for Improvement

• Re‐focus existing platforms and forums to ensure BCE strategies are created and disseminated Comments

Statement: We ensure that we put in place the support mechanisms we need to make our plans work Grade: 2

Strengths

• A lot of documentation is already in place – costings, plans etc., but this is limited in that it is not shared beyond the Business Unit. • At tactical level they work well – active and responsive and flexible Weaknesses

• The College needs an inclusive statement about what they are trying to achieve. They have been reacting in parts of the business to what sorts of processes they need without necessarily documenting them

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• Some of the discussions need to be held at Management Team to embed strategy, rather than allowing it to get bogged down in operational areas. Areas for Improvement

• Need clearer join between the two streams of activity • There are no clear critical success factors – not to be confused with KPIs Comments

Statement: We have effective platforms and processes to support the dissemination of our strategic and operational plans for BCE Grade: 1

Strengths

 The role of Business Development Manager has a cross college element, with a focus on increasing awareness about the scope of BCE activity and the importance of this area of work to the future growth and development of the College

 Heads of Schools are beginning to get involved in seeking ways to support the BCE agenda

Weaknesses

• Although they have platforms and processes they are not used effectively to cascade the strategic thinking on BCE • Therefore not convinced that everyone can identify how they contribute to the BCE agenda Areas for Improvement

• To ensure cross college buy in and improved awareness, performance objectives with respect to BCE support and development activity could be established for all Heads of School (individually as well as jointly) • BCE could be identified as a standard agenda item for all School and departmental meetings. Any agreed strategies or initiatives could then be cascaded through the organisation using existing platforms for communication Comments

Statement: Our strategic plan for BCE is based on robust, up to date market intelligence and information Grade: 2

Strengths

• Market intelligence is gathered and informs the work of the Business Development unit

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Weaknesses

• Market intelligence is not formalised or systemised therefore not utilised outside the Business Development Unit • Lack of CRM systems (this is being addressed) • The difficulty of balancing resources around the college – whilst one area might be growing and another shrinking the conversations about amending or virement of resources are not held. • Gets too bogged down at tactical level. Need to identify strategic plans and objectives • No formal strategic review process – ad hoc and usually in reaction to events or stimuli Areas for Improvement

 Action could be taken to establish formal systems for sharing market intelligence with partners and key suppliers

Comments

Statement: We base our plans for BCE on a clear evaluation of the institution’s current position Grade: 1

Strengths

 The College maintains a range of performance measures which are used to inform strategies and plans

 The Business Development Unit are constantly scanning the market to establish trends and opportunities

Weaknesses

 The emphasis is heavily weighted towards tactical and short term plans. There is a need to elevate discussions to a strategic level with respect to BCE and employer engagement

Areas for Improvement

 To review the strategic planning process to ensure that all stages in the strategy to action loop are integrated and involve and impact on all Schools and teams across the college

Comments

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Statement: We take steps to improve our strategic and operational plans for BCE Grade: 1

Strengths

 We are responsive to market opportunities and have been adaptable to meet changing operational demands

Weaknesses

 There is no formal strategic review process and we often operate in an ad hoc, reactive way to changing conditions

 We don’t necessarily engage with everyone to check that our strategic plans are understood

Areas for Improvement

 Consider implementing a strategic review process with a formalised timetable of activities, and an agreed set of outputs

Comments

2. Process & Business Systems

Statement: Our BCE activities are targeted at delivering the products and services that the customers want Grade: 2 Strengths • This is the case for ACL provision • We look for the best ways to match available products to customer needs • Flexible delivery; e.g. night time delivery and at locations to suit the customer Weaknesses • For provision other than ACL the product is driven by availability of funding Areas for Improvement • To provide follow‐up consultancy and support to embed training in working practices, encouraging Change Comments • Prepared to adapt approach to the needs of the customer • Part NVQs will be funded in future making matching of needs to available products easier. • Employers are not willing to pay

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• We need unique selling points – need to differentiate ourselves by looking at the model. However, being able to differentiate from other suppliers is difficult as the funding regime means that all colleges are offering the same thing. What differentiates them is their geographical location and their level of service • There is no centralised system for gathering marketing research information therefore plans and targets not based on robust information on the needs of Business and the Community

Statement: We build and manage strong relationships with employers, and all our customers Grade: 2 Strengths • Marketing information • Front of house knowledge and skills • Processes for gathering information and feedback are few and weak, poorly defined or ad hoc in nature Weaknesses • Making the most of publicity PR and marketing • Web site does not have full coverage of BCE activities Areas for Improvement • There is a need to improve customer feedback • An enquiry form on the web site would allow enquiries to be made 24/7 even if a response was not immediate Comments • Our problems are in getting in front of people ‐ how do they know we’re here, knowing what to say, knowing who to signpost to, being accessible at the time required • Account managers are being put into place

Statement: Our BCE processes are integrated within our normal ways of working Grade: 2 Strengths • There are good examples of embedding in Engineering where BCE activities both on and off‐site carried out by department’s own staff • Brokerage model for bulk of BCE activity – to sub‐contracted or Protocol staff Weaknesses • Cross college systems don’t always take note of the needs of the Business Development Unit Page 24|36 www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk www.jisc.ac.uk/bce

• Staff conditions of service not always supportive of need for flexibility in modes and times of delivery Areas for Improvement • Need to identify areas and/or processes that conflict with the need for flexibility and speed of response Comments • Where things are not the norm it creates barriers • We have started to think about need for ICT to support mechanisms for delivery – Moodle, blogs etc.

Statement: Our BCE processes are managed to achieve agreed quality and service delivery standards Grade: 2 Strengths • Quality processes are in place within the contracts with Protocol Weaknesses • The quality system is reactive – any processes in place have been initiated as responses to past problems • Quality processes with Protocol are not applied consistently. • A problem with a lecturer or assessor working as or supplied by a third party would not be picked up early enough to make a difference. • Most mainstream college quality systems lack relevance to BCE types of work • Quality management system requires definition • Currently no formal system for checking that service delivery meets the needs of customers Areas for Improvement

 Consider the establishment of a continuous improvement strategy, including the identification of formal service and delivery standards, a prioritised improvement programme, staff development to build effective improvement teams from across the college, target outputs and measures Comments

Statement: We take action to improve our service delivery, customer relationships and processes for BCE Grade: 1 Strengths

 Key roles within the Business Development Unit are focussed on the customer relationship management process. This has led to a number of improvements in the way service delivery is managed over recent months

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Weaknesses • The quality system is reactive Areas for Improvement • Need to bring appropriate people together to get improvement activity going • Identify some proactive process improvements Comments • Some of the models currently applied to BCE might be increasingly relevant to mainstream provision

3. Partnerships & Resources

Statement: We manage our partnerships with other institutions/organisations

Grade: 3

Strengths

• Where partners are suppliers – e.g. Protocol, there are contractual measures and monthly reviews • A significant amount of effort has been put into finding and forging these partnerships and making them workable Weaknesses

• The model relies heavily on strong supply partners • Attempts made to share knowledge with partners but not well structured and tends to be ad hoc. Areas for Improvement

• Contracts are already under review • We should review our processes for knowledge sharing with our partners (and how knowledge is managed to protect the Colleges’ IP and strategic relationship with customers etc) • A review of the methods used to monitor the activities of our partners and how service delivery is measured and reported Comments

Statement: We proactively manage our ideas and knowledge

Grade: 2

Strengths

• Where Moodle has been used it has been successful and it can be a repository of our IP

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Weaknesses

• There is an issue of ownership around both the delivery and the content of materials where delivered by a third party. If that third party ceases activity are the materials retained by the college or lost? Areas for Improvement

• There is a need to look at the security of information and knowledge • Sharing best practice internally needs to be addressed Comments

• The forthcoming CRM system is widely anticipated – there is a need for the implementation to be controlled and managed and feedback mechanisms for raising awareness of issues and missing required functionality

Statement: We plan our use of partnerships to support our strategic and operational plans

Grade: 2

Strengths

• Use of partners to support strategy is good in the sectors of Train to Gain and our HE provision. • Partnerships are used as a key strategic way to advance or grow organisational knowledge, capability and capacity Weaknesses

• There is the potential to grow TUS partnerships • We could use the partner in the NE as a model for breaking into other geographical areas • More proactive activity to identify who we should be partnering with – i.e. a partnership development plan Comments

• All colleges are banking on their ability to widen their catchment area, however not everyone will be a winner at breaking into other geographical areas –some are putting lots of effort into marketing without having the capacity to deliver

Statement: We plan our use of resources to support our BCE plans Page 27|36 www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk www.jisc.ac.uk/bce

Grade: 2

Strengths

• Use of e‐portfolios and mobile technology. Potential for further use of ICT.

Weaknesses

• We are vulnerable by having no contingency plans in place • Risk assessments for off‐site working Areas for Improvement

• Address contingency plans and risk management Comments

• How do we optimise the use of resources around different parts of the organisation

Statement: We regularly review our partnerships and resources to see that they are working effectively

Grade: 2

Strengths

• Some local good practice in Engineering with partners • There is a process for assessing partners – we have stopped working with one partner and have actively helped to improve others. A significant amount of activity is devoted to this. Weaknesses

• We are weak in the area of reviewing our involvement in supply chains and identifying ways to improve them • We have no formal feedback mechanisms to let our partners know how we feel about their performance • There are Service Level Agreements with suppliers Areas for Improvement

• Build on the experience in Engineering to develop feedback mechanisms with partners Comments

• The Business Development Unit have just had a major supplier go bust • The perception is that people don’t necessarily see BCE in terms of being a supply chain – they only see their little bit of it.

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4. Roles & Skills

Statement: We identify the roles and skills we need to develop and implement our BCE plans

Grade: 3

Strengths

• Quality reports from Sharon Humphries are shared with everyone.

• A mixed approach of growing own skills and recruiting partners.

• There are clear assigned roles and responsibilities, there being a separate school (The Business Development Unit)

Weaknesses

• Not all SMT members are targeted with BCE measures

• There is a need to improve peoples understanding of business areas.

Areas for Improvement

• Introduction of BCE targets to all areas

Comments

• Realisation that without a good reason e.g. geography it is better for the college to deliver using their own staff for reasons including security and quality

• The currency of experience was questioned. Where job shadowing is undertaken by staff it is normally with a similar role in another college instead of in relevant industry

Statement: We have a structured people plan and staff development policy

Grade: 3

Strengths

• The appraisal system

• Staff development training plans

• Broad skill sets

Weaknesses

• Not sure our skills are aligned to employer demands

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Areas for Improvement

• Define competence requirements and map core staff skills against them

Comments

• Realisation that without a good reason e.g. geography it is better for the college to deliver using their own staff for reasons including security and quality

Statement: We regularly review our management and organisational structure to see that they are working effectively

Grade: 3

Strengths

• Recently reorganised the management team across the board including both mainstream structure and BCE activities

Weaknesses

Areas for Improvement

• Need to look at cross‐college communications

Comments

Statement: We apply what we learn to perform more effectively

Grade: 2

Strengths

 We have gained some experience of working with subcontractors and partners to fill gaps in skill sets and flexibility. This experience will assist us when planning for further growth and expansion of workforce development activities

 Our development activities with Managers contribute to the broader BCE agenda

Weaknesses

 Our mechanisms for communications are not fully effective

 We are not particularly creative in terms of our delivery and BCE plans

Areas for Improvement

• There is a need for a mechanism for monitoring communications to pick up on required actions

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Comments

5. Customer Perceptions & Key Performance Results

Statement: We have a range of methods to measure customer perceptions

Grade: 2

Strengths

 We use evaluation sheets to gather customer perceptions about the quality of our service and programme delivery

 We measure customer retention and satisfaction levels

Weaknesses

 We don’t have a full picture of customer perceptions, and employer feedback is weak overall

 We have a weak formal system for gathering feedback on issues such as public image, presentation and market positioning

Areas for Improvement

 To review our processes for gathering and evaluating customer feedback. This activity must be based on a cost/benefit basis to establish what measures and information would add real value to existing information

Comments

Statement: We have a number of internal measures to show what we are achieving for our customers

Grade: 3

Strengths

• Complaints and accolades are both logged and stored Weaknesses

• Not enough feedback is actively sought • Evaluation sheets used but not robustly, surveying not used, no measurement of customer loyalty or take‐up Areas for Improvement

• Evaluate and implement methods of routinely collecting feedback Comments Page 31|36 www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk www.jisc.ac.uk/bce

• Much of our feedback is anecdotal instead of structured

Statement: Our results show positive trends over a number of years

Grade: 2

Strengths

• Although we don’t keep all measures, of those measures that we have we can show some improvement Weaknesses

Areas for Improvement

• There is a need for definition of information system requirements to allow for interrogation and trend analysis Comments

• This information would be required as part of the new CRM

Statement: We can identify and explain areas of good and poor performance

Grade: 2

Strengths

 In those areas where we do collect information/feedback, we analyse the results to identify where we perform well, and where any improvements are required

Weaknesses

• We tend to have soft information only which doesn’t cover all service delivery activities • We don’t have feedback on key areas such as customer contact/communications, speed of response, public image etc. Areas for Improvement

 Review feedback arrangements to identify what information we want and whether it is cost effective (rather than a paper exercise) to organise its collection and analysis

Comments

Statement: We have a range of performance measures which show how we are performing in relation to BCE activities

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Grade: 3

Strengths

• There are many performance measurements though not all of the ones listed. Weaknesses

• Some of the measurements are college wide and not segmented to obtain separate figures for BCE e.g. cash flow information Areas for Improvement

• There needs to be a stronger awareness across the organisation of key drivers and performance measures. • Therefore there is a need to be clearer about what sort of benchmarks would be useful. Comments

• Much of this type of information not standardised and would require considerable effort to collate and present • With regards to Market Share questions arose on the ability of the college to identify this information and the extent to which it would be useful with regards to the ruralised environs within which Shrewsbury is situated. • There is a need to share this problem with all staff in order to allow people to inform the solution.

Statement: Our performance in BCE activity over the last three years shows positive trends

Grade: 3

Strengths

• Overall trends are significantly positive though some streams (e.g. Modern Apprenticeships, ACL) are falling • Train to Gain targets increasing exponentially, but therefore harder to sustain increases Weaknesses

• Currently hitting some targets in particular streams of activity because targets are not challenging enough. Areas for Improvement

• There needs to be a joined‐up strategy for adult learners so that Programme Areas can be clear about what expectations are Comments

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• There is a need to be realistic as to how performance is disaggregated into the different streams in order for it to be useful.

Statement: We check how our performance in BCE activities compares to other institutions

Grade: 2

Strengths

• In terms of overall dependence on Train to Gain as a proportion of total revenue the college is benchmarked in the upper quartile Weaknesses

 We don’t perform formal benchmarking to assess our performance against competitors/other providers

 We have gaps in our market intelligence

Areas for Improvement

• It was suggested that a one‐off activity may inform the effectiveness of expending the effort required Comments

• As a flipside to the above strength there may be a huge potential income being missed. However it was pointed out that the benchmark is nationally based and the set of circumstances for a rural‐ based college may mean that it is not worth expending lots of speculative effort to chase work that may not exist in the area. • There is a need to be realistic as to how performance is disaggregated into the different streams in order for it to be useful. • There is a question regarding the usefulness of national benchmarks.

Statement: We can identify and explain areas of good and poor performance

Grade: 2

Strengths

• In terms of overall dependence on Train to Gain as a proportion of total revenue the college is benchmarked in the upper quartile Weaknesses

• Whilst there is some information on such things as likelihood of return business and customer perceptions the information was not complete and the college was not good at acting upon it Areas for Improvement Page 34|36 www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk www.jisc.ac.uk/bce

• It was suggested that a one‐off activity may inform the effectiveness of expending the effort required Comments

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Appendix B – Process Map

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