Park Lane College, Leeds

Established in 1966, Park Lane College, Leeds (PLCL) is now the largest Further Education College in Leeds.

The College prides itself on offering the widest choice of courses with the highest quality of teaching, educating over 38,500 learners in the current year.

Park Lane College Leeds has two main campuses in the City Centre and at Horsforth, and 16 other sites across Leeds, which the College owns and operates. The College is now firmly established as a major learning and education centre, the city centre site is now a landmark within Leeds.

The Government named PLCL a Beacon College in 1999 for its outstanding performance, making it one of the first ten Colleges to be recognised as a centre of excellence, and inspection results have consistently been among the best in the country. The Ofsted inspection from 2002 rated the College so highly that it reinforced its position as one of the top ten Colleges in the UK, and in June 2006 PLCL again received an excellent Ofsted report.

Working with businesses

The Park Lane College Leeds Business School is charged with providing education, training and development to meet the needs of both the employee and employer. While the main focus is on local and regional organisations, the School is also involved in national and international developments.

To support this work key organisations are part of the advisory Business School Council – Leeds City Council, Confederation of British Industry, Business Link/Chamber of Commerce, Institute of Directors, the two local universities and the Leeds Financial Services Initiative. The Business School, working with internal partners such as Services to Business, and the two universities, is able to offer seamless lifelong learning from pre-entry level to MBA.

Park Lane College Leeds meets with companies regularly and matches training programmes to the ever changing trends of the industry, maintaining PLCL at the cutting edge of new training programmes to meet industry demands.

The College has links with over 2,500 companies and strong relationships with major Leeds employers. Relationships include Leeds United FC, Leeds Rugby, Bradford City Football Club, Radio Aire, Halifax Building Society, ASDA, Yorkshire Post Newspapers, and Yorkshire Forward, to name but a few.

PLCL continues to gain recognition and was awarded the Charter Mark for the fourth consecutive time in July 2005. In the same month, the College also received the Customer First Award for outstanding customer service. This is a national standard supported by numerous public funding organisations; in the case of PLCL, West Yorkshire Business Link. Many other awards have been won over the last academic year, including the Investors in People Award.

Provision

In the first year of operation (2006/7) the Academy through its network of providers will offer the following range of programmes:
> Financial Literacy Levels 1 and 2
> Level 1 and 2 Personal Finance
> Financial Planning Certificate 3
> SII Level 3 Investment Administration
> SII Certificate in Investment and Financial Advice
> CII Level 3 Certificate in Financial Administration
> IFS Certificate in Financial Studies
> IFS Certificate for Financial Advisers
> IFS Certificate in Mortgage Advice and Practice
> IFS Diploma in Financial Studies
> IFS Certificate Lifetime Mortgages
> IFS Certificate Long-term Care Insurance
> BTEC Award – Certificate/Diploma in Business and Finance
> BTEC Award Providing Financial Advice
> CII Level 3 Certificate Insurance
> NVQ 2 and 3 Insurance
> NVQ 2 and 3 Customer Service
> NVQ 2 Call Centre Operations
> NVQ 2 Team Leading
> ICM Certificate and Diploma in Credit Management
> Foundation Degree in Financial Services
> Foundation Degree in Management and Finance
> Undergraduate and Postgraduate Degrees in Financial Services

The Skills Academy in Yorkshire and the Humber will encourage employer and provider engagement. It will:

Put employers at the forefront of developing relevant employee education, training, setting the curriculum and consistency of quality and best practice
Meet the current and future workforce qualification needs of the finance industry
Put an emphasis on customisation and include face-to-face delivery, online delivery via e-learning and one-to-one support where possible
Deliver full time and work-based routes and qualifications, including flexible, part-time and bite-sized learning
Provide a range of relevant programmes provided by skilled professionals, from Level 2 programmes to Postgraduate Level
Work with learners aged 14–19+, and at all organisational levels
Reduce skills gaps and shortages
Promote and encourage training in key business skills from communication and customer handling, to team working, management and marketing skills
Inform and enthuse people to work in this exciting industry
Deliver new entry routes into employment
Promote financial services as a first choice career path
Diversify the workforce
Develop a Centre of Vocational Excellence.