Newcastle College and the knowledge economy

Jan 15 2008 By The Journal

Gary Whitehead, Director of Business Services at Newcastle College talks about the importance of a Knowledge Driven Economy and why Newcastle College is a key player in driving forward innovation and skills development.

As an organisation, we are keen to genuinely engage with employers and businesses, understanding what their needs are and building our development programmes and facilities around those needs. “This includes looking at growth areas and new partnership opportunities which will allow us to compete and help employers develop their staff to world class standards.”

In response to the demands on the Government’s skills agenda, Foster Report and the subsequent Leitch Review, Newcastle College has recently invested £8.6m in a state-of-the-art training and commercial centre, the Sandyford Building, which has already been cited as setting a benchmark for business training facilities in the North East, if not the whole of the UK.

The Centre focuses on offering bespoke training programmes to the business community as well providing real working environments for apprenticeships.

It includes hi-tech conference and banqueting facilities with rooms seating two to 150 people, as well as a number of commercial businesses including a florist, gift shop, hair salon and academy, art gallery and brasserie.

“A great deal of effort has gone into creating world class facilities that will provide employers and employees with a highly motivational training environment, which will hopefully exceed the expectations of our customers,” said Gary.

He added : “We want to make the new centre a hub for knowledge transfer, business innovation and growth for our clients regionally and nationally. Leading edge facilities and services like ours can become drivers of economic growth as employers increasingly recognise the sound human and financial arguments for investing in their people”

Newcastle College is also the first further education college in the North East to get involved in Knowledge Transfer Partnerships. In conjunction with One NorthEast, it is involved in a Collaborative Innovation Partnership.

Aimed at connecting small to medium-sized enterprises with the technical expertise vested at Newcastle College, the Partnership is based on the Knowledge Transfer model, which seeks to improve competitive advantage, stimulate research and development, improve graduate retention and encourage knowledge transfer.

The Collaborative Innovation Partnership gives companies access to student/graduate expertise via placements of up to 18 months, aiding business development and innovation. It is a cost effective method to evaluate potential employees as well as allowing the college to gain knowledge on current industry trends and emerging technologies.

The College has also responded to the region’s ambitious Science City initiative and the increased speed of scientific and technological advance, by creating a new School of Applied Science.

Spearheaded by Director Alan Bainbridge, the new school will be based in a brand new facility and will be the catalyst for developing innovative programmes in growth areas such as general manufacturing, aerospace, bio science, pharmaceutical, gas, oil, petrochemical, transportation, computing and sub-sea industries.

The aim of the School is to address skills shortages in these growth areas by offering an education and teaching curriculum that is responsive to the needs of employers in these sectors. The School of Applied Science will provide exciting learning and development opportunities for students of all ages and will underpin the development of sustained knowledge, capability and economic development for businesses in these markets.

The college has already built up strong links with Sector Skills Councils, SEMTA, NEPIC and CELS, all of which are responsible for growing and formulating a response to the needs of these industries. It is also working closely with North East Higher Skills Network to develop a new curriculum to offer.

Gary Whitehead said : “The creation of the new facility will help us become a major contributor to the development of a highly adaptable and knowledgeable workforce for these expanding industries and will also allow us to provide specialist programmes in direct response to employers’ needs.

“It will also help to establish high quality further and higher education opportunities, providing an integrated chain of progression right through to specialist degree level and professional qualifications.”

For further information on the training solutions on offer at Newcastle College, please call (0191) 200-4000.