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Colleges go a decade without full inspection

Two colleges in England have now gone more than 10 years without a full inspection – setting a new record Ofsted won’t be proud of.

Bridgwater and Taunton College in Somerset had its most recent full inspection on November 17, 2006.

It’s a similar story for Hills Road Sixth Form College, in Cambridgeshire, which was last properly visited by the education watchdog that same month.

Both were graded ‘outstanding’ at the time, but significant changes in how the sector is monitored have occurred over the last decade – raising serious questions about this gulf between inspections.

And these aren’t isolated incidents; a further three providers – Cirencester College, Woodhouse College and Bury College – will all pass the 10-year mark since their last full inspection grade by February next year.

All also graded ‘outstanding’, Cirencester was last inspected on December 8, 2006; Woodhouse on January 24, 2007; and Bury on February 9, 2007.

A spokesperson for Ofsted told FE Week that the FE inspection regime had seen “major changes” on “four occasions since 2006 – in 2007, 2009, 2012 and 2015”.

On top of this, these five colleges’ most recent inspections were not carried out directly by Ofsted, but by the Adult Learning Inspectorate, non-departmental public body.

The ALI, which was established under the Learning and Skills Act 2000, did not become a part of Ofsted until April 2007.

The watchdog’s most recent FE and skills inspection handbook, for use from September 2016, states that providers judged ‘outstanding’ at their most recent inspection are “not normally subject to routine inspection”.

But it adds: “An outstanding provider may receive a full inspection where its performance declines or there is another compelling reason, such as potential safeguarding issues”.

A grade one provider may also be inspected “as part of Ofsted’s survey work, or through a monitoring visit or similar activity”.

A spokesperson for Hills Road Sixth Form College said that although the college’s last full inspection took place in November 2006, there had been “no absence of regular and rigorous reviews of performance during that 10-year period”.

She said: “There have been good practice monitoring visits from Ofsted on four occasions since 2006”.

These came “in 2007 to look at learning outside the classroom; in 2008 to look at user voice, and in 2011 for the provision and delivery of mathematics”, while “in 2016, we received a fourth Ofsted good practice survey visit, looking specifically at the college’s implementation of 16-19 study programmes.”

What’s more, she said that “Hills Road organises regular independent audits of its provision”.

It applies a “self-scrutiny process” leading to an annual self-assessment report, which is monitored by Ofsted for “any evidence of declining indicators or areas of weakness that are not being identified or addressed by the college”.

Charlie Dean, principal of Bury College, said: “It would not be appropriate for us to comment on Ofsted’s decisions”.

Mike Robbins, principal of Bridgwater & Taunton College, said: “Whilst a full Ofsted inspection would provide us with valuable feedback and validation, the timing of such an event is not within our control.

“Ofsted has visited us a number of times for good practice reviews since our last full inspection in 2006 and for a Care Standards Inspection in March 2015 – which judged all aspects of our provision to be outstanding.”

Cirencester College and Woodhouse College were unable to comment at the time of going to press.

Lord Sainsbury criticised over ‘retail assistant’ comments

Lord Sainsbury has been branded an “elitist” after he claimed in a speech to the Association of Colleges’ annual conference that certain jobs, such as retail assistant, should not be counted as technical education.

His comments prompted Mark Dawe (pictured), the boss of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, to hit out at him and claimed he was ignoring “a vast swathe of the population”.

The architect of the government’s skills plan for was first challenged on his definition by host Steph McGovern after delivering a keynote speech that suggested “many skilled occupations… do not require a significant amount of technical knowledge”.

For something to be described as technical education, he said, “a programme must focus on progression into skilled employment” and require “a substantial body of technical knowledge and a set of practical skills which are valued by industry”.

He insisted that such jobs were still valuable, saying that “this is not for one moment to suggest that these jobs are not important in the labour market” as “they offer large numbers of demanding jobs”.

These occupations “do not require a substantial amount of technical training”, so much as “shorter, job-specific training while in employment”

However, he said, these occupations “do not require a substantial amount of technical training”, so much as “shorter, job-specific training while in employment.”

When asked on stage by Ms McGovern to define what he though did constitute technical education, Lord Sainsbury replied: “If it looks like a rabbit and feels like a rabbit, it is a rabbit.

“We all know what technical education is: a combination of practical skills with a core of technical knowledge which you need to have which enables you to go and do a reasonably high-level technical job.”

This proved insufficient for Mr Dawe, who spoke up from the audience during the subsequent panel session, asking: “I just want to check you really believe that there are no proper skills relevant from entry level to level two in retail, because for me that feels very elitist, and ignores a vast swathe of the population.”

In her answer, Kate Webb, the principal and chief executive of East Berkshire College distanced herself from the peer.

“First of all, we’re not Lord Sainsbury,” she said.

“Technical education involves elements of technical knowledge and technical skill, and for me retail contains a whole set of complex human interactions.”

Giving her own definition of technical education, she said she believed it was “a shame” that vocational education had become “a damaged term”.

She continued: “For me, I think it probably should be technical and professional education. I think technical education is a two-word phrase and something that marries practice in professions with life, because we’re not just educating workers, we’re educating people.”

After the session, a riled Mr Dawe told FE Week that Lord Sainsbury’s speech had been “elitist and not inclusive”.

“Does he really believe no skills are developed from entry to level two in retail?” he asked.

His concerns echoed a question put to Lord Sainsbury by one audience member from the sport and active leisure sector, who expressed concerns that employers in his field were not represented in the 15 upcoming routes he recommended in his review of technical education.

“The exact constituencies of routes will of course very much depend on the panels which are set up,” said the peer.

“It is very important that we restrict this to areas where there are real technical skills required.”

Andy Wilson, chief executive of Westminster Kingsway and City and Islington College also made a trenchant point from the audience, saying: “I’m not sure that it’s the right thing to do to compare a technical level and an academic level, and thinking that you only get technical prestige by meeting a level which is defined in academic terms.”

Summary of Skills Plan

1. Moving to just one awarding organisation for each of the 15 routes. The report said the government will “put in place only one approved tech level qualification…we intend to grant exclusive licences for the development of these tech levels following a competitive process.”

2. An expansion and renaming of the Institute for Apprenticeships, due to be launched in April 2017. New legislation will be needed for it to become the “only body responsible for technical education” and it will be called the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education.

3. Every 16 to 18-year-old on a college based technical education programme will be “entitled” to a “quality work placement”

4. Clearer divide of choices for post-16 students between academic and technical routes. The plan stated that the government ambition is for 16 year-olds to be “presented with two choices: the academic or the technical option” in the form of these 15 routes covering “college-based and employment based (apprenticeship) education – Colleges and other training providers could be permitted to deliver traineeships for up to a year (a doubling of the current six month maximum) as part of a ‘transition year’ for 16 to 18-year-olds progressing onto one of the 15 routes

Post-16 Skills Plan Timeline:

April 2017 : the Institute for Apprenticeships begins operating

April 2018 : the Institute for Apprenticeships becomes Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education

October 2018 : Procurement begins for new technical qualifications

February 2019 : Technical qualifications approved for ‘pathfinder’ routes

September 2019: First teaching of ‘pathfinder’ routes

September 2020 to September 2022 – Phased teaching of other routes

AoC Beacon Awards honour the best that colleges have to offer

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.”

Richard Atkins: The FE sector ‘is doing pretty well’

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 fund technical education, says Lord Sainsbury

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.

“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.”

President to make 2017 the year FE colleges tackle mental health

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.”

How does the directory of apprenticeship training providers work?

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.

Guess the FE cartoons!

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.

Deadline for entries is 12 noon on November 24.

Government adviser criticises full-time vocational courses

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, 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”.