One year ago, we were all dissecting Rishi Sunak’s budget, pondering the latest Brexit impasse and wondering what impact Covid would have on our students this term.

What a difference a year makes. Sort of. 

Like all of us, I have (in those rare, snatched moments of calm) reflected on the past 12 months and, despite the challenges, focused on the positive experiences and lessons learned.

As chief executive of NCG, I feel that these events have confirmed more than ever the benefits of a truly national partnership of colleges.

Being able to draw on the collective support, expertise and resources has helped every part of our group move through these difficult months. We have built on work already in hand, the different lessons being learned every day on seven different campuses, and efforts to develop a group culture of “one NCG” has really accelerated.

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Driving daily collaboration and shared experience

The best practical examples of this can be seen in our swift, vital and almost total pivot to digital learning. Using expertise across our colleges, we quickly produced our digital experience guide (including our NCG digital taxonomy) to standardise the quality of online learning.

This also created a space for sharing best practice in an area new to many colleagues (not to mention students and parents). To support this and to make any immediate corrections, we held our first group wide CPD event across three days in July, with more than 800 colleagues joining to develop our digital offer further.

For students, we have delivered live lessons in line with existing timetables as much as possible, and our teachers have delivered innovative, digital alternatives to the practical lessons that are so vital for our vocational students.

The move to digital has truly bridged the distance between colleges by driving daily collaboration and shared experience across our national group. We’ve been able to introduce regular online masterclasses for our teaching colleagues and invite hundreds of colleagues to seminars, conferences and webinars, without being hindered by restrictions of space, cost, time or travel.

To do all of this, we needed the investment in technology that NCG’s overall size made possible and that our national scope requires. The financial security of our group model meant that we could work together and access resources to bridge the digital divide and  support students without suitable devices to learn online.

In the initial lockdown, college “trolley” laptops were provided to help with short-term need, and this has been part of the action response throughout this fragmented academic year. But the digital divide is an unseen, ongoing issue for many disadvantaged learners.

Since the beginning of term, additional sources of funding (including bursary funds for eligible learners, a Greater London Authority funding of around £100k for adult learners and an allocation of devices from the Department for Education, delivered mid-February 2021) have supplemented demand. 

NCG aims to raise £500k in the next financial year through a new digital challenge fund, to be launched shortly, to alleviate this situation. By raising funds from the private sector, alumni and supply-chain donations, we can provide our most disadvantaged learners with vouchers to purchase devices and data, enabling them to flourish in their studies and setting them up with the best possible chances of future success.

The power of ‘one NCG’

The heart of our group is not our resources or systems: it is our people. Over the past 12 months, our “one NCG” approach has been an invaluable foundation for communities of practice to share best practice and support colleagues across the group. The same spirit was shared by our leadership team, who were able to draw from each other and share their experiences (and frustrations) with their peers.

I am sure that the frank discussion, brainstorming - and occasional bit of dark humour - on our weekly group-wide leadership calls did much to ease the strain and improve the mental fitness of senior colleagues.

I cannot imagine having survived the year without the support, and friendship of colleagues. I made regular videos to all staff to keep our communication robust, but they took the time and trouble to write back to me on a regular basis, which was a fantastic personal boost.

A large college group is not the only way for our sector to thrive. Collaborations, soft partnerships with other colleges and those with shared local interest, or formal structures based on geography, will offer the same support, and will be a positive response to the expectations of the White Paper.

But for me, our collaborative national family has provided the best support possible to our students and colleagues wherever they are, and I know that this collaboration will continue in the months and years ahead, as long as we have a culture of “one NCG” in both good times and bad.

Liz Bromley is chief executive of NCG