EDUCATION
FEELING RIGHT AT HOME
Etc . chief executive reflects on first full year – and outlines six key strands to underpin the next three
At home – Etc . chief executive Grant Glendinning is loving life after returning to Teesside having worked out of the area .
WORDS : DAVE ROBSON PICTURES : STUART BOULTON
Just over a year ago , Grant Glendinning , like many of his students , was excited to be starting a new academic year in new surroundings .
As the incoming chief executive of the Education Training Collective ( Etc .), Hartlepoolborn Grant was returning home to take charge of an organisation that sets thousands of Teessiders on the way to bright futures .
It ’ s sizeable , too , comprising Bede Sixth Form College , NETA Training Group , Redcar and Cleveland College , Stockton Riverside College ( SRC ), The Skills Academy ( Billingham ) and Innersummit ( Gateshead ).
His aim , as he told Tees Business at the time , was to “ understand the strengths , the areas of opportunity and the challenges we face ”.
So , three months into his second full year , how is it going ?
As we sit in his modest office at SRC ’ s eyecatchingly modern base , the enthusiastic way he talks about the tasks in hand suggests it ’ s going pretty well .
But looking back , what did he expect when he first took up the Etc . reins ?
“ I was hoping there ’ d be a lot of opportunities developing in the area and lots of potential – and I think that whole thing about a resurgent Teesside , which we framed our strategy on , has proven to be the case ,” he said .
“ There ’ s been so much work done between agencies , employers , colleges and skills providers on what local skills improvement planning should be and what local skills are . That ’ s been made transparently clear . Now we ’ ve got some key priority areas that we ’ re focusing our development on .
“ There are always challenges when you ’ re trying to work across multiple stakeholders . Everyone has their own priorities for their own organisations – they won ’ t always align , and partnership working is critical within that . But you can overcome those challenges – and people are quite prepared to rally around a flag here in the Tees Valley .”
Coming back to Teesside after forging a successful FE career elsewhere was , he says , “ great – like deja vu ”. He added : “ If you ’ ve been away for a while and come back , you understand where everywhere is and understand the different communities .
“ But to come back to the area , it means a lot to know you ’ re trying to make a difference to the area where your family is from .”
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