Annual Report 2019 - AoC Services

CELEBRATINGEXCELLENCE

Annual Report 2019

INSPIRE. INNOVATE. SUCCEED.

Thank you for taking the time to read our Annual Report. The report outlines our performance against our strategic plan, 2020 Vision – Leading for Excellence in Education & Skills, as we continued to focus on building on the resounding success of Cambria since its formation.

Notable successes in 2019 include the £21m re-development of Cambria’s Yale Site and the community Hub at Llysfasi, taking the investment on modern buildings for learners and apprentices since the merger to almost £60m. We maintained our place amongst the top A Level providers in the UK with an overall 99% pass rate and our HE provision continued to grow rapidly, heavily steered by employers and in partnership with sector leading Universities.

WorldSkills was again a source of pride, where at the annual WorldSkills UK Show in Birmingham in November we won seven medals, were highly commended in two categories finishing fourth in the overall league table and number one in Wales. In addition to this success, the 10-strong Wales shortlist for the WorldSkills finals in Shanghai in 2021, features 5 Cambria learners.

Looking forward, we want the college to be seen as one of the best in the UK for its quality, its innovation, its kindness and its understanding of employers and communities. This will drive outstanding quality and support the college to be financially sustainable which in turn we can use to reinvest so that we are strong enough to weather future challenges.

Thank you to all our students, staff, governors and partners for their hard work, inspiration, innovation and success and we look forward to developing a new vision for Cambria from 2020.

02 | ANNUAL REPORT 2019 INSPIRE. INNOVATE. SUCCEED.

WELCOME

Chair of the GovernorsJohn Clutton

Chief ExecutiveYana Williams

ANNUAL REPORT 2019 | 03INSPIRE. INNOVATE. SUCCEED.

PEOPLE

At the beginning of the year, Great Places to Work conducted a staff engagement survey on our behalf. Great Places to Work benchmark the results against other UK public sector organisations as well as against what they define as the UK’s ‘Best Super Large Workplaces’ - companies such as Adobe, Hilton and Britvic.

We are very pleased that the overall results show that there are very high levels of staff engagement at Coleg Cambria which far exceed the levels in other colleges and public sector organisations across the UK.

The main areas of strength were identified as follows:

Strategy and Direction - 77% (+33% above UK national average and +2% above BSLW)

Career Development - 82% (+26% above UK national average and +6% above BSLW)

Corporate Social Responsiblity - 85% (+22% above UK national average and +4% above BSLW)

Strategy and Direction

77%Career

Development

82%

Corporate Social

Responsiblity

85%

In July the college was awarded the eight place in the Super-Large category of the Best Workplaces for Women list, alongside leading companies Gap, Admiral Group and Deloitte. Chosen because of its support of employees on maternity leave, commitment to closing the gender pay gap, training schemes, and the number of women in senior leadership positions, Cambria was the only further education institution among the 55 ranked organisations.

People

ACTIVE CAMBRIA

Active Cambria continued to support the college’s vision to engage all staff and students and encourage them to become active, healthy and mindful.

During 2019 Active Cambria offered free fitness, wellness and health activities and advice days to everyone at the college, engaging and supporting our staff and students to change any bad habits into good ones. Both students and staff prospered from the opportunities given to them, such as reduced blood pressure, increased confidence, improved emotional development and weight loss.

Active Cambria also offered students hands on experience to develop themselves and their CVs through coaching opportunities, Duke of Edinburgh, various coaching awards, volunteering in the community and Erasmus plus projects.

ROYAL SOCIETY FOR THE PREVENTION OF ACCIDENTS (ROSPA) PRESIDENT’S AWARD

Once again in 2019 we were awarded the ROSPA President’s Award at gold standard for outstanding Health and Safety Management.

The President’s Award recognizes organisations who have achieved the gold standard for 10 consecutive years and not only maintained the standard, but clearly demonstrated year on year improvements.


EMPLOYER OF CHOICEPeople


People

CELEBRATING STAFFCOMMITMENT

We celebrated and recognised the commitment of staff who have worked at the college for a large number of years as well as staff who have given over and above their job roles to ensure that our students are equipped with the skills and knowledge to succeed.

Eleven individual staff awards and two team awards were presented in the categories of Achievement, Customer Service, Diversity, Leadership and Innovation. Seventeen colleagues also received long service awards for 25 years service.

CUSTOMER SERVICE

The staff at the Toybox Nursery were given a team award for their excellent customer focus both during and following a fire that happened a the nursery in June.

They evacuated the children safely and effectively on the day of the fire and worked as a team to establish a temporary nursery at the Deeside 6th during the summer period ensuring that the children were settled and happy. They also worked together after hours and at weekends towards the end of the refurbishment project to ensure that the nursery was ready for use in September.

LEADERSHIPAngharad Jarvis - Hospitatility and Catering

ACHIEVEMENTSadie Thackaberry - Animal Care

INNOVATIONMark Davies - Construction

The Toybox Nursery Team


TEACHING & LEARNING

INSPIRE TUTOR AWARD

Essential skills tutor Pam Mclean won an Inspire Tutor Award for supporting victims of childhood abuse and domestic violence.

Pam Mclean runs an essential skills course with a charity, helping women from all across North Wales to overcome barriers through learning, and says she’s constantly inspired by their stories of survival.

Throughout 2019 the college continued to invest in and develop excellent teaching and learning.

In July we held a Teaching and Learning Conference for our staff with Geoff Petty, one of the UK’s leading experts on teaching methods as our keynote speaker. We also appointed seventeen Teaching and Learning Mentors to support and develop the quality of teaching and learning within their directorate to share examples, new ideas and strategies relating to best practice.

A Higher Education Conference was held aimed at building on the work of last year in developing the HE Ethos for Coleg Cambria.

In 2019 students were given excellent opportunities to develop their citizenship and leadership skills through Cambria’s learner voice process, by representing their classmates, taking part in the student parliament, regular campus councils and becoming student leaders as presidents and student governors.

Students worked with tutors and managers to discuss topical issues concerning them and to further develop the experience for all learners across all sites and all types of learning, including learners in the community and work based learners and learners studying higher education courses.

STUDENT VOICE PARENT SURVEY


Customer

STUDENT SURVEYS

95%satisfaction

Work based learners

FE students School Links learners

87%satisfaction

90%satisfaction

Student surveys in 2019 indicate very strong learner satisfaction with their course and the college as their provider:

The parent survey in Autumn 2019 shows that parents are very satisfied with Coleg Cambria as an education provider for their children. The vast majority, 98%, of parents/carers are satisfied overall and 97% would recommend the college.

say their son/daughter is expected to work hard and do their best

say their son/daughter is learning new skills

positive response rate about the high quality of the learning opportunities

99%Parents or

Carers

97%Parents or

Carers

96%


WORLDSKILLS

Twenty one students from Cambria were invited to the national finals of the annual WorldSkills UK Show in Birmingham in November 2019 to represent Wales.

The college’s strong team of contenders, thanks to its prominent industry links and business partnerships, won seven medals, were highly commended in two categories and finished fourth in the overall league table and number one in Wales. We also had judges and training managers installed within WorldSkills, plus a growing team of scrutineers in Construction Metalwork, Manufacturing, Electrical Installation, CNC Milling and Beauty.

Sam Darby-Moorhouse

Jessica Bruce Ben Simcox

Carwyn Roberts

Oliver Artell-Bolland

Charles Samson


Customer

Coleg Cambria Medalists

GOLD Jessica Bruce Hairdressing

SILVER Carwyn RobertsAirbus

CNC Milling

SILVER Sam Darby-Moorhouse Graphic Design

BRONZE David Duncan Welding

BRONZE Charles SamsonMagellan Aerospace

Manufacturing Team Challenge

BRONZE James BlackwellMagellan Aerospace


BRONZE Nathan Griffiths Magellan Aerospace


HIGHLY COMMENDED Oliver Artell-Bolland Sheet Metalwork

HIGHLY COMMENDED

Gareth ButlerAirbus

CNC Milling

SHANGHAI 2021

Coleg Cambria will compete for places at the ‘Skills Olympics’ in Shanghai next year.

Six of our learners have made the Long Squad for Worldskills.

The list is made up of 137 apprentices who will now join the event’s talent programme to try to secure a place on the team that will represent the UK at the prestigious skills contest.

David Davies (Raytheon)Aeronautical Engineering: Mechanical

Ben Simcox (Raytheon)Aeronautical Engineering: Mechanical

Carwyn Roberts (Airbus)CNC Milling

Charles Samson (Magellan Aerospace)Manufacturing Team Challenge

Tom Williamson (Lloyd Morris Engineering)Electrical Installation

Emily JonesRestaurant Service

Coleg Cambria 2019 WorldSkills Team

During 2019 we continued to work in close collaboration with local and regional employers to identify new HE programmes that meet the needs of the North Wales economy including Offender Management, Social and Criminal Justice, Animal Management, Health and Social Care, Creative Media and Sound Engineering.

We have invested tens of millions of pounds into state-of-the-art facilities and sites for higher level learning and our partners now include some of the best universities in the UK with sector leading specialisations.

In May we had a very successful Gateway Quality Review of our Higher Education provision which was carried out by the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA). The published report stated that “there can be confidence that academic standards are reliable, meet UK requirements, and are reasonably comparable”.

The 2019 HE Learner Survey results showed an overall improvement on 2018 in every question area and compared very well to the national survey outcomes with an ‘Overall Satisfaction’ rate of 87%.


HIGHER EDUCATION Customer


EXCELLENT RESULTS IN MARKETING COURSES

All of the 14 learners who followed The Chartered Institute of Marketing courses at the Business School received passes with distinction.

The CIM also lauded the college for the excellent results our Professional Marketing learners achieved in the course’s rigorous Digital Marketing module.

GOLD STATUS FOR OUR NEBOSH COURSES

We became the first and only FE provider in the UK to receive gold status accreditation from Nebosh (National Examination Board in Occupational Safety and Health) by demonstrating that we have ‘greatly exceeded’ their learning excellence principles and are fully committed to ensuring that our courses offer the best learner experience.

Our health and safety qualifications, delivered at our Business School in Northop, are tailored to match the needs of industry partners giving employers the confidence that they will receive a first-class service.

Society

WORKING WITH EMPLOYERS

TATA STEEL

We worked with Tata Steel to deliver an NVQ Foundation Apprenticeship programme in Manufacturing enabling the staff at their Shotton production facility to gain the appropriate training and competencies to work efficiently, effectively and safely in their roles. 31 members of staff successfully completed the qualification and received their certificates at a special ceremony at the steelmaking company’s Flintshire-based operation.

WESTBRIDGE FURNITURE

We launched an innovative partnership with one of the UK’s top furniture makers to develop a special Traineeship Scheme. Participants share their time between the college, where they are taught basic employability skills such as time-keeping, teamwork and health and safety, and on placement at Westbridge to gain first hand experience of the sector and company values.

BRYN WILLIAMS ACADEMY

Our groundbreaking food academy, created in partnership with esteemed chef Bryn Williams, welcomed its first student. Callum Jones, a former pupil at Connah’s Quay High School is now studying a Level 2 qualification in Catering and Hospitality at the college while gaining valuable experience with Bryn and the team at his Porth Eirias restaurant in Colwyn Bay – crowned AA Restaurant of the Year for Wales – and Odette’s in Primrose Hill, London.

In 2019 we continued to work at the heart of the community and economy, building aspirations and skills and aiming to make a significant contribution to the economic growth of the region. We worked extensively with local and national employers to enrich our students’ experience and provide the higher-level skills workforce employers need to enable further growth of the area.


SUPPORTING THE ECONOMYSociety

ONE UNFORGETTABLE DAY

On GCSE results day in August we paid for the cost of running all the charity’s UK call centres for 24 hours on GCSE results day. We donated £30,000 to Childline’s One Unforgettable Day appeal – having raised £115,000 for NSPCC Cymru/Wales last year – and chose the landmark date given its importance to teenagers and their families all over the country.

CHARITY


Society

During 2019 we launched a new brand name and approach for our charity, volunteering and fundraising activities as Calon which translates to ‘heart’, and adopted the British Heart Foundation as our charity of the year.

A number of creative and physically challenging tasks took place across all Cambria sites and beyond including marathons, hiking challenges, gruelling bike rides, bake-offs, bag packing, and many more.

“There are lots of organisations across Wales doing some fantastic work, including Coleg Cambria in my own constituency. They have created their own future generations plan even though they don’t have to. I think they clearly recognise the importance of the Act and the opportunities it presents.”

Jack SargeantAlyn and Deeside AM

In the summer term the Future Generations Commissioner for Wales, Sophie Howe visited the college and met with sixth form learners. She paid tribute to Coleg Cambria for its commitment to improving the lives of staff and students.

Speaking at the Senedd in Cardiff, Alyn and Deeside Assembly member Jack Sargeant praised our plan and progress made following the Welsh Government’s Wellbeing of Future Generations Act (Wales) 2015.


FUTURE GENERATIONSSociety

In February we launched our Future Generations Plan which supports the Well-being of Future Generation Act (Wales) 2015 and aligns our values, purpose and strategy with the needs of our learners, employees, local employers, other customers, suppliers and the wider community. The plan includes a number of well-being goals to enhance and develop the number of community partnership activities involving staff and learners and increase the number of charitable events.

Coleg Cambria’s approach to social responsibility is driven by an appreciation of the need to balance our organisational priorities within the 2020 Vision against social, environmental, cultural and economic responsibilities. Our Future Generation Plan is underpinned by the seven well-being goals as detailed below, which originate from ‘The Well-being of Future Generations Act (Wales) 2015’. In essence, we all have an active role and a responsibility to ensure that ‘Wales is the country we want it to be now and in the future’. This is a new plan that aligns our values, purpose and strategy

with the needs of our learners, employees, local employers, other customers, suppliers and the wider community. It brings together excellent current and previous practice across the college, to provide a strong foundation on which to grow and diversify our work to support future generations.

FUTURE GENERATIONS PLAN

A prosperous Wales - An innovative, productive and low carbon society which recognises the limits of the global environment and therefore uses resources e�ciently and proportionately (including acting on climate change); and which develops a skilled and well-educated population in an economy which generates wealth and provides employment opportuni-ties, allowing people to take advantage of the wealth generated through securing decent work

A resilient Wales - A nation which maintains and enhances a biodiverse natural environment with healthy functioning ecosystems that support social, economic and ecological resilience and the capacity to adapt to change (for example climate change)A healthier Wales - A society in which people’s physical and mental well-being is maximised and in which choices and behaviours that benefit future health are understood

A more equal Wales - A society that enables people to fulfil their potential no matter what their background or circumstances (including their socio economic background and circumstances).

A Wales of vibrant culture and thriving Welsh language - A society that promotes and protects culture, heritage and the Welsh language, and which encourages people to participate in the arts, and sports and recreation.

A globally responsible Wales - A nation which, when doing anything to improve the economic, social, environmental and cultural well-being of Wales, takes account of whether doing such a thing may make a positive contribution to global well-being.

A Wales of cohesive community - Attractive, viable, safe and well-connected communities.

A prosperous Wales

A resilient Wales

A healthier Wales

A more equal Wales

A Wales of cohesive

communities

A Wales of vibrant culture and thriving Welsh

Language

A globallyresponsible

Wales

LEARN WELSH AWARDS

In 2019 we continued to successfully deliver a range of Welsh for Adults courses in the counties of Flintshire, Wrexham and Denbighshire in partnership with Popeth Cymraeg on behalf of the National Centre for Learning Welsh.

One of the highlights was our first Awards Ceremony where learners were recognized for their achievements in learning Welsh. They were hosted by S4C TV presenter Nia Parry, who highlighted the importance of learning the Welsh language and emphasised the hard work, commitment and achievement of both students and tutors.

SUCCESS AT THE URDD NATIONAL EISTEDDFOD

Welsh for Adults learner, Francesca Elena Sciarrillo from Mold won the coveted Learners Medal at the National Urdd Eisteddfod in Cardiff.

In third place was another of our young Welsh for Adults learners, Molly Evans who is in her last year studying Modern Foreign Languages at Chester University.

WELSH LANGUAGE Society


AMBASSADORS

We appointed three ambassadors in partnership with the Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol to help promote bilingual skills within our Further Education and Work Based Learning programmes. The scheme was officially launched by the Minister for Welsh and International Relations, Eluned Morgan AM, at the National Eisteddfod in August.


CELEBRATING STUDENT SUCCESS

Our Annual Student Awards saw more than 60 learners presented with trophies for outstanding achievement. Headlined by BBC broadcaster and commentator Jason Mohammad, the event was also attended by staff and representatives from the many organisations and industry leaders that work in partnership with Cambria throughout the year.

Performance

Overall Award Winners

Adult Learner of the Year Paul Lennon

FE Student of the Year Jasmin Burns

HE Student of the Year Melissa Molyneux

Special Award for Academic Excellence Edan Jackson

Apprentice of the Year Joshua BarnettKelloggs

Duke of Edinburgh Award Student of the Year Caitlin Hardman

“My course has been really good as I have been able to attend work placements, I have met lots of different people and I have had amazing support from all the staff. The evening was special, it was amazing to be recognised for my hard work.”

Jasmin Burns Childcare Student of the Year


Achieving excellent learner success rates for all provision.

Coleg Cambria is committed to excellence in teaching and learning and the Welsh Government validated data shows how well our learners are achieving.

A LEVEL RESULTS

We maintained our place among the top colleges in the UK with an outstanding overall A level pass rate of 99%.

Six students went to study at Oxford or Cambridge universities, eleven progressed on to degrees in Medicine, Dentistry and Veterinary Science, and 34 learners received straight A*s and A grades.

Meanwhile, AS students managed an overall pass rate of 92% and there was another outstanding performance in the Welsh Baccalaureate Advanced Skills Challenge, a near perfect 99.9%.

LEARNER SUCCESS RATESPerformance

Success Rate

84%Success

Rate

84%

Further Education Apprenticeship

99%Overall

Pass Rate

100%Pass Rate in 26 subjects

99.9%in Welsh

Baccalaureate


FINANCIAL INFORMATION

The college is funded mainly through grants from public sources and is audited to maintain accountability and value for money.

Coleg Cambria will build on its strong financial position in order to retain the top financial health categorisation of ‘OUTSTANDING’. This enables us to invest significantly in our people, physical resources and to provide outstanding learning opportunities, support and facilities for our students.

Expenditure Analysis2018 - 2019

2%Interest & PensionFinance Costs£1,166,000

6%Depreciation£3,929,000

28%Other OperatingExpenses£17,869,000

64%Sta� Costs£41,191,000

15%Work Based Learning£9,373,000

68%Welsh Gov. Grant£42,775,000

7%Tuition Fees£4,585,000

6%Other Operating Income£4,047,000

4%Other Grant Income£2,247,000

Income Analysis2018 - 2019

Earnings before Interest, Tax,

Depreciation and Amortisation (EBITDA)

£5,352k (2017/18 £6,969k)

EBITDA as % of Total Income

8.44% (2017/18 11.23%)

We employ over

1,300 staff across teaching areas and business support functions

Annual turnover was

£63 million

Performance


Since 2013 we have developed a clear and effective Estate Strategy which provides a dynamic programme of change aimed at improving the quality of our accommodation and resources. We have launched an ambitious programme to support the development and improvement of the college using leading edge technology to facilitate new learning styles and meet business needs.

In March 2019 work began on the £21m re-development of Cambria’s Yale Site. The new facilities include a three-storey complex equipped with the latest digital technology, a 200-seat conference hall, new training kitchens and restaurant, a cutting-edge study space, a revolutionary sports space and IT suites.

We also secured £1m towards a £1.2m community hub development at Llysfasi with construction beginning in September.

ESTATES STRATEGYPerformance

“Coleg Cambria plays such a pivotal role in Wrexham and north east Wales.

“Having already invested heavily in their Bersham Road campus, the ambitious plans outlined for the college’s Yale site will create modern, state-of-the-art facilities that will be amongst the best in the country.”

Lesley GriffithsAM for Wrexham

Yale Turf Cutting

Yale Development

Llysfasi Development


GOVERNANCE

The Coleg Cambria Board of Governors continues to follow the Nolan principles and implement the Code of Good Governance for Colleges in Wales.

FIVE NEW GOVERNORS JOINED THE BOARD IN 2019

Tim Williams, Sports and Public Services lecturer and Alice Thelwell, Marketing Officer were both appointed as Staff Governors in February.

In Septemebr two of our HE students were appointed as Student Governors. Ryan Cawsey works as a Quality Engineer for Magellan Aerospace and is studying for a part time Degree course in Engineering at Deeside and Melissa Molyneux is a Commercial Aerospace Apprentice at Airbus and is studying towards her sponsored Business Management degree, in partnership with Swansea University at Cambria Business School in Northop.

Louise Gatenby, CEO of The Good Board, an ethical leadership consultancy, joined as a Business Member in December. Louise has over 25 years of leadership, advisory and executive search experience and will be an asset to the Board.

Tim Williams

Melissa Molyneux

Alice Thelwell

Louise Gatenby

Ryan Cawsey

Documents

Annual Report 2019 - AoC Services