National Top 10 Successes for College

A national league table for colleges has placed Abingdon & Witney College in the top ten, it was revealed last week at the Association of Colleges (AoC) Conference and Exhibition in Birmingham.

The NICDEX, released every year by FE Week in partnership with Pearson, creates the table using official statistics from the Department of Education, measuring the annual performance of further education colleges in England.

Four major areas are covered in the NICDEX, with 10 being the maximum that can be achieved by colleges in each; learner satisfaction, employer satisfaction, 16-18 positive progression, and adults progressing into employment.

A score out of 40 is then generated and Abingdon & Witney College scored 32 in total, placing them 7th out of 183 colleges. This also included a maximum score of 10 in the employer satisfaction category.

This points-based method is the brainchild of the Editor of FE Week, Nick Linford, who wanted to present college ratings in a way that was “fair and not overly complex” and to “encourage colleges to look beyond achievement rates, and really focus on increasing satisfaction and progression”.

Alongside this success, the College’s apprenticeship programme has also achieved national recognition this week. More than half of the employers the College works with provided feedback for the Government’s 2017-18 FE Choices Employer Satisfaction Survey, resulting in a 96.2% satisfaction rating.

This rating once again placed the College as the seventh highest in England and follows on from a suite of regional and national apprenticeship achievements over the past two years, along with an ‘outstanding’ rating from Ofsted in May 2017.

Di Batchelor, Principal and CEO of the College, said: “Every year, we set ourselves high standards to provide the best teaching and training for our students and apprentices, and to deliver quality services to the employers we work with.

Being ranked in the top 10 colleges in England helps to justify the fantastic work our staff do day in, day out, and shows the passion and success of our students progressing onto positive destinations after they leave us, whether it’s to start a career, higher education or another course with us.”