Student takes on BBC The One Show’s Rickshaw Challenge

A student at Derby College is taking part in The One Show’s Rickshaw Challenge to raise money for BBC Children in Need.

Phoebe Kent, currently studying the level three extended diploma in horse management, was selected for the challenge following her involvement with Treetops Hospice Trust, a project part-funded by Children in Need.

She got involved with the hospice following a close family bereavement, when the charity supported her to understand her feelings and start coming to terms with the loss.  

Phoebe will join five other riders during the televised challenge, which will involve pedalling a rickshaw 470 miles down Britain’s east coast, and which is now in its sixth year.

The journey began on November 11, kicking off from the Scottish border town of Jedburgh, and will conclude in central London on the 18th, in time for the BBC Children in Need appeal show.

Matt Baker, presenter of the One Show, said: “Every year I’m inspired by the young people who take on the Rickshaw Challenge, and this year is no different. The six young riders have faced major challenges in their lives already. Thanks to the charity they have been able to overcome so much; and now they feel ready to give back.”

 

Featured picture: Phoebe, centre, with One Show presenters Alex Jones and Matt Baker

College’s careers advice service opens city centre ‘Job Zone’

A college in Preston has opened a city-centre job shop to help local students secure employment.

Preston’s College opened careers service ‘The Job Zone’ at its Fulwood campus last year, and due to its popularity with students, has now expanded to a building in the heart of the city.

The new city-centre base on Winckley Square aims to match candidates with apprenticeships, and will support students seeking employment both during and post-study, with members of the general public also welcome.

Preston’s College is one of the largest apprenticeship providers in the region, and its relationship with numerous employers will mean a varied choice of vacancies year-round.

Specialist careers advisors will be on-hand to provide advice on CV preparation, job searching, applications and interview preparation.

Andrew Richardson, head of employer engagement and recruitment at Preston’s College, said: “Our candidates get a head start, as they benefit from our careers coaching and the strong links with key employers in the area.

“School leavers and adult learners alike can significantly enhance their career prospects and gain nationally-recognised qualifications in their chosen industry, and we’re here to facilitate that.”

 

Featured picture: The new ‘Job Zone’ on Winckley Square

FEATURE: College attended by band Viola Beach launches scholarship in their memory

The death of the band Viola Beach and their manager in a car crash earlier this year shocked the nation. Now, the college they attended has set up a music scholarship in their name, which has just been awarded for the very first time. Samantha King reports.

Viola Beach band members Jack Dakin, Kris Leonard, Tomas Lowe, River Reeves and their manager Craig Tarry lost their lives in a tragic car crash in Sweden in February 2016.

The band members were all former students at Priestley College in Cheshire, which has now launched the Viola Beach Scholarship, aiming to reward musically talented students and enable them to develop their musical ability.

The scholarship will award one student a year the funds to pursue music, whether that’s through paying for music lessons or even a slot in a recording studio.

Yi Chen Hock
Yi Chen Hock

Yi Chen Hock, a first-year student at the college, has become the first ever recipient of the scholarship, receiving £500 towards furthering her passion for music.

The accomplished musician began learning violin at the age of four, and is currently working towards a grade eight qualification in classical piano, as well as playing violin in a local youth orchestra.

With the scholarship money, she hopes to buy herself a new violin, upgrading from a faulty second-hand one her mum bought her.

Yi Chen, who studies electronics, further maths, physics and music at the college, said: “I currently borrow my friend’s violin as it’s a nicer one than I have myself. My mum bought it second-hand and the chin rest keeps falling off, which I have to keep fixing, so I thought that it would be nice for me to actually get a better violin”.

The scholarship is funded through the college’s registered charity, the Priestley Education Training Trust. Set up four years ago after the education maintenance allowance was taken away, the Trust provides support for both disadvantaged young people, as well as outstanding students.

Matthew Grant, the principal at the college, said: “Each year we allocate around £6,000 to £10,000 a year to help students.

We thought how we could do something that was a long term gesture in terms of marking the lives of those four young people

“Following the tragic deaths of Viola Beach, we got together – certainly the music and performing arts team that knew many of them – and thought how we could do something that was a long term gesture in terms of marking the lives of those four young people.

“We decided to establish the scholarship for a young person or group of young people that needed some funds to help them fulfil their ambition in music.”

Ben Dunne, the father of band member River Reeves, has given both Yi Chen and the Viola Beach scholarship his seal of approval.

“Yi Chen is a remarkable musician and a worthy first recipient of this wonderful scholarship.

“I’m sure the musical talent, potential and achievement of Viola Beach will be mirrored by Yi Chen and recipients of this scholarship for years to come.”

Viola Beach were just launching their music career at the time of the accident; they had appeared on emerging music platform BBC Introducing and performed at Reading and Leeds Festivals in 2015.

Since the accident, their songs have achieved chart status, with Coldplay covering one of their tracks as a tribute during their headline set at Glastonbury music festival
this year.

Movers & Shakers: Edition 189

Your weekly guide to who’s new, and who’s leaving.

Prasanth Panicker has been appointed business development advisor at Truro and Penwith college.

The college, based in Truro, Cornwall, currently holds an ‘outstanding’ rating from its most recent Ofsted inspection.

Mr Panicker’s role will involve engaging with Cornwall-based engineering and motor vehicle businesses, helping them benefit from the expertise and facilities available at the college through training and development solutions.

Prior to his role at the college, he spent 21 years in the Indian Navy, progressing from naval officer to the position of executive officer, where he took over a research and development establishment and turned it into a naval submarine training facility, training marine engineers, officers and apprentices.

After leaving the Navy in 2012, Mr Panicker joined a renewable energy company in Mumbai, before moving to the UK and working as a freelance business consultant.

He said: “The top-notch training facilities, such as the Seaton building specifically built for engineers, and in Penwith where you have the incredible motor vehicle section, really are a class apart.”

He added: “When you walk in, you feel the positivity all around. This is vital, especially for teenagers who can carry this positivity into the job market and well into their careers.”

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Jasbir Dhesi, current Principal of South Cheshire College, has been appointed as principal and chief executive designate of a proposed new FE college in Cheshire.

The Cheshire College will be a result of a merger between South Cheshire college and West Cheshire college, and is due to take place in January 2017 – when Mr Dhesi will take up the role.

The merger was announced in July 2016 following a review of further education provision across both Cheshire and Warrington.

Mr Dhesi has been principal at South Cheshire College since January 2014. Working in the further education sector since graduating university, he has experience in a range of senior management positions, including holding the title of both vice principal and principal at Yale college in Wrexham.

Speaking of the new college, he said: “We have just completed our public consultation on the merger and initial feedback indicates overwhelming support for our proposals.

“This is both an exciting and important time as we continue to develop our plans to ensure we deliver high-quality training and learning for students, the community and employers.”

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Peter Newman has been appointed chair of Derby College’s professional construction employment and skills academy.

The academy aims to ensure learners from the college are prepared to make the transition into employment, while also meeting the needs of employers.

In the role, Mr Newman will chair an advisory board of representatives from 10 local and regional companies specialising in construction, and provide feedback to the college on curriculum design and future education training requirements.

He hopes that his new role will help to tackle skills shortages in the professional construction industries.

“It is vital that employers work closely with education providers to bridge the gap between the skills provided and the reality of what is required in the workplace,” he said.

“By bringing together professionals from across the industry, we are able to share the broader view on skills requirements and offer the learners a wide range of experience as part of their study programmes.”

He takes up the role alongside his current position as an associate director at Morrison Design, an architectural firm in Derby.

 

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

Area reviews have lost their true purpose

The link between area reviews and their original aim – of matching skills to labour market need – has been lost, says Caireen Mitchell.

When BIS announced the area reviews in March, the process had at its core a complex but noble purpose: to deliver financially viable, resilient institutions, with strong reputations, delivering a high-quality offer to meet an area’s educational and economic needs.

We welcomed an area review process that sought to address the need to ensure that the supply of skills provided by those graduating from FE colleges matched the needs of the London labour market.

However, as we await the review report, it appears it will read like a publication of marriage banns, with about as much chance of success as any partnership these days. Our concern is that the link between the area reviews and their original aims has been lost as the process has proceeded. Instead, it has prioritised the reorganisation of colleges to maintain local provision.

The WKCIC Group was created through the merger of Westminster Kingsway and City and Islington Colleges in August 2016 and is by some way the largest FE organisation in the capital. We were pioneers, embracing a merger ahead of the area review process, and we can already demonstrate how the colleges have continued to thrive.

The direct central encouragement of merger occurred only when austerity measures pushed an increasing number of colleges into financial hardship

When the area review process was announced, the two colleges were already at an advanced stage of discussion. Admittedly, we were rather surprised to be so. Both City and Islington College and Westminster Kingsway College were very successful colleges in their own right: City and Islington with a reputation for educational excellence and Westminster Kingsway as a dynamic and employer-focused college. Both colleges had very strong recruitment and were financially healthy.

We came to the table to discuss some form of collaboration because of a common desire to diversify income and a concern that the comprehensive spending review would see further significant reductions for colleges. We felt collaboration would make us stronger, more ambitious, help us develop new income streams and better equip us to weather any storm.

However, the biggest enabler for our merger was not the willingness of people in the room to collaborate, but the significant shift in government policy on college mergers.

Earlier government policy – despite the “freedoms and flexibilities” provided by the then-skills minister John Hayes – favoured smaller local colleges, and numerous merger proposals were rejected. Mergers were encouraged only to solve quality and financial health problems and there was little incentive for colleges to spend time and resources on merger proposals that were unlikely to be agreed.

The direct central encouragement of merger occurred only when austerity measures pushed an increasing number of colleges into financial hardship and full government support of mergers came only with the area review proposals.

This prompts the question of whether area reviews were necessary across all colleges, or whether a policy change encouraging merger (and the austerity measures) may have sufficed. In London, several colleges announced intentions to explore merger prior to the review, which suggests that resources could have focused on those institutions in poor financial health or with quality problems. Indeed, the area review process has caused a clamour and urgency to merge which could lead to failures.

For years, as a sector, we’ve been told that we don’t meet employers’ skills needs. New initiatives are brought in (Train to Gain, Full level targets); we reform and respond yet employers’ skills needs are still not met.

The area reviews seemed to offer the opportunity to understand exactly what the skills gaps are and how they could better be met, though a comprehensive analysis of supply and demand. Admittedly, the complexity of the London labour market coupled with FE’s complex qualifications structure, means that any attempt to map supply and skills gaps would be very challenging. Perhaps this is why this aim seems to have been set aside, with the focus shifted to creating financially stable institutions.

Area reviews may have brought about mergers, and therefore hopefully greater financial stability across the sector. But it seems unlikely that it will lead directly to significant quality improvement, a narrowing of the skills gap and greater specialisation. Perhaps those tasks are being left to the LEPs.

 

Caireen Mitchell is group director of planning and performance at WKCIC Group

Is there a silver bullet for 14-16 recruitment?

Schools may see 14-16 recruitment as a threat, but there is a way to make it work, says Alison Maynard.

Since legislation was changed in 2014 to allow FE colleges to recruit mainstream 14-16 students, there has been mixed enthusiasm from the education world. And indeed, we are seeing mixed success in the implementation of this new option.

In our current economic climate, it certainly makes financial sense for colleges to expand their potential funding streams and introduce 14- to 16-year-olds. The hope is that these students will then move up onto higher level courses, thus creating a pipeline of loyal and dedicated students to boost current and future college recruitment.

For young people themselves, extra options at the age of 14 are also a great thing. As principal of a vocational college, I see first-hand the many students who thrive in a more practical and hands-on environment. With the national curriculum getting narrower, many 14-16 colleges provide an alternative route, offering subjects that increasingly are being scrapped by schools.

FE colleges will generally have much closer links with employers than schools do – and this real-world input is more important than ever if we are to make young people employable and to help plug the ever-growing skills gap.

It would therefore appear that 14-16 provision at FE colleges is a win-win for both the sector and the students. But why are so many colleges not keen on going down this road?

Teachers owe it to their pupils to share all possible study options

And for those who have taken the plunge, why are so many of them finding recruitment such a challenge?

We launched our 14-16 provision in 2015 when we set up Career College North East – specialising in advanced manufacturing, engineering and computer science.

The biggest challenge for us, and I believe this is the case for many other FE colleges offering 14-16 provision, has been overcoming the reticence of some school leaders to embrace this pioneering education route. Considering the financial pressure being felt across the education sector, it is perhaps understandable that support from local schools has not always been forthcoming in the way we may have expected or hoped.

Recruiting and retaining students is obviously key to a school or college’s success. Adequate funding is subject to enrolling the necessary numbers of students and then ensuring they complete their studies. In essence, schools, sixth forms and colleges are all competing for the same students, and they must choose to go somewhere.

When an FE college sets up 14-16 provision, they are effectively giving young people an extra learning option and the opportunity to follow an alternative learning pathway.

For a local school, this is often viewed as competition and a potential threat to their student numbers and therefore their funding. But in reality, FE colleges will be offering something very different, which will suit some children more than others.

I feel strongly that heads and teachers owe it to their pupils to share with them all possible study options for their futures, even if these may lie at a different institution. They should not, even inadvertently and for what they may see as the overall good of their school, limit these options.

Many school heads already provide all relevant information and may baulk at the suggestion they do not put every learning option on the table. Perhaps they also truly believe that it is entirely in the best interests of their students to stay in mainstream education. But what is important is that they give their students high-quality and relevant information on each and every option and opportunity, including at age 14.

My college confronted this potential issue head on and chose to work together with a local secondary school. Instead of seeing us as a direct competitor, the school embraced our 14-16 Career College provision as a unique opportunity to further the education of some of its most progressively-minded pupils – by meeting their needs in a way the school by itself did not.

There is no silver bullet for recruiting students at the non-standard transfer age of 14. However, with greater collaborative working and a real desire to offer young people new and exciting learning options, I believe we can overcome the challenges and reap the benefits.

 

Alison Maynard is principal of South Tyneside College’s professional and vocational college

Prison learning needs more staff to succeed

While prison reform is to be welcomed, simply dealing with the staff shortages would solve many of the barriers to learning, says Sally Alexander.

Prison reform has been a hot topic of conversation since Michael Gove was appointed as justice minister back in May 2015. With his sudden exit earlier this year, the sector has been waiting to see how Liz Truss would take forward Dame Sally Coates’ review of prison education, commissioned by Gove, as well as the wider and much needed overhaul of prisons. So the publication of the new white paper was welcomed.

It is key to note that this is a white paper on prison safety and reform, not just reform, and rightly so. Having worked with learners in custody for 25 years, I am well aware of the increase in violence and disruptions to our prison regimes over recent years and as Liz Truss says: “Without safety there can be no reform.”

Liz Truss has committed to raising standards through four purposes that prisons need to deliver well: public protection; safety and order; reforming offenders; and preparing prisoners for life outside prison. These are to be welcomed and I am pleased to see the last two highlighted and not lost in the vital need to improve safety.

Reading more closely into plans for reforming education for offenders, it becomes more interesting.

Governors are given commissioning responsibilities for learning in their prisons, which is absolutely right: they should have both the autonomy and the accountability.

Staff shortages have resulted in whole regimes being cancelled

Assessing all learners’ education needs on entry already happens across the estate, but I welcome the plan to link this formally to prison sentence plans, thereby raising the importance of and focus on this valuable piece of work.

The value of introducing a core common curriculum is less clear, as this seems to go against giving governors flexibility and autonomy to do what they feel best meets the needs of their prisoners. The jury is still out on this one.

I applaud governors working with local employers and linking learning programmes to labour market information. However this does already happen in a number of establishments – in fact, we deliver a range of employer-centred programmes, placing over 100 offenders into work on release in the last year.

The challenge to all organisations working with prisoners, to offer opportunities for prisoners on release, is a good one. We work in a mentoring or support capacity with a number of ex-offenders who have set up their own companies and their expertise and experience is invaluable.

The focus on reform and preparation for life on release is welcome. However, some of this reform is already taking place and it is only not happening more widely due to cancelled or curtailed regimes caused by the staff shortages outlined in the white paper.

These shortages, as well as giving rise to safety concerns, have resulted in prisoners not being able to attend learning, learning being curtailed as they arrive late and leave early, or whole regimes being cancelled.

This is demotivating for learners and staff. Prisoners in custody mostly want to succeed and turn their lives around. Yes, they can be challenging, but most want to engage. And if they are engaging with learning, they are far less likely to be violent and disruptive.

As Paul, a learner working with RMF, one of our construction employers, recently said: “Once in education, life became positive. I started at college, developed skills and worked on site on day-release.

“I completed my qualifications and on release continued in the same job. I got on a course and I got a job”.

Paul is now a supervisor at this company.

I welcome Liz Truss’ plans to make prisons safer and to make them places of reform. Most of all, I hope they will enable the good programmes that are already in place in our prisons to be delivered, get prisoners out of their cells and into activities, and support offenders to resettle on release and not return to prison.

 

Sally Alexander is executive director of offender learning at Milton Keynes College

Dear minister, it’s time to come clean on apprenticeships cuts

With the government attempting to hide or downplay the scale of their funding cuts, there is a huge gulf between rhetoric and reality on apprenticeships, says David Lammy.

During the course of the parliamentary debate on apprenticeship funding cuts on November 1, I mentioned cuts 30 times. I brought up local figures and evidence from the College of North East London in my own constituency of Tottenham and I quoted national averages and presented figures for worst- and best-case scenarios.

I even referred to calculations that had been presented to the Department for Education a few days previously, showing how nine out of the 10 most popular apprenticeships still face cuts ranging from 14 to 51 per cent – despite the government’s U-turn.

I will not stand by as the government presses ahead with cuts on this scale

But answer came there none. I was stonewalled. The apprenticeships and skills minister did not see fit even to mention “cuts” once in his speech. I accused him of hoodwinking the House – and this is not an accusation I make lightly – but given the nature of what is at stake, I repeat again that the minister is misleading us and the young people of this country deserve better.

The minister told us that “we are moving into a new world”. The fact of the matter is that – according to his government’s own latest statistics – less than one per cent of all apprenticeship starts are on the new standards, with 99 per cent still on the existing apprenticeship frameworks that are being cut. The government has a target of three million apprenticeships starts by 2020, but in 2015/16 only 3,800 of 503,700 starts are on the standards. The new world we are promised is a long way off.

Mr Halfon told us that “huge amounts of money are going into support for disadvantaged apprentices”, yet back in August the government quietly scrapped the “disadvantage uplift” in its entirety. The recent U-turn guaranteed support for only 12 months, and during the minister’s remarks in parliament no guarantees were made about what the government plans to do after this initial grace period has passed.

My message is clear: the fight goes on

I do not doubt the minister’s commitment to apprenticeships, but if we are to believe the government’s rhetoric about “transforming the country into an apprenticeship nation”, why was parliament not given the opportunity to debate and vote on these cuts?

Why did it take a determined backbench campaign by 55 members of parliament for this issue even to be discussed in parliament in the first place?

I acknowledge that the recent U-turn goes some way to mitigating the worst effects of the reductions, but I will not stand by as the government presses ahead with cuts on this scale without even having the guts to come to parliament and come clean about their magnitude.

Across nine out of the 10 most popular apprenticeships, we are now staring down the barrel of average cuts of between 27 per cent and 43 per cent. These cuts won’t affect young people lucky enough to have been born into wealthy families, or those who are lucky enough to be educated at our best schools.

They will hit young people in constituencies like mine, where youth unemployment is high, skilled jobs are hard to come by and buzzwords like “life chances” and “social mobility” couldn’t be further removed from the reality of everyday life.

The government publishes statements saying that “apprenticeships transform lives and are vital in making this a country that works for everyone” while simultaneously dismantling apprenticeships funding.

There is a huge gulf between rhetoric and reality, and it is always working class young people who lose out. My message is clear: the fight goes on.

 

David Lammy is Labour MP for Tottenham

It’s all about apprenticeships: what are colleges waiting for?

Colleges are sadly still proving themselves to be out of step with the seismic shift in funding priorities towards apprenticeships.

Nick Boles asked a year ago at AoC Conference why they were still letting independent training providers steal their lunch.

Little has changed since. In fact, the situation has worsened.

I get it that colleges should offer broader training opportunities than just apprenticeships.

There’s little doubt also that it takes more than 12 months to transform priorities and working practices at what are often huge institutions.

But the truth is, colleges have form on this.

We recalled in our front page story this week that then economic secretary to the treasury, John Healey, urged them at AoC conference in 2003 to be “more active” in forging training links with business.

It isn’t good enough that many are still not listening.

There’s a huge amount of extra money available to colleges that are able to evolve quickly.

The stark reality could, I fear, be economic oblivion for those that aren’t.