Strategic Ambitions for 2020-25

STRATEGIC PRIORITY ONE: DELIVER EDUCATIONAL EXCELLENCE

‘Students first’

• Provide every student with an excellent education, enabling them to study a coherent and challenging curriculum that develops the knowledge, skills, behaviours and ambition to be successful in future learning, employment and to be confident in life.
• Adopt, utilise and undertake research into learning sciences, informing experiments and driving innovative practice, risk taking and collaboration across our community of teaching professionals, resulting in more students receiving an exceptional education.
• Pro-actively encourage and nurture students to deploy effective behaviours and attitudes, fostering understanding and preparing them as professionals at work and as social contributors in life.
• Put student views, employer voice and customer satisfaction at the heart of our service delivery, continuous improvement and evolution. Embrace a culture of compliance and accountability to improve all aspects of our customers’ experience.

STRATEGIC PRIORITY TWO: CHAMPION SOCIAL MOBILITY

‘Challenge perceptions, remove barriers’

• Further develop our breadth of community provision to engage with individuals with no or low qualifications, or those at risk of social marginalisation, removing obstacles to further learning and progression.
• Effectively engage with schools to ensure smooth transition for young people, so they can be supported from day one and are best prepared for ‘college life’.
• Remove barriers for advancement to Higher Education by expanding the range of progression opportunities to widen participation and positively impact on students’ life chances and future earning potential.
• Utilise our excellent relations and interactive engagement with employers, sector skills bodies and wider stakeholders to raise awareness of industry opportunities, helping us to tackle gender stereotyping in career choices, broadening horizons and inspiring social progression

STRATEGIC PRIORITY THREE: ENABLE ECONOMIC PROSPERITY

‘Co-creating future talent’

• Utilise and exploit comprehensive business intelligence to drive strategic intent and inform a responsive curriculum plan which meets the needs of students and employers, as well as local, regional and national priorities.
• Co-design our curriculum with employers, via our Employment and Skills Boards, to ensure the talent pool generated is equipped to effectively transition between education and industry, and where appropriate via Higher Education, supporting exceptional outcomes and contributing to the productivity and prosperity of our city, county and region.
• Co-deliver career pathways with business, via our Employment and Skills Academies, to enhance our students’ exposure to ‘world of work’ opportunities and essential life skills, embracing enterprise and resilience to support positive destinations to employment, including business start-up for our aspiring entrepreneurs.
• Upskill and retrain the adult workforce to meet the needs of the economy, provide tailored programmes for employers and further develop our commercial offer to support people and business to thrive.