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The City & Guilds Award for College Engagement with Employers

Guidance notes for application form

This year, applicants are invited to complete a bespoke application form for each Beacon Award. This form will give applicants the opportunity to address all the criteria that will be assessed: the Beacon Award criteria, and the bespoke sponsor’s criteria that is tailored for each award.

AoC Beacon Awards Criteria:

The Beacon Awards celebrate exemplary practice. In all applications you should evidence innovation, sustainability and impact, ensuring that you clearly show there are features which promote exemplary teaching and learning, and that the initiative has wider relevance and applicability. The application should demonstrate:

Bespoke evaluation/quality assurance to influence continuing development of the initiative
Regard to the promotion of equality and diversity in the delivery of the programme.
That there is clear evidence of impact and sustainability.
That it has features which actively promote exemplary teaching and learning
That it is of benefit for one or more groups of students, recipients or trainees
That it has wider relevance and applicability which makes it of significant value to other colleges as an example of outstanding practice or innovation.

City & Guilds Sponsor’s Criteria:

At City & Guilds we believe in the power of skills to build successful careers, businesses, and economies. Our purpose is to help people, organisations and economies develop their skills for growth. We anticipate the changing needs of people and organisations, embrace technology and new approaches to learning, and work with like-minded partners to develop the skills that industries demand across the world. Our goal is to ensure that, whoever you are, you have the right skills to thrive both now and in the future.

We want to recognise, celebrate and promote exemplary practice in the delivery of provision that is responsive to the needs of employers which:

Demonstrate a whole college approach to meeting the training, development and recruitment needs of many employers including apprenticeships, and is:

reflected in the college’s development plan
supported through investment in employment related training

Is responsive to a range of key economic and training priorities identified by Local Skills Improvement Plans (LSIPs) or other strategic and systematic analysis of local or regional skills needs
Demonstrate systematic networking and collaboration with other organisations to provide a comprehensive response to meeting the training needs of employees and those seeking employment, by carefully targeting specific groups or individuals
Demonstrate effective management of quality improvement strategies to achieve:

outstanding achievement rates

levels of progression to sustained employment

Demonstrate a successful record of leaders, managers and governors enabling teachers, trainers and support staff to deliver sustained levels of high-quality employer engagement, supported by:

positive feedback from employers (including impact on their employees)
improvements in teaching and learning and the curriculum

Demonstrate well managed investment in training and development of college staff, and the provision of up-to-date facilities and equipment to industry standards; setting a standard for sector wide application
Develops and implements flexible teaching, learning and assessment methods that:

promote equality and diversity
overcome barriers to access
respond to the needs of employers and learners

The City & Guilds Award for College Engagement with Employers application form