Latest news from FE Week

Daughter of beauty student inspires winning design in college fashion competition

A budding beautician has taken the first prize in a college fashion competition with her fairy-inspired creation.

The College of Haringey, Enfield and North East London hosted a competition for beauty therapy students to create a look based on the themes of history, fantasy or special occasions.

Entrants were required to do the make-up, style hair and choose the clothing themselves to complete their creations.

Kasturi Tandel, 34, (pictured third from right) who is taking a level two diploma in beauty therapy, used her 10-year-old daughter’s obsession with fairies as the inspiration for her entry and took the top spot – winning a selection of hair and make-up products donated by Redken.

Second place in the competition was awarded to Valbona Bajrami, 31, and in third was Tudey McKoy, 22, who both opted to create special occasion looks.

Speaking of her creation, Ms Tandel said “I wanted to do something creative and imaginative and so decided on a fantasy fairy look. My daughter is 10 and into fairies, which was part of the inspiration behind it.”

On hand to model the look – which took a total of three hours to put together – was Tandel’s sister-in-law, Malvica Damania, who said: “I wish I could keep this look all day, but I’ve got to go to work later and don’t think I could turn up like this!”

Construction trainees battle it out for a place in national SkillBuild competition

Construction trainees from across the south-west of England gathered at South Devon College to compete for a place in the national SkillBuild 2017 competition.

A total of 58 competitors from nine colleges took part in the regional heat, with trades such as cabinet making, decorating, brickwork and plastering all represented.

Gold winner Glen Bullock with Chris and Jules

Competitors went head to head for a place in the national finals, which will be held at the Skills Show, taking place in Birmingham in November this year.

There were 12 winners, five of whom are construction students from the college’s Paignton and Newton Abbot campuses, who took gold in bricklaying, joinery, painting and decorating, and plastering.

Also in attendance were Chris Frediani and Jules Perryman from the BBC’s DIY SOS, who were on hand to spill construction tips and tricks to students.

“If we can do a bit to encourage people to get into construction, they might choose to study it and make a good career out of it,” they said.

“That’s why it is so important to inspire them at a younger age. We need to back the colleges, we need to push on with apprenticeships and I am taking several on next year. It is the construction industry that will keep Great Britain great.”

In addition, construction-themed taster sessions – including lessons in how to patch plaster – were given to more than 300 pupils from local primary and secondary schools.

Public services students complete 24-hour rowing challenge for fallen police officers

A group of public services students have raised more than £600 for the families of fallen police officers with a 24-hour rowathon.

Eleven students from London South East Colleges each took turns on a rowing machine to raise money for Care of Police Survivors (COPS), which supports families of police officers killed while on duty.

Each student did 17 10-minute sessions in a rowing relay, with the challenge commencing at four in the morning.

The students covered a distance of 213km on the machine in 24-hours, for which they received cash pledges from across the college.

Toby Hartcombe, 17, who took part in the fundraiser, said: “The money raised from this rowathon is just a small gesture of our appreciation towards all public servants who spend their lives protecting the public. COPS was the first charity to be suggested and we voted unanimously to support it.”

Public services tutor Robert Burr added: “The students showed willingness, cooperation, teamwork and organisational skills; all of which are the qualities they will need if they are to work within the public and emergency services.”

College principal goes undercover as a campus security guard

The principal of Bradford College has gone undercover as a member of the on-site security team to find out what goes on behind the scenes at the college. Samantha King reports

David Harwood started his job as principal 18 months ago, and in that time has initiated an undercover boss project, where he takes on a new role within the college each term to see what’s working well and what isn’t.

So far, Mr Harwood has been a receptionist, a member of the estates cleaning team and, his personal favourite, a student.

“The estates team had me picking up litter, and as a student I was in an art and design class so they had me doing drawings,” he said. “I can’t draw for toffee really, and all the students were laughing at my efforts, but again it just demonstrated for me the skill set our young people have.”

However, his most recent exploit was as a member of the college’s new security team, in an effort to find out how they were settling in, and how they interacted with the campus’s 4,000 students.

“I thought I would spend time with this new team to see particularly how they interact with our students. The main thing I want our staff to do – including the security people – is to inspire and motivate our students by engaging with them, and having conversations about how they’re doing on their course and what’s next for them.

“It was really funny because when you walked past dressed as a security person, staff had to look twice. You could see them thinking, is that who I think it is?”

Staff had to look twice. You could see them thinking, is that who I think it is?

During his day as a security guard, he donned the uniform and a radio and patrolled the corridors, moving smokers away from non-smoking areas and dealing with student disputes.

Following his undercover exploits, the principal ensures he gives a feedback session to the team with which he has been involved.

“The staff really value when you recognise their expertise and skills, and the challenges they face in their jobs. I will share my feedback with the team and say ‘thank you for letting me join you in your job, these are some of the things I’ve discovered’.

“It certainly helps me, because when we’re talking about things such as the college’s IT systems I can say, well, that doesn’t work on the ground because I’ve done it.”

Mr Harwood is already planning to go undercover for a second time as a student, and will oversee two students taking his seat as principal for a day in a job-swap twist.

“Going undercover makes me step out of my comfort zone,” he said. “The exec team make decisions all the time that impact on staff and it’s really nice to go and experience the jobs that other staff do. Not only that, but you can get to know them and hear their personal stories about why they work in FE.

“It’s really interesting to see the challenges of their work and what they do in the college.”

Movers and Shakers: Edition 207

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

Roger Dawe has been named the new chairman of the Career Colleges Trust.

The Trust, founded by Lord Baker, works with employers and education providers to set up career colleges, of which there are currently 12 open across the country, rising to 18 by the end of 2017.

Career colleges specialise in industries facing a skills shortage, including engineering, construction and digital.

Mr Dawe served as private secretary to Harold Wilson between 1966 and 1970, and held a range of posts in the Departments for Employment and Education up until 2000.

Since leaving the department, he has been deputy chair of the Open University, has worked for KPMG as a senior education advisor and, until March this year, was chair of the Corporation of Bromley College of Further and Higher Education (now London South East Colleges).

“High-quality technical and vocational education is crucial for our economic future and for people to make the most of their talents,” he said.

“I strongly believe that the career college concept, which focuses on employer-led education, is key to addressing the skills shortages that many industries are facing.”

He will chair his first board meeting later this month.

________________________________________________________

The managing director of YMCA Awards, Rob May, has been appointed CEO of ABE, a not-for-profit awarding body.

ABE provides qualifications in the areas of entrepreneurship, business start-up, business management, marketing, human resources and travel, tourism and hospitality management.

Mr May will begin his new job this week, leaving the YMCA Awards, which he has led for two years.

During his tenure, YMCA was the first organisation to win the FAB award for innovation two years in a row.

He will hold the new position alongside his existing role as non-executive director of the Federation of Awarding Bodies, which he has held since October 2016.

He said he was “very excited” to lead the organisation at a time when “there are so many opportunities and challenges in the global education market.

“Our aim is to build an organisation which is leaning into the future, recognising the many changing ways that people teach and learn, but also showing respect to our own traditions and those of the study centres and partners we work with around the world,” he added.

________________________________________________________

Charlotte Bosworth has meanwhile joined awarding body Innovate Awarding as managing director.

Ms Bosworth was previously director of skills and employment at OCR Examinations/Cambridge Assessment, where she was responsible for the vocational side of OCR’s business; her career in education began in 1996 at RSA Examinations Board.

She is joining Innovate Awarding to help build end-point assessments for the new Apprenticeship standards, and hopes to bring her experience in curriculum delivery and qualifications development to the role.

She replaces John McNamara, who is leaving to join the board as a non-executive director.

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

Devastating impact of non-levy allocations ‘horror show’

The allocations horror show has claimed its first victim, as a subcontractor with 18 years’ experience has announced it will be forced to close within months after it was dropped by its lead provider.

Other subcontractors are meanwhile warning of “chaos” and mass redundancies due to the massive cuts the government has made in its non-levy apprenticeship funding.

The government has rejected the Association of Employment and Learning Provider’s last-ditch plea to increase funding for providers delivering apprenticeships to small employers, after its boss Mark Dawe last week made dire prognostications that the sector could see “closures and redundancies” almost at once.

Lead providers learned in April that their allocations for May to December amounted to a fraction of the costs of their current delivery.

Mr Dawe said he feared the impact would most keenly be felt by subcontractors, who were already “being contacted by their primes, often with great regret, and told that there isn’t enough money to support them from May 1”.

Now, it seems his predictions are coming true.

The director of one provider, who has asked to remain anonymous, told FE Week that without additional cash, her business would close in August as she “could see no way forward”.

Having failed to win a place on the register of apprenticeship training providers, the final nail in the firm’s coffin was when its “only remaining prime” announced it had been given “such a small allocation they cannot afford to subcontract anymore”.

“We will try and honour our remaining learners, but frankly, we feel like walking away,” she said.

Other providers have spoken of “frustration” and being left “vulnerable” by the Education and Skills Funding Agency’s hard line.

Carla Hales, the managing director of Debut Training Academy, which has subcontracted for South Essex College for the past six years, said she was preparing to cut staff after the college told her it would not receive any funding whatsoever for new starts during the next eight months.

According to ESFA figures, the Essex-based provider held a subcontract with the college worth £390,640 for 2016/17.

Her firm had been accepted onto the RoATP and was expecting to be given its own allocation for non-levy employers.

However, she admitted that this “unsettling latest turn of events” had “put us in an exceptionally vulnerable position”.

Jane Dale, the managing director of Meat Skills Training School, said she had “never before experienced such chaos in the training forum” in the 30 years she had been in the business.

This Ipswich-based provider held a subcontract with Colchester Institute worth £356,888 in 2016/17, according to the ESFA list.

But it was told by the college that “we do not have any places at all for 19+ level two and three” between May and December, although its 16-18 allocation had not been cut, she said.

“The impact on our company will be severe; we will be unable to continue training young people, therefore we will go out of business,” she said.

Anthony McGarel, deputy principal and chief executive of South Essex College, said the college had been allocated just 25 per cent of its previous eight-month allocation for 16-18 apprenticeships, and a mere 13 per cent for 19+ apprentices.

“Work is still ongoing to analyse the number of starts the allocation could cover for non-levy-paying employers,” he said. “It may be possible to subcontract some starts but we are not able to confirm this just yet.”

A spokesperson for Colchester Institute said the college had not yet cancelled its subcontracting arrangements.

“We are working proactively with our supply chain to honour existing contract commitments where possible,” the spokesperson said.

“Senior management continues to review the reduced funding allocations provided from May and the impact this may have for service delivery to its customers.”

The plight of many providers prompted Mr Dawe to write to education secretary Justine Greening urging her to “ask the ESFA to reissue larger non-levy allocations to providers as soon as possible”.

But the response he received, from ESFA boss Peter Lauener, made no mention of increasing this funding – and instead indicated that levy-paying employers – which make up 2 per cent of all companies in the UK – were the department’s priority.

“These allocations have been made in a fair and transparent way that reflects the shift towards the levy, and our forecasts of demand for new starts over the eight-month period from May to December,” he wrote.

He also promised to publish a list of provider contract values “once a full and final list is available”.

In a letter sent to providers last month, the ESFA said it had “worked out your allocation by calculating your share of provider earnings to non-levy-paying employers” and detailed the methodology it had used.

“Within the available budget, we have cushioned your allocation in recognition of the fact that we have had to approximate your delivery to non-levy-paying employers,” it added.

The letter also confirmed that “the current approach to subcontracting” would be maintained for new starts to non-levy-paying employers until the end of December.

A spokesperson for the Department for Education would not comment on why the list of allocations was yet to be published, and directed FE Week back to Mr Lauener’s letter.

They said: “As per normal practice, once providers have signed their contracts and we have a full and final list of contract values, the ESFA will publish it.”

Damaging for SME apprentices

We are a small, not-for-profit training provider specialising in IT training and have been successfully running government-funded programmes since 1984.

We primarily support SMEs, and have approximately 100 employers with apprentices at the moment.

Our success rates are well above the national average and have been 85 per cent-plus for the past three years or so.

We were forced 12 years ago into consortium by what was then the Learning and Skills Council (the SFA’s predecessor) and lost our direct contract through no fault of our own.

Subsequently we have had to subcontract from two primes: South Essex College and Colchester Institute.

Both of these are telling us that they have not been given sufficient allocation to cover their own programmes, let alone those of subcontractors.

Needless to say, this will affect our business greatly.

We are unable to start any current SMEs who want to employ apprentices as our primes have insufficient allocations.

I am at a loss to know what to tell them, how to support them, or even convince them to continue to believe in apprenticeships.

The damage this is doing to SME apprenticeships is very high and will get worse over the summer months.

I am convinced that once they get used to not employing apprentices, they will not return to the programme.

The other issue is the apprentices. We have 22 young people who have successfully applied for our IT apprenticeships when they leave school or college next month – what are we supposed to tell them?

We are unable to engage with SME employers for them and there is not enough levy-paying employers in this area to recruit them all.

The worst thing about all this though is that at ESFA and government level, no one seems to care about us and the fact we may go out of business within the next 12 months.

Lowest percentage of colleges rated ‘outstanding’

The number of colleges with top marks from Ofsted has fallen to its lowest ever level this week, after Blackburn College slumped to a shock grade three.

New analysis by FE Week has uncovered a downward grading spiral for general FE colleges over the last 10 years.

Just one college has received an ‘outstanding’ grade, across the 124 full inspections that the inspectorate has carried out since the latest Common Inspection Framework (CIF) was introduced in September 2015.

An average of 11 colleges received grade ones every year between 2005/06 and 2014/15. The most successful year was 2007/08, when 37 of the 133 colleges inspected (28 per cent) were given full marks.

The overall percentage of general FE Colleges with a grade one has now fallen to just 13 per cent, or 26 out of 205 colleges.

The number of colleges graded either ‘outstanding’ or ‘good’ has also fallen to a record low, of just 69 per cent.

This grading spiral has happened despite several mergers over the last two years, which saw several poorly performing colleges removed from the stats as they joined their better-graded neighbours.

Colleges had been hoping that the inspection regime might soften under Ofsted’s new chief inspector Amanda Spielman – something that has so far not materialised.

David Corke, director of education and skills policy at the Association of Colleges, said it was “clear” that Ms Spielman is “fully committed” to inspecting colleges based on evidence but that it would take time for her to introduce changes to the new CIF.

“The CIF predates [her] arrival and it takes time to introduce changes to an existing framework which is deeply linked to current government policy,” he told FE Week.

An Ofsted spokesperson insisted that under Ms Spielman’s lead, Ofsted would continue to “treat the FE sector with the same rigour, and with the same regard to the evidence, as any other area we inspect”, adding: “That is what colleges and their students deserve.”

The latest college to lose its grade one was Blackburn College, which crashed to ‘requires improvement’ in a report published April 4. It had not been inspected for nearly a decade.

Two other former ‘outstanding’ colleges, Bury College and Holy Cross College in Manchester, were also revisited earlier this year after 10 years without inspection and both found themselves tumbling to grade threes.

The only college to be given a grade one since the new CIF came into play has been Truro and Penwith College in Cornwall. Its report, published in April last year, saw Ofsted return the highest possible rating for six headline fields, including leadership and management, quality of teaching, learning and assessment, outcomes for learners, and 16-to-19 study programmes.

Ms Spielman, who took the reins from Sir Michael Wilshaw in January, has made it clear that the inspectorate would consider scrapping the ‘outstanding’ grade now she is in charge.

She told MPs on the education select committee last June that getting rid of the rating was “something I would like to see fully discussed”, following criticism that FE providers and schools are given a false impression when they’re labelled with it.

But in an interview with FE Week editor Nick Linford in March, Ms Spielman said that although there were “many cuts possible” to Ofsted grades, the trade-offs “have to be looked at and you have to have some degree of acceptance by all stakeholders involved that this is going to serve the various purposes”.

She added that she didn’t see the removal of grades “as something for me with my scythe and armour”.

DfE ditches Boles back-to-school plan for apprentices

A plan to force apprentices to go back into schools and promote apprenticeships has seemingly been dumped just a year after it was announced by the former skills minister.

Nick Boles told the parliamentary sub-committee on education, skills and the economy last April that the government would introduce the “commitment on the part of an apprentice and of the apprentice’s employer”, an idea that was welcomed by the Confederation of British Industry.

Mr Boles first mentioned the idea in October 2015 at the Conservative party conference in Manchester, when he proposed “asking every apprentice to sign a simple contact”, requiring them to return to their schools when they’d finished their training and “talk about the values of the apprenticeship they did”.

But the government has been quiet on the scheme since Mr Boles resigned last July – prompting FE Week to ask the Department for Education if the plan had been scrapped.

A spokesperson stopped short of confirming a cancellation, but admitted that there was now “no obligation” for apprentices to go back into schools, adding: “Our Get In Go Far campaign is raising the profile and we have launched the ‘ASK project’ to raise the prestige of apprenticeships. We are also developing the Young Apprenticeship Ambassadors network who will bring their recent experience directly into schools.”

The government had talked the talk and not walked the walk

Her reference to ‘Get In Go Far’ follows Mr Boles’ comments last year, that apprentices returning to schools would “do more to correct the bad impressions than any amount of government marketing”.

He said that hearing from other young people about positive experiences of apprenticeships would “probably be the most powerful thing of all”.

‘ASK’ or ‘apprenticeship support and knowledge for schools’ aims to deliver apprenticeship and traineeship information to young people in years 10 to 13, through teachers, careers advisers, parents and governors – but not those young people directly involved in the training.

The CBI welcomed the plan last April, when its head of education Pippa Morgan told FE Week that businesses were “keen to engage with schools to help children and young people understand the opportunities their subjects can open up”.

The organisation refused to comment on the apparent demise of the scheme.

However, shadow skills minister Gordon Marsden said the government had “talked the talk and not walked the walk”.

“It is part and parcel of the overall debate about how we get more knowledge of apprenticeships into schools, and it seems to me if the minster is serious about that as part of his career strategy, he shouldn’t be allowing his department to backtrack on this particular commitment,” he told FE Week.

Mr Marsden backed development of a young apprenticeship ambassador network, which it is understood would involve a limited number of apprentices speaking with young people about the training, but warned it would “take some time to do”.

He said: “They could be actually doing a lot more with some of the existing networks, for instance the National Union of Students sponsors the National Apprenticeship Association.”

Shakira Martin, the NUS’ vice president for FE, also refused to comment directly, but did tell FE Week that if “apprentice ambassadors are well trained”, the resulting network would have “a fighting chance of getting the message out there”.

Breaking: Landmark EU court ruling could see colleges repaid millions in VAT

A Hampshire college has won a long-running dispute with the taxman, in a landmark ruling from the European Court of Justice which could save the sector millions.

The case centred on whether supplies for Brockenhurst College’s training restaurant, MJs, were exempt from VAT, and was originally sent to the EU’s highest court in January 2016, after three courts in the UK failed to resolve it for good.

Legal experts believe the verdict will set a precedent which could save the sector tens of millions of pounds as many colleges operate similar facilities.

In their summary of the case proceedings, published this week, the judges wrote that supplies for the college’s restaurant “may be regarded as supplies ‘closely related’ to the principal supply of education and accordingly be exempt from value added tax (VAT)”.

This is the case “provided that those services are essential to the students’ education and that their basic purpose is not to obtain additional income for that establishment, by carrying out transactions which are in direct competition with those of commercial enterprises liable for VAT”.

The court agreed with the arguments made on behalf of the college, that VAT was not due on the income generated from areas such as the training restaurants or hair and beauty salons, where members of the public pay for services supplied by students as part of their courses.

Brockenhurst’s principal Di Roberts said: “We are pleased with the recent judgement by the European Court regarding the ongoing VAT case and the treatment of income from our training restaurant.”

The case has now been referred back to the UK courts, but Ms Roberts added that the college “remains hopeful” it will ultimately be successful and set a precedent for other educational institutions in similar situations.

Julian Gravatt, assistant chief executive at the Association of Colleges, agreed the verdict was positive.

He said: “It is useful for Brockenhurst College to get this clarification on the VAT status of their training restaurant.

“The education VAT rules are very complicated. Brexit could be an opportunity for a wider review that removes VAT entirely from publicly funded sixth form education.”

Noel Tyler, director of VATangles, the VAT consultancy which advised Brockenhurst College, welcomed the “extremely good news”.

“The European Court has agreed with the arguments that we have consistently made on behalf of Brockenhurst and other colleges through the First Tier Tribunal, Upper Tribunal and the Court of Appeal,” he said.

“Hopefully, this will now finally result in HMRC making the repayments due to the colleges who have made claims to them.”

An HMRC spokesperson said only that HMRC is “currently considering the judgment of the CJEU”.

Further successful payback campaigns in the vein of Brockenhurst’s could net the sector tens of millions of pounds if this case starts a trend.

A hearing in February 2014 awarded Brockenhurst College £55,000 – representing four years’ worth of tax payments – and the college went on to win a second hearing in August 2014, after HMRC appealed the decision.

Then, at the third hearing in November, the Court of Appeal agreed with the request from both HMRC and the college to refer the case to the European Court of Justice on the basis that the law was unclear.