Newcastle College and Code Institute Collaborated on Coding Skills Delivery

@NCLCollege and @CodersInstitute collaborate on Coding Skills Delivery

Covid-19 has devastated lives and livelihoods, and how quickly we rebound from it depends on thoughtful and concerted action from government, business, and education. 

Job losses will cut deep, especially in retail and hospitality, with thousands of mainly younger workers in need of new career opportunities. Students are understandably anxious about the future; Covid robbed them of a huge part of the college experience, so it is vital that the direct outcome of their hard work — a good job or good job prospects — is protected. 

By contrast the tech sector continues to grow rapidly and there are 90k unfilled jobs in this sector every week. 

FE colleges are in a bind: they recognise the demand for a recognised qualification to skill or re-skill people for employment in tech roles — and do so within a relatively short space of time — but lack the resources not only to create such a course but to deliver the teaching.

Newcastle College saw a path through this and is now enrolling learners in the new Gateway Qualifications Level 5 Diploma in Web Application Development. The qualification is funded through the Advanced Learner Loan mechanism and delivered by a third-party online education platform, Code Institute and was created by Gateway Qualifications. 

The non-negotiables for Newcastle College were that the course be delivered flexibly to fit in with the complex real lives in its local communities, that it offered learners an opportunity to turn their lives around quickly, within a year, and that funding was readily accessible. Code Institute has a consistent employment track record of 90% and is widely recognised by business and the IT industry; both are instrumental in shaping the course content, keeping it relevant to the demands of employers.  

For Andrew Nicholson, Head of Digital Technologies at Newcastle College working with an online delivery expert, Code Institute and Gateway Qualifications gave Newcastle College the agility launch quickly, “The ability to get it off the ground now far outweighs the potential advantages of creating a qualification like this under our own steam, as the resources needed and the time frame involved in developing the platform would be very considerable.” 

Since launching in December, Newcastle have already onboarded their first cohort of learners with applications for a second cohort about to open shortly. These learners will have graduated and be in employment early 2022. 

Newcastle College was quick to spot the opportunity. As a college of Further Education, it can play a pragmatic role in connecting its local communities with the jobs market. It has taken the initiative by adopting Code Institute’s programme to support an under-served portion of their local community: people who are looking for a flexible, cost-effective and above all quick route to a career, or change of career. 

Following the launch of the course, Newcastle college collaborated with Code Institute, Gateway Qualifications and South East LEP on a White Paper exploring how Colleges can partner with EdTech providers like Code Institute to revolutionise the delivery model of software development and coding skills.  

As the dust settles after Covid-19, and the full scale of its disruption becomes clear, that is likely to be a lot of people.  

You can download the White Paper here to read it in full.