Profile: Sara-Jane Watkins

“In addition, we are seeing an epidemic of young people with social, emotional and mental health issues, and those that play sport have a release mechanism and it really helps supports their wellbeing.

“So, if they can come to the college knowing that they're going to be supported and nurtured in areas that they have a passion for, we're hoping that it will also improve mental health.

“As funny as it sounds, I'm not a sports fan really! I quite like Formula One, but I’ve seen the positive impact it has had on my own children too. My son had quite low self-esteem when he went into secondary education but he ended up going to a school where they did clay-pigeon shooting.

“He went on to represent the county and was shooting nationally. It’s been huge for his self-esteem. Now, he's six foot tall, plays rugby and is really confident.

“Likewise, my daughter is a very keen show jumper and you can see as a parent just how powerful sport is in terms of their health and wellbeing, but also how they can work collectively as a team. That’s why I'm such a huge advocate.”

Sara-Jane hasn’t had to travel too far geographically to find her own dream job with WCG – despite the fact she ‘fell into’ FE.

“I grew up on the Herefordshire/Gloucestershire border – and now I live about two miles from where I grew up,” she said.

“My children went to the same school that I went to, so roots are very important to me. I am very fortunate that I grew up in the middle of the countryside. I live on a smallholding now, so everything about this college in terms of its land-based roots absolutely resonates with me.

“I never planned to get into Further Education. I did my first degree at the University of Gloucestershire in countryside management and my master's degree was in strategic marketing at the University of Western England.

“I was very fortunate that, straight out of university, I gained a job at Hartpury College in Gloucestershire as a marketing assistant and then I progressed to a marketing manager. By the age of 23, I was part of the senior leadership team.

“I stayed there for about four or five years and then I joined Filton College in Bristol. I really progressed through various levels there taking on more curriculum management.

“I became principal in 2015 and loved it but then this opportunity came up in 2024.”

There are exciting times ahead for WCG – which has campuses in Rugby, Leamington, Warwick, Pershore, Moreton Morrell, Pershore and Evesham – but it is not without challenges.

The group was placed under ‘intervention’ by the Department for Education, due to financial challenges, last year and that is something that Sara-Jane had to get to grips with right at the start of her tenure.

It is an example of the issues that are being felt across the sector and she hopes it will act as a wake-up call to policy-makers on the importance of FE.

“It was a privilege to take on this new role,” Sara-Jane said. “It's a fantastic organisation that has lots of history and an amazing reputation.

“I think I come in at a point where there are some challenges, particularly financial ones, but I'm confident that we can address those which will hopefully see us out of intervention imminently.

“We'll come out of it a stronger organisation with a strategy for growth and improvements to our curriculum and other areas that we want to expand.

“We've had to look at our financial model and make some difficult decisions for the future, but those decisions are the right ones to ensure that we have a stronger operating model going forward. It's going to enable us to grow and be viable for the future.

“One of the greatest challenges is that the government hasn’t viewed further education in the way it should have. Without further education colleges, this country doesn't work because we deliver the plumbers, the farriers, the animal care technicians, the motor vehicle technicians, the care workers, the solicitors.

“You name any skilled sector, we are delivering the next generation of workforce for it and, just to put this into context, we receive, on average, a third of what universities receive for students per year.

“So, we are trying to deliver a skilled workforce for the future without the level of investment that we need.”

It is not just the new sports academy that will help to deliver growth.

Student numbers are already up and the group is also moving further into the field of provision for 14 to 16-year-olds who have come unstuck in school.

“The way the model works is that we are paid on the numbers of students we bring through the door and we've had a really fantastic recruitment cycle this year,” said Sara-Jane. “We've got more students than ever.

“We are offering a far greater portfolio of courses than ever for next year, expanding lots of new areas including those sports academies I mentioned and expanding our construction range at the majority of our sites.

“We've also just received a £750,000 grant to expand our motor vehicle courses. So, it's trying to ensure that we are responding to what the locality needs.

Profile:

Sara-Jane Watkins

Married: Yes

Children: Yes, two

Hobbies: Walking, floristry

Favourite gadget: iPhone

Favourite Book: Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone

Favourite Film: Moulin Rouge

Last Holiday: Croatia

“Our ambition at the moment is very much grow, grow, grow.

“We’re expanding our range of provision to include more opportunities for individuals at level one – so, young people who have not got the GCSE results that they had hoped for or who have struggled in mainstream schools and have left school early.

“We are going to provide far more opportunities for those young people to enter into college and then progress through the levels and not feel that their opportunities have been shut off because they've had a poor experience at school.”

So, what’s the message to businesses who have bemoaned the skills shortage for decades?

Sara-Jane said: “We want to be viewed as the college that provides the future workforce of the region. One of the next steps in terms of our journey and our evolution, is that we want local employers to come to us right at the start of their recruitment process.

“So, they might be reviewing their workforce for the future, knowing that in two to three years’ time they have an issue in terms of lots of ageing staff and not getting a pipeline coming through. We want them to get in touch with us now and say, in two years’ time we're going to need 20 people in this sector.

“Work with us now, come in and offer work experience, come in and offer to do joint delivery on the programmes. Come and try before you buy. Understand who we've got in the classroom and how can we shape, deliver and develop our curriculum to absolutely meet your needs.

“We’re training 10,000 people a year, so we are a massive part of creating the region’s workforce.”