157 Group leads a host of projects which focus on the FE landscape.
We managed four shared services projects which focussed on aspects of sharing practice and services. Two of these projects have continued to a second phase.
Highbury College led a project on sharing best practice in the use of new technologies
Oaklands College led a project on sharing staff recruitment processes and student destination processes. This has been developed into a Virtual careers fair which will launch in October 2013.
Central Sussex College led a project on back office sharing of services and has now extended to project to include MIS and to develop a commercial strategy for sustainability.
Sunderland College led a project on creating a delivery vehicle for sharing back office services and highlighting barriers and solutions to some of the common problems, captured in a technical guide, which you can download from the menu at the left.
In addition to the projects themselves,157 group undertook evaluation of impact and innovation and also conducted a Delphi study into practitioners views of what the FE landscape could look like in 2020.
This video highlights some of the findings in our evaluation carried out by the University of Warwick of the shared services work across colleges and local authority adult education services. The evaluation focussed specifically on innovation. The full report Evaluation of the Collaboration and Shared Services Grant: the Development of Innovation Capability can be found in the publications section of this website.
An important aspect of the FE landscape is its contribution to the quality of teaching and learning. 157 Group is working with Ofsted on a peer review project which will showcase how colleges can achieve and exceed high quality expectations and outcomes.