Manchester College of Arts and Technology (MANCAT): From Potential to Performance
"The Investment In Excellence programme has led to culture change of massive proportions in a very short time."
Peter Tavernor, Principal, MANCAT (Manchester College of Arts and Technology)
The Pacific Institute (TPI) has been working in partnership with MANCAT since 2003 to develop the potential of staff and students and to affect envisioned changes to organisational culture within the college. The initiative is focussed on collective and personal self-efficacy, including the development of leadership.
STAFF AND ORGANISATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
After an initial TPI OCES (Organisational Culture Effectiveness Survey) to measure MANCAT's "current reality" and its vision of its "preferred future", Investment In Excellence (IIE) programmes were piloted with various staff groups. To date, over 300 staff have completed IIE and LIA (Leadership Impact Analysis) coaching has been given to all 17 members of MANCAT's extended principalship. It is anticipated that within the next couple of years, all MANCAT staff will have experienced Pacific Institute programmes. MANCAT has developed its own capacity to expand and sustain the TPI initiative by training up 11 IIE facilitators and 60 Breakthrough facilitators to deliver and support TPI programmes within the organisation.
INVESTORS IN PEOPLE.
TPI has been recognised as having made a significant contribution to MANCAT's recent renewal of their Investors In People (IiP) endorsement. Under scrutiny from IiP assessors, the TPI initiative at MANCAT was deemed "a great success"; staff who had participated in TPI programmes felt particularly "enthused" about their working lives.
EVALUATIONS
MANCAT's own evaluations of the impact of TPI programmes on their organisation to date, are no less powerful. College staff report:
- improved relationships with colleagues and students,
- the achievement of goals,
- acquisition of tools to effectively set new goals and better problem-solving skills.
Furthermore, there has been an increase in staff confidence in a variety of personal and professional circumstances, coinciding with a decrease of anxiety in these areas. There is also now a greater sense of "community" within MANCAT.
STUDENTS
As part of the College's commitment to empower all its stakeholders, 3000 students have experienced TPI's Breakthrough programme in autumn 2005. The initial feedback is very positive with suggestions of improved attitudes to learning, higher expectations and greater motivation. Although too early to state with full confidence, MANCAT staff expect that there will be an improvement in retention rates for students who have experienced Breakthrough.
COMMUNITY
MANCAT is now working with TPI to develop a community intervention in North and East Manchester which is aimed at parents of 0-3 year olds in these districts. The project is in collaboration with Manchester Excellence in Cities.
