Business Breakfast with Sussex Downs College

At their second Business Breakfast, Principle, Mike Hopkins revealed the economic potential of Sussex Downs College, highlighting the value and importance of a collaborative approach between education and business.

With the aim of developing closer links between local businesses and Further Education in East Sussex, Mike Hopkins, Principle and CEO of Sussex Downs College, hosted a second Business Breakfast on the 22nd January at King’s Bistro and Restaurant at the Eastbourne campus. In attendance were local dignitaries and business directors, senior members of College staff and A Level Business students, who chaired the discussions at the end of the breakfast.

Mike shared the findings of an Economic Evaluation of the College, which he commissioned at the start of his post, revealing the impressive wider economic value of Sussex Downs College. The total added income created by the College and its students valued at approximately 2.6% of the total economic output in Sussex in 2013/14, representing an approximate, very impressive 16,779 average wage jobs.

Mike commented on the findings: “At Sussex Downs College we understand that a skilled and educated workforce is key to productivity and sustainable economic growth of business in Sussex, whatever their size.”

He added: “Robust, long lasting partnerships with the business community are key to enriching our full time provision, making sure we are offering a curriculum aligned to the economic needs of the region and providing an accessible bridge between education and employment for our students.”

The result of the discussions highlighted the need for Sussex Downs College to extend the College Talent Bank to meet local apprenticeship recruitment needs, along with the potential to introduce an Apprenticeship Framework in Social Media and Digital Marketing.

The Head of HR and Operations at Be Valued, part of The Be Group, Nicki Cannell, acted as a guest speaker at the breakfast and shared the organisation’s positive experience of apprenticeships delivered through Sussex Downs College.

Nicki explained: “As one of the larger employers in the area, Be Valued has a huge potential for recruitment, however, being based in a coastal town with a higher than average age demographic, we were faced with a number of challenges in terms of recruitment when the business expanded so the Apprenticeship scheme came at a key time for us.”

The Be Group has worked with Sussex Downs College since 2005 in the delivery of short courses, but in 2014 they started to consider apprenticeships: “Our criteria has changed significantly over the last couple of years and we now require a different level of skillset from our employees, to ensure they are able to own and manage our customer’s claims, making a number of decisions both operationally and financially with confidence,” said Nicki. “Identifying and retaining employees of this calibre is paramount to our business and having employees with the willingness to learn and accept ongoing mentoring is key. We provide an excellent opportunity for all employee’s to progress and develop within the business, a fact highlighted by the fact that 95% of our management team have been promoted from within.”

With three Customer Service Apprentices already based at Be Valued, Nicki presented the many benefits to taking apprentices straight from education – apprentices are not only offering alternative solutions for the business, but in return the company is providing opportunities to young people as they step into the world of employment: “They are already in the mind set for learning and developing new skills and their ability to pick things up and adapt their thought process to what is being trained is evident.” She added: “We believe that with the opportunities within our business, this can be an ongoing option which provides the Apprentice with the potential to learn different skills in different roles, and also work with different teams and under different managers.”

In conjunction with the findings from the Business Breakfast, which stated that more apprenticeships need to be made available in further creative areas, Be Valued is looking to extend apprenticeships into their engineering department and, potentially, their support services department. In addition, after their success with current apprentice, Alex Hume, Be Valued has already taken on two more Customer Service apprentices who started in February this year, and are about to take on a third apprentice to begin in March.

Attending the Business Breakfast also, Caroline Ansell, MP for Eastbourne and Willingdon, strongly praised Sussex Downs College’s aim of creating stronger links between the college through apprenticeship schemes and local businesses: “This was a superb meeting that very much focused on the issue of apprenticeships and the need for the College to understand future businesses and skills so that it can direct its courses to specific requirements and continue to thrive as a vocational centre of excellence.”

As a direct result of the Business Breakfasts, Sussex Downs College are arranging quarterly business lunch events led by MP Caroline Ansell, and discussions between the College and the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), which will look at how greater support can be offered to small and medium sized enterprises in recruiting apprentices.

With National Apprenticeship Week on the horizon in March, Sussex Downs College would be delighted to hear from any businesses that would like to engage with the College and local business community through apprenticeships or by attending the Business Lunches led by MP Caroline Ansell.

Please contact Rose Miller on 030 300 39474 or email rosemary.miller@sussexdowns.ac.uk if you would like to be involved in future events or if you would like to arrange a visit from an Account Manager to discuss your particular training needs.

www.sussexdowns.ac.uk