A report providing an update on activity and performance of the New Directions College.

The Principal and Adult Learning and Skills Manager for New Directions, Lisa Welch, submitted a report that set out the key activities and outcomes delivered by New Directions College, the Council’s Adult and Community Education service, covering the period between June 2023 to July 2024.

The report provided an update on the work of the college and highlighted the college’s core service offer, funding arrangements, key performance and achievement figures, emerging developments, wider community and business partnerships, as well as learner feedback and satisfaction survey results. 

The report explained that the college was performing around the national achievement rate of 82.6%, which was a decline of 5% from 91.41% in 21-22. This was a result of an increase in learner volumes at entry and level 1, mainly English Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) and skills for life learners, who due to their circumstances as some being refugees and or asylum seekers were subject to dispersal orders and unable to continue their learning. 

The Committee heard that the college continued to respond to meeting the learning needs of an increasing number of refugees and asylum seekers in Reading. Notably, Ukrainian and Afghan, but also increasingly supporting the large number of Hong Kong nationals. English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) learner numbers for 2022-23 were 671 which was a significant increase from the 271 in 2020.  The College had been successful in securing additional funding from South East Strategic Partnership for Migration to establish and chair a Reading ESOL Provider Network Group.   The aim would be to work collaboratively to support the high demand for provision as well as a mechanism to share best practice, support the use of shared resources where appropriate and to seek to secure additional funding when opportunities arise.  Members of the group included Reading Community Learning Centre, WEA, The English Language Centre, Activate Learning, and Palladium who have the Home Office contract in Berkshire to deliver employment support to Refugees.

It was noted that ‘Multiply’, the programme to help adult improve their numeracy skills, had grown from strength to strength throughout 2022-23 and was recognised by the Department for Education for its outstanding partnership approach with the NHS, and other local authorities and high-quality delivery. The College was now focused on securing the legacy of the programme, which ends in March 2025, by continuing the partnerships that had been established and building new provision to meet the needs of adults and employers.

The Committee thanked Lisa Welch for the report and the team at New Directions for their hard work.

Resolved – That the report be noted.