“We just don’t have time to deliver wider personal development – we need to focus on getting learners through their qualifications.”

This was a comment from one colleague, but it reflected a much wider conversation happening across the college. As Head of Personal Development and Student Voice, with responsibility for Careers and Employability and Student Engagement, I had the privilege of seeing the whole picture — and the reality was, there was already some excellent personal development practice happening in pockets across the college. Inspiring guest speakers, impactful enrichment, meaningful one-to-one conversations with tutors, brilliant careers advice and guidance — but these moments often felt fragmented, inconsistent, or overly dependent on the enthusiasm of individual staff.

At the heart of the challenge was a lack of shared understanding about what ‘personal development’ actually meant. Was it safeguarding? Wellbeing? Equality and diversity? Social action and volunteering? Was it setting personal targets, attending guest speaker sessions, or taking part in student voice activities? Did it sit within the curriculum or beyond it? And where did national agendas like Consent, Prevent, or Careers Week fit in? For some, personal development meant educational trips and visits; for others, it was about effective one-to-one coaching conversations.

This lack of clarity and cohesion made it easy to see personal development as something optional — a ‘nice to have’ rather than essential learning. And yet, from my experience both in Quality and in Personal Development leadership, I knew that when personal development is done well, it isn’t just powerful for learners, it transforms the culture of the whole college community.

This led to where we are now with a newly designed, cohesive framework for personal development for all learner types including apprentices and adults.

The framework still allows autonomy and flexibility however it aligns our key focuses together within the STEPS framework. The STEPS framework is a powerful acronym which stands for Skills, Topical Points, Engagement, Progression and Self-Management. It also emphasises the fact that personal development is the cornerstone for successful progression elaborating on our college motto of creating brighter futures – the personal development is curriculum is ensuring steps for a brighter future.

How did we respond to this?

Launched in July 2024 for implementation in September 2024, this marks the first-ever year of our STEPS framework. This newly designed, cohesive approach to personal development supports all learner types, including apprentices and adult learners. While the framework maintains autonomy and flexibility, it also ensures alignment across our key focus areas within the STEPS framework.

What is STEPS?

The STEPS framework is a powerful acronym representing Skills, Topical Points, Engagement, Progression, and Self-Management. It reinforces the idea that personal development is the foundation of successful progression, building on our college motto of Creating Brighter Futures. Through this curriculum, we are ensuring that every learner takes meaningful steps towards a brighter future.

The expectation is that the curriculum must plan for all areas of STEPS in relation to the intent of the programme and be able to self-assess against this. Within the 16–19 curriculum, a more detailed programme supports autonomy while providing a structured offer delivered by curriculum and student experience teams, including Careers and Employability, Academic Skills, and Student Engagement. The Apprenticeship and Adult teams have the flexibility to coordinate the STEPS programme in line with their specific standards and qualifications.

How did we implement the STEPS Framework?

For me, the most important thing was staff buy-in. I really wanted curriculum staff to see the purpose and understand that it was not change for change's sake. I planned the launch with a few soft introductions, including a 30-second STEPS video that sparked intrigue, making staff more likely to read the following email. A few weeks later an email providing key details of the framework was then sent. I then organised a Personal Development Day entirely focused on the STEPS launch. The day began with a reflection on the challenges we were facing with personal development, particularly the considerable challenge posed by numerous initiatives and expectations around the curriculum. Staff could see the purpose and value of STEPS, making it memorable and accessible, which facilitated that crucial 'buy-in' and mitigated the impact of yet another change, which academic staff often experience.

What is the stand out moment?

For me there has not been just one moment there has been a whole month - March into Success: STEPS Month (yes, you guessed it—held in March!), where each week had a specific focus. This initiative reached all learner types, supporting them in making more informed decisions about their progression through guest speakers, workshops, and information stands during Careers Week (Progression in STEPS). During Raising and Giving (RAG) Week, learners engaged with both the internal and external community, embracing the Flower Power theme by dressing up, hosting raffles, making slime, completing sponsored walks, taking part in a yogathon, and much more—all in support of two local charities (Engagement and Topical Points in STEPS). The Student Conference provided our student committee with the opportunity to experience a professional conference environment, featuring an inspirational guest speaker and interactive activities where their voices were both shared and heard. Finally, Competitions Week encouraged learners to develop resilience, technical abilities, and broader skills by taking part in central competitions such as the PechaKucha challenge (enhancing academic presentation skills) and CV writing, alongside local technical competitions (The Skills and Engagement in STEPS).

What is next?

We are now working on developing the new wider skills approach (the Skills in STEPS) to simplify it and align it with the overarching framework's intent, ensuring it caters to all learner types. The new approach, Future Skills, is industry-led, featuring five key competencies, each with three skills, and will be implemented across the college. I plan to launch Future Skills similarly to STEPS, with soft launches followed by a comprehensive overview on another Personal Development CPD day. During this day, I also want to revisit STEPS, allowing staff to reflect on how to further develop the framework in their areas for the next year.

The journey ahead is just that—a journey. New initiatives like these take a few years to fully embed and form roots, but the first blooms have been pretty beautiful. I look forward to seeing what the next STEPS are and how curriculum staff will personalise and autonomise the STEPS framework further within their areas.

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If you are passionate about education and are looking for an opportunity to join the staff team at a leading college, then look at the latest job vacancies available at Weston College here. You can find all the latest job opportunities that Weston College has to offer, with a commitment to providing quality education for learners and a focus on continuous professional development for staff, Weston College is an excellent place to work and grow in your career. 

Hi, I’m Tom, a Year 1 Level 3 Business BTEC student at Weston College. My course gave me the opportunity to go on an amazing trip to New York City, where we made lots of memories, gained a greater insight into the industry and experienced many new things. Both my course and this trip have benefitted me greatly due to the range knowledge I have gained and the opportunities I have received like the trip to New York which I will discuss below! 

The New York trip was across 5 days, exploring the sights around Manhattan and no day was the same, every day was filled with new landmarks, attractions and memories. We went to Times Square, The Statue of Liberty, Wall Street, The 9/11 Memorial and many more. We also had an even balance of free time, which gave us all time to try American food and experience things that are once in a lifetime. 

The memories started when we landed in New York and headed through JFK airport, and whilst waiting for other students at security, we saw Mike Tyson! It was a memorable start to the trip as he met everyone there, including the students. 

Once we’d unpacked our bags, we took to Times Square and were in awe of the American nightlife, particularly the tall buildings and billboards, and the huge amount of people. It even began to snow! We then got food, did some shopping and explored the area. My friends and I went to Raising Canes for the first time (now a group favourite of ours) and we were greeted by the queue reaching the door, they even had a live DJ! 

The next day, we went to visit the Statue of Liberty! We got on the island and took a group photo, and we explored the area, grabbed some food, looked around the museum, and then went to Ellis Island where we learned about its historical significance around immigration. We then had a snowball fight between first- and second-year students! Later in the day, we walked to Chinatown where everyone explored the rich culture, before heading to the Brooklyn Bridge. That night we went out to Times Square again, shopped for souvenirs and got the famous New York Pizza! 

Our third day was extremely busy, we walked past the Ghostbusters Building before an impactful visit to the 9/11 memorial where we learnt more about the attacks, saw exhibits, viewed real pieces of the salvaged towers before finishing with an emotional video. This was a very powerful and insightful part of the trip. We then had free time around the area, so of course we went to an American McDonalds! 

After this, we went to Wall Street for our guided tour with our extremely eccentric tour guide, Jared, which made the tour a lot more engaging due to his wisdom and quirkiness. The tour taught us a lot about the history of Wall Street, banking and so much more. That night, we walked around Rockefeller centre and got Chick Fill A as a group. 

The following day, we went up the Empire State Building, walked around the exhibits, and took some pictures from the very top. Since it was Valentine’s Day, we witnessed four proposals which made the experience a lot more wholesome! I even bought a Lego set of some iconic NYC buildings from the gift shop.  

After this, we had some more free time, so my friends and I split a pizza together and did some shopping before heading to Central Park and 5th avenue. By this point in the trip, we were doing 25,000 steps per day and my feet couldn’t take it, so I got a taxi back to the hotel and rested for a bit before rejoining the group later, feeling a lot better.  

That night, we heard rumours that it was the 50th anniversary of Saturday Night Live, so we rushed down to Rockefeller Centre where we stood in the audience and saw Jimmy Fallon walk outside! 

On the fifth and final day, we visited the Highline, an abandoned railway line which has been converted into a footpath, before visiting the market below which was full of interesting shops and places to eat. We then headed to our meetup point, the Vessel, where I had a look in the Ray Bans store and, after long consideration, I bought a pair of Meta Ray Bans which allowed me to get some immersive pictures and videos in Times Square!  

Unfortunately, it was time to get ready for our flight back to London. Once we landed and got off the plane, we headed for the coach back to college, and throughout the coach trip, there was good vibes the whole way, trying to remain on the trip as long as we could, but sadly, after 5 days and 120,000 steps later, we were back at college, where our loved ones were waiting. 

This trip was an amazing opportunity to learn about international Business, and Travel & Tourism, whilst trying new experiences and making friends and memories along the way. This is not the only trip offered by Business and Travel & Tourism! Other trips include Alton Towers, Mendip Activity Centre, becoming a British Airways Cabin Crew member and many more.  

If you would like to apply to one of our Business courses, click here.