Agenda item

The Principal of City College Peterborough introduced the report which provided the Committee with an overview of Peterborough City Councils Adult and Community Learning Provision at City College Peterborough (CCP).  This included who used the college, its outcomes, NEETS, the Raising of the Participation age and the impact the service had on local residents and businesses. A short video of interviews was provided showing two NEETs (not in education, employment or training) who had been attending Peterborough City College.  In the video they discussed the training Peterborough City College had offered to them to help them in their job search and in their personal lives.

Observations and questions were raised and discussed including:

·         Members sought reassurance that Peterborough City College had the capacity to broaden the provision of qualifications offered and continued growth and success of apprentice schemes.  The Principal replied that the apprentice scheme was an area of growth and the Skills Funding Agency has noted that the College had achieved their contract early and had been told to expand the apprenticeship provision and to continue recruiting over target as it would attract funding.

·         Members asked if courses at the college could begin to address issues around the poverty strategy. The Principal replied that a contribution had been made to the poverty strategy and that one of the Vice Principals had been involved with the poverty strategy and that City College would look to see how they could further support this.

·         Members congratulated the Principal on the success of the John Mansfield Centre.

·         Members expressed concern regarding the categorisation of pupils and asked if pupils were aware of which categories they were placed into. The Principal stated that such categorisation was confidential and the categorisation was for support staff in order to assess what type of support pupils would require in order to remove barriers to learning and apply for funding to increase support.

·         Members asked for a hypothetical example of a change in categorisation. The Principal responded that a criteria of somebody who may be in care or have drug abuse in the family would place that individual into a category so that if they failed to attend college they would be prioritised for further support. The Principal further clarified that the introduction of a new category of purple to indicate an increased cause for concern in addition to the already existing categories was a response to more pupils indicating significant barriers to learning and therefore a new category was introduced.

·         Members asked about the youth access hub and inquired as to whether it would be part of the poverty strategy. The Principal stated that she would make sure that this would be included.

·         Members then asked where funding for each individual person came from and if funding was allocated based on individual need. The Principal responded that funding came from a variety of agencies. Young Persons’ funding came from the Educational Funding Agency. An allocated amount was given per young person and additional high needs funding could be applied for therefore tailoring the funding to an individual dependent on their individual circumstances.

·         Members asked what the difference was between Peterborough City College and Peterborough Regional College. The Principal responded that the difference was twofold which was choice and competition. Both of which helped to drive up quality. The City College was a smaller environment which worked with businesses and communities and for people that were not considering mainstream education.  An example of this was adults and individuals with learning difficulties. Only a small portion of the students were in full-time education at the college.  There were also individuals who were unemployed and socially excluded who attended.

·         Members noted that much work was being done to address the Poverty Strategy through the work at the college.

The Chair thanked the Principal of the College for attending and for an informative and interesting report. The Chair asked that thanks should be passed onto the staff at the college and students for all the hard work and achievements that had been accomplished.

ACTION AGREED

The Committee noted the report and the role the City College has to play in delivering improved educational outcomes for the city.