Current Projects

FE Sussex has secured £9.6M funding for its member colleges in the past 12 months.

The CODES project

FE Sussex has devised, written and will manage the implementation of their successful application to Round two of the DfE Strategic Development Fund.  Building on our round one success (a £7.2M grant) which created the Greener Sussex brand and five associated environmental projects (scroll down the projects list for more information) Round 2 centres on the establishment of 9 centres of digital excellence across East and West Sussex and Brighton and Hove and has two workstreams

Workstream one

This workstream of the CODES project will:

• Set up 9 Centres of Digital Excellence (CODEs) with state of the art technology and courses under the management of 5 colleges or groups
• Devise, develop and implement 75 employer focused modular courses in digital technology
• Provide training online and face to face in key digital shortage areas for 2447  learners over 3 years including 863 learners in year one
• Equip tomorrow’s workforce with the digital skills required by employers
• Provide industry specific updating in digital automation developments in skill shortage skills areas including agriculture, horticulture, and construction, business, cultural and care

The locations of the CODEs

Each CODE will take responsibility for further research into sector specific employer requirements.  Subsequently they will design and deliver specialist courses in the shortage area.  Generally, to allow for progression from level 2 upwards courses will follow a staged format as shown below.

Ownership of and responsibility for further research and course design in digital skill shortage areas is as follows:

CODE specialist skill areas, workstream one

All CODES will develop courses which will then be available to any other college as part of the collaborative project arrangements.

All CODES provide digital skills and knowledge in different specific skill shortage areas each of which is a priority area as identified through the LSIP report.

CODES 5 -9 are in direct response to the skill shortage of coders and web technologists.  They provide a shopping basket of opportunities for modular skills.

Workstream Two

This workstream focuses on enabling college staff to return to industry for professional updating and for industry to join colleges to experience how courses are taught and to integrate them into course design.  It will establish a revised form of CPD which will be integrated into the annual professional development plans of staff and retained thereafter.

The workstream gives the opportunity for the college sector to perform a step function change in its industrial knowledge and how it can be used to enhance the content and relevance of courses to be developed.

For more information about CODES and any project work please contact Tim Strickland on 07525 688256

The FE Sussex managed collaboration of eight Sussex college groups has won over £7 million pounds of additional funding.  The new investment is part of a £65million fund made available by the Department for Education which has been awarded on a competitive basis to collaborations of colleges across England.

Led by the Chichester College Group the application for funding was developed, written and coordinated by FE Sussex, the consortia of Sussex colleges.  Its success means that each of the consortia colleges will lead the establishment of separate high tech resources and teaching facilities for the delivery of five Green Theme project work-streams comprising

• Carbon Literacy awareness – led by BHASVIC
• Electric Vehicle technology training centres – led by Greater Brighton Met College
• Alternative energies and hydrogen technologies –  led by Chichester College Group
• Land Management for a zero carbon environment – led by Plumpton College
• Decarbonisation academies to support green energy installations led by East Sussex College Group

The funding will the development of new curricula by colleges and enable them to focus on meeting the long-term skills priorities of employers across the local areas.

The project website can be found here https://greenersussex.co.uk/

The IDEAL project

‘Partnerships for Digital Education Readiness’ –Improving Digital Education for All Learners – IDEAL

FE Sussex is very pleased to be working with Cogito Development Projects on this important multi-national EU sponsored project.

Project overview

This project will tackle the challenges of delivering effective learning through online delivery.

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the already rapidly growing EdTech sector, with institutions across the world forced to rapidly adopt online learning. This has raised serious questions about the quality, effectiveness and capacity of this type of learning.   Key areas need to be addressed such as:

• Capacity building of tutors and institutions
• Effective use of technology
• Inclusiveness in the virtual classroom
• Disabled students, such as those with physical or hearing impairments
• Pedagogy and delivery
• Creation of modern learning materials

The international nature of the project will enable challenges to be explored in regional contexts and outputs will be design for simple tailoring and application to a stakeholder local need.

The ambition of the project requires partner institutions to take a longer term view of sustainable digital solutions, whilst acknowledging the imperative of a quick response that had to be taken in the light of Covid-19. The project is driven by Higher Education but will work in collaboration with TVET as the challenge is shared and this provides an opportunity for collaboration and partnership working which will in the longer term benefit learners. This proposal underlines inclusion in the deign and delivery of approaches. The project will not use a subject-specific approach but will consider more strategic approaches to embedding online learning across an institution as well practical guidance for tutors and teachers.

Further details can be found on found here via their Facebook page.

Leadership Excellence Framework and Leadership Institute research projects

FE Sussex, working with Cogito Development Projects has been contracted by the Education and Training Foundation to carry out research into the establishment of a Leadership Institute and also the use of a Leadership Excellence Framework.  Taking place over a three month period, the research aims to identify the acceptability and demand for both from middle and senior managers in FE colleges and in private training providers.  Over 50 staff will be interviewed to gather their opinions and thoughts.  Through this they will play an active role in shaping the future of management and aspiring management training in the post-16 sector.  If you would like to take part in this high profile ground-breaking project please e-mail Tim Strickland on tim@fesussex.org.uk

Become a Lecturer

FE Sussex and its partners involved in this project are pleased to have conceived and driven this, the aim of which has been to increase awareness of working in the FE sector and attract newcomers to teaching in Further Education.   The project has been sponsored by the South East Local Enterprise Partnership (SELEP).

Working with the Essex Provider Network, Federation of Essex Colleges, Kent Association of Training Organisations, Kent Further Education and the Sussex Council of Training Providers the website ‘Become a Lecturer’ will continue to support the recruitment of specialist staff into further education colleges and other independent providers across the south east region.

The overall project has provided bursaries to attract people working in various industries to consider working in the FE sector.  It has also produced a number of case study videos featuring colleagues who have made a career change and decided to move from working in industry to working in an education and training provider or college.  Roles highlighted include lecturers, tutors and assessors, essentially all the forms of teaching roles in education and skills.

​The becomealecturer website can be found here and by clicking the Become a Lecturer logo above.  It includes introductory information about the various roles in FE and a set of industry sector based videos created with the help of existing teaching staff across the region.

If you wish to make the jump to teaching in FE, either in a full or part time capacity, or indeed whilst still working in your industry employment check out the new site now.  You will also find useful links to the college and provider vacancy pages in your area!