As one of the UK's poorest local authorities, Leicester is a city with widespread deprivation and fewer opportunities. The project provided our learners with a unique opportunity to broaden their horizons, within a structured and supportive environment. Feedback provided shows that the project provided participants with a wider sense of the EU labour market and the opportunities available. We are well placed to access sustainable employment within their chosen vocational field. In order to support this objective, we do all we can to foster a high level of confidence and interpersonal skills within our learners and ensure that they are equipped with the employability skills that are commonly sought from employers. As the 'learning to be employable' research commissioned by City & Guilds outlines, employers feel that young people are consistently lacking employability skills. We are able to offer this to our learners, and respond directly to the needs addressed by employers, equipping them with personal, professional, soft and transferable skills that provide them with huge personal benefit, as well as positively impact upon their employability.
Leicester College is one of the largest Colleges in the UK with more than 27,400 learners studying on a wide range of courses, from many backgrounds and with different ambitions and aspirations. We are committed to enriching the lives of all members of the community and to creating new opportunities for them. This is reflected in our mission statement: “To deliver a wide range of high-quality learning experiences to support the diverse communities we serve and the personal, social and economic development of individuals and enterprises.” We have achieved certification in the Training Quality Standard. The College also holds the Matrix quality standard for information, advice and guidance services for Student Services, the Investors in People award and the Learning and Skills Improvement Service (LSIS) Leading the Learner Voice Award for Community and Social Cohesion. This project has enabled us to build on this work and expand the mobility opportunity to a wider number of learners. We reviewed progress on our past project to ensure that learning was captured and the model adapted where necessary. Our learning to date informed our application and we used the project to continually improve and strengthen our international work.