Colleges need to “face up to their responsibilities” and make FE the sector one that “gets people into work,” a principal has said.
Laurence Vincent, chair of The Mindset Group and principal of Bournemouth and Poole College, outlined his “brave new vision” for the role of colleges in terms of learner employability as he spoke to FE Week about a new position paper on the subject.
The paper, Employability in UK Colleges: the uncomfortable truth, has been published by Mindset, a group of FE colleges partnered with Reed NCFE, along with a toolkit for colleges.
The paper sets out how colleges are missing an opportunity to lead a charge to fill the growing skills gap, and in an exclusive interview with FE Week at the Association of Colleges annual conference in Birmingham, Mr Vincent spoke of his ambitions for the project.
He said: “I think to a point, colleges are not quite facing up to their responsibilities in some respects, but also, what a fantastic opportunity this is. I know it seems like an odd thing to say, but I think when it comes to student employability, I think the expectations of colleges have been too low really. I know that’s odd in this era of over-regulation and over-inspection, but I think expectations have been too low.
“I think now expectations are increasing, and colleges are expected to do more in terms of student employability, the sector can go two ways. They could be intimidated by it and think of it in terms of more student outcomes and more pressure on colleges, or they can think of it as a fantastic opportunity to uniquely place themselves as the sector that gets young people into work.”
He denied his suggestions conflicted with the view of FE Commissioner Dr David Collins, who has warned that principals should not be distracted by ventures too far beyond the running of their colleges.
He said: “What I’m advocating here is part of the core business of the college. I am not advocating principals going off and spending all of their time on follies. I am saying what’s good for the local economy is good for the college, and those links and partnerships with business are going to be crucial for a modern college.”
Mr Vincent was the Principal who seized the day and took decisions that his predecessors had pushed for or never perhaps moved mens rea into actus rea in a convoluted establishment of departments and responsibilities.
He found me underemployed after a 30 year career and it was affecting the service in many ways better described in a memoir or complicated assertion we were both right about lost opportunities increasing with a lack of care.
When I was having difficulties with a mild hypomania he spent £700 getting a confirmation. Facts are facts.
To see him moving from the competitive anathema I remember of derogatory, traumatic and dismissive “trainability testing” of old to matching aspirant to future opportunities. His current diplomacyonly makes me more envious of his grasp of the best practice of diligence and care for all. Note the plural opportunities and an open timeframe! Things change, though each year of my experience oft slewed from last years and was somewhat easier as my managers and our little teams nailed the logistics and employed the IT following best library practice. But pushing for what was a true reflection of any situation made me wonder what armed service had trained HIM for his employment where it could push things along, while I was riding on the bus I must now admit. So in the best principles of openness, transparency and accountability this is one former employee since retired who is making inroads privately in this precious opportunity he gifted me into a toxic subject I have authored on the TES project data base and which monarchprogramming.com does its best to introduce to the skeptical or the unwary. Mr Vincent may not have known this was coming on his watch and the only way to employ my talents on this project of mine was for me to not think outside the box but act outside it. I hope he and you follow my lead, it took years to come to the point that is a threat to any college or student.