“Against a backdrop of change, fatigue and upheaval, the aim for many organisations has been to hold steady at their prior accreditation award level.
In May 2019, West Lothian College was accredited at the silver level. Not only have you been reaccredited, you’ve achieved the next higher level of award, the GOLD award.
This is a phenomenal achievement!”

Investors in People Assessor, May 2022

In May 2022, West Lothian College moved beyond its existing Investors in People Silver accreditation when it achieved Gold status, joining just 16% of accredited employers in the UK accredited at this level.

This achievement was even more special given that the three year period covered by the reassessment was dominated by the disruption of the coronavirus pandemic.

For nearly 30 years Investors in People (IIP) has been recognised internationally as a leading people accreditation.

We use the Investors in People framework to make work better for our staff by investing in our people and creating a culture in which our people thrive. This leads to an even better college experience for our students.

The college achieved Investors in People Bronze accreditation in 2016. Three years later, we achieved the Silver award and this year we were awarded Gold.

There are four levels of accreditation in the current Investors in People Framework – Standard, Silver, Gold and Platinum. I am proud that West Lothian College is continuing to make progress on our improvement journey, especially over a three-year period dominated by Covid.

Achieving the Gold award shows that we are living our core values of being welcoming to all, having students at the centre of everything we do and always striving for better.

The Investors in People framework assesses how the college leads, supports and improves its workforce against nine performance indicators. Performance against these indicators are assessed as developed, established, advanced or high-performing.

We were assessed as high-performing for Living the Organisation’s Values and Behaviours, and Creating Sustainable Success.

We were assessed as performing at an advanced level for Leading and Inspiring People, Empowering and Involving People, Structuring Work, Building Capability and Delivering Continuous Improvement.

Our performance for the remaining two indicators wad assessed as established.

Achieving Investors in People Gold is a great achievement and recognises the progress we are making to make work better for everyone working for us. It shows us where we still have work to do to improve everyone’s experience of working at the college. This is something we remain firmly focused on.

Investors in People assessments take place every three years and our goal is to achieve Platinum status in 2025.

By doing so, we will demonstrate that we continue to strive for better in creating a culture in which our people thrive.