Successful Partnerships

Author: Highbury College & Gert Sibande College Prepared for: British Council Skills Festival Date: 18 July 2014

Agenda

• Welcome• Overview of the partnership• Our Colleges• What we did• Benefits of the partnership• Learning• The future

Partners

Highbury College, Portsmouth

North Hertfordshire College

Gert Sibande College

Sisonke Partnership (MerSeta)

Overview of the partnership

• Raise the profile and reputation of Gert Sibande FET College as a key change agent in the local, regional economy and beyond by:

- Sharing best practice in quality systems- Improving the quality of teaching & learning- Improve initial advice, guidance and support - Capacity building for management - Develop & utilising appropriate ICT

About Highbury College

• Mission to enable students to succeed• Her Majesty’s Inspectorate Ofsted has graded us

Grade 1 Outstanding• High Success Rates – Highest in South East of

England• Offer courses at all levels from entry to higher

education• Strategic priorities include Student Success,

Growth, Innovation & Enterprise, Leadership and Financial Health

About North Hertfordshire College

• Mission: an entrepreneurial college, where the ethos, values and culture of students, tutors and leaders is distinctively geared towards the task of wealth creation, business formation and employment outcomes

• Strategic priorities: teaching & learning transformation, student and employer engagement, workforce development and growth

• Investors in People Gold, with a highly entrepreneurial and innovative culture

• Student success makes us one on the highest performing colleges in the country

• Over 3,000 Full time 14-16 students, 2,500 apprentices and three schools

About Gert Sibande College• Purpose: To skill people for work• Situated in Rural, Semi-Industrial and Farming

Area• Success Rates: Top Performing College in

Province and rated amongst 5 best colleges from the 50 in the country

• Offer programmes for approximately 9000 students enrolled for Vocational, Occupational, Learnerships, Artisan and Skills Programmes

The Focus

• Use of technology to enhance teaching and learning

• Visits• Self evaluation • Whole College approach to outstanding teaching &

learning

What we did

Initial visit to UK by the Principal and Vice Principal of Gert Sibande – this allowed us to:

- Organise visits to both Colleges- Share experiences- Review the original project plan and agree changes necessary which better suited our needs

What we did (cont.)• Principals of both UK Colleges visited Gert

Sibande and set the strategic vision• Vice Principal of North Hertfordshire College

(NHC) was guest speaker at Gert Sibande College on ICT

• Conducted workshop for Senior Campus Management and Section Heads on realizing the vision of an Entrepreneurial College

Benefits of the partnership

Significant learning has taken place among managers and teachers such as:•Sharing best practice – learning from each other•Improving quality of teaching and learning for future students

Dissemination

This project has been shared with many differing stakeholders such as:General public – via press releasesOther Colleges – Via Association of Colleges networkEmployers – via direct contact , newsletters and Expert Advisory BoardsPolicy Makers in Higher EducationTeachersSkills Agencies

Next Steps & Future

• This project has allowed us to plan joint projects to work on for the future these include:

• Development of Learning Companies• Joint curriculum projects• Student study exchanges• Teachers attending UK Teaching Conferences

Some members of the project team

Contact Details

Jackie PageRegional Director UK

Business Development (Project Lead)

Highbury College

Jackie.page@Highbury.ac.uk

Telephone:023 92728201 Mobile:07920848776

Alison WinterHead of Quality, Teaching,

Learning and Higher Education

Highbury College

Alison.winter@highbury.ac.uk

Telephone: 02392 328927