The sky was no limit for the executive team at Colchester Institute as they took part in a working at heights training session to launch their new Training Tower and Enclosed Space facility.
The team, which included principal Alison Andreas, spent the morning with the college’s health and safety instructors, where they demonstrated tower safety, appropriate use of equipment and climbing techniques.
Ms Andreas said: “Although I have to admit that I was a little apprehensive about the climb, the sense of achievement made it all worthwhile and the view from the top was fantastic.”
At 52ft high, the new Training Tower and Enclosed Space facility will allow the college to deliver mandatory training qualifications, to support regional growth sectors including telecommunications, rail, energy, and general construction and engineering.
The training tower is also available for use by businesses and community groups for activities including team building, personal development and training staff.
Pic: From left: instructor Chris Coe, instructor Tom Calcutt, vice principal Gary Horne, health and safety manager Max Fox, principal Alison Andreas, director of faculty for construction Adam Ward, and instructor Shaun Fox
Wednesday, December 16, marks four years to the day that Dr Ros Morpeth returned to her post as chief executive of the National Extension College (NEC) to save it from obscurity.
The 69-year-old first worked at the Cambridge-based distance learning college in the late 1970s and performed the same saviour task back then.
Recognition of her dual feat came with an OBE for service to FE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list this summer.
“When I first took over as chief executive of the NEC in 1987 it was heading downhill, with a big deficit,” she said.
“Learners were at risk of being pushed to one side in favour of educational publishing.
Morpeth (right) and younger sister Caroline in 1950
“But NEC became viable once more, with an increased turnover, new income streams and a move to web-based learning and the acquisition of the Michael Young Centre in Cambridge.
“When the opportunity came for me to do it all over again, I was able to bring the experience of distance learning I had built up nearly twenty years earlier to re-establishing NEC.”
However, without Morpeth’s will to make her own way in the world — that didn’t involve the family furniture business — the NEC might not be with us today.
She grew up just outside Newcastle in a village called Jesmond with parents Douglas and Joan, and younger sister Caroline.
Her dad ran a local furniture store, which he and his brothers had inherited from their father, so after finishing secondary school Morpeth was expected to move into the family business.
After finishing school, Morpeth moved to London to do a year’s furnishing course, and then went into the family furniture business back up in Newcastle, where she worked for five years.
But when she turned 22, Morpeth says she decided she wanted to see more of the world and travelled to Kingston, Jamaica, for a year to work in a furniture company.
On her return home, she then worked at a variety of “Avant-grand” manufacturers and retailers of furniture.
Morpeth at her degree ceremony at Ely Cathedral with
Helen Lentell being awarded an Honorary Doctorate for
her contribution to distance learning in 1994
But with a lust for more and a newfound love for travel from her Jamaican experience Morpeth travelled to Greece for several months to carry out her work abroad.
However, she decided to come back to the UK after reading an influential article in the Guardian on the women’s movement and she was determined to get involved.
She says: “It was a very exciting time and it was at that point that I realised that I was really missing out if I didn’t go to university.”
So Morpeth started to study for her A-levels so she could apply to universities as a mature student.
She wanted to carry out a degree in social anthropology and secured an interview at the University of Cambridge in 1971.
But before Morpeth completed her A-levels she was given an unconditional offer by the university and chose not to finish her A-levels.
She smiles and says: “I do think about it sometimes — and wonder if I’d ever be clever enough to do them now.”
On the completion of her social anthropology degree Morpeth did a PhD in Northern India on the impact of the Green Revolution and on her return to England she applied for a course editor opening at Open University precursor NEC, which she spotted in her local newspaper.
“I didn’t know anything about editing but I was interested in education and to my amazement I was offered the job,” she says.
From left: NEC chair of trustees Geoffrey Hubbard, Morpeth and NEC founder Michael Young celebrate NEC’s 25-year anniversary
She adds: “The mission of the NEC was about what I had been through — it was about opening up opportunities and giving second chances.
“So on a personal level I really empathise with the students, and I think one of the first things I discovered when I went to NEC was that there were all these wonderful study skills materials on subjects like how to write essays and how to analyse and answer questions.
“I thought, ‘if only someone had given me those when I first started at university’.”
After working in a variety of roles within the NEC, Morpeth worked her way up to the chief executive of the non-profit organisation by 1987.
However, by the time the early 2000s approached, Morpeth believed she had “probably done everything” she could for the NEC and went off across the globe travelling and doing consultancy.
She stepped down from the NEC role after 16 years to work across the world for the International Extension College.
“It was basically about using distance education to help developing countries build up their educational capacity,” she explains.
She expresses how proud she is that there are now a “mass of open universities in India, South Africa and the Caribbean”.
She did this until 2011 when she heard the NEC was in a “desperate situation” and she decided to step back in to the organisation as full time chief executive on a voluntary basis.
She says that there had been a merger between the NEC and the Learning and Skills Network (LSN) which resulted in the LSN selling the NEC’s site in Cambridge.
Morpeth at the Commonwealth of Learning conference in 2002 enjoying the evening meal
By November that year the LSN went into administration, leaving the NEC either in administration too or looking for a new organisation to take it on.
She says she had to persuade administrators to keep the NEC operating as an educational charity and “put as much pressure on them as possible”.
“We had no reserves, but we got very good support, particularly from the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education, who helped us in every way they could and we did get the NEC out of administration,” she says.
Four years on Morpeth says that the NEC has now stabilised and says in this financial year they have had “a bit of a surplus from living on a breakeven budget”.
She explains that despite it being a “very scary and dire time” when she was taking the NEC out of administration she felt the NEC “fills a gap that other providers don’t”.
Morpeth explains that there is less provision for adults who are looking to reskill and have a second chance and says a lot of their students are in their 20s and 30s and want to move in to careers like teaching.
“There is less and less opportunity for people to do that now, and so through the NEC we could reach out to the people who can’t get into college on a regular basis,” says Morpeth.
Reflecting on her 29-year-career at the NEC, and the effort she put into taking the organisation out of administration, Morpeth still has a few changes she would like to see.
She says: “One of the things that everybody can see and understand is that people are going to need to retrain at different points in their lives. “I think both human beings and society need far more flexibility and visionary thinking so that people can retrain and can follow an interest.”
Morpeth explains that she would “like to see an FE system where this is recognised and supported” as she fears that “we are moving towards narrower and narrower definitions”.
Morpeth at the Commonwealth of Learning conference in Durban where she was awarded an
Honorary Fellowship in 2002
“So there is a future I would love to see — and it’s one that is based in something that we all know is important — and it’s important for social mobility, and it’s important in every way,” she adds.
On a final note Morpeth talks about how far the NEC has come since she started.
“I think after spending so much of my career working there, and not just me but everybody who worked here put their efforts into building up the organisation, and there’s always been a very strong commitment to learners and to quality,” she explains.
“And I don’t think I could ever bear to see the NEC disappear without a fight.”
It’s a personal thing
What’s your favourite book and why?
There are four books. It’s the Alexandria Quartet by Lawrence Durell. I read them many years ago but I keep going back to it because it tells the same story about the same group of people in Alexandria, in Egypt, but each book tells it from a different perspective
What do you do to switch off from work?
I love travelling anywhere really. But I suppose my favourite places are India, Thailand, Morocco, Tunisia and Italy
What’s your pet hate?
It’s spin. So politicians or anybody else who says one thing when they actually mean something completely different — I hate it. It’s mainly people in public life and they have been told that they have got to present a situation in a particular way. It’s nonsense basically isn’t it?
If you could invite anyone to a dinner party, living or dead, who would it be?
Michael Young, the founder of the National Extension College, and Nelson Mandela, as I think they would get on really well
What did you want to be when you were growing up?
I don’t think I had a dream job. I grew up in a family business and I used to work in my father’s carpet and furnishing shop, and I supposed I assumed that was what I would do with my life
The strain of getting vocational learners over the GCSE English and maths finish line is behind much strain in the FE and skills sector, as recognised not least in Ofsted’s annual report. But behind the policy is a view of GCSEs and the workplace that needs rethinking says Mark Flinn.
Last month, FE Week stated that 130,979 17+ learners were entered for GCSE maths in summer 2015, an increase of 57 per cent over the previous year [see English and maths supplement available on feweek.co.uk]. Many will herald this as good news. But is GCSE maths fit for purpose as a qualification for vocational learners in the 21st Century?
What we used to refer to as “numeracy” has been replaced in ministerial terminology by “maths”. But when we look closely at the GCSE maths subject content and assessment objectives for 2015 and beyond, as published by the Department for Education in 2013, we find much content unrelated to the needs of vocational learners in the modern world.
Where, for example, in the modern workplace (or elsewhere) are we ever required to use or apply the factorisation of quadratic expressions, quadratic equations, simultaneous equations, linear inequalities, sequences, Pythagoras’ Theorem, the surface area of a sphere or pyramid, simple proofs in Euclidian geometry, the sine rule or the cosine rule?
Why has the attainment of a grade C pass at GCSE become the ‘gold standard’ to which all, irrespective of future career plans, must aspire? Not on the basis of any research evidence, and not on the basis of a proven link between subject content and vocational needs
In the days of computer-based design systems, what is the relevance of using “the standard ruler and compass constructions to….bisect a given angle”? In what vocational context is a knowledge of “Fibonacci type sequences and quadratic sequences” useful? Where might we “Derive the properties of regular polygons” or “identify and interpret gradients and intercepts of linear functions graphically and algebraically”? When is the “multiplication of vectors by a scalar” going to be useful in the workplace?
This is not to deny that elements of the GCSE subject content are important for all learners: working with number, fractions, percentages and decimals, measures, graphs, ratio and proportion, mensuration, calculation, graphs, probability and statistics all have a fundamental place. But the totality of the GCSE subject content has not been designed to provide a foundation in numeracy — the understanding and application of numbers.
Rather, its purpose is to provide an important and (largely) necessary foundation for the further study of maths and its applications in the sciences and technology at advanced level and beyond. Pythagoras, trigonometry and quadratic equations are of great importance in the further study and application of mathematics but are largely irrelevant to the needs of most vocational learners.
Many learners will wish, of course, to strive towards a grade C (or better) pass at GCSE in order to qualify for a future professional study. But most of the learners who are struggling to move from a grade D to a grade C in maths are unlikely to progress to advanced level and beyond. For many of them, a grade D pass represents a hard-won and creditable achievement which may not, even with the best of efforts, be improved upon. Yet the new requirement imposed on these learners, and the FE sector, is forcing those learners through irrelevant learning hoops, when that time and teacher resources could usefully be employed in reinforcing their core numeracy skills. No-one denies the importance of developing core numeracy skills, but can anyone demonstrate that GCSE maths, as currently specified, is fit for this purpose?
So why has the attainment of a grade C pass at GCSE become the ‘gold standard’ to which all, irrespective of future career plans, must aspire? Not on the basis of any research evidence, and not on the basis of a proven link between subject content and vocational needs. As with other examples of ministerially-driven curriculum change, it seems to have been driven by personal experience and prejudice. It is sad that educational policy is made in this way.
Santa’s sleigh will be jingling all the way this year thanks to the helping hand of South Cheshire College livewire students.
Electrical installation learners are rewiring a trailer that will take to the streets of Sandbach in the run-up to the festive period.
As well as providing new lighting cables, the group have also been using their skills to improve the sleigh’s sound system to blast out Christmas carols and songs. The sleigh will be used by Sandbach Round Table.
Electrical installation level three learner Reece Morgan, aged 17, is one of the students working on the project.
He said: “This is something a bit different but when we found out about the project we were pleased to get involved and help out.
“Hopefully, the sleigh will really capture everyone’s attention when it hits the streets of Sandbach.”
Pic: Back from left: learner Dan Hewitt, aged 32, and lecturer Nick Doyle. Front from left: learners Kyle Hickman, Cha-lee Foster, Reece Morgan, Jaye Collinson, all four 17, and Anjuli Latham-Remtulla, 20
The Ofsted annual report criticised Traineeships for a lack of success with helping young people progress to apprenticeships or employment. But Angela Middleton explains why she still thinks they have a lot to offer, so long as they are delivered by the right providers.
Ofsted chief inspector Michael Wilshaw has recently identified a problem with traineeships in the annual report on schools published last week, saying that “in too many of the FE and skills providers visited… traineeships appeared to have little success in fulfilling their primary role of being a stepping-stone to an apprenticeship or other sustained employment”.
I believe the issue is perhaps not with traineeships as an entity, but rather the way in which some providers deliver them.
It goes without saying that in order to deliver high quality effective traineeships, the government must use high quality and proven providers.
More funding should be given to specialist providers who meet the requirements — there are a lot of grade one and two providers who would like to receive the funding.
I would like to see them given priority in order to ensure the high quality of training needed.
I appreciate that sometimes the delivery is not as specialised as it needs to be, which is why traineeships in their current form are best implemented by a specialist training provider.
In my organisation, we pride ourselves on the quality of the training we provide and the results we enjoy, so while I understand Mr Wilshaw’s general position, I can’t whole-heartedly agree with it.
For me, the key to our success with traineeships is our determination to place as many young people as we can into meaningful employment and we work very hard to achieve this.
Traineeships are vital because there is often a lack of meaningful careers advice in schools
Since Feb 2011 we have operated a 12-week programme (originally unfunded) where we teach 16 to 18 year olds, who have never had a job, the 12 steps of recruitment.
In this way, they learn what employers are seeking and why and how to adapt their behaviour and to bring out their innate skills.
It has gradually transitioned into what is now termed a ‘traineeship’. Within this, we include maths, English, ICT, niche employer targeting, and personal branding and commercialisation, but the core objective of this period remains unchanged.
I would agree that the primary aim of traineeships should be to prepare young people for apprenticeships or sustained employment.
A traineeship is simply another version of a pre-apprenticeship, a form of training that’s been implemented for a number of years, and one which I feel is an essential component in helping to get a young person to a stage where they’re work ready and can excel at interview stage.
It’s also crucial in getting them to the point where they are in the right mind-set to keep the job once they have secured it and succeed in their chosen career.
An apprenticeship is not right for everyone, and there shouldn’t be a hard and fast rule that means every young person has to go on to an apprenticeship.
However, when traineeships are delivered properly, they do have an excellent conversion rate — to go back to my earlier point, we just need to ensure that they are delivered by high quality providers.
In terms of placing young people into jobs, my company has a 96.9 per cent conversion rate.
I see traineeships, and by extension apprenticeships, as the start of a longer journey.
In fact, we have just implemented a programme which takes young people from school leaver to graduate in five years.
We call it ‘Zero to Degree’ and I see the future of apprenticeships as being very much along these lines.
Another point I’d like to make is that traineeships are vital because there is often a lack of meaningful careers advice in schools.
Also, the narrow range of very ‘traditional’ careers young people express an interest in when we first see them is alarming. More in-depth and focused careers advice is needed, which is why a traineeship with a specialist, experienced provider is a necessity for many.
A Hartpury College lecturer’s ground-breaking study with NASA has caught the attention of the Discovery Channel and will feature in a series that aims to unravel baffling phenomena, writes Billy Camden.
Dr Rachel Grant will appear on the Discovery Channel as part of a ‘NASA Unexplained Files’ series.
The visiting associate principal lecturer at Hartpury College will appear for her research which looks into whether animal behaviour can alert us to natural disasters.
Dr Grant’s studies first started in 2009 near the city of L’Aquila, Italy, while a more recent study documents changes in animal activity before a large earthquake in Peru.
“I was working in Italy studying breeding behaviour of common toads when one day I went to conduct my research as usual and, to my surprise, there were no toads at all,” said Dr Grant.
“This continued for a few days and then five days after the disappearance of the toads, there was a magnitude 6.3 earthquake at L’Aquila, around 50 miles from the site of my research.”
After the earthquake, the toads returned to the area and Dr Grant decided to delve deeper what had happened.
A Paca rodent in a national park in Peru caught by Dr Grant’s motion camera PHOTO: TEAM Network
She published findings from Italy that looked for reasons for their disappearances, which resulted in Professor Friedemann Freund, a NASA scientist, contacting her about research he had been conducting on the behaviour of rocks under stress.
And Hartpury College learners have already been given a greater insight into the findings when Dr Grant presented her work this month.
“I think it is important for students to see real research that has been going on,” she said.
“Hearing about the process of how research happens, the pitfalls and the highlights, and some of the triumphs, I think it is nice for students to see the whole process rather than just hearing ‘so and so in 2010 said this’.
“I took them through how I started the research, what went wrong, what went right, what we found out and some of the press coverage on various papers that will give them an idea of real research.”
The learners heard how, before an earthquake, stressed rock releases charged particles which are involved in chemical reactions at the ground surface, forming substances likely to irritate animals.
He felt that changes to the natural environment occurring before earthquakes could cause changes in animal behaviours.
A raza-billed curassow caught by Dr Grant’s motion camera in Peru PHOTO: TEAM Network
Dr Grant then used motion triggered wildlife cameras in a national park in Peru to demonstrate that the disappearance of toads was because of earthquake activity.
After publishing her findings, Dr Grant appeared on various TV and radio shows all over the world including BBC News. The episode of Nasa Unexplained Files will be broadcast in the UK next summer.
Dr Grant said: “I’ve done quite a lot of filming in the past so it has become a bit routine but it will be very exciting when I see the research come out in the summer.”
Second to this discovery, Dr Grant notes her PhD research, which looked at amphibians’ reaction to the lunar cycle and found that several species mate around the time of a full moon, as her next biggest research finding.
Main pic: Dr Rachel Grant in the animal management centre at Hartpury College
Liz Rees has been appointed as the new director of Unionlearn, the learning and skills wing of the Trades Union Congress (TUC).
She takes on the role after a number of years as head of Trade Union Education, where she was responsible for the TUC’s programme of workplace representatives’ training.
Unionlearn works to help unions in the delivery of learning opportunities for their members as well as managing the Union Learning Fund. The organisation is also responsible for providing education and training opportunities for workplace reps and professionals through TUC Education.
Ms Rees said: “I’m really pleased to get the chance to lead this vital area and to work with such a great team.
“Union reps get things done at the workplace in a way that no others can. They are trusted by their colleagues and maintain good relations with employers so can take up issues on behalf of the workforce that external agencies cannot.”
She replaces Tom Wilson, who said: “Looking back, the best thing is the people. TUC staff are a lovely bunch and Unionlearn and union staff are completely committed to union learning and union learners.
“There is a great team spirit and unions are not shy about standing up for what they believe is best for their learners. After all, learning is about gaining confidence, speaking out, and questioning received wisdom.”
In Walthamstow, Sir George Monoux Sixth Form College principal Paolo Ramella is stepping down from his position after seven years.
Current vice principal of corporate services David Ball, who has been at the college for eight years, has been made acting principal until a permanent appointment is made shortly after the New Year.
Chair of the college Alan Wells said: “With the area reviews of sixth form colleges about to take place, Paolo feels that after seven years at the college in which we have seen various improvements, this is an opportune time for him to step down and make some time to enjoy other interests.
“The corporation has agreed to let him promptly hand over to an acting principal. However, he will remain employed and available to advise the corporation until the end of the year as required.
“The corporation would wish to thank Paolo for all of his hard work and achievements since he joined the college and wish him well for the future.”
Dr Alan Taylor has returned to Darlington College for his second stint at teaching, this time as an engineering lecturer.
Fresh from the world of steel, Dr Taylor joins the college from Teeside manufacturer SSI.
He worked for 18 years in research and development for British Steel in Middlesbrough before joining the Teesside Education Improvement Service, studying a PGCE and teaching computing at Darlington College.
Curriculum manager for engineering, science and automotive technology Neil Bowen said: “Dr Taylor will be able to give his students incredible insight into the ups and downs of global industries like steel and engineering.”
Santa’s elves teamed up with Mrs Claus to run the grotto at Blackpool and The Fylde College’s festive fair.
The college’s University Centre transformed into a winter wonderland, featuring a Christmas market, snowboarding experience, face painting and festive bouncy castle.
The event, expected to have raised more than £1,000 for Brian House Children’s Hospice, included seasonal gift and craft stalls from local businesses as well as musical entertainment from learners.
College staff, who took on the role of Santa’s little elves, were also on hand to give course advice to prospective students.
Andy Iredale, director of marketing, said: “Our first ever festive fair was a huge success. We brought staff, students and the local community together for a healthy sprinkling of Christmas cheer which saw more than 800 people through the doors at our University Centre.”
Apprenticeships reforms are rapidly metamorphosing into pantomime.
When the ugly sisters Hancock and Richard undertook their review, they ruled out ‘evidence’ from awarding organisers and independent learning providers (ILPs) as ‘biased from vested interests’.
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) recently published the results of an independent Process Evaluation of Apprenticeship Trailblazers by the Institute for Employment Studies.
Among their findings were that ‘although the Richard Review recommended root and branch review of apprenticeships, many Trailblazers considered the current model was largely fit for purpose and of good quality.’
Very poor governance of sector skills councils (SSCs) by the UK Commission for Employment and Skills inspired Hancock to establish employer Trailblazer groups. Initially ILPs, SSCs and AOs were banned from these groups.
Common sense eventually prevailed and, as this report repeatedly documents, the involvement of these training professionals enhanced their work — “their (employer members) accounts suggested that bringing in expertise from awarding organisations and training providers had not undermined employer ownership and employers have been able to hold these organisations to account to ensure that what emerged was appropriate for the sector.”
The pantomime’s next act saw Baron Hardup Boles, recommend public sector FE colleges snatch two thirds of the apprenticeship business from ILPs.
Strange a Conservative minister should recommend such socialist ideals but in pantomime anything can happen, including political slap stick. Has he crossed the floor to replace Shadow Skills Minister Gordon Marsden?
It was one of Boles’ predecessors, Norman Fowler who first brought the ILP sector into work-based learning (WBL) when seeking delivery partners for his Youth Training Scheme in the 1980s.
FE colleges excel at providing classroom and campus training. Equally, ILPs are well equipped to deliver on-site WBL and assessment.
The skillsets required to manage and deliver these two models are very different and cannot be acquired instantly.
Which FE principal or governor would embark on Trailblazers that have no schemes of work, end assessments and funding agreed and no track record of success?
Ministers and civil servants choose to ignore that funding determines provider behaviour, whether from schools, sixth forms, FE colleges or ILPs.
Unintended consequences of end-testing Trailblazers will see providers teach to the test and not produce a competent all-round apprentice.
NVQs were introduced because employers complained one-off end tests did not demonstrate workplace competence. What goes around comes around — especially in panto land.
Our pantomime next act was Fairy Godmother Osborne producing £27bn out of his hat to ‘save’ FE. Aren’t his audience smart enough to realise this old trick of promising low and then over delivering? Oh yes they are! Oh no they’re not!
The creation of the Institute of Apprenticeships is welcomed. Every pantomime needs a chorus line to dance to the minister’s tune. Its membership must include professionals from ILPs, AOs and SSCs, otherwise the mistakes mentioned in earlier paragraphs will be perpetuated.
The finale of the apprenticeship pantomime is the levy with the vision of millions of pounds floating from the skies like confetti to enable one and all to become an apprentice. Ninety nine per cent of companies being exempt from the levy disappears when the hundreds of thousands of self-employed sole traders registered as limited companies are deducted. In reality any organisation employing 140 or more staff will have to pay.
The levy will change apprenticeships for ever and should be welcomed. Levy avoidance or evasion schemes will be touted about.
There will be an increase in self-employment, agency staff and bosses taking lower wages and higher dividends to avoid levy payments.
Providers will have to sell apprenticeships to finance directors instead of HR departments. BIS and Ofsted will see substantial reductions in completion success rates as unwilling employees are conscripted by their company to undertake apprenticeships to recoup the levy.
How wise for this government to set apprenticeship starts as its 3m target and not completions.
When the pantomime season is over, let’s hope the apprenticeship soap opera doesn’t revert to a tragedy or, more likely, a farce. Merry Christmas and a happy new year everyone.
