Leeds City Council underpins a thriving economy in Leeds, the second largest local authority area in England, with a diverse population of around 780,000 people. Leeds City Council is contracted as the local fund manager by the Education Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) to deliver a broad programme of adult learning to Leeds.
The council had a vision to engage more new learners to get involved with adult learning, and to promote adult learning courses to a wider audience in Leeds. Tribal’s leading learner management system, Maytas, has enabled them to make great steps towards achieving this vision. In September 2017 they launched the Leeds Adult Learning website, with Maytas being instrumental in enabling the effectiveness of this platform.
Managing the adult learning journey
Leeds City Council had high expectations of finding a system that could capture and process data from 30 subcontracted providers, and all importantly allow funding and data returns compliant with ESFA funding rules. They quickly realised a learning management solution could help support this process, alongside helping existing learners to progress onto further courses. Starting an adult learning course can be a huge decision for an individual, Leeds City Council understood that the right solution could simplify this process for the learners. From finding the venue where the course would be taught, down to assessments, they wanted a solution to support their providers and more importantly the learners every step of the way.
Finding the right solution
In 2015, Tribal worked with Leeds City Council to develop bespoke screens and process wizards within Maytas to specifically support the Leeds adult learning model. At the time there were 30 sub-contracted providers delivering 1200 courses per annum to approximately 7000 people, with around 12,000 enrolments. Their providers would be able to remotely and securely login and update their courses, learners and enrolment record, giving flexibility and integration to processes. Subsequently all new authorised planned courses would be exported to the Open Data Institute (ODI) website overnight every day.
Finding a new way, the creation of the Leeds Adult Learning website
Leeds City Council worked closely following innovative and agile development with the ODI and Innovation labs to create a searchable data driven website solution: Leeds Adult Learning, launched on 11 September 2017. The website offers one integrated platform for a range of adult learning courses across Leeds in a variety of different venues.
Every day, their providers can remotely and securely login and update their courses, learners and enrolments in Maytas. Within the Leeds Adult Learning website, bespoke categories have been added to course records to add appropriate criteria so that people can search on to find each respective course.
The benefits
- As course information is published into the public domain, there is increased accuracy of course categorisation, descriptions and target audiences.
- Maytas facilitates the collection and processing of Adult Education Budget (AEB) funding and compulsory data to be returned to ESFA periodically.
- Due to the large sub-contracted delivery model, Maytas also allows programme managers to complete and have timely control over which courses are authorised to start where and when.
Looking to the future
Leeds City Council aim to expand the Leeds Adult Learning website to include data from the wider Leeds adult learning institutions. They are also looking at options to utilise Maytas to support them as an apprenticeship employer-provider in 2018.
Working with the Tribal Team
Keri Evans, Communities and Partnerships Senior Manager, Employment and Skills, at Leeds City Council said:
“Tribal consultants listened closely to our ambitions, aspirations and high expectations of a system that could capture and process data from 30 subcontracted providers. It’s interesting now seeing that become a reality, alongside being compliant with ESFA funding rules and data returns.”
