Rawaz Khan
“I am originally from Birmingham and was born and brought up in the Midlands. My family relocated to Bradford after my father retired; subsequently I spent my latter school years here in Bradford. I completed my undergraduate study in Business and Management at the University of Bradford and undertook postgraduate study at Keele University. For a short period, I lived and worked in Staffordshire within secondary education, but I missed Bradford, so the first opportunity I got, I moved back.
Over
the last 10 years I have worked within both the secondary and post 16
education areas, as Teacher, Trainer, Area and Contracts Manager. At
present I am employed by Dixons City Academy and seconded as Training
and Contracts Manager for the Minerva Centre. Where I oversee the
delivery of Cisco, Microsoft and Learndirect training programmes and
British Citizenship Testing. As an organisation we have a strong
relationship with Bradford College and have worked together on a number
of projects.
I am passionate about Bradford. I live and work here and my family have strong roots here. My passion for Bradford isn’t limited to me. My brother is a director for Bradford Trident, a regeneration organisation based in the heart of Bradford; they have won numerous awards for being instrumental in development of deprived areas local to the College.
I was interested in joining the Corporation because I wanted to change the mentality and attitude of perceptions towards the College and how it reflects on Bradford and its community.
I think that the common perception of Corporation members, both within and outside the college has been one of ‘wealthy retired men’ who meet behind closed doors and are unquestioningly supportive of everything put forward to them. This perception is not correct. Corporation membership is as diverse as the community it serves and everything that is raised to corporation’s attention is scrutinised to ensure the best possible outcome. No decisions are taken lightly. We operate in a target driven, performance led environment.
At 35 I am one of the youngest members of the Corporation. Since Michele has taken hold of the reigns, the Corporation has put an emphasis on diversity and attracted a good cross section of the community. We now have more younger members, people that students can relate to – positive role models as such.
In a forward thinking environment change is inevitable. To be competitive we as a college have to move ahead of times, operating like a business, constantly monitoring our quality and efficiency and making changes and improvements as necessary. This is evident in the new structure, re-branding, and the accommodation strategy. The new builds will be better for Bradford and the College. This is a big college and changing the culture is not simple. I firmly believe that the direction we as a college are taking will benefit the college and the community. It will stand us in a better light nationally and internationally and put Bradford back on the map for the right reasons.
I am passionate about making more community learning happen. The facilities are there, so we need to look at alternative pots to finance more opportunities. A lot of people would not want to learn at a formal college or school. If we approach the problem of funding in the right way we will hopefully be able to get more community provision back. People do not appreciate that the Corporation have the same concerns as them. We don’t pull all the strings – we do pull a large number – but a few significant strings are pulled by agencies out of our control."