Sharon James-Evans learned from a young age that in order to get on in life she needed an education. The principal of & Vale College (CAVC) grew up in one of Wales’ most deprived communities, the Gurnos Estate in Merthyr Tydfil - an area of high unemployment and low life expectancy - in what she describes as a "turbulent" childhood living in different refuges.
"You can imagine the connotations living there," reflects Sharon. "We experienced a lot of hardship and it's sad to say some of my neighbours and friends from the Gurnos have already passed away because of the high mortality rate." At 15, her father committed suicide leaving her mother alone to raise three children. It was after that tragedy that her mother decided to go to the then Polytechnic of Wales in Treforest (now the University of South Wales) as an adult learner.
She gained a qualification, entered into better paid employment before eventually securing a mortgage to buy the family a house. “My mother was very inspirational. We could see directly the impact that had on our lives. I knew that in order to change your circumstances you had to get an education and you had to get skills."
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At the same time, provided stability for Sharon and where she was able to flourish. "I had some brilliant teachers in Drama and English in particular who really inspired me. That was one of my driver's of education making a difference to my life and feeling value." It was these experiences that inspired Sharon to have a career in education, particularly post-16, where she felt she could help young people growing up in similar circumstances to what she grew up in.
“I felt, where schools let down some children, colleges could be the place for second chances,” she says. Since then, Sharon has had a 30-year career in education, working at College and Coleg Gwent and a secondment as an Estyn inspector. Today, she heads the academic side of Wales’ largest employment-focused further education provider - and the third largest in the 海角视频 - which has annual revenues of £125m (up from £46m in 2016) and employs over 1,000 staff across 14 campuses.
Its contribution to the economy of the Cardiff Capital Region is valued at £550m. Plans are now in place for CAVC to build two new campuses in the Vale of Glamorgan - one in and the other near Cardiff Airport - as part of a major £100m investment. “Rhodri Morgan (late former First Minister) once said that Cardiff was an educational desert. That was 10-15 years ago. He wouldn't say that now. Nobody would say that now,” says Sharon.
Indeed, they wouldn’t. CAVC has over 33,500 students across its campuses doing full-time and part-time college courses, university qualifications, and apprenticeship programmes in a range of subjects including automotive, business, accounting, aerospace, catering and hospitality, hairdressing, performing arts and creative industries, and IT, coding and computing.
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The college was one of the first to offer a bakery course and Sharon tells me that the patisserie chef at The Ivy in Cardiff is a former student. The majority of learners come from the Cardiff and Vale of Glamorgan area, though CAVC does attract students from further afield including Merthyr and . Around 30% of its students are black, Asian or minority ethnic.
It is the largest provider of apprenticeships in Wales with around 10,000 students. These aren’t just construction and engineering apprentices, though they remain popular says Sharon, but journalism apprenticeships with the alongside ones in financial services, IT and cybersecurity.
It also offers degree-level apprenticeships and introduced a junior apprenticeship in 2016, offering vocational education to pupils aged 14 to 16 identified by schools as being at risk of becoming NEETs (Not in Education, Employment or Training). An independent study found the junior scheme saved the economy by £1m per learner over a lifetime.
The college’s landmark £45m city centre campus, opened in 2015 by former First Minister Carwyn Jones, is located on Dumballs Road in Butetown - named as the area of Cardiff with the highest levels of child poverty in 2019. As a result, the college holds taster events for young people, as well as adult learning courses, in Butetown's community centres to try and attract those who are economically inactive.
“The buildings here are quite impressive and can look intimidating to local people which is why we reach out into the communities themselves,” she says. “It’s getting them into something that they are interested in and then showing them all the progression opportunities that can lead to employment.
“If we invest in people at a young age to give them skills, the impact that saves on the economy further down the line is quite dramatic. If you have skilled and employable people, they will go on to have more successful lives and contribute to society far better.”
Recruitment to the college has increased in recent years as more young people consider vocational courses and training apprenticeships. “People see the benefit of earning as you learn, because it’s becoming increasingly difficult to go to university and take on the debt that’s associated with it,” says Sharon.
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“They see that on an apprenticeship they’re employed and getting paid, and if it’s with a good organisation like Deloitte, BBC, or PwC, they realise that they can work with a really prestigious company, get their qualification, and in some areas a degree, without the debt.”
Despite this, there is still a snobbery around apprenticeships among many students and parents who see university degrees as the definition of success and the only route to getting a high-paying job. "There is a stigma with parents that vocational education and apprenticeships are for other people’s kids,” she says, adding that these should be valued as much as GCSEs and A Levels.
“I get really irate when we celebrate GCSE and A Level results, but not when I’ve had 40 plumbers who’ve achieved their level three in plumbing and are out working, or electricians who have just graduated, or accountants that have done their AATs.” But A Levels aren’t the only route to university and Sharon tells me about a Syrian refugee who completed a BTEC course in creative art and went on to do a degree in architecture at .
“I get more learners going to university from my level three vocational courses than from A Levels,” she says. “But parents don't see it. They still see vocational courses as something the less able kids do.
"When I talk to people they tell me they want their kids to do A Levels and go to a good university and I say ‘yes, but what is the long term career? What do you want them to do? Because if they want to be a creative artist, then doing a full time creative course is going to serve them much better than doing an A level in art’.
“If I could change that with a magic wand I would, because it stops kids at 16 feeling like failures when they see their friends celebrating 10 GCSEs. And I think ‘you're not a failure. You might just have brilliant technical skills’.”
Employers, on the other hand, are increasingly seeing the value of apprenticeships. Around 10% of accounting firm Deloitte’s shared services workforce is made up of those who did apprenticeships at Cardiff & Vale College, after the firm partnered with the college nine years ago on an apprenticeship scheme.
“Deloitte said they were getting the same type of learner from university and they wanted a more diverse representation in the organisation so they looked at apprenticeships,” says Sharon. Ross Flanigan, head of business support services at Deloitte and honorary fellow of the college, helped to co-construct the apprenticeship.
“Ross said the apprenticeship scheme had a major impact on productivity, ideas and innovation because, when you've got a younger, more diverse workforce, there's far more diversity of thought.”
CAVC also delivers all the Boeing apprenticeships at the ICAT (International Centre for Aerospace Training) college in the Vale of Glamorgan, including working with aviation maintenance, repair and overhaul business, Caerdav, in Rhoose.
In total, it works with more than 2,000 employers in Wales and across the border each year, including large employers like Welsh Water, PwC, and Principality Building Society, to help them meet skill gaps and workforce shortages.
It also has an employer board for every industry sector that meets once a term, under the ‘CAVC for Business’ part of the college group, which brings together chief executives of large companies, SME owners, local government officials and educators to discuss workforce challenges.
As a result, CAVC sometimes works with employers to help shape and co-construct certain curriculums. It has also built sector priority academies, 10-week intensive skills-focused courses that aim to meet an employment gap in certain sectors, and offers part-time and higher-level courses to upskill existing employees.
The latest survey from Chambers Wales found that a lack of appropriate skills in the workforce is a major barrier to Wales’ economic growth as Welsh firms struggle to recruit suitably skilled staff. “There isn't enough talent in Wales to serve the skill gaps that they have in organisations,” says Sharon.
Some employers are now valuing skills above qualifications as a result. These include wider transferable skills such as creativity, leadership, and communication, but also those that will be vital for the future world of work, including net zero renewable technologies, cybersecurity, AI, advanced engineering, and advanced design.
“The more we link with employers the better informed we are to create a curriculum that helps get students into work and allows employers to see the talent coming through.
“We’ve got a massive talent pipeline here, so we need to help businesses try and provide a solution for them. Whether that be apprenticeships, sector priority academies, or working with us to co-construct some of our qualifications to make sure we are developing the skills that these firms need.”