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WRITTEN QUESTION TO THE MINISTER FOR EDUCATION BY THE DEPUTY OF ST. JOHN
ANSWER TO BE TABLED ON TUESDAY 10TH OCTOBER 2017
Question
Will the Minister set out the changes made to staffing arrangements, budgets and curriculum at Highlands College since he was elected as Minister in 2014?
Answer Curriculum
Level 2
Since 2014, Highlands has reshaped its Level 2 curriculum. The Jersey Progression Diploma (JPD) has been introduced in 14 vocational subject areas for students coming out of secondary school. The JPD is designed to significantly improve the life chances of young people by giving them the skills to progress from a Level 1 course at school to Level 2 courses in the College, which makes them more employable.
In 2014, 20.4% of full-time students were enrolled on Level 1 or entry level qualifications. In 2017, only 5.9% of students are on Level 1/entry courses.
The JPD has been developed in line with UK best practice in further education by:
- enabling students to try vocational subjects
- ensuring that literacy and numeracy and wider communications skills are well developed so that students can gain employment
- focussing on students who have under-achieved by giving them the knowledge and skills to progress
- engaging employers and asking them to contribute
- developing students' resilience
- offering meaningful work experience that develops self-esteem.
New Courses
- In 2016, new full-time courses in Animal Management and Performing Arts were introduced and new courses in Digital Games Design and Uniform Public Service are in development for 2018.
- In 2017, a new BSc Degree in Psychology and Criminology was introduced and recruited to target.
- A new Level 4 Apprenticeship in Hospitality Management has been developed and starts this term.
- The Highlands Professional Development centre has created new short courses in response to requests from industry. These are taught in the newly refurbished Professional Development Centre on the d'Hautree site.
Standards
- In 2015 the overall pass rate for full-time courses at Highlands College was 87%. The overall pass rate for 2017 is 95.6%. This is an increase of 8.6% over three years and 5.6% higher than the benchmark of 90% for further education colleges in England.
- The 2017 pass rate for the qualification element of apprenticeships that Highlands delivers stands at 87.6%, which is 18.7% higher than in England.
Staffing arrangements
The number of managers at Highlands College since 2014 has reduced by two on the senior team and by two on the middle management team. The management structure has been re-balanced so that each senior manager has a specific overarching cross-college responsibility and a reporting team of five departments. There have been no changes to the roles of lecturing staff or business support staff beyond the usual process of reviewing responsibilities and accountabilities.
Budgets
Budget | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 |
Income | £2,722,698 | £2,903,146 | £2,941,450 | £3,127,210 |
Grant from the Education Department | £9,888,186 | £9,688,734 | £9,169,903 | £8,998,773 |
Total income | £12,610,884 | £12,591,880 | £12,111,353 | £12,125,983 |
Staff | £10,553,425 | £10,522,392 | £10,009,489 | £10,016,287 |
Non staff | £2,057,459 | £2,069,488 | £1,881,864 | £2,109.696 |
Total expenditure | £12,610,884 | £12,591,880 | £11,891,353 | £12,125,983 |
- The figures are for financial (calendar) years rather than for academic years.
- 2014/15/16 are actual budgets but 2017 is planned income and expenditure.
- The increase in income reflects the growth in commercial activity of the college.
- The reduction in Department grant is due to a fall in the number of school leavers for this year group (the College is funded per student) and the accelerated progression of students into employment or apprenticeships (fewer are on three-year full-time programmes).
- These figures include £158,000 in 2015 for the ICT strategy, minor works of £50,000 in 2015 and £40,000 in 2016, and £63,798 in 2016 for the teachers' pay award.
- The 2017 budget includes £200,000 for IT Infrastructure upgrade.
- The difference in staffing expenditure between 2015 and 2016 reflects savings in management salaries
- The percentage of budget spent on staffing in 2014 was 83.7% and this is projected to reduce by 1.1% in 2017.
- The projected ratio of public funding of the college to income in 2017 is 74.2% subsidy and 25.8% income, which is a 4.2% reduction in reliance on grant income compared to the position in 2014.