Magic Numbers

Can Multiverse’s imaginative use of apprentice and alumni data help colleges capitalise on their own data in similar ways?

The annual accounts of the apprenticeship provider Multiverse always receive more attention than other trainers and further education colleges. This is partly due to its size and its CEO, the son of former Prime Minister Tony Blair, but even more because the company is valued at over a billion pounds, despite never having made a profit. This means its accounts need to convince funders and potential funders to keep investing to reap future returns on that investment. 

One of the most imaginative lines in the accounts is their definition of a key performance indicator. It is very common for providers to publish the number of students or apprentices trained during the year. In contrast, Multiverse publishes its “apprentice population (including alumni)”.  

It is a cumulative measure of every apprentice they have trained, presumably including the 50% that have historically failed to achieve. It will go up every year and always be a far bigger number than apprentices serviced during the financial year, so sounds very impressive to a lay reader. Nobody likes to see numbers year-on-year going down so this is genius, or at least ingenious! 

It begs two questions. First, could colleges learn from this and truthfully present their data in more impressive ways? Second, is it valid to claim previous students as alumni in the context of further education? 

Leveraging college size 

The size, scale and complexity of colleges is not generally understood. People know what a big or small school is but have no similar concept around colleges. For that reason, it is always important to put numerical data in context, as this can help surprise. 

For example, colleges are much larger than local school sixth forms, but we tend to use the descriptor 16-19, rather than sixth formers. At Bedford people began to understand the college’s scale when we started using the latter term and produced tables showing the college had perhaps 6,000 “sixth formers” compared to the next largest school sixth form of 600, down to the smallest at about 80. On that basis the college claimed to be the most popular too. 

College absolute size helps too in other areas. Bedford has a very large private school population, but even so more college students went on to university than from all the private schools put together. Using the large number, rather than a progression rate, showed the college had serious academic credentials. Similarly, the absolute number of students with 5 good GCSEs including Maths & English was higher than in any other sixth form, a fact that helped counter the traditional knocking of the quality of students choosing college over their sixth form. 

Even with adult numbers context helped. Most adult students see only a small number of like-minded individuals on their course, not the whole college offer. Bedford used regularly to educate over 10,000 adults each year, against a local population below 100,000. Converting that into a message that “every year, more than one in ten Bedfordians enrols at college” suddenly had local politicians asking how they could connect better with our students. Sadly, we couldn’t get data on whether that “1 in 10” figure was better than for Tesco, Sainsbury’s or Boots. 

Finally, colleges work with so many local employers, but context can better explain that. The college found that our employer numbers far exceeded the number of members of the CBI or the local Federation of Small Businesses and got that message out to show our authority on skills needs. You can also use comparison to demonstrate your importance as an employer. Being able to truthfully say the college had more employees than local industry giant Lockheed Martin, or manufacturer Weetabix, makes real a college’s economic importance. 

Claim your alumni 

Multiverse’s use of the term alumni is interesting and begs questions for us all. Do ex-students think of themselves as alumni? If a college uses that term, does it not require you to do something in return? And, if so, what? 

Universities and schools are generally places you attend only once, so your are nearly always an ex-student thereafter. Colleges are different. You can always enrol in the future, so your status can change. Maybe colleges should be content to be like the NHS – there when you need us, rather than try to claim lifetime affinity? 

I have seen first-hand how much energy universities like Cambridge put into maintaining a lifelong relationship with graduates, but the payback is clear in terms of reputation and influence. Can colleges aspire to a similar return? 

Some colleges are making innovative approaches in this area from which we can all learn. Technology may also reduce the cost of maintaining contact. 

Perhaps instead though, colleges should focus on identifying former students who are visibly successful in the community. One in three young people goes to their local college so it is certain that many successful farms, salons, restaurants, building firms, engineering companies will be run by alumni, and ex-students will also be senior police officers, health professionals, councillors, photographers, sportspeople etc. Recognising and using their achievements is a good start. 

College size helps here too. I joked that using the Multiverse definition, the Bedford College Group could describe its student population (including alumni) as 1.3 million! Given the college began in 1882, sadly many of that number are no longer alive, but among that number there will inevitably be real superstars, with many to follow. 

Multiverse clearly believes alumni numbers matter. If you think that’s right then take the advice of famous Bedford College alumnus Eddie the Eagle Edwards: “unless you try, you’ll never know”.

By Ian Pryce CBE