Abingdon & Witney College's “Careers not Courses” approach wins over assessors

Abingdon and Witney College have been praised for “inspiring and motivating” its students, a recent inspection has found.

By being accredited to the matrix Standard, they have been officially recognised for providing high-quality information, advice and guidance services to the thousands of students who study at the College every year.

This helps students to ‘develop punctuality, attendance and personal development skills’, along with keeping their ‘performance on track, and in turn meet the KPIs’, the report states.

The College’s “Careers not Courses” approach places an emphasis upon career and life goals, developing practical and resilience skills that are in demand by employers. The matrix Standard declared this as ‘a perfect fit’ with their very own focus upon learning, work, career and life goals.

Nikkie Almond, Head of Student Engagement, said:

“This is a fantastic achievement for Abingdon and Witney College and I would like to thank and congratulate all staff and employers who took part during the week long remote visit. We at Abingdon and Witney believe that at the heart of high-quality advice and support services are strong leadership, excellent service and a focus on continuous improvement, all underpinned by effective use of the resources available. The matrix Standard is designed to benchmark organisations against best practice in these areas. With this accreditation success, Abingdon and Witney college demonstrates that we offer the best possible support to our clients.”

Some of the key strengths the report identified included:

• The approach and positivity of the workforce was very strong, with the message of wellbeing and health especially in this challenging current situation being handled well for both staff and students.
• Staff felt incredible valued, supported and listened to
• Strength of the College’s core programme and how that helps develop a variety of skills for students
• The assessor consistently complimented all staff who took part on their confident use of Teams and how as a whole college we have embraced technology to maximise bringing our whole college business online and also for being so positive and innovative in how we had taken learning to a different level to keep students engaged.