Latest news from FE Week

Sue Southwood reflects on the findings of a consultation looking into what employers want from reformed functional skills.

Employers tell us again and again that their main concern — and the biggest threat to economic growth — is a lack of workforce skills.

These concerns were highlighted once again during our consultation with over 500 employers, of all sizes, all sectors, and from across the country, as part of the functional skills reform programme.

This programme, which we have been leading on behalf of both the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and Department for Education (DfE), is still very much in progress.

We have already heard from more than 1,000 representatives of employers and providers about what they think must be done to improve the qualifications, which, despite being relatively new, have already had a positive impact on many people’s lives.

However, research clearly shows that more must be done to improve their relevance, content, recognition and credibility — particularly with employers.

What is most striking from what employers have told us is that most of their workforce — and in particular junior and new members of staff, many of whom will be undertaking apprenticeships or traineeships — fear maths, and some feel the same about English, particularly grammar and spelling.

When employers provide training, workers are often reluctant to take part because of their experiences at school.

It is no wonder that employers cite the lack of skills as a priority.

How can people — especially those starting apprenticeships and traineeships — feel confident and get on in their careers without feeling confident in speaking, reading and writing as well as using numbers, which they need to apply and use in their roles?

Workers need to feel that they can thrive throughout their careers — not just hope to survive in their current role.

What really stood out though was employers overwhelmingly telling us that they need employees who can speak and write confidently and clearly.

Workers need to understand questions and give relevant, logical and coherent answers in language that is appropriate to the audience — customer or colleague — recognising the difference between formal and informal language.

They also want staff with basic applied and practical skills that would allow them to use mental arithmetic to calculate VAT or materials needed for a specific job, break down a problem into smaller parts, and then work through it systematically.

Workers must also have the confidence to persevere by trying different approaches if the right answer is not achieved straightaway.

Apprenticeships and traineeships in particular should be a perfect scenario for people to learn to apply their knowledge when in work.

All of these skills, that are such a necessity for employers, are what functional skills will provide learners with.

We are about to publish new draft versions of the proposed revised standards for maths and English. We urge you to consider these and feedback your comments to us.

It is essential the new standards will be used by qualification bodies and training providers to ensure great outcomes for learners, and your involvement is particularly important.

This reform programme is our opportunity to work together to get skills for work right.

We know how significant AELP members are in delivering apprenticeships, and appreciate the need to be flexible about how these skills are assessed.

Fundamentally, it is imperative that employers have staff — particularly in new or junior roles — who are confident to apply what they have learnt.

Equally, we must give people opportunities to thrive in work and in life through learning qualifications that relate, and can be applied, to real-work and real-life situations.

We are hugely grateful to the more than 1,000 individuals, organisations and businesses who have given us their view on the future of functional skills.

And we will continue to support teachers and trainers to teach the new qualifications effectively with a comprehensive CPD plan operated through the maths and English pipeline.

Ayub Khan looks at what lessons can be learned from a new collection of essays imagining different futures for the sector.

Area reviews and skills devolution will mean fundamental changes to the structure and organisation of FE and skills in England.

Structure and organisation are important, of course. But without strong, intelligent leadership the best structures and organisations can fail.

That is what FETL was set up to support.

Over the past two years, we have given leaders time and resources to think widely and imaginatively, through our programmes of grants and fellowships.

The creation of a FETL professorship in FE and skills at University College London’s Institute of Education is another, wholly unique, opportunity to help the sector build the intellectual muscle it needs.

We now want to take our work a step further, using what we have learned to commission creative and collaborative spaces for thinking.

The first fruit of this new approach is Possibility Thinking, a collection of essays imagining different futures for the sector, published jointly with the RSA.

A number of themes emerge from this fascinating and far-sighted collection of new thinking.

The first concerns the need to develop a clear mission for FE and skills that can be readily understood, by students, staff, employers, policymakers and communities.

As Philippa Cordingley and Paul Crisp of the Centre for the Use of Research and Evidence in Education argue in their contribution, the sector should be forthright in describing its strengths, but also honest about its weaknesses.

It needs to think imaginatively about how to get better at what it does well, and develop a clear sense of purpose and place around those things.

If we cannot be clear about what it is we are best at, potential partners and funders are unlikely to be either.

The second main theme is that leaders in the sector must be bold and engage purposefully with new agendas and new partners.

They must become, in the words of the RSA’s Anthony Painter, ‘agitators for change’.

The influx of public money into the sector has been welcome, but it has come with conditions.

Sector leaders have little time or space to think about anything other than the latest inspection, policy demand or change to the funding rules. In many cases, they also lack the inclination to do so.

That must change. Sector leaders can no longer afford to keep their heads down, preoccupied by changes required by ministers or using the threat of inspection to enforce a bruising top-down management culture on staff.

Paul Little, principal of City of Glasgow College, describes how a positive attitude to change in college leadership can have a transformative effect on FE’s position in local education ecologies.

This is important. Skills devolution represents an opportunity for FE and skills to play a fuller role in shaping the future prosperity and cohesion of our cities and regions.

But to make the most of these opportunities we must grow the sector’s ability to effect positive change in itself.

The final theme I want to highlight is creativity.

Constant organisational change is a major distraction

As Pauline Tambling, chief executive of Creative and Cultural Skills argues, versatility, curiosity, creativity and a willingness to learn are now essential expectations in the changing world of work, and that applies as much to sector leaders as it does to our students.

This is a challenge, I realise.

Constant organisational change is a major distraction and stringent accountability requirements create a climate of anxiety inimical to creativity.

The government must do more to ensure reform does not get in the way of a thoughtful, creative approach to teaching and learning.

However, as leaders such as Paul Little demonstrate, it is possible to engage in a creative way with the drivers of change, redefining a provider’s role in a changing landscape to deliver better outcomes for students.

We hope Possibility Thinking, which is set to be unveiled on July 5, will inspire and support leaders in becoming creative agents of professional and policy change.

Anthony Bravo reflects on his college’s moves to improve on its blended learning.

Anyone who read my recent expert piece in this publication (Edition 174, May 16) will know that BCoT is grappling with the implications of blended learning, like many other colleges.

I believe achieving truly outstanding teaching, learning and assessment can only be achieved through creativity and innovation and today that includes the development and implementation of digital technologies.

Our strategic vision has been built around three key points: Where do we want to go? What do we need to do? How do we do it?

The first question is easy — we want to go towards outstanding teaching, learning and assessment.

What do we need to do? We need to enable our lecturers to use, produce and adapt engaging, interactive and pedagogically effective materials.

These should be easily accessible to students, on and off site, and use ILT whenever possible to widen participation and enrich the learning experience.

How do we do it? I had three tactics in mind — using digital tools in the classroom, getting staff sourcing and developing content, and an hour a week blended learning.

This evolved into three key approaches: the skills of our staff, the resources available, and engagement with our students.

We understand that every individual’s experience of IT will have started long before they are in college

The digital capability of staff is fundamental; we need to ensure they have the knowledge and skills to deliver our vision.

All the ‘best practice’ ideas come into play: ILT inductions for new staff; mandatory training and development; sharing of good practice; and conducting skills audits to inform our training priorities.

Amongst other things, we’ve also turned our poachers into gamekeepers and have digital media apprentices supporting staff in developing content.

We need to invest in resources, ensuring a robust network that gives us the capacity, infrastructure and equipment to deliver an outstanding ILT experience.

We are moving to Google Apps for Education as a replacement for our existing virtual learning environment, which we feel is easier to use in the classroom.

September will also see a timetabled hour of blended learning, and we’re redesigning some of our existing learning spaces to ensure we have capacity to deliver this.

External software packages, such as iGVS, are also extremely helpful.

Content-sharing platforms not only encourage sharing, but provide an opportunity to capitalise on possible efficiencies too.

Our final ‘how’ strand centres around our students.

We understand that every individual’s experience of IT will have started long before they are in college and will vary dramatically.

It is important to recognise that some may not have the necessary skills to engage with content.

Part of the how, then, is to ensure that our students’ skills are audited and that they are supported to access content appropriately.

We were one of the pilot institutions that took part in the JISC Learner Digital Experience Tracker project earlier this year.

This has given us valuable information about how our students use technology and to benchmark ourselves against other institutions’ data.

One of the outcomes is that we are now developing a student digital induction programme including video and interactive content.

As I read this back, I have to acknowledge our plan sounds deceptively simple, but we all know it will not be without challenges.

For one, how do we ensure pedagogically sound content to ensure blended learning works?

We’re recruiting a blended-learning manager to oversee the quality of learning materials.

Should we provide rigid templates? We think probably not; the precise methods and the balance of the blend will depend on the nature of the curriculum, the course level, students’ access to and ability to use technology, the course structure and the physical location of staff and learning areas.

So not rigid, but a clear framework of expectations, based on Hopwood.

Our Ofsted report (May 2016) stated that “Teachers make particularly innovative and effective use of ILT to engage and motivate learners”. It shows we’re officially ‘on the road’ but we know that there will be many milestones and challenges up ahead.