New City College
Dear Candidate,
Thank you for your interest in joining New City College. As one of the largest and most successful further education colleges in the UK, we serve communities across east London and south Essex, delivering life-changing opportunities to more than 11,000 young people and 16,000 adult learners every year. With an Outstanding Ofsted judgement, strong financial health and a clear sense of purpose, we are ambitious about what comes next.
Over the last decade, our college group has been shaped through a series of successful mergers, creating a strong, coherent and forward-looking organisation with a turnover of £151m. We are now seeking an exceptional leader to join us as Group Director, Strategic Projects and Business Improvement. This position will play a vital role in delivering our Strategic Intent and ensuring that New City College continues to provide outstanding outcomes for learners, employers and communities.
The Group Director, Strategic Projects and Business Improvement will lead a portfolio of transformational initiatives across the College, championing continuous improvement and delivering measurable organisational benefits. This role offers the opportunity to influence change at scale, improving performance, efficiency and the way we work across our diverse organisation.
We are looking for an ambitious, resilient and values-driven leader who can inspire others, embrace innovation and make a lasting contribution to our continued success. In return, you will join a dynamic senior leadership team that is passionate about education, improvement and the communities we serve.
Please do get in touch with our advising consultants at Anderson Quigley for an informal and confidential discussion, details of which can be found on this site.
If you share our ambition and believe you can make a significant impact in this exciting role, I encourage you to apply.
I look forward to receiving your application.
New City College (NCC) is one of the five largest colleges in England, serving diverse communities across east London and Essex. It is a large, dynamic and innovative further education provider with a clear purpose: to give students a better future.
Today, NCC serves more than 10,500 young people and 9,000 adult learners, with annual income exceeding £130 million.* The College has grown significantly over the past decade through a series of mergers, evolving from a single-borough college into a regional FE provider with considerable scale, influence and reach.
This growth has brought more than scale. NCC is now a respected and influential voice in further education, with a reputation for innovation, strong leadership, campaigns and a relentless focus on improving outcomes for students and communities.
You would be joining a forward-thinking, dynamic team, sharing best practice to deliver first class education and skills for the benefit of students and the college’s wider communities. NCC was graded Outstanding by Ofsted in May 2025, following an inspection across the group. The College is now in the top 10% of all providers for student outcomes and has continued to improve despite the challenging circumstances facing many of the communities it serves.
Ofsted recognised the College’s high ambition, exceptional leadership and commitment to widening participation. Inspectors highlighted the way learners and apprentices thrive across NCC’s diverse communities, describing the College as highly committed to tackling social inequality through excellent education and training.
The Outstanding judgement is an important achievement, but NCC does not see it as a destination. The Strategic Intent is explicit that there will be “no resting on our 2025 Ofsted assessment”. The College’s research-led approach to teaching improvement and continuous improvement remain central to its future.
NCC’s college environment boasts industry-standard facilities and equipment, expert staff and partnerships with other high-profile organisations which all prepare students for progression to higher education or successful careers.
Furthermore, staff are committed to staying a step ahead when it comes to the skills and technology needed for the jobs of tomorrow, so that employers across the region – and nationally – know where to come to update their staff teams’ skills and qualifications.
Following six mergers since 2016, NCC’s combined skills and expertise places the college at the forefront of further education in the UK. Provision spans sixth form education, adult skills, apprenticeships, ESOL, EFL and SEND. With a turnover of over £145m, we will serve more than 11,000 young people, 16,000 adult learners, who will be supported by 1,900 staff, making it one of the strongest and most influential FE organisations in the country.
At NCC, staff and students are proud of their inclusive and diverse staff and student community. They are united in our zero tolerance approach to racism and discrimination.
NCC invests in its staff and other resources to provide a distinctive offer and excellent, supportive learning environment which meets the needs of students and employers and prepares local people for their exciting future.
New City College is the largest college in East London. It was originally formed by a merger between Hackney Community College and Tower Hamlets College in 2016. Redbridge College joined in 2017, Epping Forest College in 2018, and Havering Sixth Form College, along with Havering Further Education College, merged with the group in 2019. The latest college to join the group is Hackney Sixth Form College (Formerly BSix), which joined in 2024.
NCC’s scale spans a diverse geography, with campuses serving communities across east London and Essex. Its strength lies in combining the resources and influence of a large regional college with a deep understanding of the distinctive needs of individual communities.
The College’s curriculum serves young people, adults, apprentices and learners with SEND, alongside specialist provision including ESOL. NCC is a leading provider of education for young people and adults with special educational needs and one of the largest providers of ESOL in the UK.
The College’s future strategy recognises that different communities require different approaches and it is therefore creating distinctive propositions that respond to local demographics, student demand and employment opportunities.
NCC is committed to ensuring that education and skills provision is closely connected to the needs of employers and the changing labour market.
Significant opportunities have been identified across technology and digital services, financial services and fintech, healthcare and life sciences, green skills, creative industries, construction and infrastructure, logistics and emerging technologies. The College’s geographical position enables it to work with employers and partners across the City, Canary Wharf, the Thames Freeport and with major infrastructure and regeneration projects.
The College has excellent employer relationships across every curriculum area, ensuring employers have a meaningful role in shaping curriculum and creating pathways into careers. At Rainham, for example, NCC is exploring the next stage of its engineering development, including process technology, robotics, automation and AI, alongside opportunities arising from the Thames Freeport.
This employer-focused approach is central to NCC’s ambition to ensure that its curriculum remains relevant, innovative and closely aligned to the future workforce.
NCC’s size, expertise and track record give it a significant opportunity to influence the wider FE sector.
The College already has a strong reputation for innovation and is a leading provider of ESOL. It intends to use this expertise, alongside its work in English, maths, pedagogy and other areas, to become a more influential regional and national voice.
The ambition is not influence for its own sake. NCC wants to use its voice to shape policy and practice for the benefit of students, empowering staff to share expertise, engaging proactively with policymakers and contributing to research and sector networks.
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Our Vision: New City College exists to give our students a better future.
Our Values: New City College is built on trust, a positive attitude, honesty and integrity. In all that we do, we value:
Equality, diversity and inclusion
NCC serves some of the most diverse communities in the country and places equality, diversity and inclusion at the heart of its organisational values.
The College’s values are built around respect, trust, a positive attitude, honesty and integrity, alongside effort, determination, aspiration and excellence. It values continuous improvement, meaningful support for staff and student wellbeing, local priorities within a regional and national landscape, collaborative working, and the celebration and promotion of equality, diversity and inclusion.
Widening participation and tackling social inequality are fundamental to NCC’s purpose. The College’s ambition for its SEND provision is particularly significant: it aims to grow provision to 1,500 students and become recognised as a national leader in provision for neuro-diverse learners, while using its influence to inform national policy.
Sustainability and green skills
NCC has made significant progress in sustainability over recent years, reducing its emissions, decarbonising two campuses and introducing an environmental scorecard to inform major projects.
More than 500 staff and students have received carbon literacy or other environmental sustainability training, while NCC’s expertise has increasingly been recognised across the sector. In 2024, the College won the Green Gown Award for sustainable development – green skills. And it was the winner of the Association of Colleges Beacon Award 2026 in the Education for Sustainable Development category.
Sustainability will remain a strategic priority, both through reducing the environmental impact of NCC’s own operations and through embedding green skills across the curriculum and supporting employers and communities through the transition to a greener economy.
Strategic Priorities 2025 – 2030
It is an incredibly exciting time to join New City College. The next chapter for NCC is about more than continuing to grow. Having established itself as a successful, coherent and ambitious college, the organisation is now focused on becoming more strategically focused, distinctive and externally engaged.
The Strategic Intent 2025–30 asks fundamental questions about the markets NCC should serve, the locations in which it should operate and the curriculum it should provide – ensuring that the College remains responsive to changing student expectations, employer needs, demographics, technology and the wider economy.
These priorities create an exciting agenda for the next phase – combining educational ambition with organisational transformation, commercial thinking, innovation and long-term investment.
The NCC of 2030
The Strategic Intent sets out an ambitious vision for NCC in 2030.
The College aims to be a market leader in 16–18 education, a highly respected voice influencing policy, a recognised national leader in SEND and neuro-diverse provision, and a provider whose adult curriculum and employer relationships are closely aligned to labour market needs.
It aims to further strengthen its position as a pioneer of sustainability, continue its research-led approach to teaching improvement, make substantial progress with its estates strategy and become recognised as the leading employer in its sector, enabling staff to achieve their potential.
Above all, NCC’s future strategy remains grounded in a simple measure of success: New City College exists to enable students to achieve their ambitions and build better futures.
Innovation and research at the heart of NCC
Innovation is embedded in NCC’s culture. Its Teaching and Learning Lab, established in 2020, has become part of the College’s DNA, creating a culture in which improvements in teaching and learning are informed by reflective practice and research. The Lab has contributed to improvements in teaching practice and student outcomes and has established NCC as a college that shares its research and innovation with the wider FE sector.
NCC has also established itself as an innovator in the use of technology, with immersive classrooms, VR technology, digital learning, green technology laboratories and curriculum innovation across its campuses.
Looking ahead, NCC intends to build on this culture of research and innovation, using its expertise to influence teaching practice both within the organisation and across the wider sector.
Investing in people and places
NCC has invested significantly in its physical estate, with more than £40 million invested over the past five years. This includes the major new development at Rainham, expanded teaching space at Havering Sixth Form, new facilities at Epping Forest campus and specialist SEND, immersive and green technology facilities across the group.
The next phase is more ambitious – NCC intends to deliver a step change in its campus environments, developing a clear and costed asset plan for every site and exploring innovative approaches to funding and investment.
Alongside investment in its estate, NCC is committed to investing in its people. The College recognises that its ambitions can only be realised through the expertise, dedication and commitment of its staff. Supporting staff development, wellbeing and effective ways of working is therefore fundamental to the organisation’s future.
Title: Group Director, Strategic Projects and Business Improvement
Grade: Management Spine
Responsible to: Group Principal and CEO
Responsible for: Strategic Projects Team
Strategic projects and business improvement
Continuous improvement
Quantifiable business benefits
Project management leadership
Other
In common with all other Staff
Additional Information
This job description will be regularly reviewed to ensure that it is an active description of the responsibilities and duties of the individual post holder and that these responsibilities and duties consistently match the needs of the College.
Please note: This is not a hybrid working role. NCC does require staff to be on site.
Anderson Quigley is acting as an advisor to the College. An executive search process is being carried out by Anderson Quigley in addition to the public advertisement.
The closing date for applications is 19 October 2026.
Applications should consist of:
Should you wish to discuss the roles in strict confidence, please contact Paul Aristides at paul.aristides@andersonquigley.com or Elyse Turner-Pearce at elyse.turner-pearce@andersonquigley.com or +44 (0)7808 648 559.
| Closing date | 19 October 2026 |
| Longlist meeting | 2 November 2026 |
| AQ Preliminary interviews | 3 November – 6 November |
| Shortlist meeting | 13 November 2026 |
| Final Panel interviews | 23 November 2026 - Redbridge |
www.ncclondon.ac.uk 