New City College

Green skills revolution

Everyone is talking about the need to provide green skills for the future economy. New City College (NCC) is going beyond the talk to creating and delivering new hands-on courses in green skills.

NCC has led two central London projects with a combined value of nearly £10m bringing together colleges, adult education institutes, employers, and local authorities, with a focus on green skills. NCC now has a significant offer of green skills courses from electric vehicles to energy efficiency and retrofit. The offer is being developed further, with new innovative courses e.g. on the use of drones in retrofit projects. The partnership has developed collaborative materials, for instance on UN sustainable development goals for teachers.

As a result of these two projects, nearly 4,000 hours of CPD have been provided to further education teachers, over 1,000 students have accessed training using new industry standard equipment and over 1,000 employers have been engaged on green skills.

What the Judges Thought

Green Skills revolution. This ambitious partnership programme with support from a wide range of industry partners responds to the current needs of the community, increasing employability for students.

The application provided a strong argument about how the delivery of this provision had moved from being hidden in the organisation to being strategic and central. Clear mapping of experiences and impact demonstrated ongoing tangible benefits to both students and the community.

What it Means to Win

"I am delighted that New City College has won this Green Gown Award. This collaborative work is part of our focus on curriculum innovation and it is fabulous that our Business Development and Construction and Engineering teams have received the recognition they deserve for driving forward the green skills agenda."

Gerry McDonald, Group Principal and CEO

Top 3 Learnings

1. Sometimes an externally funded project provides the push required to develop a new curriculum offer.
2. Collaborative working creates added value beyond what one institution can achieve.
3. Initial take-up of new courses may be low but, if given sufficient time, take-up will increase.