Members of the University and College Union (UCU) at South Downs College are being balloted for strike action, in what the union describes as a “row over new contracts”.

UCU claims that the college has threatened to dismiss staff who refuse to sign up to new contracts, which it says “would lead to worse pay and conditions for staff”.

The ballot opens today (Thursday June 2) and closes on Monday June 13.

The union cites a pay cut of around three per cent for lecturers, as well as reductions to annual leave and redundancy notice periods among its concerns.

The union’s regional official Moray McAuley said: “These are deeply damaging proposals, and staff are understandably angry at plans to dismiss staff who refuse to sign away a significant chunk of their salary and annual leave entitlement.

“Staff are dismayed at the actions of a senior leadership team, including a principal earning more than the prime minister, cutting their pay at the same time as leaving their own salaries intact.”

The Skills Funding Agency (SFA) College Accounts list the South Downs College principal’s salary as £149,000 in 2014/15.

Mr McAuley added: “Imposing these new contracts would be bad for staff and students alike.

“South Downs is an outstanding college but these changes will make it harder to attract the best teachers and lecturers.

“The college urgently needs to rethink its plans and work with UCU to address members’ concerns.”

A spokesperson for South Downs College told FE Week: “It is disappointing that the union has chosen to ballot for industrial action whilst consultation is taking place. We will be working with unions and staff to find a solution and to maintain our high standard of education for our students.”

Members of the University and College Union (UCU) will head to Liverpool tomorrow for the start of the union’s tenth annual congress — with the future of FE set to be a key topic up for discussion.

Delegates will vote on 35 FE-related motions during the three-day event at the ACC Liverpool — covering concerns over members’ pay, area reviews, “unprecedented” funding cuts, and implementation of the counter-terrorism Prevent duty placed on colleges by the government.

The ninth FE-related motion, for example, states that “this conference deplores the ongoing government programme of area reviews of FE, caused by the same government which systematically refuses to fund post-16 education adequately, whilst effectively making it compulsory for young people up to 18 to stay in education”.

It adds: “This is staggeringly hypocritical in that the government is exhorting colleges to work collaboratively and reduce competition whilst supporting a blinkered target-driven short-term approach to education.”

The main day dedicated to FE will be Thursday — but ahead of that UCU general secretary Sally Hunt will reflect, during her speech to conference tomorrow afternoon, on the tough financial climate facing the sector.

She will tell delegates: “Colleges and their staff really can’t win under a government that seems to have little understanding of what they do and why they are important to their communities.

“It is the cuts to public funding since 2010 that has created this [financial] weakness.”

She will add: “We meet at a time of extraordinary change.

“With white papers on schools, skills and higher education, the wrongness of the government’s vision won’t make the changes they propose any less real.”

Ms Hunt will also announce plans for a joint national demonstration to defend education in the autumn with UCU’s sister organisation, the National Union of Students.

Our very own FE Week editor will also be on a panel discussing what colleges can do to increase their market share of apprenticeship provision. This was criticised by the Skills Minister in November at the Association of Colleges (AoC) conference for being just 30 per cent.

Andrew Harden, head of FE at UCU, told FE Week today ahead of conference: “Clearly pay will be a big topic. We are getting to a situation where we are getting on towards a 20 per cent real cut in pay since 2009, so there will be a big debate about that around how we can get back what would look like meaningful national bargaining.

“Obviously area reviews are a big concern for the sector and that will be one of the bigger and longer discussions.”

He added that chief inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw’s damning comments to MPs on FE would still be a hot topic for discussion.

It comes after the Ofsted boss caused widespread anger across the sector by telling the Commons Education Select Committee in March that 16-to-19-year-olds should be taught in schools rather than colleges, because FE was “in a mess”.

See below for the full list of FE-related topics for motions going before this year’s conference:

FE1 – Pay

FE2 – Equal pay

FE3 – Equality data in further and adult education

FE4 – Campaign to defend further and adult education

FE5 – Defending post-16 provision

FE6 – Apprenticeships, disability and the destruction of FE

FE7 – National campaigning, area reviews and mergers

FE8 – Area reviews

FE9 – Area reviews of FE

FE10 – Area reviews

FE11 – Protect disabled people’s access to FE in merger process

FE12 – Cuts to FE, area reviews, and their impact on learning opportunities and access to education

FE13 – FE cuts, area reviews, and gendered impact on learning opportunities

FE14 – Anti-casualisation in a time of FE mergers

FE15 – The impact of area reviews on black communities

FE16 – Area reviews and LGBT concerns

FE17 – ESOL [English for Speakers of Other Languages], campaigning to defend further and adult education

FE18 – Cuts to ESOL and the persecution of women

FE19 – Ensuring gender identity equality in prison education

FE20 – Casualisation

FE21 – Workload

FE22 – FE workload and exploitation of staff

FE23 – Reaching out to ACE workers

FE24 – Supporting small scale ACE events and actions

FE25 – ACE [Adult and Continuing Education] national meeting

FE26 – ACE representation in UCU structures

FE27 – Regional adult and community education anti-casualisation campaigns

FE28 – Greylisting college principals

FE29 – Accountability in FE

FE30 – Prevent – education is not surveillance

FE31 – Learner/student voice

FE32 – Professionalism in post-16 education

FE33 – FE lecturers and QTS

FE34 – Lesson observation

FE35 – FE and Ofsted

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) has confirmed that Rachel Sandby-Thomas will be leaving her role as shadow chief executive of the new Institute for Apprenticeships (IfA) — just two months after it announced she had been appointed.

Ms Sandby-Thomas had been the only appointment so far at the IfA — which is due to launch in April 2017 and will help police employers as apprenticeship reforms take effect.

But a BIS spokesperson has now confirmed that she will join Warwick University as its registrar from September, when she will then leave the institute.

This will be a blow to an already challenging implementation timescale and shadow skills minister Gordon Marsden said the announcement had potentially left the IfA “in crisis”.

He said: “It is quite extraordinary that the person the government has just appointed as the key driver for the new institute has suddenly announced that she will be leaving the post in September.

“Clearly, whatever the reasons, this now potentially leaves a body, which still lacks a chair and a board and where the government have consistently been extremely vague about the future composition of this board, in crisis.”

Mr Marsden went on to question how employers, FE providers and colleges could have “any confidence” about the timetable for rolling out the IfA — which was “already highly ambitious in terms of both the levy and the apprenticeships target”.

BIS declined to comment on why Ms Sandby-Thomas was leaving the role, but told FE Week: “We will shortly be commencing the recruitment process for the institute’s permanent chief executive.”

At the time of her appointment in March, the department’s permanent secretary Martin Donnelly said: “Building on her in-depth knowledge of the apprenticeship programme as director general for skills, Rachel will play a major role in establishing the IfA, which is due to launch in April 2017 and be an essential part of ensuring the quality of apprenticeships in support of the government’s target of delivering 3m apprentices by 2020.”

Ms Sandby-Thomas was unavailable for comment on her reason for leaving the IfA, but was quoted on her new role in a press statement released by Warwick University as saying: “I’m really delighted to be joining Warwick.

“It is a fabulous university and I am really looking forward to joining its ambitious and dynamic team.”

Ms Sandby-Thomas joined the government legal service in 1993 from the City, where she worked as a solicitor with Linklaters, and has since advised at, HM Treasury, the Cabinet Office, the Attorney General’s Office, and Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency.

Her most recent role was as director general for skills, deregulation and local growth at BIS.

Vice chancellor professor Stuart Croft at Warwick University said: “I am delighted to welcome Rachel to Warwick.

“She brings to the role of registrar considerable experience of heading large teams with large budgets, and much of that experience has been in the department of government, responsible for higher education and skills.”

The Association of Colleges (AoC) has announced David Hughes as its new chief executive – just five months after he oversaw the launch of the Learning and Work Institute following a merger between two influential sector bodies.

He was chosen after the AoC was forced to re-advertise for the post – because it failed to find a suitable candidate from the initial applicants who were interviewed in March.

Mr Hughes (pictured above) told FE Week he did not apply when the vacancy was first publicised in January.

This was because he felt it would have been inappropriate as he was overseeing the launch of the Learning and Work Institute in the same month, following the merger of the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE) and Centre for Economic & Social Inclusion.

But FE Week reported exclusively on March 9 that no-one had been appointed to replace Martin Doel from the first round of applicants — and Mr Hughes felt the time was right to move on when the vacancy was subsequently re-advertised.

The AoC said Mr Hughes was due to start in September and when asked what changes he had planned for AoC, he said: “Part of the process will be meeting with Martin [Doel], staff, and members to make sure I understand what the colleges want and need.

“One thing I know is that Martin is leaving behind a strong AoC. I always try to be an optimist and I said in my interview that I saw this as a time of opportunity for colleges, firstly with the apprenticeship levy.

“It will bring in more money for colleges, attract employers to apprenticeships that wouldn’t have considered it otherwise, and underline the government’s commitment to skills training.

“Other opportunities I see for colleges will, for example, come through the extension of FE loans, the Sainsbury Review and new technical and professional education routes, and it’s obvious that the economy is going to need more of the higher level qualifications that colleges offer.”

Carole Stott, AoC chair, said: “We are delighted to welcome David at such an important time for our members.

“The board and I are confident that his high level skills, energy and commitment will enable him to lead AoC — as it continues to represent, support, and promote our colleges.

“We are very much looking forward to working with him as he takes on the mantle from Martin Doel, who has successfully led the organisation for the last eight years.”

FE Week reported in November last year that Mr Doel would be standing down from September 1, to move to a new professorship of FE and Skills at the Further Education Trust for Leadership (FETL).

Mr Hughes, who started at NIACE five years ago and made guests laugh at the Learning and Work Institute’s launch event by calling its new website “sexy”, was previously provider services director at the Skills Funding Agency from 2010 to 2011.

He held a series of senior roles with the Learning and Skills Council before that.

When questioned further about the timing of his move to the new post, which it is understood will pay around £135,000 a year, he said: “The problem is that jobs at this level don’t come up very often — the AoC job hadn’t for years.

“I didn’t apply the first time it was advertised in January, as that would have been too soon after the launch of the Learning and Work Institute. But by this point I feel it is in a strong position with a really good team in place.

“I will be sad to leave and would have liked to stay on for another year in an ideal world, but you can’t always choose the ideal timing.”

Maggie Galliers CBE, chair of the Learning and Work Institute, said: “On behalf of the board and staff, I would like to thank David for the hard work he has put in and the leadership he has shown to help secure the future of the Institute.

“He leaves behind a strong organisation with great staff.”

She added: “We will start the search for a successor straight away and I look forward to announcing a new CEO in the coming months.”

Mark Dawe, chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, said: “We warmly welcome David’s appointment and look forward to working with him in his new role.”

 

Mr Hughes has featured regularly in FE Week during his time with NIACE and the Learning and Work Institute, often in cartoons. Here’s a selection of our favourites:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A principal who lodged a formal complaint with Ofsted after the education watchdog branded his college inadequate has stepped down, along with his deputy.

West Cheshire College told FE Week today that Nigel Davies and his former deputy principal Adrian Humphreys had left.

The statement said the pair had both moved on “in order to explore new career and other professional opportunities”, but gave no further explanation for their departure.

Helen Nellist, who was already a member of the college’s leadership team, has been appointed acting principal “to ensure continuity and leadership and support”.

It comes after FE Week reported six months ago that Mr Davies had hit back at Ofsted — after the college was branded inadequate overall and across four headline fields, including effectiveness of leadership and management, following inspection in September.

Inspectors found that teachers did not expect enough of learners, and that the college’s financial future was unsustainable, among a host of other issues.

But Mr Davies argued that the inspection did not “accurately reflect our achievements to date and our current position today”, and said he had lodged a formal complaint with Ofsted which included an invitation to re-inspect the college.

However, a subsequent monitoring visit by Ofsted in February found the college was making insufficient progress in almost all areas identified.

The college has also been subject to intervention by the FE Commissioner, Dr David Collins, since September 2014 — after the college was also rated inadequate for financial health by the Skills Funding Agency.

Dr Collins’ report said that the college should “complete a viability review, working with the funding agencies, into consolidating its estates onto a single campus by the end of October 2014”.

It recommended a major rationalisation programme of the college’s estate, stating: “Subject to the outcome of this review confirming that alternative provision at Ellesmere Port would not significantly disadvantage learners, the Handbridge site should be closed and mainstream provision moved to the Ellesmere Port site.”

Mr Davies’ LinkedIn profile lists his current position, as of May, as chief executive of FE Skills Academy, a consultancy firm.

When asked by FE Week why he had left the college, Mr Davies said: “I found my time as principal at West Cheshire College very enjoyable and I will take with me many happy memories and recollections from my three years at the college.

“It was a pleasure working with a group of professional and committed individuals and I definitely feel the staff and students are a credit to the college.

“Undoubtedly, college achievements and successes are well documented from during my time at West Cheshire College.

“You will also note that the corporation thanked me for my leadership, commitment and support.

He added: “I decided to leave the college and explore new career opportunities; these are not exhaustive in their undertaking and will include many different possibilities.

“There is no particular other reason why I decided to leave West Cheshire College nor is it connected to any recent event – it was purely a professional matter.”

FE Week was unable to contact Mr Humphreys ahead of publication.

Pictured above: former West Cheshire College principal Nigel Davies

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) has claimed the decision confirmed today to close its Sheffield office will help save around £350m — even though a leaked document indicated the move would actually cost money.

BIS was accused of launching an “FE brain drain” after unveiling plans in January to close its Sheffield office, which it is feared could lead to around 250 civil servants with expertise on the sector losing their jobs.

The Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union claimed in March that widespread opposition to the plans to centralise policy-making in London had forced he department to delay its consultation on the move and announce a final decision on whether to proceed by two months until early May.

The department finally confirmed that it would definitely close today, and said: “This forms part of wider BIS 2020 plans to modernise the way the department works, as well as saving around £350 million for the taxpayer by 2020 in operational costs.”

But PCS disputed the money-saving claim, in light of a leaked government document, reported on by FE Week last month.

This stated that while potential savings through rent, rates and maintenance, rail travel, and hotel stays stood at £1.5m, the additional London salary costs could run to £1.6m per annum — indicating the move would result in a net loss of £100,000 for the department.

Lois Austin, the PCS full-time official for BIS covering the Sheffield office, told FE Week: “How can they possibly claim this will save all that money? All the indicators are that 90 per cent of the jobs in Sheffield will still be needed, but on London wages. You can do the maths.”

She added: “Our members are staying strong despite today’s announcement.

“We have already staged two strikes in the past two weeks and are planning further action including a withdrawal of goodwill which means we will just work our contracted hours.”

Permanent secretary Martin Donnelly said: “Creating one policy centre in London and closing the BIS office in Sheffield in 2018 is a decision that has not been made lightly.

“We have talked and listened to staff and unions. Making a decision which impacts on people’s lives and families is never easy. And we have decided that all staff will be able to stay in their current role and location until January 2018.

“After that, anyone who wants a role in London will be able to have one, with assistance towards the cost of travel for the first three years.”

A BIS spokesperson added the support package on offer to Sheffield staff affected would include “money for re-skilling, career coaching, and time off to look for other jobs”.

She added: “Anyone choosing to leave will benefit from the best exit terms currently available in the civil service.”

Application guidance for the new funding pot to support the implementation of area review recommendations has been unveiled today.

It comes just a week after the Treasury refused yet again to tell FE Week how much cash is in the pot – sometimes referred to as a restructuring facility – despite repeated enquiries.

The new guidance, published four months after FE Week first revealed details of the fund, is for general FE colleges and sixth form colleges (SFCs) “impacted by a substantive area review recommendation” and “unable to fund the change themselves”.

The funding is available as a loan “wherever possible”, the guidance said — “with terms which are commercial or as close as possible to commercial for government”.

The report did not include a figure for the size of the fund, or say how much cash colleges and SFCs can ask for.

But it said all colleges would be expected to show that “alternative sources of funding have been considered and are being utilised as far as possible”.

All applications will also need to clearly show how the proposal will “help you move towards financial resilience and higher quality and more responsive provision”.

Unlike the transition grants for consultants, guidance for which was published in April, colleges and SFCs “should usually not submit more than one application” for the facility, the new guidance added.

And if a recommendation involves more than one institution, they should “submit a single, joint application”.

All applications will need to include an implementation plan and a “fully integrated financial model”, alongside a completed application form.

The application should “differentiate between and provide evidence for facts, assumptions and aspirations”, the guidance said.

Applications will also need “a clear, well evidenced and well thought through” financial forecast.

And implementation plans will need to outline “what the changes are and their fit with the area review recommendation” and “what outcomes will be delivered”.

They will also need to include a “long term strategy and business plan” including a curriculum plan that meets the “area’s educational and economic needs as set out in the area review report”.

As previously reported by FE Week, funding is available from the facility to cover any VAT costs resulting from the change in ownership or building due to an area review recommendation.

Colleges and SFCs can apply for this “compensatory payment” as part of their restructuring facility application, or on a separate application form “which will be published in due course” if they are only applying for VAT compensation.

A separate application form for SFCs to apply for funding “for an academisation” will also be published “in due course”, the guidance said.

Lord Sugar has accepted a second “enterprise tsar” role to encourage more young people onto apprenticeships — but this time under a Conservative government.

The wealthy entrepreneur and television star was knighted in 2000 and served as the previous Labour government’s enterprise champion in 2009, under then-Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

However, it was announced last May that he had quit the Labour party because of its “negative business policies and the general anti-enterprise concepts” under Ed Miliband’s leadership.

The Conservative government has now announced that he will serve as its “enterprise tsar”.
A spokesperson said: “As well as championing enterprise and apprenticeships among young people, he will encourage businesses to take on apprentices themselves.”

Lord Sugar said: “I’m delighted to be taking on this challenge. I built successful businesses with the support of hundreds of talented young people who learned their skills on the job – exactly the kinds of skills you learn in an apprenticeship.

“But not enough of our young people know about apprenticeships and what they offer, and too few feel empowered to set up their own business.

“I’ll be travelling the length and breadth of this country to tell young people why apprenticeships are a great way for them to build their skills – and talking about the opportunities for starting their own business, hopefully instilling some entrepreneurial spirit.”

Lord Sugar reportedly joined the “billionaire’s club” in 2015, with his estimated fortune standing at £1.15bn.

He founded his most famous business enterprise, computer and electronics specialist Amstrad, in 1968.

The peer was chairman of Tottenham Hotspur football club from 1991 to 2001 and is now best-known for fronting BBC TV series The Apprentice.

Skills Minister Nick Boles said: “Lord Sugar has huge credibility among young people and I am delighted that he has agreed to help the government bang the drum for apprenticeships and enterprise.

“We want every young person in Britain to get on and build a great life for themselves, whether it’s by starting an apprenticeship or setting up their own business.”

Lord Sugar will go on a series of roadshow events across England, speaking to local school leavers and businesses.

A spokesperson for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills told FE Week this morning that Lord Sugar is not being paid for the new role.

The government has announced the second wave of apprenticeship frameworks that will be closed to new starts, with of total of 60 facing termination in December.

The announcement was made by the Skills Funding Agency (SFA) on the gov.uk website today, indicating that frameworks will be shut down towards the end of the year.

It said: “We have now published a second batch of 60 apprenticeship frameworks that we will withdraw for new starts from December 1, 2016.

“These frameworks had a low number of reported starts in the 2014 to 2015 and the 2015 to 2016 funding years or have provision covered by developing apprenticeship standards.”

The number of apprenticeship frameworks to be removed has jumped considerably from the first batch of just seven scheduled to be switched off in June.

The second group to be removed includes subjects such as banking, ceramics manufacturing, fundraising and public relations (find a full list below).

The SFA release included a comment that confirmed the change “will not affect those apprentices currently completing their apprenticeship on these frameworks”.

On March 2, FE Week reported that the government had announced the first seven apprenticeship frameworks to be closed to new starts from June 1, 2016.

This included frameworks in blacksmithing, engineering and manufacturing technologies, campaigning business administration and law, energy assessment and advice, retail and commercial enterprise.

The closures were again attributed to a lack of starts in these areas between 2014 and 2016.

In December last year, FE Week reported that the government had scrapped plans to stop funding all apprenticeship frameworks after 2017/18.

The cut-off, that would ensure providers were only delivering new apprenticeship standards come 2018/19, was first announced in October 2013.

But it was revealed in the government’s 2020 vision document, published on December 7, that the 2017/18 end of frameworks has now been dropped.

According to the document, the government’s “aim was for all new apprenticeship starts to be on standards from 2017/18” instead of existing apprenticeship frameworks.

However, it added: “We think the recent announcement of the apprenticeship levy warrants giving employers longer to consider which occupations they will require apprenticeships for.

“To allow for this, we envisage a migration from apprenticeship frameworks to standards over the course of the Parliament, with as much of this to take place by 2017/18 as possible.”

 

Here’s the full list published today:

Framework Code  Franmewok Name

627                         Advanced Diagnostics and Management Principles

586                         Advertising and Marketing Communications

598                         Animal Technology

639                         Automotive Clay Modelling

590                         Banking

452                         Bookkeeping

610                         Broadcast Production

554                         Building Energy Management Systems

581                         Business Innovation and Growth

469                         Ceramics Manufacturing

546                         Combined Manufacturing Processes

415                         Commercial Moving

619                         Contact Centre Operations Management

493                         Costume and Wardrobe

621                         Craft and Technical Roles in Film and Television

624                         Creative Craft Practitioner

614                         Criminal Investigation

409                         Emergency Fire Service Operations

564                         Engineering Construction

604                         Engineering Environmental Technologies

552                         Enterprise

607                         Explosives Storage and Maintenance

577                         Express Logistics

553                         Extractives and Mineral Processing Occupations

585                         Fashion and Textiles:Technical

530                         Fencing

568                         Fish Husbandry and Fish Management

557                         Fundraising

635                         Furniture, Furnishings and Interiors Manufacturing

567                         Health Informatics

470                         Health Pathology Support

611                         Information Security

589                         Insurance

603                         Intelligence Analysis

622                         Interactive Design and Development

629                         Jewellery Manufacturing, Silversmithing and Allied Trades

592                         Learning Support

601                         Legal Advice

450                         Libraries, Archives, Records and Information Management Services

549                         Local Taxation and Benefits

571                         Locksmithing

411                         Mail and Package Distribution

597                         Metal Processing and Allied Operations

593                         Mineral Products Technology

606                         Multi-skilled Vehicle Collision Repair

496                         Music Business

426                         Nuclear Working

451                         Payroll

424                         Polymer Processing Operations

638                         Procurement

503                         Production of Coatings

615                         Professional Aviation Pilot Practice

572                         Public Relations

623                         Rail Engineering Overhead Line Construction

608                         Retail Management

609                         Sound Recording, Engineering and Studio Facilities

510                         Spa Therapy

618                         Sustainable Resource Operations and Management

558                         Volunteer Management

576                         Wood and Timber Processing and Merchants Industry