Big Interview | Capital City College CPO: My Mission to Recruit, Retain & Inspire in Further Education

Why It Matters

Effective HR leadership at CCC directly influences teacher stability, student outcomes, and the broader viability of the further‑education sector amid funding pressures.

Key Takeaways

• CCC employs ~900 full‑time teachers, faces retention challenges.
• Hartley navigated a nine‑month pay dispute, resolved Jan 2024.
• Funding constraints limit salary growth in further education.
• Recruiting aligns with projected 25,000 student enrollment.
• HR turnover was 100% before Hartley’s 2020 arrival.

Pulse Analysis

The further‑education (FE) landscape in England is confronting a perfect storm of low engagement, high dissatisfaction, and rigid funding formulas that cap salary increases. Institutions like Capital City College, which serves around 25,000 students, rely heavily on a stable teaching workforce to deliver vocational and academic programs. When teacher turnover spikes, it not only disrupts curriculum continuity but also erodes the college’s reputation, making recruitment even more costly. Consequently, HR strategies that prioritize retention and morale have become as critical as enrollment growth targets.

Hartley’s trajectory—from council advisory roles to senior positions at Save the Children and now CCC—illustrates a blend of public‑sector pragmatism and nonprofit people‑management expertise. She approaches recruitment as a predictive exercise, aligning hiring forecasts with projected student intake to avoid over‑ or under‑staffing. Simultaneously, she navigates union expectations and limited budgetary levers, directing funds toward benefits and professional development rather than headline‑grabbing pay hikes. This balanced approach helped settle a nine‑month dispute over pay and conditions, demonstrating that transparent communication and data‑driven staffing models can defuse labor tensions even in financially constrained environments.

Looking ahead, CCC’s experience signals a broader shift for FE providers: talent management must evolve from reactive hiring to strategic workforce planning. As government funding formulas remain static, colleges will increasingly depend on innovative HR practices—such as flexible work arrangements, targeted upskilling, and performance‑linked incentives—to attract and keep quality educators. Hartley’s focus on purpose‑driven leadership and employee experience sets a benchmark for peers, suggesting that institutions that invest in holistic people strategies will be better positioned to sustain growth and improve student outcomes in the years to come.