‘The world is changing - we’ve got a responsibility to prepare our students’

‘EXCITING TIMES’: Lynette Leith, Vice Principal for Curriculum and Skills at Hull College, talking to The Hull Story

By Rick Lyon

Hull College is developing its curriculum to give its students the best possible chance to be successful in life, including with careers in new and emerging industries.

The college has already developed its offer and the training it provides for its students to reflect changes in the local and regional jobs market, including a greater emphasis on digital skills and green energy.

It is also putting an increased focus on how it can help support its students become confident, well-rounded individuals, as well as academically successful, to fully prepare them for life outside of education.

Lynette Leith, Vice Principal for Curriculum and Skills, said it is crucial the college moves with the times to ensure it gives its students the greatest chance of success.

“The world is changing very quickly, and when you consider the pace of change here in Hull and the Humber, it really is quite exciting,” she said.

CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT: Lynette Leith believes it is crucial for Hull College to work with employers

“We need to stay abreast of that because, as one of the biggest providers of technical education, it’s also very exciting to think about the impact we can have.

“For us, it’s really important we stay up-to-date with industry 4.0, and even 5.0, so we can create a curriculum and wider programmes to ensure young people and adults are prepared for that.

“We’re essentially preparing people for jobs they haven’t seen yet.

“We need to ensure our curriculum is advanced, and that our teaching methods, resources, materials and the access to them are also current.”

As part of the curriculum development, Lynette and other members of the team are working closely with employers across Hull and the Humber to understand where the skills gaps are and what they will be looking for in future employees.

This included a recent employer panel held at the college, titled From Employability to 21st Century Skills Development, aimed at bringing together key stakeholders to discuss the skills needed in the fast-changing jobs market. Other similar events will follow.

“The expert panel was an opportunity to have highly detailed conversations with employers about the needs of their organisations. It was wonderful to hear employers’ views,” said Lynette.

“I’m really excited to be a part of the college’s drive towards developing really high-quality technical excellence, working with employers to achieve this.

“For example, we have a big responsibility to develop things like green skills for jobs in sustainability. That’s a golden thread throughout our curriculum. We have specific departments and programmes for that, but we’re also looking at how we can develop the thinking around those themes across all of our education.”

Earlier this year, Hull College Principal and CEO Debra Gray MBE told The Hull Story how it had launched a “digital transformation” to prepare students for careers working with new technologies.

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION: Hull College Principal and CEO Debra Gray

However, alongside that, it is also helping students developing the life skills they will also need to flourish.

Through its Living and Thriving tutorial delivery programme, the college is covering wider themes including leadership and wellbeing.

“Education is about a lot more than simply developing the skills to get a job,” said Lynette. “The time that a young person or adult spends in education with us is really quite formative and life-changing, particularly when they might have had their education or progress disturbed previously.

“What I absolutely love about education, above everything else, is the impact we have on young people, on their lives, and their futures, which impacts on society as a whole.

“That’s why we’re embedding core skills that are not necessarily needed for the subject, but are absolutely required in life and work as part of our 21st Century Skills Development.”

MOVING WITH THE TIMES: Hull College

A holistic approach to teaching and learning such as this is particularly important in deprived areas like Hull, where young people are not afforded the same advantages as their contemporaries in other parts of the country, said Lynette.

“There’s evidence that shows us that, by the age of seven, the most academically able children in disadvantaged areas start to underperform against the least academically able in really affluent areas. You start to see this divide,” she said.

“We know there are massive disparities in health, education, and jobs for people in disadvantaged areas.

“We’re in an area of high socio-economic disadvantage. Hull is the fourth most deprived place in the UK, and second educationally.

“That’s not an excuse for anything, it’s a challenge. It means we have to look and think about things differently, because it affects young people cognitively.

“For me, it’s about meeting people where they are, and understanding that. Quite often in further education, when young people join us, we want them to be ready and employable, but to actually get them there has to look and feel different.

“When we think about our curriculum, I really want us to not only think about core skills and subjects, but to also think about that wider person, because it’s also evidenced that, when all of those needs are met, people flourish.

“We know it’s working when we see over time students becoming more confident, accessing quality work experience placements, and challenging us about what they want and why they want it, because they’re more informed.

“It’s all about doing what’s right for them.”