I am pleased to present our new monitoring report for EDI, covering the period 2015-16, Q1, Q2 and Q3. As an awarding and assessment organisation we are unique in monitoring and publishing this information. What matters gets measured - so goes the maxim, and what matters to NOCN is that everyone has equal access to its products and services and the opportunities these provide for improving our lives.

Onto the report - overall it shows a positive picture in terms of the quality and quantity of the data we are receiving for EDI monitoring but with some areas which need further attention. The headline is that our target this time was to get data on 95% of learners, we actually surpassed this and received data on over 98%.

Comparing results to the previous year, we have seen similar or improved results for the proportion of female, ethnic minority and student learners registering. We have also seen significant increases in the proportion of unemployed learners, against a background of falling unemployment.

We reflect the national averages across most categories as intended, but the proportion of female and part time registrations is lower than the national average, which is a concern and so we will directly address this.

In respect of employment status, 36% of learners registered were unemployed, compared to the national average of 5%, which is a significant difference, due to our priority objective to support disadvantaged members of society into work

Only 3% of our learners are part-time, reflecting both the type of industries we work in and also Government funding priorities for Adult Skills and Education. There is less public funding available for adult learners and part time employees with the focus instead on young people through apprenticeships and other programmes.

The national reduction in unemployment may also be influencing the recorded increase in ‘student’ numbers and the decline in ‘unemployed’ learners.

We are particularly encouraged that the percentage of people passing is not adversely affected by their gender, disability, ethnicity or employment status, this strongly indicates that NOCN’s approach to the design, assessment and award of qualifications and the related reasonable adjustments is effective.

There are still some NOCN centres not providing all the EDI data we require to ensure equality of access to opportunities for NOCN products and services, we will therefore work closely with our centres to improve data collection as we recognise this is a collaborative process which we all play a part in.

The full report is available here.

If you have any queries feel free to get in touch.