Scott Bullock joined Newcastle College in 2016 as vice principal and became principal in May 2021.
The college teaches more than 14,000 students each year from its city centre Rye Hill Campus and academies in Gateshead, North Tyneside and at Newcastle International Airport. Part of NCG, it offers a range of full-time and part-time courses, apprenticeships, employer training and professional qualifications. It also develops and awards its own Honours and Masters Degrees, delivered through Newcastle College University Centre.
What was your first job (and how much did it pay)?
My first paid job was a summer job at university, as a rather glamorously titled Seashell Operative. This was however, the least glamorous job I’ve ever had, involving removing the entrails of clams to provide clean shells for fine dining restaurants. My first full-time job was as a Health and Fitness Instructor paying £8,700 per year.
What is the best advice or support you’ve been given in business?
I think the best piece of advice I’ve received is to be true to your core values. Spend some time thinking about your personal values and carry them forward into your business decisions; don’t compromise what is important to you to fit someone else’s agenda. Alongside this, have a good ‘optician’ – someone who can help to see the potential impact of your business decisions on others and who you can trust to be honest with you and keep you informed of the ‘feeling on the ground’ in your organisation.
What are the main changes you’ve seen in your business/sector, and what are the challenges you’re facing?
Further Education and Skills is one of the most dynamic sectors, and it really needs to move and flex with the changing ideas and policies of the Government, much more than the school sector or the university sector where funding and conditions remain relatively constant. Right now, we’re seen to be really important to the Government’s priority to drive the UK economy and move the country forward as a modern, technical skills-based economy.
This is great news for colleges like ours, but our biggest single challenge is funding. Government perception of FE and Skills is high, but funding is not following and our student funding rates are significantly lower than they were a decade ago in real terms (for example, the Institute for Fiscal Studies estimates that total spending on adult education and apprenticeships fell by 38% in real terms between 2010/11 and 2020/21).
How has the pandemic changed the way you work?
We’ve been back to in-person learning since around March 2021. Our students prefer hands-on learning and personal support to help them to develop their skills, and our colleagues have been brilliant, showing adaptability and great resilience during very challenging circumstances.
Our key change as a business as a result of Covid like many other sectors has been enhanced use of technology, such as Microsoft Teams for meetings, lessons and more direct communication with students. We have also reinforced the importance of effective communications with students, parents and colleagues and I’m proud of the way that we worked both during and post-pandemic. We have, like so many others, developed a hybrid working policy and this is seeing more of our professional services and support functions moving to a mix of home-based and office-based work. However, given the nature of our business and wanting to keep students at the heart of what we do, we continue to have a large majority of our colleagues present in person on-site for the benefit of the students, adults and communities that we serve.
Who is your role model in business?
Perhaps not a role model per se, but there are a number of leaders that I admire. Reshma Saujani (founder of Girls Who Code) for her passion and belief in equality and doing something that makes a real difference to address equality stereotypes; Jurgen Klopp (I would say that as a keen Liverpool fan) for the way he has created an identity, a DNA for Liverpool FC. He has created a culture of belonging and has engaged not only with his players and staff but with the club and the people of the City of Liverpool. In my line of business, I really admire the work that my former Principal, John Widdowson CBE, undertook in transforming the fortunes of what was once an unassuming, local General Further Education College, and creating one of the highest performing national colleges in our sector, a college with a performance culture, and the anchor institution for the North East’s Institute of Technology.
What would your dream job be?
I’ve a background in, and real passion for sport, so I’d have to say my dream job would be a professional athlete. A footballer ideally, although clearly, I wasn’t good enough back in the day! A little less fantasy-led however, I’d loved to have been an architect – I admire different forms of architecture, really enjoy watching TV shows like Grand Designs, and would love to tackle a self-build one day, although I’d need to hire the trade skills in of course.
What advice would you give to someone starting out a career in your sector?
I’d say that working in colleges is hard work but it’s one of the most rewarding careers you can have. NCG’s mission is to ‘enable social mobility and economic prosperity through exceptional education’ and that really is at the centre of everything we do in FE. Education has the power to transform lives and seeing the difference that we make to the life chances of our students and residents of our local communities is so inspiring. I’m proud to say I work in FE and Skills and my advice would be always remember why you came into this vocation. When times get tough and things aren’t going your way, keep going, show your resilience and do it for your students and for the impact that you can make on the rest of their lives.
What makes the North East a good place to do business?
First of all, the people. We have a reputation for being the friendliest people in the country. We are welcoming, hardworking, loyal and passionate about what we do and the place in which we live. Plus, as a place to live and work, the North East is truly a hidden gem (keep that quiet!); fantastic countryside and coast, great retail and culture in our cities, good transport infrastructure and reasonable house prices. Finally, opportunity and innovation. The region is successfully attracting large and innovative businesses in sectors such as green energy, life sciences and digital. This inward investment is a great opportunity for businesses from any sector; for my business, our role is to connect with industry, co-create the curriculum that they need to create the pipeline of talent and skilled workforce for the future. This is a role we take very seriously, not only because of our influence on our regional economy but because of the positive impact that this has on the future lives of our students, our communities and all of the region’s residents.
How important is it for business to play a role in society?
In a word – critical. I see the cornerstone of a successful region being a collaboration of business/employers, place and communities, and people and skills. Working together, we can transform the fortunes of people and help to drive the economic recovery that we all desire, post-pandemic and post-Brexit, which really goes back to our mission of enabling social mobility through exceptional education. FE and Skills aims to deliver high quality education and training, creating second chances and encouraging lifelong learning for all, so that the people of our communities, city and region can help themselves to better and more prosperous futures. We are focused on developing skills, confidence, resilience, and well-rounded citizens who can play a proactive role in our local and regional economy. Newcastle College enjoys many fantastic partnerships with employers and businesses across the region with this shared aim, and it is my personal mission to work collaboratively with businesses across all sectors to co-create the curriculum needed to turbo-charge the skilled workforce of the future for the North East.
Outside of work, what are you really good at?
Well, I wouldn’t say I’m really good at it, but I love to participate in physical activity and sports. I like to keep myself active, I’m a frequent gym-goer and have recently taken up road cycling, which I am really enjoying. I guess, if pushed, I’d say I’m good at enjoying my time away from work and spending it with people that are important in my life.
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