City College Brighton and Hove will be hoping for a period of stability following the completion of its senior management team revamp with Sharon Collett joining as principal.
She joins chief executive Nick Juba and chief operating officer Jon Rollings who have been in post since September.
The new appointments come after FE Commissioner Dr David Collins was sent in with the college, rated by Ofsted as good in 2011, having been issued Skills Funding Agency notice of concern about finances.
Dr Collins pointed out in February, following the departure of principal Lynn Thackway, how “financial difficulties have coincided with a period of extensive instability in its executive team”.
Prior to her new role, Ms Collett was vice principal of curriculum, quality and student experience at Bournemouth & Poole College.
“I’ve received a wonderful welcome from staff working in all parts of the college and can see that there’s a deep commitment to providing the best learning experience for our students,” said Ms Collett.
“I’m most looking forward to ensuring that City College Brighton and Hove is outstanding in the broadest sense of the word and for the college to be the preferred choice for vocational education in Sussex.”
Mr Juba said: “It’s a great feeling to have a permanent team in place. Sharon’s skills, experience and personality will bring a new energy to the college.”
Meanwhile, Blackburn College has welcomed Tracy Stuart and Jennifer Eastham as its two new vice principals.
Ms Stuart will lead the corporate decisions impacting on the academic areas of the college in her role as vice principal for curriculum and quality.
“My main responsibility is to make sure the curriculum we have at Blackburn College gives students an outstanding experience,” said Ms Stuart, who was previously vice principal of quality and standards at Leeds City College and head of quality performance at Newcastle College.
“I’m reviewing everything we offer at Blackburn College as I also believe in giving people a more rounded experience by pushing digital literacy skills so students don’t leave with just one qualification.”
Ms Eastham returns to her roots having previously studied an accountancy qualification with Blackburn College.
In her role as vice principal for finance and corporate services, her focus will be on improving resource efficiency to “ensure Blackburn College’s financial stability for the future”.
She was previously deputy principal for finance and funding at Myerscough College, responsible for finance, administration and commercial areas.
Ms Eastham said: “Blackburn College has given me the foundations for my career and I am thrilled to now return here as vice principal.
“I have undertaken qualifications which Blackburn College runs and have studied here myself, which is something I hope our students can relate to.”
The long wait for FE providers to sign up for Chartered Status ended today with applications for membership finally open.
Colleges and independent learning providers can apply for membership to the Chartered Institution for Further Education (CIFE), set up in 2013, in the latest “significant step” on the route to chartered status for the FE sector.
The body, which was granted the Great Seal of the Realm in October, published its regulations and guidance for applicants today (November 17), which detail the standards providers need to meet in order to join.
To be considered for membership, providers must have an overall rating of good or outstanding at their most recent Ofsted inspection, and be in receipt of public funding from the Skills Funding Agency (SFA).
Providers must also show how they can meet the CIFE’s quality standards, covering a range of areas including teaching and learning, governance, finance and engagement with the local community and employers.
“This is another significant step along the road to the development of a Royal Chartered body in the Further Education sector,” said Lord Lingfield, chair of CIFE (pictured above).
“There is still much to be done but we have reached the point when we should open our doors to organisational members, and bring together those high performing organisations who are key to shaping the sector’s future.”
Click here for more details on applying for Chartered Status.
A City College Norwich lecturer is aiming to take the fear out of maths with a series of random challenges he has created over a 30-year teaching career, writes Billy Camden.
From pogoing hamsters to tomato ketchup-filled canals, Phil Gulliver (pictured) is hoping to take the fear out of maths for students with a set of Grand Random Challenges he has noted down over the last 30 years.
After gaining funding from the Ernest Cook Trust and the London Mathematical Society, the maths teacher at City College Norwich developed the range of weird and wonderful puzzles to target vocational-style learners.
He is currently training staff in schools and training centres to use his unique approach and his current further maths learners are also using the techniques.
The questions focus on the process of solving maths problems, while deliberately allowing for there to be no “right answer” to the problem itself.
Mr Gulliver said: “The problem with maths is that if you give somebody a page of sums, and say ‘there you are Fred, do that’, they will know that there is one right answer. And if they think they are not very good at maths they will be intimated by that and they will say ‘I can’t do it’.
“Whereas if you give them something for which there is no one right answer — there is no one right answer to how big a cow is, or whatever — then for some they suddenly realise that ‘actually I can have a go at this’.”
Hundreds of Norfolk pupils have also experienced Mr Gulliver’s alternative to “traditional maths” by taking part in a Grand Random Challenge Week this month.
They took on puzzlers including, “a hamster jumps on a suitably sized pogo stick and bounces continuously for 99 years. Would the total distance travelled be greater than 99 trips up the Eiffel Tower?”
And, “it takes 100 tomatoes to make five standard bottles of ketchup. How many tomatoes would you need to make sufficient ketchup to full the 127-mile long Leeds-Liverpool canal?”
The questions that feature in the Grand Random Challenges vary in their difficulty, so maths teachers can use differentiated learning within their classes.
Over the years Mr Gulliver has progressively been turning his challenges into attractive and engaging resources for students and teachers, including packs of cards, workbooks and short videos.
Students from City College Norwich, including photographers, graphic designers and media students, have helped in producing images, illustrations and animations for the questions.
Mr Gulliver with, from left: Lewis Wright, aged 17, Nikita Kuznecov, Olly Clarke, and Liam Foster, all aged 16
Performing arts level one learner Rutendo Mukuya, aged 17, uses the method during her GCSE maths lessons, which she takes alongside her vocational course.
She said: “I think the fact that he [Mr Gulliver] takes weird situations and puts them in questions makes it much more fun, even though I don’t actually enjoy maths that much. The challenge made it much easier with those questions because it’s weird and you really want to know what the answer is.”
Next in the pipeline for Mr Gulliver is the Grand Random Challenge board game. He is also looking at ways of using the Grand Random Challenge concept to “bridge the gap” between literacy and maths teaching.
Mr Gulliver said: “I am hoping staff will appreciate that the process skills involved in answering these bizarre questions are really, really valuable and will help in the more traditional mainstream mathematics.”
– Apprenticeships account for less than 5 per cent of Adult Skills Budget for some large FE colleges
– AoC says colleges ‘see significant role’ in hitting 3m target and should ‘start planning strategic response’
The college sector’s performance on apprenticeships has come under attack after exclusive FE Week analysis uncovered budgets with as little as 2 per cent allocated to the programme at the heart of the government’s economic strategy.
Skills Funding Agency figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act revealed startlingly low levels of apprenticeship delivery at many colleges — and particularly in London.
Colleges, on average, have 27 per cent of their 2015/16 Adult Skills Budget (ASB) allocated to apprenticeships, FE Week found, compared with 60 per cent at other providers.
But the college figure varies significantly across the country, with London colleges averaging just 12 per cent.
Ian Cass, managing director of the Forum of Private Business, which represents more than 25,000 small and medium-sized businesses, called the figures “worrying”, adding that “it suggests that there is a bias against apprenticeships”.
Given the “very real need” for apprenticeships, said Mr Cass, “we would argue that FE colleges are failing in their duty of care to their students if they do not give them the skills needed to get work in the real world”.
Teresa Frith, senior skills policy manager for the Association of Colleges (AoC), said colleges had “always been about more than apprenticeships” and were “working hard” to respond to changes in government policy.
However, nationally, 11 colleges (see table below) have set aside less than 5 per cent of their ASB on apprenticeships. Among those with the lowest set out for apprenticeships was City and Islington College, where just 2 per cent (£202,787) of its £9,733,513 ASB will be spent on apprentices.
Meanwhile, funding for the programme is expected to be protected in the Comprehensive Spending Review this month, as it has from other funding cuts this year, leaving the remainder of the ASB on the chopping block.
There are, according to the information supplied to FE Week, 25 general FE colleges whose 19+ apprenticeship allocation represents less than 10 per cent of their 2015/16 ASB allocation.
Ten of these, six of which are in London, have a combined 16 to 18 and 19+ apprenticeship allocation of less than £500,000 for 2015/16.
Ms Frith said: “Colleges take their roles very seriously and are working very hard to keep up with and respond to the significant changes that are being made at national policy level around apprenticeships, devolution and funding.
“Colleges have always been about more than apprenticeships and we know that colleges deliver a higher percentage of the Stem subjects and higher level apprenticeships than other providers.
“A college’s response to apprenticeship reform has to be made within the context of the full mix of the education and training they provide and so it is not surprising to see no direct results as yet.
“The precise detail of some of the more significant elements of the reform is not yet known, so colleges should not be expected to be implementing plans. However, colleges should start planning their strategic response to the reforms that impact on their provision, including apprenticeships.
“While colleges did not set the target of 3m apprenticeship starts, they do see a significant role for themselves in supporting its achievement, but they must balance this against the needs of their local business communities and students.”
A spokesperson for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills said: “Colleges play an important role in the delivery of apprenticeships and we continue to work with them to reach our ambition of 3m apprenticeships by 2020.”
Editor’s comment
Apprenticeships or bust
It is widely feared the Adult Skills Budget (ASB), which includes apprenticeships, will be slashed by at least 40 per cent in the upcoming budget.
Apprenticeships will be protected, so on current allocations it would require a 68 per cent cut to the non-apprenticeship delivery to find the 40 per cent saving.
Let me rephrase that. Colleges doing little or no apprenticeships would see their ASB cut by a whopping 68 per cent.
These colleges must surely quickly expand their provision and take advantage of the new bi-annual Skills Funding Agency apprenticeship growth requests?
Time will tell if the apprenticeship reforms help, but it may also be running out as the cuts and area reviews close in.
Labour has secured an Opposition Day debate to propose that the 16 to 19 education budget be given the same protection as that of schools.
The debate takes place tomorrow and will see Labour MPs argue that government should “protect the education budget in real terms, from the early years through to 19 years old”.
It comes with the Comprehensive Spending Review on November 25, and just a week after Labour new House of Commons Library research showed the budget for FE colleges could fall by at least £1.6bn under Government spending plans — the equivalent of four-in-ten FE colleges.
Labour’s education team arrived at the figures, a party spokesperson said, after working with the House of Commons Library to predict how Department for Education savings of 25 per cent and 40 per cent, as requested by Chancellor George Osborne, might be realised within unprotected budgets.
Her party’s motion reads: “This House believes you cannot build a 21st Century economy on falling investment in education; notes that the 16-19 education budget fell by 14 per cent in real terms over the last Parliament, and that many colleges are reporting severe financial difficulties, including no longer offering courses in subjects key for our country’s competitiveness.
“It further notes that over 100 chairs of FE colleges have warned that further cuts to 16-19 funding will tip their colleges over the precipice, and risk the nation’s productivity; believes that, given that the participation age has now risen to 18 years old, it makes no sense for the post-16 education budget to be treated with less importance than the 5-16 schools budget.
“It further believes there should be a joined-up approach to education across departments and calls on this Government to protect the education budget in real terms, from the early years through to 19 years old.”
Ms Powell said: “At a time when we are rightly expecting all young people to stay in education until 18 years old, scaling back resources and opportunities is wrong-headed. With 16 to 19 education at the sharp end the government is curbing opportunities for young people.”
A source close to Education Secretary Nicky Morgan dismissed Labour’s figures as “back of the fag packet nonsense” and “scare-mongering”.
A government spokesperson said: “We have protected the schools budget and ended the unfair difference between post-16 schools and colleges by funding them per student, rather than discriminating between qualifications.
“We have provided sufficient funds for every full-time student to do a full timetable of courses regardless of institution.”
He added that the base rate of funding for 16 to 19-year-olds in the academic year 2015/16 would continue at the same level as in the academic year 2014/15: £4,000 for full-time 16 and 17-year-olds and £3,300 for full-time 18-year-olds.
Grimsby Institute’s animal care team proved they were a cut above at the British Dog Grooming Championships where they were awarded 1st, 2nd and 3rd place in their categories.
The team included staff members Emma Taylor, Connie Critcher and Amanda McCracken as well as current level three dog grooming learner 23-year-old Emma Bull, who travelled to Warwickshire Exhibition Centre to compete against industry experts.
Connie placed 2nd in the advanced class with Amanda placing 3rd and Emma Bull was placed 2nd in the hand stripping competition.
Topping their success however was Emma Taylor who placed first in both of her classes to ultimately compete for and win the title of British Dog Groomer of the Year 2015.
Ms Taylor said: “It is an almighty privilege and accomplishment for any groomer to win this title as it’s one of the things we all work towards. I am still in shock that I won and I have so many people to thank for helping me get to where I am today.”
Pic: From left: Emma Bull, Connie Critcher, Emma Taylor and Amanda McCracken with their awards and Bichon Frise, Alfie
Donning their high-vis jackets and litter pickers, a taskforce of staff and learners from Salford City College kicked off a volunteering campaign to help clean-up the local community.
Following a number of meetings between the college and local residents, it was decided that students should engage more with the community.
The team will carry out a variety of projects including litter picking neighbouring streets and fundraising for the college’s chosen charity, St Ann’s Hospice.
“This project is a fantastic way for both the staff and students to give something back to the local community, and to thank them for their ongoing support for the college,” said Salford City College’s principal, John Spindler. “I’m looking forward to donning my pink high-vis along with my fellow volunteers.”
At the end of the year, the learners who take part will be presented with a special award of thanks at the college’s student awards.
Pic: From left: vice Principal Saf Arfan with learners Brogan Carter, aged 16, Lauren Kaye, Liz Couser, Tatiana Resende, Sophie Leah, Chloe Harte, Alysia Kavanagh, all aged 17, and principal John Spindler
Ahead of the Association of Colleges (AoC) 2015 conference, chief executive Martin Doel tells FE Week reporter Alix Robertson how his members have a fundamental place in delivering government goals.
With the government spending review on the horizon, and post-16 education and training area reviews sweeping across the country, attendees at this year’s AoC conference may be feeling anxious about the future.
And Martin Doel, chief executive of the AoC, is all too aware of the rocky landscape ahead for colleges.
“With the funding cuts that have occurred, the sector is beginning to show frailties and difficulty, which is inevitable … I think it’s remarkable that the colleges have kept going,” he said in an interview at AoC’s London HQ ahead of its three-day conference from November 17.
“My big worry, of course, as we go into the spending review, is that there will be even further cuts,” he added.
Although funding troubles and the prospect of a visit from the FE Commissioner may be dominating discussions at present, Mr Doel was determined that the AoC conference would be primarily about “colleges, and by inference their students, the communities that they come from and the employers that they support”.
The theme of the conference, at The ICC Birmingham, is Powering the Economy.
“It’s about the essential role that colleges have in building a recovery that’s sustainable and balanced, that everyone can have the opportunity to share in and share the benefits from,” said Mr Doel.
Alongside the speeches at the event, from figures such as Skills Minister Nick Boles, Mr Doel said he hoped the debates on offer would challenge people’s thinking about the role of colleges.
“I will be sharing with members, particularly in some of the sessions, some of the thinking we did immediately after the election, which I think is still valid,” he said.
Alix Robertson interviews Martin Doel, chief executive of the Association of Colleges
It involves understanding how colleges will be integral to delivering the government’s key objectives.
“We work back from what we think government’s core and key intentions are, which I’d put down clearly as the statement of 3m apprenticeships and growth — 3m high quality apprenticeships by 2020,” he said.
Alongside meeting this target, other focuses are a delivering a good standard of English and maths for all young people; promoting higher technical and professional education; and filling the technician gap, particularly where large numbers of workers are retiring in key industries.
The conference must address “growing into that space which traditional universities have neglected over a number of years,” said Mr Doel.
The final goal was reaching the long-term unemployed and providing an alternative to continuing on benefits.
“If you look at those four elements of core government policy, my suggestion is you won’t achieve those four policies without a pattern of locally responsive colleges that meet local economic needs,” said Mr Doel.
“That’s why the conference theme is’ Powering the Economy’ — you won’t power the economy if you don’t have a pattern of colleges that provides that pathway into level three, four and five and responds to the local economic community — those are the distinctive things that colleges can do.”
Doel on… area reviews
Are area reviews simply college finance and stability plans?
The motivation towards having area reviews is financial. The cuts that have been sustained so far mean an increasing number of colleges will become financially inadequate. The fact the sector delivered a net deficit … that’s the reason behind area reviews.
Will area reviews succeed in making college finances more stable?
It’s dependent on how well the reviews are carried out, and also it’s one thing carrying out the reviews and another thing to carry through the recommendations. If the government wants colleges to take on new structures, new groupings, and actually to collaborate as well as compete, then that’s a significant transition — and for a group of businesses that don’t have much spare cash around, there ought to be a restructuring or transition fund to assist them. Mergers in the short term cost money. Reshaping your provision, even if you don’t merge, means moving resources, staff, from one place to another, concentrating on facilities here rather than there.
Do you think University Technical Colleges (UTCs) should have been part of the process?
Yes, and especially because they’re aiming to offer technical and professional provision, which is the core role of FE colleges. I can see how involving every school in the country in a review of 16 to 18 education would have made it an exceptionally complicated exercise. That’s not to say though, in some areas, it wouldn’t be very helpful and useful to have schools involved.
Is it right that area reviews are designed within Local Enterprise Partnership (Lep) boundaries?
My recommendation to the department has been to think in smaller groups, which might be sub-Lep areas. I also think the Leps are not a good match for travel-to-learn patterns. I think we need to be much more organic about this, and understand where the viable groupings or the most likely groupings are.
Are the right people chairing area review boards?
I’m hoping that the steering committee in BIS and DfE, who are overseeing the area review areas, are learning as they go. I also don’t think Leps are particularly equipped to lead reviews; therefore I’m very pleased that the FE Commissioner, or the Sixth Form College Commissioner, are chairing and doing work for them, informed by the Leps.
How many colleges might be lost during the area review process and how many might be merged?
You hear stories about 100 colleges disappearing, but history just doesn’t bear that out. We’ve done some recent analysis of colleges, which looks at the period since 1992, and the process by which over 400 colleges reduced down to just over 300 colleges. The greatest number of mergers in any one year in that process was 10 and there was substantial financial support to enable those to take place. Maybe we might do more than 10 mergers in one year, but I find it very hard to see we will do 100 a year. Financially I think it will be closer to 10, and if there is consolidation after the area reviews this will be a three to four-year process, and as likely as full mergers will be situations where colleges collaborate in order to deliver complementary provision across an area.
**Exclusive additional online content
Should more Universal Technical Colleges (UTCs) be appearing, given funding constraints?
I do get frustrated sometimes, when the government thinks the only way to change an education system is to change the institutional landscape, rather than to support existing institutions.
If I were designing an education system from scratch I think I would probably include UTCs, but we haven’t got that luxury – we start from wherever we are. And to try and insert a new set of institutions into the landscape, where there’s no need for them, or there’s a surfeit of good provision already – it just seems to me to be a waste of resources when we don’t have resources to waste.
So I think that in some places, university technical colleges will be a useful addition to the landscape, a major contribution, and in many of those cases, colleges are sponsoring and supporting them. In other places I think they risk being a diversion, so I think we need to learn from the first generation of UTCs to consider where they will work and when they’ll actually contribute to that local economic growth.
What is your message to principals forming ‘strategic alliances’ ahead of area reviews being launched?
I think the colleges are getting ahead of the game to form their own groupings, and I think they are being encouraged to do that. If that’s what they want to do then the AoC would be supporting them to do that and helping them with things like data collection and information in order to make good decisions.
Sharing services is an interesting option, colleges have had a history of doing that, and I think it will deliver some of the savings necessary. However, I think collaborating around the curricular offer is probably where the most powerful savings are likely.
We’re very interested in things like outcome agreements; where a set of colleges agree with the combined authority, or the LEP, what broad outputs from the colleges will be.
I think that conversation between a group of colleges and the LEP, or the combined authority they’re serving, is a really powerful thing to think about – for reinforcing the relevance of the college, the face of the college in its local economic community.
If colleges are really independent, might they just ignore the area review board?
Well, fundamentally, yes. That’s one of the things we argued very strongly for when the area review guidance was being put together, that actually colleges are autonomous bodies. It’s for them, and their incorporated boards, to make the decision on the recommendations.
In doing that, the colleges are going to have to take account of reality, and if they are heading for financial difficulty or require extra support, then clearly they’re most likely to take account of the recommendations. If they are sound financially, their quality is very good, and they are demonstrably meeting local need, then we need to defend their ability to carry on doing that.
Two further mergers have been proposed for the college sector.
Shrewsbury College, Shrewsbury Sixth Form College and New College in Telford have announced plans to discuss a proposal to merge, creating a single sixth form college group.
In a joint statement, the principals of all three — Steve Wain, Martin Ward and Fiona O’Brien, respectively — said: “If a merger goes ahead we are looking at a date from August 1, 2016, and internal and external consultations will commence in early 2016.”
Meanwhile Tower Hamlets College, in East London, is exploring mergers with Redbridge College and also Hackney Community College.
Gerry McDonald
Gerry McDonald, principal of Tower Hamlets, said: “Government policy now clearly supports the creation of larger institutions that are both financially viable and able to adapt to address the country’s skills needs.”
A Tower Hamlets spokesperson said: “It is envisaged that any merger with Redbridge would take place in advance of organisational links between Hackney Community College and Tower Hamlets College.”
He added that the Redbridge merger, if agreed, would be formally completed by August.
