The 21 colleges in the West Midlands have come together and set out their vision for capital investment in a project that, leaders say, could lead the way towards a new approach to FE’s engagement with government and other stakeholders.

The prospectus, which will be published by Colleges West Midlands on Monday, sets out how colleges can support the region and promote growth. Bringing together intelligence from all 21 FE institutions in the combined authority region, it identifies “both the pressing need and the significant opportunities which exist to reinvest in the region’s further education estate and digital capacity”.

It estimates that in total, some £636 million in capital investment is required over the next five years to ensure colleges are resourced adequately to deliver the regional skills plan, with fair access to high-quality learning resources for all learners. “This equates to an investment of just over £500 per each learner the region’s further education colleges will support in this period,” according to the prospectus.  

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'Strategic piece of work'

The implications of the project go beyond the area of capital investment in FE. Lowell Williams, chair of Colleges West Midlands and former principal of Dudley College of Technology, told Tes that the colleges had come together on this project in January. He said this was “probably the first strategic piece of work showing that colleges can do big strategic pieces of work quite quickly”.

Looking at the estate together in this way allowed institutions to properly respond to the regional skills plan, he stressed. According to the prospectus, the strength of partnership between the colleges and key stakeholders provided "an opportunity to develop a new way of working around capital investment and collaborative resourcing to ensure, collectively, colleges can meet the region’s future skills need". 

Bidding for capital investment had, traditionally, been a “very competitive process” for colleges, Mr Williams explained. “That is not what we are suggesting. It is starting from a position of collaboration. There has been a lack of trust that colleges can do collaborative work for a long time and this tests that assumption,” he said.  

“Colleges need to move into that level 4 and 5 space, and that is high risk. And if everyone moves into that individually, there are some losers. It is not about who gives up what, it is about moving into those empty spaces in an organised way.”

Marion Plant, principal and chief executive at North Warwickshire and South Leicestershire College – one of the members of Colleges West Midlands – said being part of the partnership allowed her to pursue the individual goals of the college while also working collectively. “I can collaborate, but I am also free to compete. We are just stronger together.”

With the government’s White Paper expected in the autumn, and the full impact of the coronavirus pandemic yet to be seen, collaboration was now more important than ever, Ms Plant said.

She added: “I am very mindful that I don’t know what will happen with the next reiteration of FE, but if I can have a choice, I would rather be in this collaborative network.”

“It is about taking control of our own destinies. There are no guarantees, but now we can show real impact and we want to be as closely aligned to those political structures as we can. It is about having a group approach, rather than having lots of fragmented approaches.”

Sector leaders have said the work in the West Midlands, and other projects developed elsewhere, were signs that colleges were starting to drive the policy agenda, rather than simply being subjected to it. 

Lisa O’Loughlin, principal of The Manchester College, said colleges in the Greater Manchester area were exploring how they could collaborate on level 4 and 5 provision. She said there had been a lot of policy change in the sector, but college leaders had rarely been central to the discussion.

She said: “We are in a much better place with policymakers, who are providing us with the opportunity to be at the table. It is about defining our own future, and it is about confidence.”

Association of Colleges chief executive David Hughes said that when he started at the AoC, one of the things he wanted to achieve was for leaders to become more confident.

He said: “These are the first steps. Colleges in the West Midlands are coming together on capital, and colleges in Manchester are doing the same on level 4 and 5 provision.

“It is really great news and a really good sign that we are turning a corner. The government is recognising that as well, and is really keen to engage with colleges at a strategic level, and not just to fund them. Colleges are seen as strategically important, and that is different to where we were a few years ago. It is also fantastic to see leaders step up. Other parts of the country are also doing more collaboration in their own ways.

“These are the sorts of things that will feature in the White Paper proposals, but more than that they show that colleges can work together and work for an area or region to maximise their impact. That is really important proof, if the government needed it, that colleges can be trusted to do things.”

Ewart Keep, co-director of SKOPE, emeritus professor in the department of education at the University of Oxford and a commissioner on the Independent Commission on the College of the Future, said Colleges West Midlands' move to publish a joint plan for capital investment in the region was important “for a number of reasons”.

“It is nice to see colleges trying to set the policy agenda, rather than waiting around for government to tell them what to do in detail. There has not been enough bottom-up innovation. It is really good to see people taking a lead. The second reason is that what underlines this is an understanding by colleges that rather than competing with each other endlessly, it maybe makes more sense to think about a local system.”

He said it was important for government to see that “highly probably, we have got the balance between cooperation and competition wrong", and that as resources were likely to be tight, colleges cooperating regionally was “just going to be critical”.

“We have got to see this project from the West Midlands within the bigger context of what the group is doing more widely,” he explained, which was a “combined offer to the combined authority”.

“It is reasonable to say that one of the things the commission will be doing is bringing this to the government’s attention and saying ‘this is how the world can work’.”

Andy Street, mayor of the West Midlands Combined Authority, welcomed the work done by the colleges, which he stressed was part of a wider, collaborative approach by the FE sector in the region. “I am very supportive of them, and I am keen to support what they have proposed. What we have seen is real collaboration and it is benefitting, ultimately, the learners.”

“It has been much more effective to plan the programme of skills development for the region,” he said, adding there had been tangible benefit the colleges coming together in this way, with more level 3 provision for students in the region than previously.  

In 2018-19, there were 1,200 level 3 qualifications delivered through the devolved Adult Education Budget (AEB) in the region. Post-devolution, and following discussions with colleges and providers, that number increased to 2,150 qualifications, with more enrolments planned.