PURPOSE
Mission, Vision and Values
We exist to enrich lives by delivering transformative further and higher educational opportunities to all students at East Durham College. We will do this by providing exceptionally high-quality education, providing progression opportunities for all, through purposeful and collaborative partnerships and growth in regionally important skills priority areas.
Enriching lives through transformative education
Our mission and vision are underpinned by our organisational values which are to have students at the heart of our decision making; excellence in curriculum and service delivery; a respectful culture with an inclusive environment; and sustainable provision.
We will make our vision a reality by being solutions focused, creative and responsive to our local community need. The key building blocks are:
PERFORMANCE
We are ambitious for our performance, and we will continue to grow our share of key markets whilst achieving excellence in provision that meets regional skills needs.
PEOPLE
We are ambitious for our people, and we will develop and implement an aspirational People Strategy which will support our people to work collaboratively to deliver our highly ambitious curriculum goals.
PARTNERSHIPS
We are ambitious for our partnerships, and we will participate in highly effective and proactive collaborations which allow us to accelerate our growth in key priority skills areas.
A HIGHLY AMBITIOUS CURRICULUM
The College defines a highly ambitious curriculum as one that contains the elements below and this is the expectation in all areas for all students:
Highly effective implementation of the right combination of qualifications (ambitious, meets employer skills needs and student progression aspirations) that lead to outstanding teaching, learning and assessment.
Right student, right course, right level approach to recruitment, facilitated by robust CEIAG throughout the course.
Progression pathways through the levels (up to level 6) in key skills priority areas.
Meaningful work experience. Meaningful and inclusive skills competitions.
High quality resources in world class facilities.
The development of industry standard and specific digital skills.
High expectations of staff and students that meet the best of industry standards.
Real Work Environments used well which benefit staff and students.
Employer involvement including curriculum design and employer led / set briefs and projects.
Staff with relevant, credible, and up-to-date skills and experience.
High quality and highly effective support to ensure all students achieve their potential
Enriching lives through transformative education
NATIONAL CONTEXT
The Accountability Agreement has been produced at a time of unprecedented change in the FE sector, and wider society including a change in Government. The sector is widely recognised as underfunded, yet the delivery of an effective skills system is central to any Government strategy. As the new Labour government are working on implementing Skills England to drive its Industrial Strategy, and the sector waits to see how this will impact on the post-16 skill system, we need to continue to support our key stakeholders in what continues to be a challenging environment.
In the short to medium term our students, staff and the system in which we operate continues to face the following challenges which have been considered when setting targets at the end of this document:
Curriculum – qualification reform, including pause and review, impacting upon long term planning, potentially removing progression pathways and increasing curriculum delivery inefficiencies.
Staff – ongoing and deepening of workforce recruitment and retention issues as well as funding to afford a competitive pay strategy continuing the widening of the pay gap between teachers in schools and colleges.
Buildings and Estate – rising energy costs, fixed funding levels leading to reduced surpluses.
Systems – Public sector reclassification impact still rolling out, ongoing formation of economic and skills strategy from the newly devolved combined authority. Local Skills Improvement Plans and change of representative bodies and accountability reforms which are as yet unclear.
LOCAL CONTEXT and PLACE
The College is:
Made up of three campuses (including a 500-acre land-based site) and is a mediumsized general FE College, that enrols around 6,000 students and employs 500 staff
The third largest provider for 16–18-year-olds in County Durham
Consistently the biggest provider for adults in the County Durham (around 50% of our enrolment volume is for this age group)
The biggest provider for 14–16-year-old provision in the NECA area
The biggest land-based provider in the NECA area
The largest provider for education for students with Education Health Care Plans (EHCPs), including specialist autistic provision and supported internships
The fifth largest provider of apprenticeships in the County with income doubling over the past three years
Inclusive; we offer provision in all 15 subject sector areas, across all levels, including a significant and broad A level offer and recruit from across the northeast as shown, by campus, on the maps below.
The vast majority of college enrolments are at levels 1 to 3 (93%)
Willerby Grove and The Technical Academy
The Willerby Grove Campus in Peterlee offers a range of vocational study programmes, A-levels, higher education programmes and provision for directly recruited 14–16-yearolds. The Technical Academy, based on Peterlee’s Southwest Industrial estate, offers a range of engineering, constructionrelated vocational pathways including renewables and an HE offer in engineering. Most enrolments at this site are concentrated from within County Durham, however we recruit a significant number of students from the Tees Valley area.
Houghall Campus
The Houghall Campus, in Durham, offers a range of landbased study programmes, in eight different career pathways, a higher education offer and several industry related commercial courses. SEN provision is delivered across Willerby Grove and Houghall with the latter also hosting a provision for students with autism. Recruitment is from across the region with many from County Durham and wider into North Yorkshire, Cumbria and Northumberland.
County Durham is a largely rural county and suffers from a poor transport infrastructure in many areas. Within the county there are pockets of severe, sustained deprivation with 69.2% of the population living in the 30% most deprived areas with significant volumes in the 0.2-10% most deprived areas in England. Employment rates are lower than the national average, qualification attainment lags national attainment rates, and the average salary is lower than the regional and national average.
A high proportion of students come from the most deprived areas in the county (73%) with a third of these coming from the most deprived areas in England, and a high proportion claim free school meals, over 13% points above the national average.
Continual improvement in student outcomes, raising participation and attendance and strengthening inclusion pathways for the hardest to reach, vulnerable students will always remain the highest priority for
the College. We maintain a broad offer, across all subject sector areas, to ensure that there is a pathway for all students into the career of their choice.
All our provision is aligned to local labour market intelligence which is supplemented by intelligence on employers’ skills needs gathered through our stakeholder engagement strategy and business engagement team.
While the College has an extensive, broad offer at levels 1-3, there is an ambition to grow provision further at levels 4 to 6, in specific skills priority areas. The College has benefitted from securing investment in recent years to facilitate this through the DfE funded higher technical qualification fund, the strategic development fund, local skills improvement fund and because it is a member of the NE Institute of Technology.
East Durham College makes a considerable contribution to its community. All 16–18-yearolds students take part in a community action project where they investigate issues in their local area and give their time and effort to helping alleviate social issues, promote good causes or develop wellbeing strategies. This work forms part of our social corporate responsibility and was recognised nationally in 2021 when the College was awarded Beacon Status by the Association of Colleges.
The ‘local’ area that the College serves is defined by two political geographies, the recently devolved North East Mayoral Combined Authority (NECA) which covers the whole of the north east and the Tees Valley Combined Authority to the south. Within NECA there are currently two LSIPs and ERBs which are expected to merge into one for the region.
The Willerby Grove campus is very close to the Tees Valley, managed by the TVCA, who have a devolved adult skills budget for this area.
The local economic realities are that students, businesses and their employees migrate and work and learn across these boundaries. The College recruit students from across the wider region, including North Yorkshire, Northumberland and Cumbria, particularly into our land-based provision.
Enriching lives through transformative education
There are two LSIPs in the North East region, currently led by the North East Chamber of Commerce in the north of Tyne area and North East Automotive Alliance in the south of Tyne area. They will be brought together as a single LSIP later in 2025. At present their skills priorities (combined) are:
Advanced Manufacturing & Engineering
Business & Professional
Services
Construction
Culture, Creative, Hospitality & Tourism
Green Energy
Digital
Health & Life Sciences
Health & Social Care
Transport & Logistics
NECA have recently launched their local Growth Plan which includes growth sections:
Offshore wind and energy transition
Advanced manufacturing including electric vehicle
Creative industries and content
Life sciences, pharmaceuticals and process industries
Tech, digital and AI
Defence, security and space
In the plan they cite the importance of environment and climate change and specifically monitor agriculture and land use. However, land-based skills are not a stated priority for either LSIP or the Industrial Strategy/ Skills England, but this is a
significant part of the college’s offer and a national skills priority, if we want to ensure a sufficient trained workforce. Data from NOMIS shows that 9,600 people are employed in agriculturerelated occupations in the NECA region; only 26% of those are age 49 or under.
NOMIS data shows that 17.3% of the working population of the region work in human health and social work, education follows as the next highest sector for employment (11.4%), followed
by wholesale and retail trade and repair of motor vehicles, and public administration (both at 10%) and manufacturing at 9.1%. Professional, scientific and technical employs 6.5% of working people. Construction employs 6.3% (but is predicted to have a significant workforce increase to 2028, Construction Industry Board Outlook).
Employment rates at all ages lags UK participation rates in employment, particularly for males age 25-34 and age 50-64.
Enriching lives through transformative education
North East vs England (excl. London) employment rates, by gender age groups (Oct 2023 to September 2024)
Source: NELEP Evidence Hub Jan 2025.
The profile of businesses in the NECA area shows that they are dominated by those defined as micro (0-9 employees) and small (10-49) who make up 81% and 16% respectively, with just 3% of businesses defined as medium (50-249 employees) and large (250+). In County Durham, 98% of businesses are micro or small, with 2% being medium or large.
Skills & Employment
The most recent key indicators measuring employment and skills performance in the North East show that since 2015:
The working age (16 to 64) employment density has decreased 0.41%, and yet the number of economically inactive people has increased by 6,300 people (2.03%) alongside a decrease of 42.26% (29,200 people) in unemployment. Employment has increased by almost the same number of people (29,500). Selfemployment has declined by 7.12%.
The proportion of working age people with degree level qualifications has increased, while the proportion with no qualifications has decreased; Average pay has increased for full time and part time employees since 2015; notably while pay for males has increased 35%, pay for females has increased 55% (NOMIS). Wages for full time workers have increased less than for part time workers (36 vs 55%).
North East by Occupation Subgroup - Projected Employment Requirements 2020 to 2035
Enriching lives through transformative education
Source: NELEP Evidence Hub Jan 2025
Area
Regional and National Skills Priorities
East Durham College Skills Priorities
Why?
Construction This is a national, regional and local skills priority. The interest in modern methods of construction (MMC), specifically offsite modular building, has been growing since the pandemic. The Governments ‘Build, Build, Build’ and ‘Green Industrial Revolution’ pledges has ensured that the wider industry has been forced to think differently. The proportion of new homes built using MMC is predicted to increase from 6-10% currently to 20% by 2027. Key job areas include Construction Production Managers and Directors and Specialist Construction Professionals, both of which have predicted growth of 4.8%. The college will continue its training in the key trades which input into MMC such as joinery, however it will look to increase the wider knowledge and skills of LEAN and production quality process management such as six sigma.
Agriculture and Horticulture
Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering
Life Sciences (inc Health and Social Care)
Animal Science
LMI indicates a 7% increase in the numbers of jobs which require practical farming skills. Additionally, the average age of a UK farmer is 59. New entrants to farming and food production need a new skills set and understanding of the link between science and technology and agriculture for the UK to meet the target in the Government Food Strategy. Horticulture is a cross cutting theme which goes across all land based areas delivered at Houghall.
This is a national, regional and local skills priority. Almost three quarters (70%) of UK Manufacturing businesses report that trade has returned or even exceeded pre-pandemic production. An annual growth rate of 4.56% is expected between 2023 and 2027. Key job areas include Production Managers in Manufacturing (4.8% growth); Engineering Professionals including mechatronics (3.3%); Quality Control and Planning Engineering (3.3%); Design and Development Engineers including robotics and CAD (3.3%) and Electronic Engineers (3.3%).
In 2021 it was reported that there wouldbe 107,598 jobs (which is 22% above the national average) available within the health Industry alone in the North East. This figure is set to rise by over 1.9% in the next five years. Following on from this the 2021 Skills Gap report discovered that 84% of respondents in the healthcare sector were suffering from a lack of skilled workers. Within Life Sciences which is a sub-component of Health, there is an expected 7% growth in the job market by 2028. Life sciences is broken down into three distinct areas: Pathology, Genetics and Reproductive Science. The top four healthcare jobs in demand are Nurse Practitioners (52% increase from 2020-2030); Physical Therapists (35%); Medical and Health Service Managers (32%) and Medical Assistants.
Qualification reform is a risk to maintaining learner numbers. T-levels will only meet part of the local skills needs and are unlikely to support progression to the STEM HE pathways which meet regional LMI data which indicates a 21% increase in veterinary activities (vets, veterinary nurses). Spending on pet care in the UK saw a 270% increase from 2005 - 2021 with more growth expected.
Digital 82% of advertised jobs required digital skills at some level, with those requiring higher level skills paying a significantly higher salary. This is a national, regional and local skills priority and is central to most roles as well as being a job in its own right. Many industries are also relying on automation to help with economic recovery following covid. Key job areas are data science and analytics (9.2% growth), cyber security (12%) as well as the infrastructure and connectivity to support business activity and remove digital poverty and exclusion.
Culture, Creative and Tourism
Regional tourism related jobs are set to grow in the north east by over 20% in the next 10 years, the majority of these are set to be in the travel sector. This presents both a national and regional skills priority which we can position our learners to take advantage of. Following the restrictions imposed by Covid, the travel sector is now working hard to recover to pre-pandemic levels. To achieve this growth these organisations are looking to change to more modern ways of working and are therefore looking for a more modern skills set. This presents a great opportunity for us to place our learners competitively as this sector grows. East Durham is uniquely placed between all of the norths major travel hubs which means that learners are geographically well placed to take advantage of the industry growth.
Enriching lives through transformative education
OUR APPROACH TO THE ACCOUNTABILITY AGREEMENT
The college uses labour market intelligence to inform its curriculum offer, supplemented by intelligence collected by our employer engagement team and employer focus groups, as outlined in our Stakeholder Engagement Strategy. In developing the accountability agreement, the college has utilised intelligence from our involvement with a wide range of stakeholders including the North East Combined Authority, Tees Valley Combined Authority, NHS England, Health Education England, Durham County Council, North East Chamber of Commerce, Landex and numerous employers to inform our key priorities and targets. We have actively engaged with the North East Automotive Alliance who are the Employer Representative Body for the North East LSIP.
The college has been at the forefront of developing skills provision in line with employer needs and to fill skills gaps. This has included developing provision in health and social care for employers where the apprenticeship standard no longer works, digital skills with bespoke content to employers such as CAD and working with the combined authority to fund specific elements from larger courses such as LEAN into short units to meet employer needs.
We are a founder partner of the Durham Alliance which is a partnership between further and higher education. It brings together the four further education colleges in County Durham – New College Durham, East Durham College, Derwentside College, Bishop Auckland College - and Durham University, to strengthen ongoing partnership working and provide the basis for further exploration and collaboration. Through the establishment of the Durham Learning Alliance the four Durham FE colleges have engaged in reviewing their college curriculum offer to ensure full coverage of the skills priorities set out for the region and to be able to identify any skills and qualification gaps.
The Colleges provision has been mapped against the LSIP report, NECA growth plan and County Durham Economic Strategy with overview LMI numbers, future requirements and provision gaps.
We are a key partner of the North East Institute of Technology (NEIoT) whose focus is on Advanced Manufacturing and Construction. This partnership gives us a key insight into the requirements of these industries, and we are in the process of refocussing the KPIs for the IoT to meet the changing demands of the regions businesses.
We are a key member of Landex, a membership body for land-based colleges across the country and recognise the role that land based education has in meeting wider regional skills priorities and in driving the green skills agenda. We operate a commercial farm and are involved in research with partners such as Agrii and Durham and Newcastle Universities on animal welfare and nutrition, precision grazing, productivity and reducing the carbon footprint, and improving the sustainability of agriculture.
We have successfully delivered on a range of projects as lead or a partner including ESF, Skills Bootcamps, Skills Injection Fund, NEETs, NECOP and WorldSkills.
In developing the agreement, we engaged with all our staff and Governors to inform our
key priorities and targets. This involved a full staff event where they were involved in challenging the college direction as well as highlighting any gaps from their perspective. Work with Governors commenced with a strategic planning day the outcomes of which are now embedded into the full board and its sub-committees. This accountability agreement is aligned with the college Strategic Plan (2023-26), it will state how the college intends to change or further improve its provision and will provide a basis for Governors from which they can undertake their statutory review. The strategic plan contains targets against all of the priority areas, however as this agreement is for one year it does not include targets which come in later years in relation to digital and culture, travel and tourism.
Where ambitions are high but funding is low, there will be an annual review of provision so that scarce resources are better deployed and meet our community’s needs.
We will always look to maintain the breadth and depth of our offer, especially in light of 50% of jobs requiring skills at levels one to three in the foundational economy and will focus our investment in developing the skills priority areas up to level six.
CONTRIBUTION TO NATIONAL, REGIONAL & LOCAL PRIORITIES
The priorities within our 202326 Strategic Plan have informed the priorities for this agreement alongside the priorities of the NECA, the LSIP and from our own intelligence.
All our provision is aligned to local labour market intelligence which is supplemented by intelligence on employers’ skills needs gathered through our stakeholder engagement activity and business team.
While the college has an extensive, broad offer at levels one to three, there is an ambition to grow provision further at levels four to six in specific skills priority areas. The college has benefitted from securing investment in recent years to facilitate this through the Skills Injection Funds, the Local Skills Improvement Fund and the North East Institute of Technology.
Enriching lives through transformative education
Local Needs Duty
East Durham College makes a strong contribution to meeting local and regional skills needs.
EDC is one of four colleges in County Durham and nine across the North East. We are the only college with specialist facilities for land-based programmes, discreet provision for students with autism and a bespoke offer for those aged 14-16. The college offers provision across all 15 subject sector areas and is the largest provider of courses for adults in County Durham.
The college helps shape local provision through its highly collaborative approach and constant stakeholder engagement. The regional Health Skills Hub, developed by the college and involving most regional colleges, a university and private training providers, ensured that there was a co-ordinated approach to meeting the vast and complex needs of the NHS. This led to a successful combined bid, led by the college, as part of the Strategic Development Fund where a careers focussed website, facilities for clean rooms, new apprenticeships and staff training packages were developed to meet the needs of the NHS. The college also led on the Local Skills Improvement Fund for the region ensuring that there was provision in all LSIP priority areas but with reduced duplication of provision and shared work on resources and staff CPD. The college is represented on forums across
all key priority areas to help inform our direction of travel. We are key members of the North East Institute of Technology which focuses upon Digital, Engineering and Advanced Manufacturing and has employer working groups to inform curriculum development. An outcome of this was the identification of the need for Retrofit Training which has not been developed by the partner colleges and an agreement made as to who will deliver which element. The college was key in developing the Durham Alliance, a partnership of the four County Durham Colleges with Durham University to map provision at level three to help to increase the proportion of local students who progress to higher tariff institutions.
In planning its provision, the college takes account of the Local Skills Improvement Plan (LSIP), national and regional skills priorities as well as local skills needs informed by labour market information and the rich knowledge we gain from our employer and community stakeholders including employer forums. We played a key role in influencing the development of the LSIP ensuring that the voices of our stakeholders were heard and understood so that new provision could be developed. Our ongoing engagement with key stakeholders including other colleges and universities, private and public sector employers, local authorities and devolved authorities, ensures that
the information we base our planning on is current and will ensure that more of our students move into employment or higher study in key areas.
Governors are involved throughout the whole planning process. They are regularly updated on skills priorities and participate in an annual strategic planning day with college leaders where they challenge and question the direction of the college in relation to local, regional and national data. They are fully involved in discussions around changes to the offer including when to remove, when to duplicate and when to introduce new provision which is always linked back to the college values and the needs of our community.
As well as introducing new provision such as health science, land based engineering, Supported Internships, ESOL and a degree in animal management; Governors and leaders made a conscious decision to maintain a broad, deep and inclusive curriculum to assist with the social mobility for our students 70% of whom come from the top three most deprived areas. The area has a poor transport infrastructure and travel to learn patterns suggest that those who study at a lower level do not travel for education, therefore as long as the provision can be delivered in a sustainable way, we will ensure that we continue to meet the needs of our community.
Enriching lives through transformative education
Actions to Increase Contribution to Key Priority Areas
College’s Strategic Objectives (2023-26)
Objective 1:
Grow our higher level academic and technical progression pathways in skills priority areas: Construction
Advanced Manufacturing & Engineering
Health, Life and Animal
Sciences
Social Care
Digital Horticulture
Agriculture
Food Security and Sustainability
Creative, Cultural, Tourism and Hospitality
Objective 2:
Continue to grow our 16-18 market share
2025/26 Targets
Increase the number of adults studying level 4 and 5 qualifications by 30% in skills priority areas
External Limiting Factors
Staff recruitment and retention
Funding for higher level qualifications requires OfS registration
Revised 2025/26 Targets
Increase the number of adults studying level 4 and 5 qualifications by 25% in skills priority areas
Continue growth in 16-18 study programme numbers
Deliver 24 x Supported Internships
Development of an alternative entry level programme to attract and retain more students at risk of being NEET with tasters in all curriculum areas
Staff recruitment and retention
Uncertainty and curriculum inefficiencies arising from level 3 qualification reform
Availability of funding from welfare to work to fund Job Coaches
Efficiency impact of delivering to smaller groups
Reputational damage from T-levels with content in some not fit for purpose.
Lack of wraparound services to support NEET students
Enriching lives through transformative education
Continue growth in 16-18 study programme numbers
Deliver 20 x Supported Internships
Development of an alternative entry level programme in 50% of vocational curriculum areas
College’s Strategic Objectives (2023-26)
Objective 3:
Double apprenticeship numbers in the lifetime of the strategic plan
(Baseline: 2022/23 = 152)
2025/26 Targets External Limiting Factors
Increase apprenticeship provision to £2.3m
Maintain an excellent score for employer voice
Pilot one fast track or foundation apprenticeship cohort, to start in 2025/26
Staffing recruitment and retention
Apprenticeship standards failing to meet employers’ needs and funding does not make them viable
Inability to infill off the job training into study programmes due to narrow nature of standards and reform
Revised 2025/26 Targets
Increase apprenticeship income to £2.2m
Maintain an excellent score for employer voice
Pilot one fast track or foundation apprenticeship cohort, to start in 2025/26
Objective 4:
Working collaboratively with stakeholders to develop opportunities which allow positive progression, particularly into work, for students of all ages.
Increase progression to higher level education or training (including HE) by 10%
Increase progression into employment by 20%
Form a positive relationship with JCP to implement a referral process for unemployed into training and employment.
Deliver Bootcamps to 30 adults
Objective 5:
We will realign our adult offer to be ‘labour market responsive’ but with a focus on the priority sectors of health, manufacturing and digital
Increase percentage of adult provision in these skills priority areas by 40%
Develop foundation level programmes, including ESOL, which enable adults to enter the foundation economy - with 75 adults trained
Slow speed of change when working with government departments
Potential downturn in employment opportunities due to external factors such as NI and NLW increases
Pressure on businesses to be involved in a range of initiatives
HE fee increases could impact upon participation
Staff recruitment and retention
Relevant opportunities available locally.
Increase progression to higher level education or training by 8%
Increase progression into employment by 10%
Form a positive relationship with JCP to implement a referral process for unemployed into training and employment.
Deliver Bootcamps to 24 adults
Increase percentage of adult provision in these skills priority areas by 30%
Development of foundation level programmes which enable adults to enter the foundation economywith 50 adults trained
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CORPORATION STATEMENT
On behalf of the governing body of East Durham College we confirm that the plan set out above reflects an agreed statement of purpose, aims and objectives as approved by the corporation. The plan will be published on the college’s website within three months of the start of the new academic year.
Signed: Chair of Governors
Signed: Principal / Chief Executive
HYPERLINKS AND SUPPORTING INFORMATION
On behalf of the governing body of East Durham College we confirm that the plan set out above reflects an agreed statement of purpose.