EXETER College will find out this week if it has won a prestigious industry award for continually improving its student recruitment processes.

The college is a finalist in the European Six Sigma Excellence Awards 2007 taking place in London on Wednesday, April 18th.

Honouring organisations which have run successful projects to improve service quality and time, judges short-listed Exeter College in the category of Best Continuous Improvement Project in the Public Sector.

It received the nomination after piloting an innovative training event to speed up and simplify the process of recruiting student apprentices. The two-day workshop for a range of Exeter College staff focused on using the business improvement methodologies known as Lean and Six Sigma, well known in the manufacturing and financial sectors. It is believed to be the first time in the UK an educational establishment has utilised the methods aimed at achieving fast improvements in customer satisfaction, cost, quality and process speed. The training was run by London-based firm Venturehaus, Europe’s leading specialist for Lean and Six Sigma in the financial services industry. Exeter College’s director of business and marketing Chris Lorimer, who initiated the scheme, said: “Treating our students as individual customers is at the heart of our drive to improve our processes and achieve excellent service quality for all. “Students are demanding better service and we must adapt identify their needs and requirements and adapt accordingly. “We recognise that effective operational and transactional processes are the key areas of delivering a better service to students, employers and the community we serve. “As well as teaching and learning, customer service is crucial in the educational market-place. “Being nominated for this award is a huge boost for the project and college. We have now invested in training a number of staff from our talent pool, in order to convene additional projects across the college.” Exeter College is one of four finalists in its category.

If it wins, the institution will be highlighted and promoted in media across Europe and beyond. Robert Lord, Venturehaus’s operations manager, said: “Education like health and social services has a difficult balance to strike. It has to meet the unique, often complex needs of the individual whilst pursuing opportunities for economies of scale and efficiency. “Central and Local Government are placing increasing pressure on their departments to achieve more with less. The backdrop to these challenges is a well informed public who through information networking is able to exert greater choice and demand better service. “Frontline delivery will always be the duty and responsibility of the teaching staff but many exist to support this critical social function. “Our training event proved to be a real staff energiser, a good investment of time and a multiplier in cementing a culture of continuous improvement.”