At Education Space Consultancy we offer Further Education Colleges a comprehensive timetabling service, that manages all aspects of timetable construction and management throughout the year.
Our FE Timetabling service aims to improve our clients timetabling outcomes and crucially also offer our clients a more affordable timetabling service, when compared to delivering a timetable using internal staff.
We manage this by offering institutions an alternative approach to timetable service delivery, that efficiently utilises the skills and experience of our management and administrative staff as well as our experience of using technical timetabling software and related solutions and combines this with ability to carry out the majority of this timetabling services remotely from our Bristol office.
Our FE Timetabling Service
Our timetabling staff have all worked within educational institutions delivering and managing academic timetables, plus have also gained valuable experience working within our team delivering a range of different timetabling and space management services to schools, colleges and universities throughout the UK.
We use our team’s extensive experience to carry out a comprehensive review of the client’s current timetabling processes, policies, procedures and databases, before then creating a detailed timetabling proposal. This proposal outlines our strategy for not only delivering all academic timetables but also for improving the staff & student timetables, the efficiency of the process (improving the timetabling process staff experience), improving teaching space utilisation and providing a transparent data set that can be effectively utilised for planning the future estate.
Upon agreeing the timetabling strategy requirements with the client, we select the most suitable ESC Timetabling Manager given the clients requirements and the number of ESC Timetabling Administrators (the latter based on the strategy requirements, institution size and timetabling complexity).
The nominated ESC Timetabling Manager is then the main point of contact and focuses their time towards implementing the timetable strategy objectives, managing the institution’s timetabling processes and managing the nominated ESC Timetabling Administrators. Their time is typically predominantly spent offsite, ensuring the client does not need to provide office space. Onsite hours are however dedicated during key periods of the timetabling calendar in order to meet with key academic and administrative staff when needed, to ensure the strategy objectives progress effectively and all required curriculum data requirements are collected accurately and when required, each year.
The ESC Timetabling Administrators are responsible for creating the annual academic timetable, managing all adhoc timetable requests and also managing all timetabling related communication. These staff are supported by the nominated ESC Timetabling Manager and carry out all work offsite, within our Bristol office.
In order to ensure that the timetable evolves to reflect changing demands, we request that the ESC Timetabling Manager is included within the institution’s curriculum and space management communication and is permitted to provide an input into these channels. In addition we request that the ESC Timetabling Manager is able to meet with senior client representatives at least every 6 months, in order to review the previous period and discuss any need to adapt processes in order to accommodate any planned changes to timetable demand or constraints
Although we have preferred timetabling software providers, we are happy to consider and discuss any need for using a specific software package. For those clients that are happy for us to utilise our preferred timetabling software package, we will be able to offer the institution a range of solutions that aim to improve the timetabling output such as;
- Online individual timetables available via mobile devices (staff and students). Improving the student experience of timetabling.
- Online adhoc room booking solution that has a live link with the timetable database, enabling users to request a room that is available when required. No more time spent emailing requests and discussing room options.
- Online timetable data collection solution that enables nominated academic department staff to amend and add their upcoming year’s timetabling requests. A user friendly solution, that reduces the amount of time staff spend requesting timetable activities each year.
Cost: Our FE Timetabling Service vs Historical FE Timetabling Services
We have developed our FE timetabling service to not only offer an improved service, but also a more affordable service. This is managed by ensuring that;
- No institution office space is required = reduction in space costs. The majority of workload is carried out within our Bristol office with any onsite work, only involving meetings that can therefore take place in meeting or social spaces.
- We implement strategic improvements to the timetable process = improves timetabling efficiency. Our timetabling strategy and proposed solutions once implemented, will improve both the efficiency of the timetabling process whilst also improving outcomes.
- Our staff have extensive timetabling experience = improves timetabling efficiency. We are very experienced in working with a range of technical timetabling software packages and are therefore able to timetable efficiently and effectively.
- We use a range of in-house technical staff = reduction in staffing cost. We employ a range of staff who each have different levels of timetabling experience and skills, who are managed by our ESC Timetabling Managers. This ensures we can match tasks to suitable staff.
- We offer a flexible staff resource = reduction in staffing cost. We match our staffing requirements to the clients requirements, enabling us to ensure that staff hours are only provided when needed.
Interested to find out more about this service?
If you are interested in finding out more about our FE Timetabling service please do get in contact, our details can be found on our contact page or you can do so via our contact form below.