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The Quality Improvement Agency’s (QIA) Excellence Gateway, a complete online service for all those working in the further education system in England, has been going from strength to strength and helping colleges and providers in their pursuit of excellence, innovation and improvement. Only a year since its launch the Excellence Gateway reports a dramatic rise in visits - the latest data shows a total of 43,460 unique visitors representing almost a 50 per cent rise in less than five months and a 480 per cent increase over the year. The number of users who have registered to access even more services has tripled to more than 8,000 over the course of the year

By bringing together and showcasing a wide range of resources from across the sector, the Excellence Gateway gives everyone working in the further education system the opportunity to improve their own skills and professional knowledge by fostering professional networking and the exchange of good practice and materials. It can also help leaders and senior managers to improve their organisations including through applying e-learning and technology effectively within their institutions.

Dr Jennifer Joy Matthews, subject learning coach for adults learning at Derbyshire College, comments: “I was a complete technophobe before discovering the Excellence Gateway and have now been converted into an enthusiastic advocate for using ICT and e-learning in my teaching. It’s so easy to use; it makes my lesson planning much quicker and the resources have been very popular amongst my learners, helping to bring learning to life.”

Barry Kruger, director of knowledge and intelligence at QIA, said: “People working in the further education system are clearly benefiting from the resources found on the Excellence Gateway.

“Over the past six months we have been responding to feedback from the sector to continually improve the Excellence Gateway and visitor numbers prove that this has been a success. Whatever practitioners are looking for, for example resources to help them to improve learner engagement or to network with others across the sector, the Excellence Gateway has something which can help.”

The Excellence Gateway is the largest further education portal available and the main online service for those working in the sector. Incorporating some 50 education websites and an impressive resource bank comprising more than 75,000 pages, and more than 12,000 separate pieces of content, the Excellence Gateway offers efficiencies by bringing together in one place a variety of resources, programme support materials and other exciting and relevant services. These include the quality-assured inspection related materials from the Ofsted Good Practice Database, the new Excellence Gateway TV channel and a news service. Registration and use of the Excellence Gateway is completely free and allows further education staff to save their searches and bookmark resources for future use, submit their own resources, as well as rate and review resources for other users.

To register please go to http://excellence.qia.org.uk

For more information please contact Clair Passelle, Catherine Bayles or Victoria Willis, Blue Rubicon on Tel: 0207 2602700 or email: firstname. lastname@bluerubicon.com