Wikipedia
Landex – ‘Land Based Colleges Aspiring to Excellence’ is a subscriber organisation with 39 member Colleges and Universities in England and across the United Kingdom. To qualify for membership, the provider must deliver significant volumes of land based education and training in at least six SIC* occupational areas.
Landex was formed in 2006 from its predecessor organisation, Napaeo, which was founded in 1950 and represented effectively the interests of Land Based Colleges and the industries they served during a period of continuous change and development.
Landex Colleges and Universities are mixed economy: in England they collectively provide over 80% of long specialist land based further and higher education qualifications, together with a wide range of 14-16, apprenticeship and cost-recovery programmes.
Courses delivered by most Landex providers are underpinned by substantial farming and other business enterprises, which provide a unique learning experience for students.
Landex is governed by a Board of 14 elected Principals and Vice-Chancellors, who agree the organisation’s strategic objectives and priorities on behalf of the membership. A number of sub-committees, each chaired by a Board member and populated by specialists from within the sector, inform the Board’s decision making. • Higher Education • Further Education Quality & Curriculum • Finance & Funding • Learning Materials & Technology.
The staff team is led by Chief Executive, Chris Moody, supported by a Personal Assistant and an Administration / Research Officer. The Landex Vision is that all our members will be:
• Recognised by their learners and stakeholders as providing high quality cost-effective land based (Agri-Food, Land and Animal Sciences) education, training and professional development. • Valued by their communities and employers for their contribution to the sustainability of businesses, the well-being of society and the prosperity of rural economies.
Landex’s primary functions are to secure continuous improvement in all its members through peer review, support and CPD; and to promote the interests of members and their various client groups.
More specifically activities include:
• engaging with a range of government departments and agencies to raise the profile and promote the importance of land based education and training. • working particularly closely with the funding agencies to ensure that the cost of meeting the specific needs of education and training for the land based industries is reflected in the various funding methodologies. • working with the quality assurance agencies to ensure that inspection and audit processes are as effective as possible in improving the quality of both teaching, learning and assessment, and student experience. • responding to a wide range of public consultations on behalf of its members. • working with industry leaders on the direction and content of the Agriskills Forum strategy “towards a new professionalism”, and continuing to participate actively in the work of this forum, and the various initiatives emanating from it. • building on the model of quality improvement Landex completes over 100 site visits to member Colleges annually, spanning well over 150 on-site days in order to provide structured analysis and guidance through peer review and the Landex model of quality improvement. • working in partnership with GuildHE and the AoC to ensure that the service it provides meets effectively the needs of specialist land based providers with respect to both further and higher education issues. • working closely with the Government officers responsible for policies on ‘Specialist Land based Providers and Weightings’, ‘Discretionary Learner Support Funding’, ‘Residential Bursaries’, and ‘Residential Care Standards Funding’. This provides the opportunity to reinforce the importance of appropriate support for students attending land based courses and to highlight how rurality issues affect students’ ability to participate in land based education and training. • providing an extensive range of continuous professional development (CPD) events and conferences each year, often at Landex colleges or universities, and involving a wide range of delegates from Landex member institutions and other providers of specialist land based programmes. • providing through its annual conference, the opportunity for members to meet and share good practice, and for national leaders to share emerging policy issues with members. Landex owns with the University of Northampton, a joint venture company to develop interactive learning materials to support the delivery of land based programmes both in the UK and overseas. Between 2014 and 2016 Landex sponsored and funded the development of a National Land Based College as an organisation to help co-ordinate the delivery of continuous professional development for those working in land based industries.
Quality Improvement
Each year members make significant progress towards our goal of delivering quality teaching, learning and assessment in all Landex colleges and universities. Supporting members in improving specific aspects of their work is a key area of Landex activity.
Landex colleges freely and willingly share performance data and this is used to more accurately identify high and less well performing areas in member colleges, and to support action planning for improvement.
Peer review, linked to structured improvement plans, continues to be our main method of effectively sharing good practice and forming shared views of the required standards. Mandatory two-day Peer Review visits take place to with each member institution on an annual basis. These reviews are carried out by a senior member of staff from a Landex member in another part of the Country, accompanied by a Landex Quality Adviser. The role of the Quality Adviser is to ensure complete coverage, consistency of approach and to provide background information and briefing in advance of the visit. The Peer Review visit contributes to a confidential report that is sent to the Chair and Principal/Vice Chancellor of each institution, together with an annual membership letter summarising the Landex team’s analysis of the quality of provision delivered by the institution.
Particular foci of peer review include: • supporting self-assessment • assisting quality improvement planning • providing advance warning of members that may value assistance with particular challenges • preparing for Ofsted inspection and Higher Education Review • identifying topics for Landex CPD events • collecting data and case studies.