Chairman’s letter to all those who are considering applying for the post of Chief Executive/Principal of Birmingham Metropolitan College (BMet) Thank you for taking the time to read this. I hope it will help you in making your decision whether to apply to become the Principal of our College. I think in making that decision, you would want to know where we are coming from, where we think we have reached, and where we hope – and plan – to get to. Where we are coming from – to October 2018 BMet was formed some years back from the merger of four colleges: three of the Colleges – Sutton Coldfield College, Matthew Boulton College and James Watt College including The Erdington Skills Centre are all situated in Birmingham. The fourth college was Stourbridge College situated around 20 miles from Birmingham. This made BMet one of the largest FE Colleges in the country with 20,000 students and a budget of around £60 million. BMet has been through a rough patch with three consecutive Ofsted inspections assessing the College as Requiring Improvement between 2015 and 2018. The College has also had financial problems necessitating additional emergency support from the ESFA, and causing some concern amongst our key stakeholders like Barclays bank and Lloyds bank. Where we think we have reached – our transition phase from October 2018 • Since October 2018 – the date of our last full Ofsted inspection there have been changes in key personnel, not least a new Principal, a new Chief Finance Officer and a new Chair. • There has also been a significant change in the footprint of the College – we have successfully disaggregated Stourbridge College. BMet is now solely a Birmingham City based FE College. We remain one of the largest FE Colleges with 15,000 students and a budget of around £50 million. • Pre –Covid19 the College was on track to achieve ‘Good’ financial health in FY21. Relationships with our key financial stakeholders are positive and supportive. • We have a strong Board, able to demonstrate a good mix of skills, knowledge and experience; our Board is committed, supportive and ambitious. The College was subject to an FE Commissioner Intervention Assessment report following an inspection by three FE Commissioners in October 2019. The report included the following comments: • The appointment of the new Principal in October 2018 has facilitated a transformational change to teaching, learning and assessment. • The current student recruitment position at the college is encouraging. • Students whom the FEC team met ----- were very positive about the college and confirmed that their experience was in line with expectations. • Staff whom the FEC team met expressed their appreciation of the positive changes made to the college since the appointment of the new Chair and Principal. • The FEC team endorsed the strategic approach adopted by the board and the SLT in driving their improvement plan and welcome the intention to continue this work at pace. The Recovery and Improvement Monitoring Group chaired by the Chair of the board, which includes SLT members, is innovative and effective. So to summarise ‘where we have reached’, our feeling – without any complacency – is that the evidence suggested we were on track to achieve an Ofsted ‘Good’ in our next inspection. This was our judgement pre the advent of Covid19. Where we hope – and plan – to get to Our next full Ofsted inspecton, expected in autumn 2020, has been delayed because of Covid19; it is more likely to take place during the academic year 2021/22. Our firm intention is to achieve ‘Good’ and then use that as a platform to progress towards ‘Outstanding’’ But our vision for BMet is wider and deeper than this. Birmingham is the country’s second city, at the heart of the West Midlands Region, which outside London tops the UK league table for exports, job creation and foreign business investment. The West Midlands is a Mayoral Combined Authority: our vision involves working in close partnership with both Birmingham City Council and the West Midlands Combined Authority. BMet is committed to being a significant contributor to skills development in Birmingham and the City Region. The challenge will be to turn this statement into reality given the unknowns (and unknown unknowns!) of our post Covid19 and post Brexit world. Birmingham is a multiracial city with communities that straddle the socio- economic spectrum: our college supports students from some of the most deprived communities in the UK with over half of all our students in the highest band of deprivation; two-fifths of our learners are from BAME communities. Our vision is of a college that seizes the opportunity and accepts the responsibility to make a difference to all our students. We are determined to continue our progress towards an organizational culture that challenges, supports and inspires our staff. A culture that is creative and innovative and capable of responding to a continually changing environment. And an organisational culture that is in no way complicit in tolerating racism of any kind. So might this be a post for you? Our current Principal, Cliff Hall, came out of retirement in October 2018 to be our interim Principal. ‘Interim’ suggests a maintenance role, keeping us afloat until a permanent appointment could be made. This is not what has happened at BMet. Cliff might have been a de jure interim appointment but he has been a de facto full on leader. He has had the support of an experienced Deputy, an interim CFO who last year won the accolade of Best Finance Officer in the West Midlands, and a committed and talented Senior Leadership Team. Under Cliff’s leadership the College has made significant progress on many fronts. I can report – hand on heart – that he is deservedly well liked and well respected by staff and governors. His successor will be taking on a college that has reached a good place. But wants to go further. I think this is a uniquely exciting and challenging opportunity for the right person. If you think this could be you, I would be delighted, on behalf of our Board, to receive an application from you. Sir Dexter Hutt Chair of BMet Corporation .