Investment in Innovation
With the support of central government, we are providing the right level of training and skills that students need to make their way in the workplace and get their future started.
In addition, we continue to respond to the needs of companies and organisations across East Kent with a pipeline of new vocational training and significant capital investment across our six sites.
Our investment in innovation enables us to play our part in supporting skills development across the Kent and Medway region.
Roadmap to success
Our strategic plan since 2020 has underpinned everything we do across our Group. It is our roadmap to success as an inspirational education provider, and a great employer within our region.
We set out give key goals at the start to guide us towards ensuring that we continue to make a leading contribution to the economic and social prosperity of communities across East Kent.
- Create a revolutionary model of education, delivering a new range of nationally recognised solutions for the benefit of East Kent and beyond.
- Deliver inspirational, inclusive and purposeful education that enables young people and adults to achieve their ambitions and meet the needs of East Kent.
- Successfully integrate Ashford College and Spring Lane into the EKC Group family, developing the provision to enable the Group to truly meet the needs of the whole of East Kent.
- Continue to invest in industry-standard facilities and first class Group services that support our business units to deliver aspirational, relevant and high quality learning experiences.
- Ensure that EKC Group is an employer of choice and responds appropriately to the social, ethical and moral issues of our communities, supporting the development of well-rounded and responsible young people.
Curriculum 2030
The Curriculum 2030 project has been a key part of EKC Group roadmap to success, and fundamental to ensuring that future course and training provision addresses the economic and community needs of East Kent.
Education, health and retail are the largest sectors in terms of employment for East Kent, accounting for 37% of jobs. The highest trend-based growth in employment to 2027 is forecast for health and social care, the visitor experience economy, and the digital tech, creative and cultural sectors.
We have responded to that, as well as feedback from local stakeholders on the area’s needs that in addition to the above includes development and construction, transport and logistics and manufacturing.
That feedback also highlighted the need for employability skills, retraining for adults, entrepreneurship and business management, IT and digital skills and customer related skills.