Peterborough City Council provides services for over 215,000 residents and works strategically to deliver economic growth and investment.

Its newly adopted Corporate Strategy sets out plans to achieve a Sustainable Future City Council which delivers improved opportunities for all and a financially stable council.
Peterborough is a city of opportunity – it is one of the fastest growing parts of the Eastern Region, vibrant, multicultural and with a younger than average population.

Between 2015 and 2019, the city’s population grew by 4.28% whilst the local economy grew by 27.44%, evidence that Peterborough can attract high productivity growth and in an inclusive and sustainable way.
The city is the third fastest growing urban economy in the country and among the top 15 cities with the highest number of business start-ups and patents in the UK. Peterborough has also grown to become a top four employer in the UK’s ‘Golden Logistics Triangle’, providing for thousands of additional jobs within the warehouse and transport sector in and around the city.

With a new university, ambitious plans for re-imagining the city centre and the embankment, well maintained parks, the city is surrounded by an abundance of nature, local markets, a wide range of retail offerings and many tourist attractions. All this, supported by a proud heritage and world class digital infrastructure, is making Peterborough an attractive place to live, invest, work, visit and play.

Lifelong learning is ingrained in the ethos and values of the city and the council. The council first gave its commitment to lifelong learning back in 1945 when councillors, realising the value of adult education, created Peterborough’s Adult Institute under the auspices of the Soke of Peterborough Education Committee.

Since then, Peterborough’s Lifelong Learning agenda has gone from strength to strength. It works to support people to improve their life and work prospects and helps them to grow their confidence and develop practical skills, thus making it a key factor in the city’s social change.

Today Peterborough is still at the forefront of this agenda. Our new ‘technical’ university is growing local and national talent to not just meet the needs of our local businesses today, but for the businesses of the future. There is also a commitment from the council to deliver the new technical Level qualifications (T-Levels) and it is one of the very few councils that operates its own successful lifelong learning college which is not only seen locally as a provider of high-quality learning but is also recognised nationally for its innovative provision and ability to deliver wider learning to meet the needs of individuals, communities, and businesses.

Peterborough City Council offers lifelong learning that is both varied and contextualised to the geographical region in which it operates, responding to local need. It has been supporting adults to improve their learning and skills with innovative provision for more than 75 years and plans to be at the forefront of lifelong learning for the next 75 years.