18 | Aycliffe Today Business
South West Durham Training CEO Trevor Alley with Natalie
Davison, Chief Executive of Bishop Auckland College.
GREATER
TOGETHER
It's a new era for South West
Durham Training, as the training
provider enters into partnership
with Bishop Auckland College.
Martin Walker finds out more...
South West Durham Training (SWDT) is
now officially a very different proposition.
In December, the training provider was
championed by Ofsted as one of the highest
performing engineering training providers in
the country - having been the first member
of the Group Training Association of England
ever to have received an “outstanding” grade
across all areas.
The welcome accolade marked an
impressive turnaround in SWDT’s fortunes.
In 2013 Ofsted inspectors had highlighted
a number of areas requiring improvement
and the board was facing major financial
challenges due largely to Government
funding cuts which necessitated a
comprehensive staffing restructure.
So what has happened over the past year
to transform the situation at SWDT?
Key changes have included the
appointment last January of Chief Executive
Trevor Alley, who has 30 years’ experience
in the further education sector and an
impressive engineering CV, and a new
partnership with Bishop Auckland College
(BAC), announced last August.
SWDT is now a subsidiary of the college,
trading under its own brand as a separate
registered charity. The partners are working
jointly to increase the provision of high
quality training for the engineering and
manufacturing sectors to meet emerging
regional labour market demands.
The collaboration will provide opportunities
for joint curriculum and quality developments,
extensive employer engagement and pooling
of resources, including combined marketing
drives and shared back office services.
BAC and SWDT have joined forces to
support a new Apprenticeship campaign for
the North East, appropriately named 'Greater
Together... It Takes Two', due start in January
on Heart Radio and run through to March,
and will coincide with national TV adverts.
"We're already starting to see the benefits
of forming this partnership with the college,"
says Trevor.
"There has been a short settling in period,
while we understand what they can do for
us and vice versa, but we've settled in quite
nicely now. Our procedures and processes
are now being shared between the two
centres and are a good example of some
of the synergy that exists between the two
organisations.
"We've also benefited from £30,000-worth
of IT infrastructure improvements, which
will mean faster internet and wireless
connections for learners and staff, and it will
also harmonise our systems with Bishop
Auckland's systems.
"And we're benefiting from massive
savings in some of the software packages
we need. Our finances are being taken care
of by the college, which is working well for
us.