Accountability statement 2024/25

The plan will be published on the College’s website within three months of the start of the new academic year and can be accessed using the following link: https://leicestercollege.ac.uk/about/corporate-information/.

Purpose

• 1. Our mission, strategic aims and objectives

  • 1.1. The College’s mission is:

    Developing skills, supporting businesses, engaging communities, changing lives

  • 1.2. Our core values which run throughout all our work are:

    • Respect

    • Inclusion

    • Sustainability

    • Equality

    • Excellence

  • 1.3. The strategic objectives for 2022-2025, as set out in the College’s Strategic Plan and supporting strategies and operating plans, are:

    • 1. Deliver an ambitious, technically focused curriculum that equips individuals and employers with valuable skills, knowledge and behaviours needed for the success of the local economy.

    • 2. Raise standards of teaching, learning and assessment to ensure students and apprentices achieve rapid and better than expected progress and achieve positive destinations.

    • 3. Develop students’ and apprentices’ personal social development, building confidence and resilience and enabling them to be responsible, respectful, active citizens.

    • 4. Work with local, regional and national partners to foster innovative developments in sustainability, EDI and other priority areas.

    • 5. Establish a sound financial base that enables annual reinvestment in students, staff and the estate.

    • 6. Attract, develop and retain high performing staff who contribute positively to the College as a learning community.

    • 7. Provide first-class facilities and an advanced IT infrastructure that support excellent teaching and learning and efficient and innovative business operation.

    • 8. Demonstrate exemplary leadership and strategic insight to strengthen and position the College for the future.

  • 1.4. The College’s Strategic Plan 2022-2025 was developed in consultation with key stakeholders and included a review of the curriculum. We have ensured that the aims and objectives in this accountability statement align with our Strategic Plan.

Context and place

• 2. The communities we serve

  • 2.1. Leicester College was formed in 1999 from the merger of two colleges. It operates from three main sites, four satellite sites and in community venues across the City of Leicester.

  • 2.2. The College attracts 60% of its students from the City with 40% coming from the wider County area and further afield. The range of its offer, much of which is not offered by other institutions, means that students will travel to Leicester College to benefit from the expert technical training and specialist facilities that the College provides.

  • 2.3. Over 50% of our student population is from a minority ethnic group and over 100 nationalities are represented in the student body. We value diversity and recognise that people bring different perspectives, ideas, knowledge and culture. This difference brings strength and energy to the College.

  • 2.4. Leicester city has a population of 368,800 and is the 19th most deprived local authority in England, with a 59% ethnic minority population; 71% of school pupils are from non-White British backgrounds. 41% of Leicester residents were born outside the UK, one of the highest proportions outside London and 30% of the 3 population has a language other than English as their main language. We are privileged to be serving a city with such a diverse population.

  • 2.5. Leicester has very specific education and training needs for both adults and young people and experiences pockets of serious economic as well as educational deprivation and inequality.

  • 2.6. There are still high numbers of young people who perform poorly up to Key Stage 2 and achievement in Leicester remains below the national average. GCSE English and maths results in the city are 3% below the national figures and 16-to 18-year-olds are below average for the achievement of level 3 academic and vocational qualifications. 2021 census data reveals that 27% of the post-16 population do not have a GCSE or equivalent qualification. This means that many young people come to further education, and specifically to Leicester College, with significant educational gaps. Nevertheless, many flourish in vocational and technical fields and go on to perform highly in a further education setting, progressing to further study or employment and making highly successful career paths.

  • 2.7. The 2021 Census also showed that over a quarter (26.7%) of Leicester’s adult population, 78,000 people, have no qualifications. 21% of households are workless compared to 14% nationally. We continue to be the largest provider of adult provision in the City delivering over 40% of all adult courses. As such, we have an important role in enabling adults to develop the skills they need to enter or progress in the workforce and develop both career and personal aspirations.

  • 2.8. There is also a thriving and growing entrepreneurial base. There are over 40,000 businesses in the wider Leicestershire area, 13,000 of which are based in Leicester, including a significant proportion of small and medium sized enterprises; 89% businesses employ 9 or fewer staff and only 1.8% businesses employ more than 50 people. There is also a strong public sector which includes some of the largest employers in the City.

  • 2.9. Leicester and Leicestershire has traditionally had a strong manufacturing base, including a significant textiles industry. 14% of the Leicester and Leicestershire workforce is employed in the manufacturing sector compared to 9% nationally. In contrast, 13% of employees work in banking, finance and insurance compared to 18% nationally. This difference is also reflected in a higher proportion of people working in process and machine operations and in elementary occupations compared to nationally and fewer in professional occupations. The average income in local workplaces is approximately £70 a week less than national levels.

Approach to developing the accountability statement

• 3. Developing the accountability statement

  • 3.1. The College has a range of stakeholders, all of whom have an important role to play in helping us plan, create and deliver high quality education and training. These stakeholders include:

    • Students

    • Apprentices

    • Prospective students/apprentices

    • Parents/carers

    • Staff

    • Employers/businesses and business groups including the LLEP

    • Other partners (colleges, schools, universities, other local organisations)

    • Local community

    • Funders

    • Other statutory bodies.

  • 3.2. The various ways in which the College engages with stakeholders to plan, develop and deliver education training and support are set out in a Stakeholder Engagement Framework and Stakeholder Engagement Strategy.

  • 3.3. The College works collaboratively with other local providers and partners in the city and wider county area, notably through formal and informal local networks, including the Tertiary Federation for Leicester, and through projects such as the Skills Development Fund which included activity focused on sport and electric/hydrogen vehicles. The College is leading projects funded through the Local Skills Improvement Fund on decarbonising transportation, green leadership skills, digital upskilling and employer focussed skills training.

  • 3.4. The College has a close relationship with local universities. It is an associate college of De Montfort University and also works with the University of Leicester particularly around engineering. In addition, the College is engaged with universities and schools in the Pathways project to promote participation in higher education from non-traditional participants.

  • 3.5. The schools in Leicester are predominantly 11-16. While there are three sixth form colleges, and five schools offering post-16 provision, their offer is in the main academic or different from the College’s technical and vocational offer. The College therefore has an important role in working with schools to ensure that young people are well informed about the full range of options post16 and particularly the technical and vocational routes, and the employment and career opportunities that are open to them.

Contribution to national, regional and local priorities

• 4. Meeting national regional and local needs

  • 4.1. Leicester College is the largest FE college in Leicestershire and our Strategic Plan sets out a wider range of longer-term goals and objectives. These include goals and objectives related to the College’s commitment to being an anti-racist organisation and its commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion, and to promoting sustainability.

  • 4.2. In developing the aims and objectives in this Accountability Statement, the College has carefully considered national, regional and local priorities, particularly where these directly align.

  • 4.3. Leicester and Leicestershire Enterprise Partnership’s Local Skills Report identified some of the main skills issues and needs locally, many of which the College is well placed to support. There will be a need for high level technical skills, for example in STEM and digital and also skills which are relatively new in sectors such as low carbon. There is also a need to reskill existing workers to meet areas of demand, for example health and care roles or logistics, and raise skills levels across the area, reducing the number of residents with no qualifications.

  • 4.4. The Local Skills Improvement Plan (LSIP) for Leicester and Leicestershire has also reviewed the knowledge, skills and behaviours required to meet employers’ growth aspirations, focussing initially on the manufacturing, logistics and sport and health sectors. This this information is now available for all sectors through an online data resource. The LSIP also makes a series of recommendations designed to support the development of candidates better prepared with the knowledge, skills and behaviours to meet the needs of employers, and for the Leicester and Leicestershire skills system as a whole to better meet the workforce development needs of businesses.

  • 4.5. The College can make an important contribution to the implementation and of these recommendations and to the impact on the skills of the local workforce.

Local needs duty

• 5. Local needs duty

  • 5.1. During 2021/22, as part of the development of its new Strategic Plan, the College undertook a review of its curriculum offer, developing separate strategies for the 2022-2025 period for education programmes for young people (EPYP), adult programmes, HE and Apprenticeships. These included a review of the local labour market information and the identification of areas of market share, areas for growth and how the offer contributed to local priorities identified by the Leicestershire Local Enterprise Partnership (LLEP) and the Local Skills Improvement Plan (LSIP).

  • 5.2. The review found that the College’s offer makes an important contribution to meeting local need and makes provision in all areas identified as local and national skills priorities. It identified that over a quarter of Leicester’s adult population have no qualifications and highlighted the importance of an adult skills offer to the local area. It also identified that there were opportunities to develop the offer further focussing on career-led pathways to meet the need for higher level technical skills, for example in STEM and digital, and also skills which are relatively new in sectors such as low carbon. There is also a need to reskill existing workers to meet areas of demand, for example health and care roles or logistics. These areas have been addressed through collaborative projects through the SDF and LSIF and continue to be areas of focus for annual curriculum development.

Contribution to national, regional and local priorities

Corporation statement

On behalf of the Corporation of Leicester College, it is hereby confirmed that the College plan as set out above reflects an agreed statement of purpose, aims and objectives as approved by the Corporation at its meeting on 21 March 2024.

Relevant supporting documentation

• LSIP

• LLEP Local Skills Report 2022

• Ofsted report

• Financial statements

Updated: 18/12/2024