Twelve colleges from across the UK have been honoured at the Association of Colleges’ Beacon Awards for excellence in technical and professional education and training.
The AoC’s annual awards for FE and sixth form colleges were handed out by the comedian and impressionist Jon Culshaw on the evening of the second day (November 16) of its annual conference and exhibition at the ICC in Birmingham.
The Beacon Awards celebrate best practice at UK FE colleges, rewarding those that offer something exceptional to their students, and which go above and beyond to provide truly high-quality technical and professional education.
Each of the winning colleges has developed a programme that benefits the wider local community, such as helping young people to achieve skills for the workplace or making education and training more accessible.
The winners include Bridgend College, which took the award for developing transferable skills (sponsored by AQA) for its ‘Be all that you can be’ programme.
The scheme involved work with students from a very deprived local area and focusing on employability.
An enterprise manager at the college tasked with helping students and staff in every faculty and at all levels to seek opportunities to build their confidence and boost their transferable skills.
Gateshead College won the award for careers education and guidance (sponsored by the Careers and Enterprise Company) for a programme in which staff are trained to use their knowledge of the local employment market to direct their careers resources, and students are offered a range of workshops to help them get into work – such as practice Skype interviews and use of social media.
“The winning colleges are outstanding representatives of the excellent work happening across the country,” said Dame Pat Bacon, chair of the awards.
“It’s a privilege to be part of an awards programme that recognises the energy colleges put into supporting their students, staff, employers and local communities.”
The FE sector is not doomed, the new commissioner has insisted during upbeat speech dismissing claims that it was “failing”.
In his first major address to sector leaders since he took over from Sir David Collins in October, Richard Atkins told a packed reception for governors’ at the Association of Colleges annual conference that “the sector is doing pretty well”.
“I do not subscribe to the view that the FE sector is in a mess, or it’s failing,” he added.
He told them that the “majority” of colleges he’d worked with since taking up his new position “are doing a good job, and in some cases a really exceptional one”.
He acknowledged that some colleges were “not doing well”, but said “part of my job is to work with you to get those colleges back on track as fast as we can”.
Mr Atkins’ appointment was confirmed by the Department for Education on October 17 – although FE Week broke the news almost a month earlier.
The former principal of Exeter College, the best in the country according FE Week’s new league table, told the assembled governors that after 21 years as a principal he was “steeped in the sector”.
He said he was “absolutely delighted” that his first official speaking engagement since becoming FE commissioner was to an audience of governors, as he said their role in colleges was “absolutely crucial”.
“When it’s working well the whole college seems to work well – and when it’s not working well, over time it begins to infect the whole college,” he said.
The new FE commissioner also discussed the work he was doing chairing steering group meetings in the final two waves of the area reviews of post-16 education and training.
He shares his predecessor’s belief that the process, which had been hit with long delays in the early stages, was now running smoothly.
He said: “The process of area reviews now seems reasonably well established and the process I’m going through and the way we’re chairing those seem reasonably smooth, and there’s far less uncertainty and far less apprehension than there was nine to 12 months ago.”
The other aspect of his role involves intervening with failing colleges, and he said that “juggling” the interventions with the area reviews was keeping him “pretty busy”.
He described the FE commissioner’s role in interventions as “pretty much the opposite” of an Ofsted inspection.
“When we come in it’s much more about how and why, and working with you to understand what caused this and what can we do to make it better,” he told the governors.
Mr Atkins also joked about the handover period from his predecessor, which he described as “one of those very short apprenticeships we don’t approve of”.
“Three weeks with David Collins as my master, and he left me with the two essentials for this job – the Network Rail map of England and a guide to very best Premier Inns,” he said.
Ministers need to take a more realistic view of the cost of high-quality technical education and increase funding to it accordingly, Lord Sainsbury has said, as the government begins to implement his recommendations for a slimmed down system.
His influential report on technical education has heavily informed the government’s new skills plan, which will see over 20,000 post-16 vocational qualifications replaced by 15 new “high-quality” routes.
The peer told delegates at the Association of Colleges’ annual conference in Birmingham on Tuesday that his scheme stood more chance of succeeding than the various other botched government reforms of the past.
However, he was keen to reiterate that the new system would need to be properly funded if it is to rival the success of continental systems, particularly in Germany.
He wouldn’t be drawn on exactly how he would secure the extra cash, but said: “All I can do is point out what cost is needed and do everything I can to convince the minister that this is needed. You only need to compare to more successful systems in how much more they spend to see this.”
He continued: “My report has a better chance because we began by doing what I would do in business – by looking at other systems and what we can learn from them.
“One needs to have a national system of qualifications that is well understood and generally accepted.
Lord Sainsbury
“Over 22,000 qualifications are currently on offer. Some commentators have joked about the confusing world of post-16 education as ‘if you are not confused about it then you don’t understand it’.”
Any talk of endowing the system with parity of esteem is “nonsense”, he added, unless a genuine currency with employers is achieved, while calling for a significant improvement in careers advice to help convince students that vocational training is a viable option.
Lord Sainsbury also stressed that some 16-year-olds will not be ready for the technical qualifications or A-levels, and suggested that they might require a “transition year” – which also needs paying for.
He told delegates: “I genuinely think these reforms present a once-in-a-generation opportunity to deliver world-class technical education – to properly equip young people with the knowledge and skills to thrive in the workplace.
“This country faces huge challenges to deliver the skills the economy needs, and it is only a strong and appropriately funded sector that can do this.”
While the government accepted and “will implement” all of the Sainsbury panel’s proposals it would have to be done “within current budget constraints”
The peer’s comments on funding, which come just over a week before the chancellor Philip Hammond’s autumn statement on November 23, do not match the assertion made by the former skills minister Nick Boles in July, who said that these reforms would probably have to be implemented using existing funding levels.
In the introduction to the Skills Plan, he said that while the government accepted and “will implement” all of the Sainsbury panel’s proposals “unequivocally”, it would have to be done “where that is possible within current budget constraints”.
There has also been confusion across the sector over how many technical qualifications will make it into the new system, and whether the Sainsbury review could ultimately result in more complexity and costs than first envisaged.
However, Warwick Sharp, the deputy director of 16-to-19 strategy at the Department for Education, insisted two weeks ago that it was a “myth” that the streamlining – which many in the sector worry could be too drastic – would result in limited outcomes.
He told delegates at the Association of Employment and Learning Providers’ autumn conference that it was “a myth” that we would end up with 15 qualifications “because there are 15 routes”, adding: “I think it will look different across each route.”
When asked by FE Week to comment on Lord Sainsbury’s comments, a DfE spokesperson would only say: “We want to build an FE system that works for everyone and ensure high quality technical education gets the prestige it deserves.
“That is why we are reforming technical qualifications, ensuring they meet the demands of employers and help boost our economy.Our Skills Plan clearly outlines out commitment to deliver on Lord Sainsbury’s recommendations and will ensure that more young people are equipped with the skills that employers are asking for.”
The new president of the Association of Colleges will dedicate his term in office to tackling what he described as the “massive increase” in mental health support needs of college students.
Speaking on day two (November 16) of the 2016 AoC conference, Ian Ashman (pictured) said “we are headed towards a crisis point in mental health”, which is being driven by “poverty”, “social media” and “exam pressure”.
He told the audience in Birmingham that an AoC survey on mental health conducted last year revealed that college leaders felt that “local services were simply not providing the support that students needed”.
“This year I want us to work together to challenge the stigma of mental ill health,” he said. “I want us to share the good practice across the sector in supporting good mental wellbeing, and I want us to drive a step-change in the level of support that government and mental health agencies provide to our students.”
After his speech, Mr Ashman told FE Week’s reporter Alix Robertson (pictured) about what motivated his new focus on mental health for the coming year.
“Colleges do fantastic work, but we’re seldom places where things are life and death,” he said.
“But I had a student once who said to me ‘I would not be alive today if it were not for having come to [Hackney Community] college and had that support’, which is an incredibly powerful thing to hear somebody say to you.
“The college went on the win the Queen’s Anniversary prize for its mental health work – we had an amazing day when we took the Hackney Community College van through the gates of Buckingham Palace alongside all these Rolls Royces from Oxford and Cambridge,” he said.
The interest that this experience generated made him aware of the need for a clearer strategy for mental health work in the sector.
“I got so many people from colleges saying to me ‘tell us what you’re doing; we’ve got these issues and we need to provide support’,” he said.
This, combined with AoC’s eye-opening mental health survey, brought the issue to a head – an astonishing 85 per cent of the college principals who responded confessed that the mental health needs of their students had gone up.
“At the AoC we’re now saying to government, ‘you need to make sure that when you’re giving guidance to local delivery people you are encouraging them to work with their college’.
“The national guidance too often just mentions schools; the 16-to-18 phase is often when the mental health issues become apparent.”
Currently, he said, more colleges are doing mental health first aid training but when young people are referred for support by college staff, around a third still “get nothing”.
By the time of the 2017 AoC conference he wants to see a number of things achieved in mental health.
“I would like to see government ensure that mental health is being given as much priority as physical health and the commitment to spend more in real terms on mental health services is honoured,” he revealed.
“At a local level I would like to see every health and wellbeing board have somebody from FE as a member, I’d like to see every mental health service engaging with its local college, and I would like every college to review what it does to support students with mental health needs.”
The post-16 area review process, and the mergers it has provoked, might also provide opportunities for improving mental health services in colleges, he believes.
“It not only offers the potential to share good practice, but if you are in a bigger organisation you are more likely to get the engagement of other public services.
“It’s the kind of things that two or three colleges coming together might be able to create some specialist support for, which individually they couldn’t do.”
Last month, the government launched its directory of apprenticeship training providers, part of the raft of reforms coming in time for the introduction of the levy in May.
Despite being lumbered with a seriously unsexy name, ‘Find Apprenticeship Training’ has been bigged up as the one-stop shop for any employer, large or small, which finds themselves wanting to take on apprentices.
Now as luck would have it, FE Week has recently found itself in the market for an apprentice of its own. We’ve been very happy with our PA to the Managing Director and finance assistant Victoria, and with both parties keen to kick her career onwards, we want to get her on the path towards becoming an accountant. So what better way to test this much ballyhooed new site, and see how well the system is working.
On first glance, it’s a smooth but rather sparse site, but we couldn’t fault it for ease of use. With just a couple of clicks, our postcode and the keyword ‘accountancy’, we were offered a grand total of 58 providers offering a level two qualification in our area, a mixture of colleges, independent providers and local authorities. They were listed according to what they’d submitted to the government’s course directory, and relevant information – including contact details and employer and learner satisfaction – was very easy to find.
It was after we started dealing with providers that our troubles began
So far so good – but it was after we started dealing with providers that our troubles began. We tasked our finance director Helen (pictured) with getting in touch with the first 12 providers on the list – seven colleges, four ITPs, and the City of London local authority. Now bear in mind that we are literally specialists in apprenticeships, so if we’re having difficulties, imagine what it’s like for Bob SME’s first foray into taking one. So of these 12 providers, we found just one college gave us a positive first impression, and three of the ITPs.
The City of London didn’t even pick up the phone – for the number listed on the government site designed to match providers with employers. Some of the colleges took our details but gave precious little info up front, others simply told us that they weren’t taking on new candidates until next year, while one friendly receptionist put us through to an answer machine. It was only Newham College which impressed, offering to come and meet us and talk us through our options.
The ITPs were a lot better, honestly, aside from the one which erroneously informed us the apprenticeship wouldn’t be funded if our candidate was older than 24. The others happily gave us information on the phone and were prompt with their follow-ups.
This glimpse of the landscape – a small sample of providers working within one of the more popular frameworks – confirms a lot of what we’ve seen in the sector lately. Too many colleges are disorganised or complacent, while ITPs, which are run more like business, tend to be more eager to take on employers as customers. As for the local authority… the less said the better.
We’ve yet to pick a provider for Victoria’s journey, and while we’re confident this online directory will help us find a good one, it’s a bit of a shame that so many of the candidates still need to get their acts together.
FE Week’s brilliant cartoonist Bill Houston was quick on the draw at the Association of Colleges conference this week, where he could be found sketching dozens of familiar sector faces.
He set up his booth on Wednesday right by the entrance to the conference at the ICC Birmingham – where he dashed out quick-fire pen-on-paper caricatures of delegates on breaks between speeches and seminars.
Bill, who has drawn the paper’s cartoons since the start of the last academic year, said during the lunchtime before we went to press: “It’s been really good fun coming down and actually meeting a lot of the people who appear in my drawings for the paper. I think everyone has enjoyed having their pictures drawn today.”
Bill, a full-time cartoonist since 2004, who has had work published by Harper Collins, Puffin, and Penguin Books, completed dozens of new caricatures at the conference.
Email paul.offord@feweek.co.uk if you can guess who they are. A mystery prize will go to the first correct answer.
The whole notion of full-time vocational courses has been “challenged” by the man who chairs the Apprenticeship Delivery Board, much to the dismay of many of his colleagues in the sector.
David Meller (pictured), who also called for financial help to be given to poorer learners needing to relocate, made the controversial comments in a blog on the Conservative Home website.
His rejection of full-time FE courses, which echoes the repeated assertions from the former skills minister Nick Boles that apprenticeships are better value all-round, has raised suspicions that additional funding cuts will be announced for colleges in the chancellor Philip Hammond’s autumn statement on November 23.
“I would challenge the whole notion of full-time vocational courses in FE,” wrote Mr Mellor, who advises Mr Boles’ successor Robert Halfon on how to get more employers to take on apprentices.
“We know the best way to learn vocational skills is on the job, with part-time education to support workplace learning.”
“Too many Conservatives” see apprenticeships as “a consolation prize for youngsters who can’t do A-levels or get into university”
However, he did admit that “too many Conservatives” see apprenticeships as “a consolation prize for youngsters who can’t do A-levels or get into university”, and called for new measures to prevent disadvantaged learners missing out on “highest-quality” training because they can’t afford to relocate.
“We should put in place schemes to ensure school-leavers all over the country have access to the best opportunities, regardless of whether they choose the academic or vocational route,” he said.
“For example, we financially support young people moving anywhere in the country to go to university.
“We should have a similar system for the highest-quality apprenticeships, to avoid youngsters in deprived areas missing out on great opportunities away from home.”
Mr Meller’s comments prompted David Hughes, the chief executive of the Association of Colleges, to leap to the defence of full-time vocational training courses.
“Apprenticeships aren’t right for everyone,” he told FE Week.
“The technical and professional education and training on offer in colleges is very practical and not carried out solely in a classroom, giving students the experience required for the workplace.
“Catering students learn their skills in an industry-standard kitchen and college restaurants are frequently open to the public, meaning that the students work directly with real customers. This is part of a full-time FE course.”
On the subject of financing learners to relocate, he said that “changes must be made to the student loans system for FE students”, which would mean “creating a personal learning account to allow students a lifetime loan allowance and maintenance loans for all courses at level four and above”.
Andrew Harden, head of FE at the University and College Union, told FE Week that he sees it as “encouraging” that the government is committing to apprenticeships, but insisted that “they are not a silver bullet” and that “college-based courses also have an important role to play”.
He said: “If the government wants to achieve its aim of creating a highly skilled society, it should invest in the full range of technical provision and student support, so everyone can access the learning they require regardless of their age or location.”
Other ADB members announced in January include David Abraham, the chief executive of Channel 4, Mike Thompson, the head of employability at Barclays, and Simon Blagden CBE, a non-executive chairman at Fujitsu.
Nadim Zahawi
Nadim Zahawi, the Conservative MP for Stratford on Avon, was formerly the board’s co-chair and an advisor on apprenticeships to the prime minister, but FE Week learned in August that he no longer holds either role.
The board was launched in July 2015, tasked by the government with increasing “the number of apprenticeship places that employers offer, by encouraging existing employers to expand their programmes and securing new employer engagement”.
Your weekly guide to who’s new, and who’s leaving.
Syed Jaferyhas joined the Nottinghamshire Training Network (NTN) as its new managing director.
The organisation is a network of independent training providers, colleges, schools and employers who work to support individuals into education, employment and training.
His main responsibilities in the new role will include meeting with partners, developing classroom delivery for traineeships, and developing learner experience.
Mr Jafery joins the NTN from his previous role as operations director and company executive director at Skills Training UK – a leading training provider – which he held for over nine years.
Prior to this he was performance manager for Brent and Haringey at Working Links, where he worked with the long-term unemployed, including those with disabilities and ex-offenders.
His passion for working with those with disabilities is something he hopes to develop further in his new role as managing director, and he has hopes to implement a specialist training provision that caters to a wide spectrum of disabilities.
Speaking of his plans, he said: “Disability has a wide spectrum; you cannot just have just one word or programme, so we have to come up with a very sophisticated model. I’ve got a few people who are going to assist me with that. I want NTN to be a pioneer, that’s my vision.”
Cherryl Martin has been appointed commercial director at new specialist training facility iMET, which stands for Innovation in Manufacturing, Engineering and Technology.
Work began on the building in Cambridgeshire in 2014, and it is due to be completed in November 2017.
Targeting learners working at level three and above, the facility aims to teach specialist skills including virtual reality, augmented reality, computer-aided design and 3D and 4D modelling, a technique which uses time as an extra dimension.
In her new role, Ms Martin will be at the forefront of business skills growth, ensuring the curriculum serves the skills needs of the region, as well as actively collaborating with employers to ensure iMET is meeting their training needs.
Speaking of her new role, she said: “We’ll be looking at learning technologies and how you can push the boat out with that. You can’t talk the talk of innovation and then do everything with a classroom and a projector.”
Peter Riletthas been appointed chair of the governing body at City of Bristol College.
The appointment follows the conclusion of the West of England area reviews, signalling a fresh start for the college, which provides education and training to 25,000 learners in and around Bristol.
Prior to his new role, Mr Rilett served as chair of the North Bristol NHS Trust board for several years, and is a non-executive director and advisor for a number of local companies.
Speaking of his new appointment, he said: “I am personally committed to the future of our city, and ensuring the college secures the best possible futures for all of its students. The college has a really important role in supporting our city to secure the skills it needs for today, tomorrow and beyond.”
Mr Rilett will join the board on November 11, and takes up the role of chair with effect from the end of December.
If you want to let us know of any new faces at the top of your college, training provider or awarding organisation please let us know by emailing news@feweek.co.uk
The pressures of student life can often be overwhelming, but one college in Hampshire has found a unique way to lower student stress levels and provide an escape from the hustle and bustle. Samantha King reports.
South Downs College in Waterlooville has recently opened a sensory room, designed to help students who suffer from high levels of anxiety or stress – particularly those on the autistic spectrum – find peace and calm in the college environment.
The breathing dogs in baskets
With blackout blinds, aromatherapy, stress balls, specialist lighting and a range of soft furnishings, the new space provides the perfect escape for when things get a bit too much; while two pretend puppies that seem to breathe are proving especially popular with students.
Darren Darby, the additional learning support manager at the college, said: “We have two pets that look real in little baskets, and they actually breathe so you can see the movement of their chests go up and down. A lot of our students find them very comforting when they go in there.
“We’ve got a whiteboard up at one end of the room so if students want to scribble and draw on there, they can use that. It’s quite well equipped, and has lots of different sensory aspects, so we can cater for whatever an individual student may need.”
Comfortable seating and lights
Entry to the sensory room is through a special pass, issued by the additional learning support team following a consultation to assess the needs of the student. Passes are only issued to students who will benefit from the use of the room, in order to maintain its status as a safe and calm retreat.
The college, which has a large number of students with additional learning support requirements had recently signed up to the Ambitious About Autism Charter, which supports FE providers in improving their offer to young people with autism and other disabilities. It was this that inspired the idea for the sensory room.
Darby explained: “We’re quite unique in the fact there’s not many colleges that actually have sensory rooms unless they’re a specialist college.
“We signed up to the Autism Charter, so we were looking at a facility that could provide for students on the autistic spectrum, and give them a place that was away from the areas of the college some students may find a bit overwhelming.
It’s just a really calm place that they can go to if they were feeling particularly stressed at any time throughout their day
“We also wanted to extend the space for students who may suffer from high levels of anxiety and stress, and offer them a space that was quiet and peaceful.
It’s just a really calm place that they can go to if they were feeling particularly stressed at any time throughout their day.”
Funded by the college’s additional learning support budget, the new room is situated at the heart of the college and connects to an existing lunch and breakfast room away from the main refectory.
It is hoped the new sensory room will have a positive impact on the health and wellbeing of students, allowing them to recharge away from loud noises and potential stressors that are a natural part of college life.
Darby said: “The project has taken a lot of planning within the ALS team. We’ve had to really analyse and decide on equipment that we think would be cost effective but will also be really beneficial.”
The room was officially opened by Kevin Filby, deputy director of service development at Ambitious About Autism.
Featured picture: Kevin Filby from Ambitious About Autism opens the new sensory room
