Michele Sutton
“If you can dream it,
you can do it.”
Walt Disney.
you can do it.”
Walt Disney.
Was this the quote that inspired Michele Sutton to become Principal and Chief Executive of Bradford College in August 2004? A College that caters for over 20,000 students - has a budget of £57 million, and is the largest Further Education College in the UK. Michele started her working career, as a secretary. So how did she make the transition from secretary to College Principal? In a frank and revealing interview Michele Sutton explains…
Michele was Principal and Chief Executive of Hopwood Hall College in Rochdale. Prior to that, she was Vice-Principal of City College, Manchester and Handsworth College (now City College Birmingham). Michele started lecturing in Business Studies at Handsworth College in 1981 and left 14 years later as Vice-Principal. Michele explained: “I started off as a full-time lecturer in Business Studies and I did that for about 9 years; from 1981 to 1985.”
“Then in 1985 there was a massive slump in the Birmingham engineering industries, where Handsworth is located. Given the economic climate, we then had to decide what to do as a college. Were we going to give in and go with it – or turn the college on its head and seek new curriculum areas, new students, etc? We decided to go with the new curriculum areas and recruit new students. What the principal realised, was we didn’t really have a marketing strategy. I’d had previous marketing experience in the private sector, so they asked me to take it on. I took on the extra responsibility, whilst at the same time continuing to teach Business Studies. I did that for four years and the strategy worked really, really well”
Michele went on to outline a strategy she implemented, whilst at Handsworth College. Michele explained: “I found out that the world renowned famous Rastafarian poet, Benjamin Zephaniah, was born in Handsworth. Prospectuses in those days were really just a list of courses, so I did an inspirational prospectus with Benjamin Zephaniah on the front cover! Through those sorts of strategies, we engaged more with the black community that we were really located in the center of. We changed our curriculum to meet the needs of the black community. We had a Community Council that listened to what the community had to say.”
Following the success of Michele’s strategies, the Principal of Handsworth decided the college needed a senior marketing role. Michele applied for the role and became the Director of Marketing. Michele explained: “It was the early 1990s. The whole college sector, which used to be part of the local authority, had now become divorced from the local authority, so we got autonomy. This meant the college management system had to be re-designed. It needed to take on board some of the functional management activities the local authority used to carry out for us. It also needed to recognise the importance of dealing with students as customers and establishing a different relationship with them.”