Sunderland College strives for excellent destinations for all our students. But with nearly 5,000 16-18 year old learners of mixed abilities, this poses an interesting challenge! It’s part of the reason why, in 2019, we devised our new strategic plan. Our overarching goal was to give all students – not just those on industry placements – access to employer-led learning through our careers-focused curriculum.
As a Further Education (FE) college, Sunderland has strong links with regional employers.
However, the North East economy has some technical skills gaps so we wanted to take this further, developing a talent pool of skilled people to address the shortfall. Level 2 Health and Social Care students were a key focus for us, with many of these students not achieving Maths and English at school and needing to resit with us. We wanted to offer them some new pedagogical approaches.
At around the time we devised these objectives, our local partner, the North East LEP, told us about a new education pilot. Edge Future Learning’s community-connected approach totally aligned with our goals – we could hardly believe the timing! We pitched and were thrilled to be accepted onto the programme.
After an inspiring study visit to The Academies of Nashville, we held a visioning day at Sunderland College. Led by coaches Scott and Starr from Ford Next Generation Learning (NGL), this involved hearing directly from the community what skills, attitudes and behaviours they thought students should have by the time they graduated. Importantly, this went beyond qualifications – it was about the holistic development of lifelong skills.
The outcome was a carefully defined framework of desirable attributes – our graduate leaver profile. Including things like oracy and resilience, we now use this to ensure that we’re always providing additional value. But this was just the first step. To fully integrate these skills, attitudes and behaviours, Scott and Starr carried out a planning day with us. This got into the nuts and bolts of how we would deliver these behaviours, using approaches like project based learning, rich employer engagement and professional development.
For an FE college of our size, there is a danger that the programme could get lost when Ford NGL step back.
To minimise this risk, I took on the role of strategic lead, helping direct the project from a senior leadership perspective, supported by key aspect leads. We’ve also set up our Healthcare Skills Academy, a panel that helps secure opportunities for employers, staff and students. With support from Ford NGL and an Industry Alignment Officer at the North East LEP, we’ve created a sustainable, mutually beneficial relationship with local employers.
Employers now tell us exactly what they need from our students. They also provide us with what we need – industry externships for teachers so they can bring real world learning into the classroom. Our panels currently operate in health and digital, and we’re starting to move into construction, too. All of this has continued through lockdown. In some ways, the pandemic has even made things easier – with meetings via Zoom, employers don’t have to travel into the college any more.
Project based learning has also been delivered remotely. Initially, we didn’t think it was possible.
Then Edge connected us with South Eastern Regional College (SERC), who have already tackled this challenge. As a similarly-sized college based over in Northern Ireland, sharing what they’ve achieved and what they’ve learned has been invaluable for developing our staff. It gave us the confidence to go ahead with project based learning despite the lockdown. Students love it, employers have given great feedback and we’re already training staff to deliver project based inductions in the new academic year.
While there’s always room for improvement, we’ve hung onto our reasons for doing this – to create well-rounded young people who are prepared for the future. And the evidence of our successes is piling up. In 2019, Sunderland merged with Northumberland College. Our new approaches are now being expanded there, too. Northumberland has had their first visioning day and are deep into their planning sessions. As a college group, it’s fantastic to see the sustainable model we helped create spreading across our network.
We’ve also become an Edge Future Learning Leader.
As Edge expands their work beyond North East England, we’ll be able to help others on their journey. There can be a culture of competition between educational institutions but it’s without a doubt collaboration that has got us where we are today. The likes of Edge, Ford NGL, XP School, SERC and School 21 have helped us identify the best opportunities for our students, community and college. It’s great to be paying this forward.
For us, this whole process has been one of learning and growing. We continue forward as a confident, optimistic college, keeping our goals and values in mind, developing that future-focused curriculum. In the end, we’re trying new approaches and they’re already making a difference.
Judith Quinn is Vice Principal Curriculum and Achievement at Sunderland College, Education Partnership North East.