The University and College Union (UCU) has called on Cornwall College Group principal Amarjit Basi to take a pay cut to show solidarity with up to 60 staff set to lose their jobs through cutbacks.

And a college spokesperson told FE Week this morning that it has not ruled out this suggestion as negotiations progress with UCU officials.

It comes after the college confirmed to FE Week that it is looking at cutting up to 60 jobs “as part of reductions to back office and management to reduce our cost base, as well as some teaching posts, which are affected due to reduced recruitment on some courses”.

UCU regional official, Philippa Davey, explained that this announcement provoked it into requesting that Mr Basi should re-assess his own salary.

She said: “Our proposal was that the principal considers a pay cut. It was one of several put forward by the union in response to yet another new round of redundancies at Cornwall College.

“This latest announcement that up to 60 staff are at risk comes on top of three rounds of redundancies in the past 12 months. There have been ongoing redundancies for the past seven years.

“Meanwhile the principal received a total salary package of £229,000 in 2014/15, which was up from £210,000 the previous year – a 9 per cent pay rise.

“We believe if he were to take a modest pay cut that would send out a strongly supportive signal to staff that everyone is in this together.”

FE Week asked the college how Mr Basi planned to respond to the UCU’s suggestion.

A spokesperson replied: “We are currently in consultation with the unions and no proposals are off the table.”

He added: “The cost of our top 20 managers has reduced by 29 per cent since 2013.

“The principal’s salary has not changed while in post — the (UCU and SFA) 2013/14 figures represent 11 months in post (but) 2014/15 is a full year.”

The spokesperson also explained that a consultation had been launched with staff to find the “necessary savings”, and staff affected would be offered voluntary redundancy, redeployment, retraining or retirement.

“All affected employees will be offered guidance and support,” he said.

The college group struggled with a £9.1m deficit for 2014/15.

The dispute between the UCU and Cornwall College comes after FE Week previously reported that North East Surrey College of Technology (Nescot) principal Sunaina Mann earned a salary of £363,000 in 2015, making her by far the highest earning college principal in the country.

FE Week then exclusively revealed on May 19 that her husband that her husband, Jaswinder Singh Mann, was also employed as a consultant by Nescot to work on its controversial partnership in Saudi Arabia, the Jeddah Female College.

He was paid almost £200,000 in a contract that was not declared to college governors for 18 months.

A spokesperson for the college declined to confirm or deny whether the college failed to adhere to their procurement policy.

But in a statement, Ms Mann said that “robust governance arrangements” had “removed any conflict of interest” from the college’s arrangement with her husband.

A spokesperson for the Skills Funding Agency then told FE Week that it had requested “a report on the issue that has come to light, how it arose and what action Nescot are proposing to take”.

LATEST: Nescot accepts former £360k a year principal was unfairly dismissed

The Skills Funding Agency (SFA) has demanded an explanation from North East Surrey College of Technology (Nescot), after FE Week revealed evidence last week of controversial payments amounting to almost £200,000 to the principal’s husband.

A spokesperson for the agency told FE Week yesterday evening that it had requested “a report on the issue that has come to light, how it arose and what action Nescot are proposing to take”.

It comes just a few days after FE Week exclusively revealed the husband of Nescot principal Sunaina Mann was paid almost £200,000 in a contract that was not declared to college governors for 18 months.

We previously reported that Ms Mann received a salary of £363,000 in 2015, making her by far the highest paid college principal in the country.

Following publication on May 19 of FE Week’s story on the payments to her husband Jaswinder Singh Mann, details of the events were also picked up by The Times (pictured below right) and the Mail Online.

FE Week revealed last week that Mr Mann was employed as a consultant by Nescot to work on its controversial partnership in Saudi Arabia, the Jeddah Female College.

The arrangement means that the couple earned £775,000 in total from Nescot over the course of two years.

However, even though Mr Mann signed his first contract with the college on September 24, 2014, Nescot’s governors were not made aware of his role until a board meeting a year and a half later, on March 18, 2016.

The college revealed to FE Week that two further contracts were signed in 2015, on June 8 and August 1, again apparently without the knowledge of the board.

A spokesperson for the college refused to confirm or deny whether the college failed to adhere to their procurement policy.

And despite repeated attempts to obtain an explanation from the chair of the Nescot FE Corporation, Professor Mark Hunt, FE Week has still currently received no comment.

But in a statement, Ms Mann said that “robust governance arrangements” had “removed any conflict of interest” from the college’s arrangement with her husband.

The finalists who will battle it out to be crowned apprentice team of the year in the fifth annual Brathay Challenge have been announced.

Eight teams from across the country, each made up of nine apprentices, will take part in the final at Lake Windermere in the Lake District next month.

They will represent Apprenticeship Norfolk Network, Hampshire County Council, HMRC Digital Newcastle, HMRC Surge and Rapid Response Team, HSBC, IBM, QinetiQ, and UK Atomic Energy Authority.

The closing stage of the competition will involve the learners being tested to the limit over three days — through a series of outdoor and team building exercises — before the overall winner is announced on June 15.

Godfrey Owen, chief executive of the Brathay Trust, said: “All of the teams that have taken part have worked really hard and the quality of the portfolios increases year on year.

“We look forward to the final stage of the challenge when we can welcome the national finalists to Brathay in June.”

The finalists were chosen from 80 teams that entered this year’s challenge.

Between them they recruited almost 300 businesses to start offering apprenticeships, delivered 45 community projects and visited more than 320 schools, careers fairs and youth groups to spread the word about apprenticeships.

Apprentices from Dale Power Solutions and Sellafield Ltd were jointly named apprentice team of the year following last year’s challenge.

This came after the final reached a dramatic conclusion with a whaler boat race — a timed five-mile rowing and navigation trial around Lake Windermere.

Reflecting on his team’s win, Adam Sharp, apprentice at Sellafield Ltd, said: “We hope that winning the title will aid in our efforts to inspire young people and promote apprenticeships.

“Hard work, determination and self-confidence are key in success. We also hope that young people can use our journey as a lesson for themselves.”

Second place was also split between the team from Plymouth City Council and the joint team from Pera Training and Emfec (self-titled Perfec), while the Nottingham City Homes team took third place.

Sue Husband, director of the National Apprenticeship Service, looked forwards to more inspirational performances next month.

She said: “The apprentice team of the year national finals demonstrate the skills, knowledge and desire to succeed from apprentices; and this continues to inspire others and impress us in equal measure.

“It is great to see apprentices put in the hard work to get the recognition they deserve, highlighting how apprenticeships benefit not only young people themselves, but their employers and their local community too.”

For more information on this year’s competition visit brathay.org.uk/challenge.

Main pic: Finalists for the 2016 Brathay Apprentice Challenge were announced at the House of Commons on May 19

The findings of a hotly anticipated review into technical and professional education (TPE) have been hit by further delays — with the government now refusing even to say whether or not it will be unveiled before the EU referendum.

The report, which will set the scene for the first skills white paper in more than a decade, is being worked on by an independent panel led by Lord Sainsbury (pictured).

It is set to recommend the creation of 15 new ‘professional and technical’ routes with apprenticeship or substantial work experience, as exclusively revealed by FE Week on May 6.

The report was originally expected in March, and was then pushed back to May — but a Department for Education (DfE) spokesperson has now declined to say whether it will be published before the referendum on whether Britain should quit the EU on June 23.

In fact, if it is not unveiled before May 27, the report will be banned from publication until after the referendum — due to purdah rules governing the release of important information during periods of national campaigning.

A source told FE Week the release date was discussed at a meeting at BIS on Wednesday (May 18), and that officials believe it is highly likely that the report will now won’t be published until early July.

Shadow skills minister Gordon Marsden said this latest delay will further undermine the FE sector’s efforts to plan for the future.

He told FE Week: “With a sector already uncertain of its future direction amidst cuts and rushed area reviews, this delay adds to their worries.”

What’s more, he said it “further exacerbates frustrations” over Monday’s (May 16) higher education white paper, which upset educators because it made no reference to an “integrated skills strategy” between the two sectors.

The delay comes after the Skills Funding Agency (SFA) released a document in February labelled ‘The Legal Entitlements for 2016 to 2017’, which referenced an upcoming skills white paper, which was to be published “in the spring”.

It said: “The 2016 to 2017 funding year is part of a transitional period as we move towards full skills devolution and the implementation of TPE reforms.

“This transition gives time to move to new entitlement qualifications as well as make any changes to curriculum that come out of the reform of TPE. More information will be available when a skills white paper is published in the spring.”

But FE Week reported last month that the reference to “spring” had apparently been removed from an updated version of the report — indicating that publication would be delayed.

The online link to the first version of the document was also altered to redirect straight to the new updated copy — making it impossible for readers to compare the two.

And as revealed by FE Week earlier this month, the skills white paper will bring an end to mixed provision and make 16-year-olds choose between academic courses, leading to university, or a new TPE route into work.

The Department for Education said the panel’s outcomes would be published “in due course”, but would not specify whether it would be before or after the EU referendum.

A prominent campaigner for more black and Asian college principals has warned against “reinventing the wheel” — after a government review into ethnic minority workers came too late to save her group.

Rajinder Mann, (pictured), who led the Network for Black and Asian Professionals (NBAP) from 2013 until it was forced to close due to a lack of funding late last year, told FE Week she felt “very frustrated” that the government was only just now starting to focus on the issue.

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills announced this month that it had launched a review into why black and minority ethnic (BME) people working in the FE sector find it harder to progress into senior positions than their white counterparts.

Ms Mann, who has not been asked to contribute to the review, said: “Our raison d’être was to grow future talent and support black and minority ethnic staff in the workplace — it’s ironic that these things have happened the way they did.

“I applaud the fact that there is a review, but I have my reservations if it’s just going to be a paper-gathering exercise.”

A call for evidence from BME workers in support of the review, which is led by Baroness McGregor-Smith, will run until August 22.

Ms Mann believes that the review seems like a backward step, after the work done by the NBAP.

“Why do they want to keep re-inventing the wheel?” she asked. “Are they actually going to put their money where their mouth is and say ‘this is a serious agenda, we’re going to set targets which will enable us to see change’?”

She pointed out the number of ethnic minority principals in the FE sector had fallen from 17 in 2012/13 to 13 this year.

“I think we’ve become complacent in FE because there’s been a feeling that ‘oh well there isn’t a problem here because we’ve had 17 black principals before’,” Ms Mann told FE Week.

“But there’s no accounting body for this now. Will the review address who is going to pick up these issues?”

The campaigner, who was awarded an OBE in 2011 for her services to BME in the community, cautioned that many of the factors holding ethnic minority workers back today were the same as those initially identified by NBAP.

She said the call for evidence showed a lack of understanding “about what it is like on the ground”.

“There’s a strong urge on the one side to write in to the review,” she said. “On the other — will you be beating your head against a brick wall again?”

Anthony Bravo, principal of Basingstoke College of Technology (pictured left), told FE Week what the closure of the NBAP had meant to him.

He said: “The network was instrumental to me becoming a principal; I and other BME principals are saddened by its demise.

“We (BME) principals are determined to keep spirit of the network alive via the Association of College. The network made a significant impact in many individuals’ lives and careers.”

Commenting on the government’s call for evidence on the progression of BME workers, business secretary Sajid Javid (pictured above) said: “I urge everyone who has experience of trying to progress in work to take part in this review. Employers need to back their workforces and I am also calling on them to make sure everybody has a fair chance to succeed.”

Four out of five people doing level two and three apprenticeships are on a level they have already studied at, according to a worrying new report.

The figure cropped up in an investigation into the prior qualifications of adult apprentices in 2013/14, which was published by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS).

Eighty per cent (140,100 out of 175,400) of adults on level two apprenticeships apparently already had qualifications at that level, analysis by FE Week has demonstrated — a higher proportion than at any other time over the last five years.

Peter Kyle (pictured), a prominent and outspoken member of the Business, Innovation and Skills select committee described the figures as “deeply concerning”.

The MP for Hove said: “At a time when the government is looking for three million people to start apprenticeships over the course of this parliament, all efforts should be put into ensuring these are at a level higher than their previous qualifications wherever possible.

“If not, it is hard to see how exactly the proposed expansion of apprenticeship numbers will help close the skills gaps within our economy and contribute to improving the nation’s productivity.”

The report, which used interviews with 3,500 apprentices studying in 2013/14, was based on the sixth annual survey into the previous attainment level of adult apprentices.

In 2012/13, 79 per cent of adults taking a level two apprenticeship were found not to be taking their first qualification at the same level — compared with 72 per cent in 2011/12, 78 per cent the year before that year, and 75 per cent in 2009/10.

The proportion of adults on level three apprenticeships who already had a qualification of a similar level, was also up in 2013/14, to 56 per cent, compared with 53 per cent in 2012/13.

This figure stood at 50 per cent in 2011/12, 51 per cent in 2010/11, and 52 per cent in 2009/10.

A BIS spokesperson did not explain what plans, if any, the government had to address the issue of apprentices taking qualifications at levels they already possessed.

They said that apprenticeships “allow learners to develop specific work-based skills in a real job, adding to and enhancing previous qualifications such as GCSEs”, and that they “help people get on, help businesses to grow and benefit our economy”.