Lessons learned over study programmes

Graham Taylor casts a weary eye over the evolution of study programmes.

The study programme is now in its third year, but what have we learned?

Firstly it’s a misnomer. It doesn’t all have to involve “study” — just work experience or enrichment activities.

Is the marked increase in full-time learners attributable to padding out programmes with non-qualification aims to make up the 540 hours (450 for 18 year olds)?

If so, this is a poor use of public money, and it may be a reason that the Department for Education (DfE) is short of funds for 16-18 apprenticeships.

It’s bizarre that up to half of the time can be spent on activities that don’t lead to qualifications

It’s bizarre that up to half of the time can be spent on activities that don’t lead to qualifications, especially when the last government cut enrichment time from 114 to 30 hours.

What they didn’t like (thanks to Alison Wolf) is “mickey mouse” qualifications. So outlaw them, or raise their standards, they say.

But while enrichment, including work experience, may be good for the soul, the quality performance indicators are tenuous at best. Ofsted struggles to assess this.

With regards to “meaningful” work experience, departmental guidance is littered with references to this.

However, they forgot to take into account that many 16-18s have paid jobs (85 per cent in my college).

Surely paid work trumps unpaid work experience. Ofsted was dismissive of this — shelf stacking in Tesco, for example.

But we encourage the employability skills this sort of work encourages — punctuality, customer care, communications and trying to build relevant qualifications around the paid jobs.

Traineeships require a minimum of 100 hours of work experience. We struggle to run any because learners can pick up paid work around here.

But, in theory a “try before you buy” apprentice might work.

However, I cannot see why trainees are exempt from the grade D English and maths rule. If employers prefer GCSEs (and Ofqual say they do) then the rule should apply to all learners.

With regards to core aims, I can’t see why these have to be designated and they are meaningless when it comes to A-level programmes. How can work experience be a core aim in itself? They should drop the notion.

The perceived divide between academic, applied and technical qualifications is also largely artificial — although this is not the fault of the study programme concept. It has more to do with wanting to stream learners.

The differences are usually in the way things are measured (exam versus assessment) rather than content. Which category does an A-level in accounting fall into? All three in my view. We have many young learners taking ‘hybrid’ combinations.

With regards to measuring success, it’s always made sense to measure quality of learning by success rates at course level comparing with national averages and internal progress over the years.

This can be built up to team and sector skills areas and college level using weighted averages (a concept Ofsted struggle with).

The trouble with the school and college performance tables is that they only show 16-18 level threes who complete and do not account for drop-outs (by institution or subject) or level one and two learners — big business in many colleges.

So you could be top of this particular league, but with very high in-year drop-out rates, not good quality.

That’s why we all need to keep our eyes on success rates.

On another note, one interesting outcome of area reviews for FE Colleges might be demerger.

Float off your 14-18 provision and become an academy — benefitting from 100 per cent taxpayer funding for new builds (useful if you have ageing and dilapidated assets) and the ability to reclaim VAT.

It makes more sense than merging with a failing entity, although the poor old 19+ bit would be left to battle in the new world of apprenticeship levies and loans.

 

Graham Taylor is principal and chief executive of New College Swindon

Brexit possibility raises skills funding questions

Questions remain over what the impact will be on cash from the European Social Fund (ESF) if the UK votes to leave the European Union (EU).

However the government has committed to providing more information before the country goes to the polls on June 23.

“As required by the EU Referendum Act 2015, the Government is committed to producing clear information, ahead of the referendum, on the outcome of renegotiation, the rights and obligations in EU law, an assessment of alternatives to membership and publishing the process for leaving,” a spokesperson for 10 Downing Street told FE Week.

The ESF is cash that the UK receives, as a member state of the EU, to increase job opportunities and help people to improve their skill levels, particularly those who find it difficult to get work. The current funding round, which runs from 2014 to 2020, is worth about €3bn (£2.3bn) across England.

It is administered through the Skills Funding Agency (SFA), Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), and the Big Lottery Fund, which act as co-financing organisations to provide match funding.

Projects delivered through the SFA focus on learning and skills, with a particular emphasis on young people who are not in education, employment or training (NEETs).

According to SFA allocations in 2014/15, 107 different providers, including colleges and independent training organisations, received a combined total of £305,267,633 in ESF cash.

The SFA’s current round of contracts, worth £650m, is being delivered with the involvement of local enterprise partnerships (Leps).

As revealed by FE Week in December, the funding agency is running a ‘sequence of procurement’ that must be finished by the end of September. All projects must be delivered by March 2018.

So far three rounds of invitations to tender have been announced, across 16 Leps.

No date has yet been set for when the UK would leave the EU in the event of a leave vote in June. According to a parliamentary research paper, published in 2013, there would be a two-year negotiating period after the UK notifies the EU of its intention to leave.

“The message re Brexit has been that the 2014 to 2020 programme will run in full at that value provided the UK makes the necessary match available,” said John Bell, senior partner at policy consultants Curved Thinking. Mr Bell is specialist adviser to the House of Lords European Union Committee and was policy editor of ESF-Works, which provided policy and practice lessons from ESF in England 2007 to 2013.

“The contracts DWP agrees with co-financers and providers are binding so far as we know, so it is likely that most would indeed run to term, but we cannot be sure,” he added.

David Cameron is leading the campaign to stay in the EU, while the London mayor and MP Boris Johnson — who will be leading the London area reviews of post-16 education and training — has come out in support of the leave camp.

A leave vote would lead to the UK no longer having access to ESF cash.

An expert in EU funding, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told FE Week that “the people who would be losing out would be the people who need a lot of support, who have complex needs, who are battling all sorts of issues like homelessness, addiction, who are further away from the learning”.

A spokesperson for the DWP said that it would be wrong to pre-judge the outcome of the referendum. A spokesperson for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills said it had nothing to add to what the DWP had said.

 

Sal Cooke, education technology expert

Sal Cooke’s experience of using technology in the sector certainly proves that — at least amongst her peers — millennials aren’t the owners of internet.

In fact one of Cooke’s worries for the future is that the next generation might not be ready keep things moving forward with technology in the sector.

“There’s a whole generation of us that seem to be this network of people working on technology in education, and it’s not a closed network, it’s not an old boys’ network or anything like that, it’s just people who have had a variety of experiences in this area,” she says.

“Where do we have the time and the resources in order to be able to help the next iteration of whatever those champions are in whatever the thing is that we need?”

The recently-retired education technology expert has visited London to attend the Bett Show (formerly known as the British Educational Training and Technology Show, which she often speaks at) but does not like to spend too much time away from her hometown of Bridlington in Yorkshire.

At the weekends Cooke now volunteers at the village hall, helping locals to engage with digital media.

She was born Rotherham, in South Yorkshire, in the mid-1950s, to a father who was a doctor and a mother who taught at Kimberworth Primary School.

Cooke, who was given an OBE in recent New Year’s honours list, joined the school in the nursery, but when her parents divorced and her mother moved to the east coast town of Bridlington, Cooke transferred to a small private school in Retford Lorne House.

“My parents separated at a time when divorce was an unheard of thing,” she says of the time.

A couple of years later, Cooke moved to join her mother in Bridlington, which she describes as “a very typical seaside resort”, and attended Moorfield Primary School for the last two years of junior school.

She passed the 11-plus exams and went on to attend Bridlington High School for Girls, where she also took on part time jobs from age 13 alongside her O and A levels.

After school, she worked in hotels, bars, hairdressing, and music and attended evening classes in FE colleges.

These included Scunthorpe College, where she took the transport managers exams and even worked in haulage driving lorries.

Cooke moved back to Bridlington in the early 1980s and completed a part time FE service teaching qualification at Hull College, where her daughter Katie would later study.

She also completed a degree in education at Hull University.

At this time she took on part time contracts at East Riding College, teaching subjects such as business studies, catering and hairdressing, to 17 to 18 year olds.

“I think the only thing I didn’t teach at the time at the college was joinery … I even covered a bit of welding,” she says.

She also put her training to use teaching at her former school, Bridlington High School for Girls.

Following this experience, she gained a job on secondment for Humberside Local Education Authority, on one of the early Education Support Grant programmes, supporting the 54 colleges in Yorkshire and the Humber.

This role as a curriculum development manager involved encouraging teachers and lecturers to use IT in their teaching — at the time that the very first personal computers were just coming into education.

She shook up existing provision and created continuing professional development packs that brought together students from subject areas as varied as hairdressing to construction.

It’s that woman again, she’s going to talk about FE

Staff may have been lucky enough to see their first Amstrad at this time, but it was long before Windows would come into being.

One of her first visits in the role was to Bishop Burton College, where she was looking at helping integrate a spreadsheet into a farm accountancy course.

Cooke ran a regional volunteer organisation called Share IT, and with the help of volunteers ran a large conference every year at Woolley Hall near Wakefield.

This heralded some of the maiden presentations of key players in the digital world, such as Professor Stephen Heppell, Chris Yapp, and Graham Whitehead.

She also worked on the BBC’s education team in the late 1980s, looking at how teachers were using computers in school.

Cooke was later invited to focus on FE learning at a national level for the National Council for Educational Technology (NCET), which would later become the British Education Communication Technology Association (BECTA).

She was teaching at Hull College part time, but in her new role at NCET was focussed on encouraging staff in the post-16 world of education to use digital technologies.

This later moved into how to incorporate the internet into the work of staff — despite the fact that few could access it at home.

After this, Cooke moved to the Department for Education in 2001, again advising on use of education technology and worked in Europe circles, visiting Brussels when negotiating for legislation on accessibility in technology.

By the early 2000s, Cooke was focusing more and more on ensuring that all learners could access technology, and when a job came up 12 years ago in York for director of the Jisc funded service TechDis she eagerly snapped it up.

“We were one of the first services, in Jisc, to actually appoint someone at a senior level from an FE college. That was a real challenge but it was fantastic,” she says.

“I absolutely enjoyed it. I think at the time I’m sure they thought, ‘It’s that woman again, she’s going to talk about FE’, and at times I almost felt I was completely talking a different language.

“But we got over those kind of things, and it was very productive, and I was conscious that there were half a dozen services that this committee saw the budget for that were likely to become FE focused.”

One of her key achievements in this role involved working with Cereproc, a Scottish based company specialising in voice techniques, to acquire additional funding from the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills to commission two new voices (TechDis Jack and TechDis Jess) to be distributed free to 6m learners.

During her time leading TechDis, the company also commissioned from scratch a portfolio building system for students with complex needs.

With nearly 40,000 users, it gave students with special educational needs a system for controlling their work.

“They might have some pages that were for college, pages for their friends, pages for employers, and one lad I always remember used to say, ‘My mum can’t see that bit because that’s got me and my girlfriend on it’,” Cooke says.

She cannot praise the work of specialist colleges enough, saying: “If you want to see how technology really changes lives, they’re the places to be — some of those students need technology to live, they are phenomenal, phenomenal colleges.”

At the beginning of 2015, TechDis was closed down, when Jisc needed to rationalise their offering.

“I think the hard thing was that the things that were being recognised for FE and skills are now no longer being focused on in the new version of Jisc. But then Jisc is working on a restricted budget,” says Cooke.

This goes back to her concerns about the future of technology and education.

“Times change, times move on, but there are things you have to keep doing,” she says.

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timeline

It’s a personal thing

What’s your favourite book?

It has to be the first accessible version of Harry Potter, for the simple reason that JK Rowling was an absolute star and realised that she couldn’t have a non-accessible book. So by the time she got to the point where there were the midnight launches, you couldn’t have a situation where a child couldn’t get an audio book or Braille book. We worked with the Royal National Institute of Blind People and everybody else in order to get that book guaranteed by Bloomsbury at midnight on that day — they were available in all formats.

What do you do to switch off from work?

Take people to see puffins! Even though I stand on the boat and go, “Right, GCSE geography, come with me,” it’s probably the only time I’m not fully in work mode. It’s like another job because I’ve done it so long and I coordinate the volunteers, but it is a different kind of thing.

What’s your pet hate?

I just despair sometimes when I see people using technology and there’s such a much easier way to do it, something or other that they could do if only they knew what button to press or what equipment to use. That can be just infuriating. It’s not a hate as such, it’s more that if I had the time I could show them.

If you could invite anyone to a dinner party, living or dead, who would it be?

I would need to have a combination of people. Who would get on, or not — watch the sparks fly. Douglas Adams would definitely be there — he’s not only brilliant writer and genius but one of the first to become a technological entrepreneur. Samuel Joseph Cooke, my paternal grandfather from Northern Ireland. He was a head teacher, but he died when my father was seven years old. I’d also have Malala Yousafzai, an inspirational young lady in anyone’s books; two apprentices of the year from vocational subjects; and my daughter and son — in — law, as family are the most important aspects of one’s life.

What did you want to be when you were growing up?

Different. I don’t like doing as other people do.

Curriculum Vitae

Born: Rotherham, South Yorkshire

Education

1955 Born in Rotherham at St Anne’s nursing home

1959 Joined Kimberworth Primary,

1962 Moved to Lorne House, Retford

1965 Started at Moorfield Junior School in Bridlington

1967 Started Bridlington Girls High School

1980 Daughter Katie is born

Career

1983–1986 Secondary school teacher, Bridlington School

1986–1988 Secondary school teacher, Headlands School

1986–1992 Lecturer and staff developer, East Riding College

1987–1992 North of England curriculum representative, National Communications Educational Technology (NCET)

1992–1999 Curriculum development manager, Humberside IT Unit (Local Authority Service)

1989–2002 Development officer, BECTA

1999–2003 Part time lecturer and liaison with FE Colleges, University of Hull

1992–2004 Lecturer/staff developer/IT services manager Hull College Group

2000–2004 Member of Jisc committees as FE & Skills rep

2001–2004 Education technology advisor, Department for Education and Skills

2004–2014 Director, Jisc TechDis

2012–Present Trustee at the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB)

2012–Present Council member, British Assistive Technology Association (BATA)

2016 Awarded an OBE for services to FE, accessibility and inclusion in the New Year’s Honours List

 

Ready for Royal Marines

A Northbrook College student has successfully completed one of the most gruelling basic training programmes in the world to enter the Royal Marines.

Jamie Smith, who studied level two and three diploma in uniformed services at the college, took on the demanding 32-week programme at the Commando Training Centre Royal Marines (CTCRM) at Lympstone Devon.

During his training, the 21-year-old learned everything from the basics such as marching, and looking after his kit and weapons, to combat skills that will turn him into an elite soldier worthy of the Green Beret.

The combat skills included setting ambushes, cliff assaults and fighting in built up areas.

The final week of training involved the completion of four commando tests, including an endurance course, a nine-mile speed march, a Tarzan assault course and a 30 mile march across Dartmoor, with equipment and rifle, which had to be completed in less than eight hours.

Jamie said: “Training was extremely hard but rewarding and I wouldn’t have been able to do it without the help and guidance from the uniformed services course at Northbrook College.”

Pic: Northbrook College learner Jamie Smith enters the Royal Marines

 

‘Inspirational’ aviation teacher

City College Norwich’s aviation engineering course leader Stuart Mackay has been recognised with a prestigious award for his “inspirational” teaching.

He was presented with the Aviation Skills Teacher of the Year award at a reception at the House of Commons by the Aviation Skills Partnership.

Stuart Mackay’s late father, Angus Mackay, in his Meteor F4 in front of the hangar at Norwich, 1948
Stuart Mackay’s late father, Angus Mackay, in his Meteor F4 in front of the hangar at Norwich, 1948

The award also has a great deal of personal significance for Mr Mackay as many of his students set to progress to the new Norwich International Aviation Academy, will hone their engineering skills in the same hangar where his late father was based with the RAF during the 1940s.

On being presented with the award, Mr Mackay said: “I was truly honoured not only to be on the shortlist, but also to be selected for an award for doing something that has been a lifelong passion for our family. This award is a testament to all the hard work put in by all of my teaching colleagues on the Aviation Engineering course at City College Norwich.”

 

Main pic: Stuart Mackay being presented with the Aviation Skills Partnership teacher of the year award by Amy Helm, partnership manager at the Aviation Skills Partnership, and Andy Perkins, chairman of youth in aviation

 

Medallion man is WorldSkills mentor

A former Redcar & Cleveland College plasterer, who scooped a Medallion of Excellence at the 2015 WorldSkills Championships, has returned to mentor the college’s current crop of students.

Rob Johnson completed his level three plastering diploma last year and visited the learners as part of the organisation’s College Champions initiative, a peer-to-peer mentoring scheme which sees high-achieving former students return to “unlock the skills of others” in their line of work.

The 22-year-old presented a video to level two plastering diploma students to share his experience of the WorldSkills Championships and offer an insight into the industry.

Rob, who works for his family’s North Ormesby-based plastering firm, Classic Plaster Moulds, said: “I’ve now reached the age limit to compete in such competitions [WorldSkills], but it has been fantastic to be able to pass on my knowledge to the students. Who knows, one day I might be judging them at the WorldSkills Championships.”

Rob is now studying for a teaching qualification at the college and, with the help of plastering lecturer Richard Cochrane, wants to become a tutor to help train the next generation of plastering talent.

Pic: Rob Johnson (middle) returns to Redcar & Cleveland College to help cement the futures of other plastering students hoping to follow in his footsteps

 

Charity walk for guide dogs

Caring Barnsley College students embarked on a sponsored charity walk in aid of The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association (Guide Dogs).

The learners, who study childcare and education professions courses, made the 2.5 mile journey to the college’s Wigfield Farm site as part of the department’s relationship with Guide Dogs.

The charity has delivered tutorials to the learners about its work and how the public can support them in the past.

Claire Griffin, tutorial learning mentor, said: “The students enjoyed learning about Guide Dogs and the service users.

“The experience provided the perfect opportunity for the learners to understand and reflect on the service that Guide Dogs offers to individuals.

“All learners enjoyed a different learning experience enabling them to put their energies into a good cause.”

The students are also currently fundraising towards Barnsley College’s Name a Puppy @ School scheme where they aim to raise a total of £1,500 to name a guide dog puppy which they will get a chance to meet.

Pic: Learners and staff from the Barnsley College’s childcare and education professions department with Guide Dogs representatives

 

Flying over owl and kestrel tower

Skilful New College Stamford learners have teamed up with a local charity to complete a conservation project for endangered bird life.

The project sought to build a tower using recycled materials salvaged from a previously demolished barn, to encourage breeding of owls and kestrels.

The tower, constructed on farmland in Dyke by the Len Pick Trust with carpentry, electrical and bricklaying students, will not be accessible to the public, and as a result has been commissioned to include a live internet feed.

Live images of the nesting box, via the Len Pick Trust website, will be transmitted during active nesting seasons in the future.

Richard Brickwood, learning and standards manager for construction at New College Stamford, said: “This was an incredible opportunity for students to gain experience and develop their skills in a real work environment. They responded amazingly to the challenge working towards a very tight deadline. They can all be proud of making a positive impact in the community and on the environment”

Pic: New College Stamford learners with Len Pick Trust and community members meet to celebrate success of conservation project

 

Young jazz musician finalist

A former Stratford-upon-Avon College music student has made it through to the final of the BBC’s Young Jazz Musician competition.

Elliot Sansom, aged 21, is one of five contestants who will battle it out for the top award.

Having already passed an intense audition process, the finalists will be accompanied by the Gwilym Simcock Trio, who will also act as their mentors.

Elliot gained his level three extended diploma in music at Stratford-upon-Avon College in 2012, before going on to study Jazz at Birmingham City University’s Birmingham Conservatoire.

After starting to play the piano himself at the tender age of five, 16 years later he credits the college for being “instrumental” in his career progression.

Elliott said: “I’m thrilled to be in the final of such a prestigious competition and to be recognised for playing the kind of music I love.

“They [his college lecturers] gave me confidence in my ability as a musician and helped me define the kind of musician I wanted to be.”

The final will take place March 12 at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff, and will be broadcast on BBC Four.

Pic: Former Stratford-upon-Avon College music student Elliot Sansom playing the piano