PROFILE
Outstanding – Ofsted celebrations at Redcar & Cleveland College, which is part of the Etc.
Grant got the job and set about strengthening those firm foundations by building on the existing 12-month cycle of continuous improvement, working with stakeholders to produce a three-year strategy.
That has enabled the group to make“ great strides” on capital and buildings, including extending Bede Sixth Form College to create capacity for 200 more A level students, while improving facilities and workshops at Stockton Riverside.
Other highlights include a specialist clean energy education hub opening at Redcar & Cleveland College, including a hydrogen electrolyser simulator and carbon capture rig.
It’ s the only college in the country with a hydrogen refuelling station – complete with hydrogen cars – and it has recently opened the UK’ s largest scaffolding access training facility.
The group’ s latest project is to relocate the NETA Engineering Training Centre at Portrack Lane to a purpose-built site at the Stockton Riverside campus.
“ The aim is to be responsive to the priorities of the Tees Valley, working closely with employers to solve their skills challenges and developing specialisms in priority areas,” says Grant.
As well as engineering and advanced manufacturing, those specialist areas include developing a health and care training programme at Stockton, aligned to the local authority’ s ambition to create a“ health innovation zone”.
One of the reasons for acquiring Innersummit was for the group to expand its offering around legal and other professional services.
Grant is also eager for the Etc. to be part of the government’ s rollout of Technical Excellence Colleges( TECs). The group is already strategic partner for the North East Construction TEC, led by Sunderland College, and there’ s an aspiration to bring a clean energy TEC to Teesside.
The momentum behind the Etc. was underlined in May when an Ofsted inspection raised its rating from good to outstanding, and the group is now working on a new strategy, branded Destination 2030, and designed to inspire further improvements by the end of the decade. Etc. was chosen as the group’ s name because the
18 | Tees Business