APPRENTICES DIVERSE STRATEGIES FOR OUR KEY CLIENT GROUPS

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1 DIVERSE STRATEGIES FOR OUR KEY CLIENT GROUPS AN EXTRACT FROM: LOCALLY RESPONSIVE, REGIONALLY VALUED, GLOBALLY COMPETITIVE: A STRATEGIC PLAN FOR DUDLEY COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY

2 CONTEXT VISION 2 The college enjoyed notable success in the provision of Apprenticeships in the period With 2,905 apprentices on programme in , we supported more apprentices than any other further education college in the Black Country. In fact, we understand that we supported the second highest number of apprentices of all Black Country providers. We are particularly pleased to have supported over 900 young people on Apprenticeships. We successfully engaged apprentices from diverse communities. Last year 13% of our apprentices were from ethnic minority groups. Whilst our apprentices are more diverse than the local community where 11.5% of the population are from minority groups, we would like to see more young people from these communities choosing Apprenticeships. By careful attention to the needs of individual apprentices and their employers, we continued to ensure our apprentices succeeded. Our apprenticeship success rates, at all ages and levels, are some of the highest in the country and there are no significant differences in the success rates of apprentices from diverse groups or those with a learning difficulty or disability. We made a significant impact on the local skills gap by upskilling young people and adults. 66% of our apprentices aged years were on programmes directly supporting the Black Country Local Enterprise Partnership s priority sectors and 54% of all apprentices were following STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) Apprenticeships, an increase of 6% on the previous year. In short, Apprenticeships are in our DNA. They are, perhaps, strategically the most the important of our key client groups. Whilst we should be rightly proud of our successes to date we recognise there is more to be done. There is a need to increase the number of women participating in engineering and advanced manufacturing Apprenticeships. Too few young people from ethnic minority groups choose Apprenticeships. In addition, too few of our most gifted young people progress into Apprenticeships, either directly from school or after their full time college programme. Government policy is rightly asking colleges to attract more apprentices and to focus on advanced and higher level skills. National reforms to Apprenticeships present a significant opportunity to address this. We understand that we have a pivotal role to play in the Black Country and the wider region. We need to work even more closely with employers, to develop new standards, new cutting edge facilities and new business to business services. We will enthusiastically rise to these challenges and ensure the development of Apprenticeships is our highest priority over the life of this strategic plan. In short, Apprenticeships are in our DNA. They are, perhaps, strategically the most important of our key client groups. Our vision for Apprentices is this: By 2019 we will be renowned regionally and nationally for our apprenticeship provision. As the largest and most successful provider of Apprenticeships in the Black Country, Apprenticeships will justifiably be regarded as the jewel in our crown. Our apprenticeship offer will be transformed through the introduction of new programmes and more flexible modes of study. With our local and national employer partners we will have developed and introduced new standards in priority sectors including engineering and manufacturing, construction, science and healthcare, sport and leisure, services industries and business, management and professional. We will be recognised as an accredited assessment centre for new apprenticeship standards. As a result we will have increased our Apprenticeships numbers, with significant growth at advanced and higher levels. An increasing percentage of our apprentices will follow careers in priority sectors. Many more young women will join these pathways and more of our apprentices will be from ethnic minority communities. Employers will continue to play a significant role in our apprenticeship provision. Our efficient and effective business to business services will ensure employers, particularly small businesses, successfully navigate the levy and other national reforms. As a consequence many more employers will regard Dudley College of Technology as their apprenticeship partner of choice. Inspirational new facilities provided by Dudley Advance II will be fully operational, dedicated to advanced and higher apprentices. As active members of the Dudley Advance II Advisory Committee key partner employers will oversee the development and specification of the centre s facilities and resources. Through enhanced conditions of service and partnership working with employers, we will have renewed our apprenticeship staffing resource appointing more highly skilled delivery and assessment staff. On the strength of our advanced and higher apprenticeship provision, the technical and highly specialist resources at Dudley Advance II and our extensive partnership working, we will have achieved designation as a pilot Institute of Technology. Beyond the Black Country, from our base in Loughborough we will have successfully recruited onto our national apprenticeship programmes in sports coaching and sports industries. There will be high levels of progression with many apprentices progressing onto higher and degree level Apprenticeships. Our young apprentices will understand how to best conduct themselves, professionally and socially, and to keep themselves safe. They will enjoy their training, benefiting from teaching which is active, exciting and inspiring, which focuses on their individual needs and which makes best use of learning technologies. Our apprentices will prosper in their careers, improving workplace productivity, contributing positively to the regional economy and helping to narrow the skills gap. Apprenticeships will justifiably be regarded as the jewel in our crown. 3

3 Students and staff join Professor Brian Cox OBE at the official opening of Dudley Advance I. WHAT WE WILL DO 4 In line with Government aspirations we will develop a prospectus for the pilot Dudley Advance Institute of Technology. Making best use of the cutting edge facilities and resources in Dudley Advance and Advance II, our extensive advanced and higher apprenticeship offer and our effective partnerships with higher education institutions and key employers, our prospectus will propose a partnership approach and an innovative governance model. We expect Government to agree to our proposal. We will effectively use labour market intelligence to identify specific gaps in the market and proactively design new apprenticeship programmes to meet the identified training needs. The college, in partnership with employers and higher education partners and industry representative bodies will develop a range of professional and technical apprenticeship standards in local priority sectors, with a focus on advanced and higher level Apprenticeships, as follows. - The Black Country has twice the density of engineering and manufacturing firms than the national average and still faces significant skills gaps. Through Dudley Advance we will introduce a number of new standards to enhance the curriculum, provide clear careers pathways and support local employers; these will include fabrication and welding, advanced manufacturing engineering, engineering maintenance and installation, electrical and electronic engineering, welding, spot welding and projection welding, destructive and nondestructive testing, sheet metal and heavy sheet metal engineering, automotive design and technical support, and electronics and control systems. - To respond to technological changes in the construction sector, and in partnership with key construction employers, we will, through Dudley Advance II, develop a range of brand new apprenticeship standards, including digital engineering, on site assembly technician, town planning and technical support, building services management, sustainability and construction management, quantity surveying, facilities management, refrigeration and air conditioning, ground source and air source heat pumps, building services engineering (refrigeration), energy management, utilities engineering, renewable energies, energy assessment and advice, plumbing and heating engineering, and heating and ventilation. - We will work with the Stourbridge Advanced Technology Centre as it ceases operations to ensure apprentices and employers have continued access to technical, mechanical services and building trades programmes for the construction industry. This enhanced curriculum offer will be delivered in Dudley. - We will play a key role in the development of the Elite Centre for Manufacturing Skills and the Very Light Rail Innovation Centre leading on the development and delivery of new apprenticeship standards in these exciting partnership projects. On these initiatives we will work closely with the Black Country Local Enterprise Partnership, the University of Wolverhampton, the Black Country Skills Factory, the Warwick Manufacturing Group and Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council. - To meet a heightened need for a highly skilled sport and leisure workforce, we will, through collaboration with partners and our new facility based at Loughborough University, extend our apprenticeship offer to the sports sector. Through this hub, we will develop and introduce new standards in coaching and learning to swim, gym and leisure instructors, sports development, sports and recreation and a suite of business services standards aimed at the leisure industry. We will extend our current level 2 provision into intermediate and advanced standards. We will also enhance our curriculum through the development of the new Priory Road 3G Football Complex and associated facilities. 5

4 6 - To support our largest local employer and to meet local and national skills shortages in science and healthcare, we will introduce new standards in healthcare assistant practitioners, health care support worker, health care science assistant, and senior nursing assistant. In collaboration with the Federation of Healthcare, Birmingham City University and a consortium of regional colleges, we will develop a level 4 and 5 apprenticeship offer to ensure the national healthcare workforce receive vital higher level training. This will support the sector in promoting progression and upskilling for the healthcare workforce. We will conduct a feasibility study for the creation of a new dedicated health and life science centre in the Dudley Learning Quarter. - Building on the success of our hospitality and catering programmes, we will introduce advanced and higher level standards in patisserie and confectionery and hospitality management. Through partnership with a large local employer, we will broaden the scope of our current provision developing and delivering new Trailblazers in the food and beverage industry, including butchery. - We will support business, innovation and growth by establishing a suite of programmes dedicated to the needs of senior business leaders, including leadership and management, business improvement, recruitment, logistics, marketing and sales. To meet the Government s demand for the application of digital and media technologies across a range of sectors, we will introduce standards in information communication technology, network engineering, digital marketing, social media management, cyber security, data analysis, application development, game design and software development. We will maintain our New Engineering Foundation STEM Assured status to ensure we are continuing to offer apprentices on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) pathways the best possible provision and outcomes. We will involve employers and their supply chains in the design, delivery and the quality assurance of our apprenticeship programmes. We will build on the existing good-practice where employer partners are instrumental in shaping the delivery design and learning outcomes of our apprenticeship programmes, such as our logistic Apprenticeships with UPS and DHL and our butchery Trailblazer developed with Walter Smith Butchers. Furthermore employers will be well represented on the Dudley Advance II Advisory Committee ensuring the new innovative apprenticeship offer and the design and specification of the centre are fit for purpose. We will develop greater flexibility in the provision of off the job training moving to more block training release models. This will support apprentices joining our very specialist provision from across the wider region or on a national basis. Alongside our apprenticeship provision we will offer relevant short skill programmes to employers on a commercial basis to meet their very specific skills training needs. We will develop innovative solutions and programmes to equip employers of all sizes with the skills their businesses need for future growth and competitiveness. We will create new arrangements to attract and recruit industry specialists to deliver on new Apprenticeships, through enhanced conditions of service. This will include a programme of dedicated recruitment activity targeted at specific shortage areas such as advanced manufacturing, advanced building technology and science. We will upskill and reskill our existing staff to increase our capacity in delivering advance and higher Apprenticeships. We will ensure our delivery staff regularly participate in professional development activities to keep fully up to date with industrial practice. Where required we will second staff from our partner employers to deliver specialist technical skills, particularly at higher levels. We will also work with our partner employers to train their staff as assessors. This will help to build capacity for workplace delivery. We will continue to work with specialist partner providers to offer provision on a franchised basis that complements and adds value to the college s core offer. We will set individual, high and stretching targets for all of our apprentices, both from an academic perspective and aspirational targets for their next career steps. We will closely monitor the progress of apprentices, during off the job training and over the duration of their programmes, with the aim of ensuring their learning develops as quickly as possible and apprentices reach their goals as specified in their individual learning plans. Through rigorous attention to the needs of individual apprentices and their employers we will continue to maintain our very high timely success rates across all our Apprenticeships. We will continually review the skillset of assessors and tutors supporting apprentices with learning difficulties and disabilities. Further, we will develop resources to ensure these apprentices receive the best support possible. In doing so we aim to increase the number of apprentices with complex needs. We will engage with apprentices to review our approach and to assist in the redesign of our e-systems, such as BlackBoard and ProMonitor, to most appropriately support a blended learning experience. In doing so, we will be positioned to review our delivery model allowing further flexibility, distance learning and short block delivery to best meet study and support needs for apprentices. We will consider the development or purchase of specific mobile apps which support mathematics and English or functional skills. Listening to what apprentices have to say about the college and their workplace is of paramount importance. We are therefore committed to continually developing, supporting and extending our highly effective learner voice strategy. 7

5 8 We will revise our employer facing services. In doing so we will develop new efficient and effective business to business services to ensure employers, particularly small businesses, successfully navigate the levy and other national reforms. We will provide our partner employers, especially those smaller companies, with an one stop shop relieving them of any administrative burden associated with the levy and new funding arrangements. Regular and effective communication with employers, digitally, one to one and through briefings will be a key component of our service. We will increase investment in our business development team and services, creating additional employer facing roles. Investment in resources for apprenticeship will be foremost in our minds throughout this strategic plan period. Where required we will agree bespoke sector focused routes to market approaches for the marketing of our apprenticeship provision. We will undertake a longitudinal analysis of the impact of apprenticeship on the careers of individuals and the productivity of the businesses they support. We will use this data to promote, evidentially, the value of Apprenticeships. We will develop more effective targeted marketing activities to encourage more interest in apprenticeship from young people in ethnic minority groups. In doing so we will further strengthen links with schools, promoting Apprenticeships as an alternative route to further or higher education. We will continue to build on the success of our STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) event held in 2015 by designing and delivering a programme of annual events aimed at inspiring young people to take up careers in shortage local STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) related Apprenticeships. As part of this we will focus on the number of young women embarking on careers in engineering and construction. We will enhance guidance for apprentices completing their programme and also for their employers. We will provide them with an accessible road map on their progression opportunities. In doing so we will increase progression to higher level Apprenticeships and, with our partners, degree level Apprenticeships. We will work in partnership with other local colleges and universities in planning a coherent regional apprenticeship offer, and in particular the development of specialist and higher level provision. We will continue to lead the Black Country College s Engineering Group and update regularly Sparking Talent the colleges engineering and manufacturing prospectus. We will participate proactively in cross region initiatives, such as The Midlands Engine, and work collaborative with others in the promotion of Apprenticeships. Building on good practice elsewhere in the college we will develop dedicated mentoring strategies to support young and adult apprentices. In doing so we will seek to make best use of information learning technologies and social media platforms. Through cross college staff development we will ensure that all curriculum and support teams in the college have a better understanding of apprenticeships. 12 MILLION INVESTED IN ADVANCED BUILDING AND ENVIRONMENTAL TECHNOLOGIES (OPENING 2017). 9

6 10 OUR PLANNED STRATEGIC OUTPUTS Each year we will set specific targets for performance. By 2019 we will have delivered the following strategic outputs in Apprenticeships. APPRENTICE ENGAGEMENT: We will be engaging over 3,500 young people and adults in Apprenticeships each academic year. The number following higher Apprenticeships will have grown to at least 400 apprentices per year. TO FIND OUT MORE The college operates a policy of openness and transparency in all of its activities. Further information about the college is freely available from the following sources: For a full version of our strategic plan Locally responsive, regionally valued, globally competitive: A Strategic plan for Dudley college of technology visit our website at Information on Governance can be found on our website at Information on a wide variety of live performance indicators and our Annual Strategic Impact Assessment Report can be found on the Dudley Dashboard. This includes the latest data on learner success, destinations and performance. It contains a range of information relating to the diversity of our learners and staff, our financial performance and latest inspection reports. Visit The college s published annual report and consolidated financial statements can be found at To contact a member of our senior management team, their contact details can be found at 11 OUTCOMES FOR : Our success rates will be above national rates at all levels. Our headline overall success rate for Apprenticeships will be 88% or higher. Our headline timely success rate for Apprenticeships will be 85% or higher. The college s Freedom of Information Officer is Andrew Comyn, Vice Principal Finance. For further information on any aspect of the college s operations, please contact: STAKEHOLDER SATISFACTION: Apprentices satisfaction will be above average in comparison with other good or outstanding general further education colleges. Overall satisfaction will be high, evidenced by a rating of 80 or above from an independent survey conducted by QDP. Employer satisfaction with our apprenticeship programmes will be high, evidenced by a rating of 9.2 or higher in the independent FE Choices survey. Lowell Williams Principal Dudley College The Broadway Dudley West Midlands DY1 4AS Tel: lowell.williams@dudleycol.ac.uk IMPACT ON REGIONAL SKILLS AND ECONOMY: At least 60% of our apprentices will be following programmes in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) related careers. At least 70% of our apprentices will be following programmes aligned to Black Country Local Enterprise Partnership s transformational sectors.