South Essex Colleges Group meets the standard!

South Essex Colleges Group (SECG) have met the standard and achieved a prestigious  matrix accreditation.  This is the first time the college have gone for whole college accreditation.

The matrix Standard is owned by the Department for Education (DfE) and ensures the delivery of high-quality information, advice and guidance (IAG) services that enable people to reach their full potential. The Standard is delivered by the Growth Company.

Group Chief Executive, Denise Brown said: ”Thanks go to all who contributed to the assessment week with special thanks to Jane Belcher for her leadership of this process – a great job by all.”
Assessors spent time at multiple college sites and interviewed over 100 students and staff.

Feedback from students from all campuses described how an impact-delivered IAG service has made a difference, with learners consistently confirming that they feel safe and well supported. More broadly student feedback included:

“Careers have helped me a lot and I can now see a pathway to a career with children. I’m progressing to my level 2 next year”

“The specialist degree courses I want to progress to are mostly not on UCAS. Careers have given me so much support with the applications”

“They treat you like adults, which is great after school, and there’s so much to take part in – eXtra+, ENHANCE, Careers Fairs. Finance have been very good, and I had lots of help to get my enhanced DBS to work with children”

“I’ve not been in the UK long. The chance to do something like visit Harry Potter World was great. The service is flawless”

In addition to the positive student feedback, an employer apprenticeship partner in particular praised the wide range of IAG topics covered: “They’ve learnt about Prevent, consent, county lines and drugs. We want these learners to progress to management so they need this broad education and knowledge of these topics. Other providers don’t do this to the same extent”

The assessors found that:

• Safeguarding – 95% of students feel safe in college (an increase of 4% on the previous year)
• Apprenticeship achievement up from 44.2% to 66.2% in just two years and now well above national averages of 54.1%
• The Careers programme at 100% in six of the eight  Gatsby benchmarks. Careers also engaged with 3,213 unique learners, up 11% in a year
• Workforce Adult Skills achievement was 97% 
• Vulnerable bursary students saw 92.3% retention, with 161 out of 162 achieving a positive or neutral destination 
• Industry Placements – 2,883 placements of 160,657 verified hours, up from 2,101 and 123,997 respectively in a year.
• eXtra+ - engagement with 40.19% of the total student population, up from 29.09% just two years previously

Head of Safeguarding, Jane Belcher said: “Receiving the matrix Standard for not only our brilliant IAG services but for the whole college is aa excellent achievement. The students who engaged with our assessor,  spoke positively about their experiences and the support they have received from staff. I am very proud of everyone involved and definitely something we should make a lot of noise about.”