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Dynamics 365 Education Apprenticeships CRM – A Case Study: Chichester College Group
Introduction
As the largest training provider in Sussex, Chichester College Group (CCG) comprises four – soon to be five – colleges and provides education and training to around 20,000 students. CCG prides itself on working closely with employers to meet the employment demands of their local and regional communities.
In March CCG became the second Further Education provider in England to achieve ‘outstanding’ across every area of Ofsted’s new Education Inspection Framework.
The challenge
In 2017 Chichester College merged with Crawley College to create the Chichester College Group. In doing so, it inherited another ageing CRM system. Reviewing both systems, the business development teams quickly came to the conclusion that neither system was fit for purpose. CCG needed a flexible, state-of-the-art CRM solution that could cater for apprenticeships as well international, commercial and the forthcoming T Level provision.
Alongside this, the apprenticeships team at CCG wanted to improve the way they recorded Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) of apprenticeship candidates to ensure that, as a group, that they continued to meet all compliance requirements.
The solution
MS Dynamics 365 Education from Active was the chosen solution because it integrated with ease into their existing Microsoft IT systems. As a college group that already leverages the full suite of Microsoft products, the familiar interface gave staff immediate confidence.
In addition, the team worked closely with Active to develop a brand new RPL system module to specifically meet the requirement of the apprenticeships team. Thanks to this development work, this module has now become part of the broader Dynamics 365 Education system being offered by Active.
The results
CCG have already seen the benefits across their colleges – both in improving their responses to employers and apprentices, and the ability to personalise their communications. The new web portal benefits apprentices and employers by introducing a self-service approach which feedback has shown is highly valued.
The bespoke RPL module successfully met the needs of the apprenticeships team and has improved the experience of staff as well as that of the apprentices and employers.