All colleges strive to cultivate close links with local employers. Highbury College in Portsmouth has gone one step further: it uses colocated training and business environments to offer students real-world learning.

This is different to the hair salons and restaurants found in most colleges, developed for the sole purpose of training students. Colocation involves independent businesses working in partnership with the college to place trading and training facilities within the same physical space.

There are a number of colocation projects at Highbury. Collingwood Care Services runs a care agency from the college, regularly taking students out on work experience and exposing them to real-life situations at a pivotal time in their training.

That’s Solent, a community television channel, works from studios within the college, and content is generated from across the curriculum. The institution is also home to the Highbury Northarbour Centre, one of the largest construction training centres in the South of England, as well as construction firm NDK Interior. “It’s important that, during the course, the students are rubbing shoulders with employers, so that employers aren’t something they see for the first time when they go out on work experience - they are throughout the building,” explains the college’s managing director, Deirdre John.

Linking study and work

Full-time students across all trades have to carry out work experience as part of their programmes but, regardless of the funding requirement, John asserts that time spent in a real-world environment makes learners more employable.

In addition, they see role models running viable businesses, providing a clear link between the expertise they develop through their study and a sustainable career.

But the benefits of colocation are not just one-way, according to John. “NDK Interior’s workforce has tripled since they have been based in Highbury. And they have never had to spend any money on advertising - they get referrals on top of referrals,” she says.

This is an edited version of an article in the 23 December/30 December edition of TES. Subscribers can read the full story here. To subscribe, click here. To download the digital edition, Android users can click here and iOS users can click here. TES magazine is available at all good newsagents.

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