The head of Croydon College school of art has paid tribute to its iconic former student and rock star David Bowie.

The singer, famous for his artistic approach to rock and pop and the chameleon-like manner in which he regularly transformed his image over more than 40 years in music, died of cancer at the age of 69, it was announced yesterday.

The loss was felt at Croydon College, where Bowie studied there in the mid-1960s.

Tim Strange, head of the college’s school of art, said it was a “very sad day for the Croydon school of art community”.

Mr Strange said Bowie (pictured above with wife Iman), who first found fame in 1969 with hit single Space Oddity before creating his alter egos Ziggy Stardust and the Thin White Duke in the 1970s, was “one of the few exceptionally creative artists that continually explored and pushed creativity and its possibilities”.

“He is and will continue to be an inspiration for the students and staff at Croydon [College’s] School of Art, where he is one of our illustrious Alumni,” he added.

“His talent was second-to-none and his constant impact on music, fashion and art will be sorely missed.

“He was the exception to the rule as an artist and musician. South London should be very proud of the contribution that Bowie has made to culture on a global scale”.

The college’s school of art was established in 1868 and other past students include Malcolm McLaren, who went on to manage punk band the Sex Pistols, Ray Davies, lead singer of the Kinks, international fashion designer John Rocha, and painter Bridget Riley, a leader of the Op Art movement.

Main pic: John Barrett/Globe Photos/ZUMAPRESS.com

Invitations have been invited from today for the fifth annual Brathay Apprentice Challenge.

Teams of nine apprentices can enter the competition from a single large or small employer, a group of small businesses, an industry sector, supply chain, or training provider.

More than 700 apprentices from 50 teams entered last year. They visited more than 300 school visits to promote the benefits of apprenticeships, recruited over 100 employers to offer apprenticeships, and delivered 47 projects to help their communities.

The eight teams that made the 2015 final in and around Lake Windermere, in the Lake District in July, competed in events including orienteering, coracle boat building, an assembly line puzzle, and a whaler boat race.

Apprentices from Dale Power Solutions (pictured above) and Sellafield Ltd were jointly named 2015 apprentice teams of the year.

Godfrey Owen, chief executive of the Brathay Trust, said: “The challenge provides apprentices with the opportunity to develop a huge range of skills with previous entrants reporting improved teambuilding, leadership, logistical and communications skills.

“Employers reported that they saw improved skills among the apprentices and increased local profile of their organisations through positive PR and CSR opportunities.

“We look forward to both apprentices and employers reaping these benefits in the 2016 search for the apprentice team of the year.”

Sue Husband, director of the National Apprenticeship Service, said: “The quality of work from the teams that take part in the challenge demonstrates the really impressive contribution that apprentices make to both business and the wider community.

“It’s a brilliant opportunity for employers to let their great apprentices shine, so I’d encourage them to put their teams forward and enter today.”

Over the course of the last four years of the competition, 280 teams, involving 2,500 apprentices, have carried out 174 charity projects and have promoted apprenticeships to an estimated 2.5m people, through 12,000 pieces of media and social media.

The other six teams that made last year’s final were from Redrow Homes, Nottingham City Homes, Pera Training, Plymouth City Council, HSBC and British Airways.

After triumphing last July, 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.”

Visit www.brathay.org.uk/challenge for more information on the Brathay Challenge and to enter a team.

Major charity and training provider Age UK has tumbled from a ‘good’ to ‘inadequate’ Ofsted rating.

The report out today rated Age UK as inadequate for effectiveness of leadership and management, quality of teaching, learning and assessment, outcomes for learners, adult learning programmes, apprenticeships, and traineeships.

The inspection team also returned ‘requires improvement’ verdicts on personal development, behaviour and welfare, and 16 to 19 study programmes.

The report said that “trustees do not hold senior managers sufficiently to account for the deterioration of learners’ outcomes and the inadequate quality of provision” and “trainers fail to motivate and challenge learners”.

It added that senior leaders and managers had “systematically failed to address the areas for improvement” highlighted in its previous ‘good’ across the board Oftsed report published in February 2013.

That report had recommended, for example, that Age UK should quickly identify “learners at risk of leaving early and take corrective actions to help them achieve their qualification” and “ensure that staff make better use of initial assessment to plan learning”.

The report out today was damning of apprenticeship training.

“Too many apprentices make slow progress and fail to achieve their qualifications. Learners’ performance has significantly declined since the last inspection,” it said.

The report also pointed out that more than a quarter of all learners fail to attend classes

“Too many learners do not demonstrate the employability skills that they are developing when they attend sessions at Age UK,” it added.

Of the approximately 3,500 learners with the provider, approximately 2,300 are on apprenticeships, 100 are on traineeships, 613 are full-time learners on the 16–19 study programme, and 480 are adult learners, mainly on part-time employability programmes, according to the report.

It warned that “staff do not develop learners’ English and mathematical skills effectively across all programmes of study”.

However, it identified “good pastoral support” as a strength with Age UK’s provision.

“Learners have good access to warm and welcoming learning centres complemented by a good range of training resources,” it said. “Age UK is consistently good at supporting some extremely vulnerable learners who have significant difficulties with learning, for example, care leavers, young parents, and adults with identified mental health difficulties.”

The report added that in order to improve “trainers should improve progress reviews for apprentices, and challenge individual learners to make better progress through the use of specific learning targets, which are reviewed carefully and regularly”.

It also, for example, called for managers to implement “effective strategies” to improve teaching, learning and assessment, by challenging all staff to develop their skills, and “creating a more professional approach to the observation of teaching, learning and assessment”.

Managers should also, the report said, take “decisive action” to improve the teaching of functional skills in English and mathematics to apprentices.

A spokesperson for Age UK said: “We are very disappointed with the results of the Ofsted inspection which took place in November 2015.

“We have immediately taken the decision to review our processes and put an action plan in place to ensure our processes are scrutinised effectively. We are now working extremely hard to make improvements and address the concerns raised by inspectors.

“Our priority is to make sure that our training activities deliver the highest standards. Age UK’s trustees and directors will closely supervise the actions and performance of Age UK Training to ensure that standards improve quickly and that this improvement is sustained.”

A college has turned to its county council for a £700,000 loan to help address a “need for short-term cashflow support”.

A Carlisle College spokesperson told FE Week on Tuesday (January 5) that the loan from Cumbria County Council would be repaid “in May 2016”.

The announcement prompted general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders Brian Lightman to say that he was “not surprised” colleges were having to turn to alternative sources of finance, bearing in mind the precarious financial situation for the sector.

“All FE colleges are under immense financial pressure at the moment,” he added.

When asked by FE Week why Carlisle College did not ask the Skills Funding Agency (SFA) for a loan, which a number of colleges have done to tide over their finances, he said it had “followed Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) guidance published in October 2015.

“It states that ‘exceptional financial support (EFS) will only be considered when it is clear that the college, following full consideration by its Governing body, has exhausted all other options’.

“The college, having identified a need for short-term cashflow support and in line with the guidance approached an alternative lender, in this case the County Council, for consideration of such support on a commercial basis. The college kept the SFA informed of its actions.”

He added that the college’s financial health remained “satisfactory”.

“The loan fulfils a cash flow requirement until May 2016, given that the revenue funding payment profile restricts the cash paid to colleges between January and March then makes it up between April and June,” he said.

It comes after college’s principal, Moira Tattersall, reportedly told the Cumbria-based News and Star: “Normally in a situation like this we’d would just go and get an overdraft, but banks are nervous nationally because there is a lot of uncertainty in the sector at the moment.”

“This is also happening elsewhere in the country and other colleges are being encouraged to go to their local authorities and ask for loans.”

Cumbria County Council declined to comment to FE Week on the loan.

However, draft minutes from its cabinet meeting on December 18 showed the council agreed to provide a “short term secured loan at commercial rates” in response to the college’s request for financial support.

A spokesperson for the Local Government Association said it did not collate data on the number of councils that have given loans to colleges.

A spokesperson for the SFA said it was unable to comment on specifically on the council loan to Carlisle College.

However, she added: “We work with colleges to seek assurance, that as independent institutions they are taking responsibility for their own financial health and developing robust recovery plans.”

The Association of Colleges declined to comment.