Weston College is proud to be the lead College for the West of England Institute of Technology (WEIoT) which is playing a pivotal role in the skills agenda of our region. As the national recruitment statistics for IoTs are revealed in FE Week, the WEIoT is delighted to announce that it has achieved 118% of its enrolment targets to date.

Weston College is working in collaboration with education partners Bath College, Gloucestershire College, Yeovil College, UWE Bristol and our employer partners Airbus, University Hospitals Bristol and Weston Trust, National Composite Centre, Bamboo, Renishaw, Jisc, iO Academy, GKN Aerospace, Rolls Royce, St Monica Trust, Leonardo, GE Aviation and North Somerset Council.

As Sir Paul Phillips, Principal and Chief Executive for Weston College, stated, “Our IoT is based on a hub and spokes model with a robust leadership team and partners who understand the skills agenda. Targets are not easy in some cases but between us dialogue has been positive. We are employer always guided and have established strong links with DfE et al so that there is a shared knowledge of matters with shared resolution. The West of England IoT is pivotal to the skills agenda in our region and built upon trust and entrepreneurship. I worry that a public sector mentality may damage the innovation and rapid response to skills shortages in the future realised to date. At present however we are driving change and there are opportunities for modularisation but still a need to recognise that skills needs and qualifications are not the same thing. The IoT has huge potential to influence skills solutions and all credit to the West of England Combined Authority for recognising that pump prime revenue funding is a pre requisite for success.”

Read the full FE Week article here: Experts and minister hail ‘flying start’ as recruitment stats for IoTs revealed

Here at Weston College, our employer relationships and how we can benefit your business, is a huge part in the role we play. Our Business Growth Team work extremely hard on the employer engagement, so we are excited to launch a new series of blogs from members of the team, allowing you and your business to find out how to benefit from Weston College.

To kick off this series, we have caught up with Kirsty Woods, to explore her role and responsibilities within the team.

“My name is Kirsty, I am a Business Partnership Manager, and I started this job on the 3rd October 2022. My role is to engage with businesses from the Construction industry, identify how the College can support them with training and recruitment, and create opportunities for our learners. I act as the first link between Weston College and the Construction Industry!

It’s a fast-paced role which I love! There is no such thing as a typical day; I find gaining a detailed understanding of a business, their challenges, and the opportunities for us to support them really interesting. We’re lucky to work with a fantastic group of businesses and the interest from employers to work with the College continues to gather momentum.

Predominantly, I work with employers within the construction industry, but they hugely range in size and discipline. For example, I can be speaking to some of the largest organisations in the country one minute regarding their training and development needs but then, supporting a local SME to access funded or commercial training to taking on their first apprentice brick layer the next! It’s just so varied which is why I find it so rewarding. According to the latest Construction Industry Training Board report, we will need an extra 38,200 workers in the South West alone by 2027 so my role supporting Industry to link with education and their future workforce whilst raising the profile of construction as a career path is crucial.

Without a doubt, my favourite part of the job is organising industry events or securing progression opportunities which directly benefit our fantastic construction learners. As a highlight so far, I worked with colleagues to create a BACE Talk series as we have had an ambition to highlight the breadth of careers to our construction students this year, as showcasing careers through our Career Excellence Hubs is a key part of the College ethos. I also love getting to meet so many different people all with a shared passion for developing the next generation by showcasing Construction for the brilliant and varied industry it is. There are so many opportunities to develop a rewarding, sustainable career and it needs to be shouted about!

Weston College is renowned regionally for excellence and I am proud to be part of it. I fully subscribe to our ethos of delivering careers not courses. I was born in Weston-super-Mare but moved to Bristol aged 7 so it really does feel like I’ve come home!

There are so many opportunities for Construction employers to benefit from working with us. From taking on an apprentice, to commercial training for upskilling their existing staff, and employers can be part of our Construction Careers Excellence Hub to engage with future talent through offering guest lectures to our Learners or offering work experience or T Level Industry Placements.

There are still major skills shortages in construction and employers are increasingly aware of the need to build an early talent strategy. The challenge for employers is often knowing where to start.

That’s my job – to identify the shopping list, offer solutions and build long-term employer partnerships. It all begins with a conversation. Employers can email the Business Growth Team at employers@weston.ac.uk to start that conversation…