The MOST Spring/Summer 2021

PRESTON’S COLLEGE ACHIEVES GOLD! As the New Year began and under extraordinary circumstances, we were delighted to announce that Preston’s College was awarded GOLD level accreditation in Investors in People. Investors in People (IiP) is the nationally recognised kite mark for people and value centred organisations. It defines what it takes for an organisation to lead, support and manage people for sustainable success and the college is proud to have held Investors in People accreditation for over 20 years. And now, the college has been awarded with Gold status, following a recent IiP staff survey where all members of staff were asked to anonymously provide their views on the college and its annual performance. It also included results from a randomly picked group of staff members who took part in further IiP Assessor focus groups. At the time, Principal Dr Lis Smith, Principal said: “We are thrilled to have been awarded with the prestigious Gold level accreditation. It is a credit to all the staff for all their hard work and commitment, and especially in these challenging times, where they have shown real agility and resilience. We are delighted that our staff feel valued and they are proud to work here. It’s extremely humbling and a privilege for me to work with such a wonderful team of people.” Preston’s College was hugely successful in achieving IiP at Silver status in 2017 against the new and more rigorous framework. At the time, Preston’s College were one of only a few organisations who could claim that accolade and were the first College in the North West to achieve it. The college has now surpassed the success of 2017 by being able to evidence that its performance has continuously improved over the last 3 years. This new achievement shows just how proud and privileged the college is to invest in their own workforce. This comes in addition to a recent internal staff survey which showed that 96.8% of staff said they were “Proud to be a member of staff at Preston’s College”. That is an increase from 91.1% in the previous year; and 4.5 percentage points above the average for other Colleges taking part in the same survey. | 26