Action for Business Colleges Accreditation Awarded to City College Brighton and Hove

City College Brighton and Hove has already achieved Action for Business Colleges (ABFC) accreditation- a coveted award from the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) which signals the college’s ability to provide services that are responsive to local employers” needs.

Now the College is due to offer its “Employer Engagement” expertise at a conference titled “Increasing Income through Action for Business Colleges”, to be held on-site on Monday the 19th of June. It will pass on advice and knowledge to other Further Education providers, giving an insight into how it changed the culture of its whole organisation to be customer focused.

The conference will be aimed at Senior Managers, sales and quality Managers, business development personnel and others taking responsibility for employer engagement in FE colleges. Gerry Fraser, Managing Director of Adenstar Construction Group, said: “I”m sure other FE providers will find it extremely helpful to learn how the College has looked closely at the needs of their local clients and adapted accordingly.”

College Credentials

City College Brighton and Hove is an international centre of excellence, with over 2,000 full time and 13,000 part time students studying there, including many European and international students. It offers more than 650 courses ranging from basic to pre-university level, provides training to over 2,000 businesses and also has a “City Business Skills” department, responsible for focusing on employers” needs.

Gerry Fraser praised the positive engagement that City College practice, saying: “We”ve been very pleased wit the proactive approach City College has taken with Adenstar. This has led to positive developments such as collaborating on creating NVQ qualifications and setting up on-site training facilities.”

At the Conference

With this experience behind it, the College is an ideal venue at which to hold the June conference. The College will present information relating to its new brand of education delivery, exemplified by its pre-Apprenticeship Construction Skills Training Centre. The event will also provide delegates with an insight into some of the pitfalls, valuable lessons learnt and the benefits of going through the AFBC accreditation process.

There will be workshops dealing with specifics of employer engagement, curriculum design, managing data and preparing for accreditation. Advice will be given on the “Employer Journey”, which tells of how to develop a customer-centric culture and it will look at things from the employer perspective too, showing how working with a college has brought business benefit.

Joel Goldman