Nicola Kelly

Nicola Kelly is responsible for leading the support functions at EKC Broadstairs College. This includes Additional Learning Support, Marketing, Estates. A large part of her role is leading the pastoral support for our students, including overseeing services for counselling, wellbeing, and the bursary. Nicola is passionate about the underpinning functions which support students while they study at College and is an advocate for ensuring all learners have an outstanding experience during their time with us.

Nicola has worked in education for over 20 years and has held a variety of roles, giving her a broad knowledge both in terms of supporting students and leading staff. Nicola first worked for the College as an assessor in Health and Social Care and went on to be a course leader for Hospitality and Retail.

Nicola then took a break from further education to run her own training agency for foster carers which built bespoke packages for completing the mandatory training requirements and ensure they met national minimum standards. From working with residential care homes and children in care to fostering, Nicola developed a vast knowledge of the needs of young people which she took back into further education. Working on many successful pilots, Nicola helped to launch a traineeship scheme with OCR and worked alongside Barnett College and Harrogate Council to help young people who were not in education to get started on care apprenticeships before returning to work at the EKC Group.

With her knowledge of special educational needs and higher need learners, Nicola became the Head of Additional Learning Support at Broadstairs in 2016. During this time Nicola was at the forefront of positive change within ALS and SEND initiatives, including leading on the change over to EHCPs and raising the level of support for students across the College. After four years in this job role, Nicola proceeded to become the Head of Supported Learning in 2019.

Nicola has gained much experience during her career and is always looking for opportunities to share best practices and make a difference to staff, students, and stakeholders.

In her spare time, Nicola likes to stay active and during the 2020 lockdown, she formed the EKC Running Group alongside her colleague Jonathan Smith. Nicola also is part of an amateur dramatic society and has been involved in plays and pantomimes at different venues in Thanet.  

Born, raised, and continuing to live in Thanet, Nicola is an ambassador for the local community and supports many different ventures in her spare time. From shopping local to supporting charity events, Nicola loves to support the regeneration of our local towns.