Association for Learning Technology chief executive Dr Maren Deepwell (pictured above left) will be among a number of witnesses giving evidence to MPs investigating the digital economy tomorrow.
The House of Commons Business, Innovation and Skills Select Committee inquiry was announced in September when committee chair Iain Wright told FE Week he wanted to look at government actions to ensure the availability of a workforce with the digital skills to support businesses.
And the committee’s first evidence session is due to kick off at 9.30am with Federation of Small Businesses policy director Mike Cherry, EMC Corporation cloud business director and chief technology officer Rod Lamb, and Humber LEP managing director of the Centre for Digital Innovation and John Connolly.
Dr Deepwell is expected to give evidence from an hour later along with Tech Partnership director of resources Dean Cassar and Creative Skillset chief executive officer Seetha Kumar.
Speaking to FE Week at the time the inquiry was announced, Mr Wright said: “I have a broad ambition to look at the FE and skills sector in detail in the upcoming evidence sessions.
“We will be looking into apprenticeships related to digital skills in the sessions and we will review the current apprenticeships provided, and how they could be improved.”
He added: “Apprenticeships are of key importance in the digital skills sector of FE and we want to know how traditional businesses are continuing and progressing in this new digital economy.
“Newly qualified plumbers, for instance, should be able to engage with their local FE provider and be able to expand their business on forms of social media in a flexible and fast changing way.”
And while apprenticeships will feature in his questioning, he is also expected to field questions covering whether he believes Ofsted should have a greater role in improving employment opportunities and social mobility for under-served groups and middle attainers, and who should have overall responsibility for guiding young people through the transition from education to employment.
A further area of investigation Sir Michael is expected to faces includes what he believes to be the features of good-quality work experience, and whether this should be assessed in inspections. The committee hearing Twitter hashtag is #HLSMC.
Nicole Beswick’s dedication as a fan to Scouting for Girls has led to her designing the pop rock band’s newest album cover.
At 15 years old Nicole met the group after going to the gigs. “They started to recognise me and would come over for a chat,” she said.
“Lead singer, Roy Stride, knew that I was interested in design and after seeing some of my work he messaged me through Twitter and asked if I’d like to produce the cover for their new album, Still Thinking About You.”
The now 20-year-old social media apprentice at Warrington Collegiate developed her talent for graphic design and illustration as a hobby, but was taught advanced Photoshop during her time as an apprentice.
Roy said the band “loved working with Nicole”.
“Her illustrations are beautiful, she was creative with concepts and ideas and she worked every hour god sent to hit sudden deadlines imposed on her and redesigned the inlay a hundred times without complaint. I couldn’t recommend her more highly.”
Pic: Nicole Beswick holding her Scouting for Girls album cover design
A Stratford-upon-Avon College apprentice is revelling in sweet success after setting up his own chocolatier business.
Joseph Vaughan is completing a business administration apprenticeship while creating mouth-watering treats at his shop, 1683 Chocolate Place in Solihull.
At just 16 years old, he is one of the youngest chocolatiers in the country. He makes a range of original treats and custom-made chocolates for special occasions such as weddings, handcrafting them on the premises.
And Joseph is thankful to his college, who gave support with social media promotion of his shop while giving him extra time to complete assignments for his apprenticeship.
“They’ve [Stratford-upon-Avon-College] been incredibly helpful. It’s hard work. I’m at the shop full time, often a lot longer than the normal working day,” he said.
“I have to replenish the stock because it sells so quickly. Then I have to go home and start my apprenticeship work. The college has helped me every step of the way.”
Pic: Chocolatier Joseph Vaughan and his selection of hand-made chocolates at 1683 Chocolate Place
Hull College Group has become the fifth college in England to be granted Foundation Degree Awarding Powers (DAPs), after passing Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) scrutiny and receiving approval from the Privy Council.
It means the Group, which is comprised of Hull College, Harrogate College, Goole College and University Campus Scarborough, will now be able to award foundation degrees from January.
At present, only four other colleges have foundation degree awarding powers: Grimsby Institute, New College Durham, Newcastle College and Warwickshire College. The QAA says several others are applying for the powers.
Hull College Group gained the powers following the government’s announcement that it has lifted its ‘moratorium’ on applications for DAPs, in a Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) green paper published today.
It also stated that the government will be reviewing the current four year track record requirement for DAPs “with a view to reducing it to three years”, and will consider introducing more flexibility on what constitutes track record.
Universities and Science Minister Jo Johnson flagged plans to lift the moratorium in a speech at the University of Sussex on September 9.
A Hull College Group spokesperson said its DAPs approval will bring greater flexibility to tailor the curriculum to meet students’ needs.
Chief executive Gary Warke MBE (pictured above) said: “We are delighted that after almost two years, the Quality Assurance Agency has recognised the high quality staffing, resources and infrastructure at Hull College Group enabling an outstanding higher education offer to meet the needs of our students, employers and key stakeholders.”
Alastair Thomson, principal of University Campus Scarborough and group director for higher education, said: “With our own Foundation Degree awarding powers, Hull College Group will be able to make significant improvements in its Higher Education provision.
“We will be able to dramatically increase the speed of response to the needs of employers and thereby accelerate economic growth in our region, especially in the industries of tomorrow such as digital and wind power.”
A Midland college has incurred the wrath of local dog walkers with its response to Ofsted safeguarding advice to improve grounds security.
Warwickshire College Group (WCG) group was rated as good by Ofsted in April — but inspectors said “access to their sites needs to be more secure”.
They also said managers at the 14,500-learner college group had drawn up “substantive plans” to address the issue.
But those plans, to block access through most of the 750-acre grounds of its Moreton Morrell campus, provoked outrage from locals who walked their dogs through the site.
Nearly 200 residents protested by walking their favourite route through the grounds on November 1 — two days before the college’s new restrictions came into force.
One of the protestors, Lesley Maynard, aged 57, said walking around the grounds of the Moreton Morrell campus, where around 1,500 learners are taught, had been “a pleasure for local residents for many years”.
“I have two children and when they were young, we would walk, with other village families, through the college grounds, watching the lambs and wildlife,” she added.
Ms Maynard said walkers had caused the college “no problems” over the years — but “the small pleasure is now being taken away from the village”.
“As a small rural community we have to put up with quite a lot from the college — traffic being an issue which will increase when the Henley-in-Arden campus closes next year and the students are bussed to Moreton Morrell,” she added.
“We don’t make a fuss. A little give and take is all we ask.”
A WCG spokesperson told FE Week: “For many years now, village residents have used our grounds for walking and it is with regret that given our increased responsibilities under our Prevent Duty and safeguarding we have had to take this difficult decision.”
She added that the Ofsted comments had provided “further reinforcement of our decision”, but had not been “the only driver”.
She said the campus, which specialises in land-based subjects including agriculture, equine studies, and animal welfare, had “large and growing numbers of under 18s on site, including students in our on-site residential accommodation, and with this the need to conduct more comprehensive risk assessments”.
“We are of course sorry that the villagers are unhappy with this decision and in
order to provide an alternative facility, we have introduced a new permitted walk around a parcel of our farmland in agreement with the Parish Council,” she added.
An Ofsted spokesperson said: “It is important that colleges provide a safe environment in which learners can develop their skills.
“The steps taken to ensure this safety are the college’s own responsibility.”
All FE institutions have been subject since September 21 to the Prevent Duty, as reported in FE Week, which requires them to put policies in place to prevent potential radicalisation of learners and exposure to extremism.
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and the Home Office, which oversees the Prevent Duty, declined to comment.
The efforts of a Bolton College staff member to raise awareness of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) issues have been recognised by veteran actor and activist Sir Ian McKellen.
Learning and development mentor Nick Buckley was presented with the Most Inspirational Person of 2015 award by the Hollywood star during an anti-homophobia event held in Bolton last month.
Mr Buckley has championed the importance of tackling homophobia, including a “Love Bolton College. Hate Homophobia.” campaign.
He has also set up an LGBT-awareness group based at his college, which will be touring local schools and targeting year 9, 10 and 11 pupils.
Mr Buckley said: “I was absolutely thrilled to receive the award, and it was an honour to meet Sir Ian — he’s a legend.”
As well as the awards dinner, the town-wide event included activities such as a football tournament, sing-a-longs, cabaret and burlesque shows, and a night-time vigil.
Pic: Bolton College’s Nick Buckley with Hollywood legend Sir Ian McKellen
Employer bodies have attacked Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) guidance that Trailblazer apprenticeship incentive payments are used where expensive assessments push costs over government funding limits.
However, a BIS spokesperson has told FE Week that capped government funding levels, ranging from £2,000 to £18,000, were “only part of the funding available” — employers could “also use the incentive payments that are available under this model towards the costs they incur,” he said.
Neil Carberry, director for employment and skills policy at the CBI, said such use of incentive payments “called into question how deliverable this model is”.
“If employers are being told to use incentive payments to bridge the funding shortfall owing to high-cost end-point assessments, this indicates that the apprenticeship standard falls under the wrong cap,” he said.
Under funding rules for the new Trailblazer apprenticeships, each standard is allocated one of five government funding caps. The government will pay two thirds of the cost of delivering the standard up to the cap, with employers expected to contribute the remaining third.
But FE Week has found that, in some cases, employers would be expected to contribute more than a third — possibly using the incentive payments — with government funding not reaching its two thirds mark.
Ian Cass, managing director of the Forum of Private Business, said members had told him that being made to use incentive payments towards the cost of delivering an apprenticeship risked “employers being punished for training up young people”.
“The incentive payment is really there to cover some of the costs of compliance with regulations, insurance payments and the cost of supervision of the individual on site,” said Mr Cass.
There are three incentive payments on offer – a 16 to 18 apprentice payment, a small employer incentive and a completion incentive.
The Skills Funding Agency (SFA) Trailblazer funding guidance for 2014/15 stated the payments were intended to cover “additional costs that small employers can face when taking on an apprentice” and the “additional demands of recruiting a young apprentice”, and to “encourage employers to train apprentices across the full breadth of the apprenticeship standard”.
However, the SFA’s funding guidance for 2015/16 makes no mention of what the payments are intended to cover.
But, the guidance does state that employers were “free to use the incentives payments as you wish, including meeting the wider costs of employing an apprentice”.
Among those that employers may have to use the incentive payments for was the Gas Network Team Leader standard. It was allocated a maximum funding cap of £6,000, despite its Trailblazer group having estimated delivery costs to be around £14,600 (based on the end-point assessment, priced at £3,808, representing 26 per cent of the total cost as set out in the assessment plan).
A spokesperson for sector skills council Energy and Utility Skills, which worked with employers to develop the Gas Network Team Leader standard, insisted employers were “willing to invest beyond any funding cap allocation”.
The BIS spokesperson said “The funding cap represents the maximum ‘core’ contribution that government is prepared to make towards the off-the-job training and assessment costs associated with a standard.
“This maximum contribution is only part of the funding available, employers can also use the incentive payments that are available under this model towards the costs they incur.”
The National Audit Office (NAO) will investigate quality concerns over the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills’ (BIS) drive towards 3m new apprenticeships by 2020.
The NAO announced today (November 6) that it will publish a report on apprenticeships in spring next year.
A spokesperson said: “They are a key element of the government’s plans for growth and productivity and 3m new apprenticeships have been promised over the course of this parliament. The study will examine the management of the apprenticeship programme by BIS.”
“In particular, it will assess whether the department is facilitating the delivery of high quality skills training that meets the needs of businesses, employees and the wider economy,” it added.
The NAO published a previous report on apprenticeships in February 2012 — which looked at whether BIS was “obtaining value for money from the programme”, as reported in FE Week.
It found that “adult apprenticeships offer good value for money, but the government needs to focus its resources on industries which offer the best economic returns”.
Stewart Segal
Stewart Segal (pictured right), chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, told FE Week today: “Given the NAO’s previous findings about the programme’s excellent return on the government’s investment, it’s important that the reforms both for funding and standards build on what has worked well.”
He added: “Our post-election submission included a number of recommendations on how significantly more apprenticeships can be delivered in this parliament without risking quality in the programme and we have shared these with the NAO as part of its welcome inquiry.
“We have always said that the apprenticeship programme needs an effective overall management structure that involves employers, providers and other stakeholders working with government.”
At the Association of Colleges, Teresa Frith, senior skills policy manager, said: “Apprenticeships are an essential part of post-16 education and training as they provide a dual learning, both on and off the job.
“We hope the NAO will have a good look at the management of reform and the growth of the programme, as the Government aims for its target of 3m new apprenticeships by 2020.
“We have already spoken to the NAO and we will be watching this investigation as it develops.”
Concern was raised over the apprenticeship reform programme stalling after Skills Minister Nick Boles (pictured below left) told the House of Commons Education Select Committee in January that the government had “gone off half-cock” on planned changes, including proposals to fund them through PAYE, as reported in FE Week.
The government partly addressed this in July when it announced plans for an apprenticeship levy on large employers, to encourage more businesses to invest in the programme, with a BIS consultation on how this would work closing a month ago.
But FE Week also reported growing frustration among new Trailblazer apprenticeship designers in August over delays with the government clearing standards for delivery, almost a year after they were first published in a number of cases.
Just 22 standards had been cleared by BIS as ready for delivery at the time and that figure still only stands at 60 out of more than 350 under development.
An Ofsted report published on October 22 was also highly critical of apprenticeship standards and
chief inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw criticised widespread use of government cash to subsidise low wages training programmes for older learners in an exclusive interview with FE Week.
He said: “What we’re seeing is that a lot of apprenticeships are simply accrediting what they’re doing already and again employers are using funding from government to subsidise already low wages — that’s got to stop.”
An infinite enthusiasm for physics gave Sir David Melville the incredible opportunity to be part of the Apollo Programme to land the first man on the moon in 1969.
The current chair of Pearson Education Ltd was given the opportunity in the mid-1960s after he completed his physics degree at the University of Sheffield and secured a year’s placement at Columbia University to assist with Neil Armstrong’s giant leap for mankind.
From left: Sir David’s son Richard and his daughters Jane and Ruth outside Buckingham Palace after his knighthood in 2007
One journalist described my career as ‘repeatedly clutching defeat from the jaws of victory’
The grandfather-of-five says: “I was very committed to science and space physics was my real passion at the time.
A photo taken in 1975 when Sir David was a young physics lecturer at Southampton UniversitySir David receiving his BSc first-class honours in physics at Sheffield University in 1965
“The detail of my involvement in the Apollo Programme is rather complex — it’s best to say I was a physicist on the programme.”
He adds: “However, I always had an interest in, as well as students who were very clever and bright and had opportunities, those who missed out on those opportunities.”
It was an interest that would lead to a 50-year (and counting) career in the education sector — with half of that coming via FE roles.
And Sir David has held notable job titles in the sector, including Further Education Funding Council (FEFC) chief executive, Vocational Awards Council chair and FE adviser to successive government ministers.
Prince Philip, Queen Elizabeth II and Sir David at the opening of the Medway campus at Kent University in 2005
He has also held a range of higher education roles including vice-chancellor of two universities and was awarded a CBE in 2001 and a knighthood in 2007 for his services to FE and higher education.
Sir David, now 71, retired from full time work eight years ago and currently works part-time as Pearson Education Ltd chair, Manchester Metropolitan University governor and is a patron for numerous trusts including the 157 Group and Comprehensive Future.
A career like this was not built overnight, so where did it all begin for the former FE funding boss?
Sir David was born in Gateshead, Durham, in 1944, to dad Fred and mum Mary and grew up with older sister Joan in a small cotton mill town in Lancashire called Clitheroe.
“My father was a local dental mechanic and my mother was a shop assistant, who both left school at the age of 13 to start working — so I was the first in the family to go to university,” explains Sir David.
He went to Clitheroe Grammar School to do his O-levels and A-levels, and then went on to study physics at the University of Sheffield in 1962.
After graduating from the university, Sir David travelled to America for a year in 1965 to work on the Apollo Programme as part of his space physics diploma.
The programme was designed to land humans on the moon and bring them safely back to earth between 1963 and 1972, and Sir David helped set up Neil Armstrong’s successful Apollo 11 mission.
The experience gave Sir David the ambition to teach and on his return to the UK, he completed a PhD at Sheffield and secured his first job as a physics lecturer at the University of Southampton, where he worked at until 1984.
Then as a nationally renowned scientist he chose to move to Lancashire Polytechnic (now University of Central Lancashire).
“It was quite a different institution to move to and the people around me at Southampton thought that it was the end of my career,” explains Sir David.
“In fact, one journalist described my career as ‘repeatedly clutching defeat from the jaws of victory’.”
However, Sir David explains that he was particularly interested in the way polytechnics took students who “didn’t have particularly good A-levels and gave them opportunities”.
He worked at the polytechnic first as professor and head of physics rising to become vice-rector by 1991 and then went to Middlesex University to become vice-chancellor.
“I shifted from physics, to managing larger and larger organisations, but the thing that drove me was opportunity — giving people second chances, and seeing amazing results with all of that,” he says.
His next career move proved to be the biggest yet and in 1997 Sir David became FEFC chief executive until 2001.
“I was the second chief executive and that is what I am known for in FE,” says Sir David, adding: “The FEFC was quite a small body which funded all of the colleges in England, and what it did, from when it was established, was to bring together the colleges into what might be called the FE system.
“Before that, they were in separate local authorities, so it was important to get them together into a national system.”
Sir David joined the FEFC while the government changed from Conservative under John Major to Labour under Tony Blair’s New Labour.
“So all of my years as chief executive were during the labour administration and there was a lot of interest in FE at that time,” says
Sir David.
He explains one of the reasons for the interest in the sector was because then-Education Secretary David Blunkett “understood FE” when “generally politicians didn’t — and still don’t”.
“So this was a time when FE had its place in the sun, and we were able to grow it and develop it in that period,” says Sir David.
Throughout his five-year stint at the FEFC Sir David visited more than 300 colleges, which he said was a highlight of the job.
He remembers one student at a college he met who had gone into catering with no GCSEs to do a BTec.
“He said: ‘One day I will do a higher national diploma’. This really inspired me because this student had a line of sight to achieve that qualification, and he knew he needed to get though each year at a time,” explains Sir David.
“He didn’t have to go through some kind of UCas system with steps and do A-levels, he could just progress — and of course that was transforming for his life.”
Sir David’s time as chief executive of the FEFC came to a close when the change in 2001 brought the FEFC and Training and Enterprise Councils together to become the Learning and Skills Council.
“My own view is that that change, although I was in favour of it at the time, proved to be pretty disastrous for colleges, and it’s led to a situation where it’s now easy for government to cut FE, which is what it’s doing at the moment,” he says.
With there being little impact Sir David can have on the current cuts, his hopes for the future of the sector are for “colleges to move to the kind of independence that polytechnics moved on when they became universities”.
He says: “In a sense colleges could be given more freedom and more responsibility, and so could be more responsive to local need — but it just hasn’t happened.
“At the end of the FEFC the whole system went the other way and there has been more micro-management by central government, even when there’s no funding.
“That’s my biggest disappointment, because I think colleges could do much better if they were freed up — just in the way that new universities have blossomed.”
At the end of our conversation when we discuss what has driven him this far within the sector, Sir David reflects on his half a century career and notices a sequence which has developed over the decades.
He says: “When I was a tutor to students at Southampton University, I had direct influence over tens of students.
“At Lancashire Polytechnic and Middlesex, that became thousands.
“But at the funding council, it was millions — and to have an influence over what happened, how it was funded, what opportunities were available, was really what drove me.
“But the driver was to influence and to help many more — so that’s been the pattern of my career.”
It’s a personal thing
What’s your favourite book?
I guess the Sherlock Holmes series by Arthur Conan Doyle, and I’ve even read the recent ones by Anthony Horowitz. Or anything by Thomas Hardy, such as Tess of the D’Urbervilles. I also read political biographies, so recently I’ve been reading Alan Johnson’s biography. I read a lot of these — mostly people I admire
What do you do to switch off from work?
I sail. I have been a sailor for, I guess, more than 40 years. I have sailed all different kinds of boats, mostly around the south coast, across the channel to France, Belgium, and Holland. I have sailed about 15,000 miles — and I mostly sail with my wife, Hilary
What’s your pet hate?
I guess two. One is prejudice. I have spent my life doing various things associated with combating prejudice, particularly racial prejudice. And the other is ignorance, so my career has been about education
If you could invite anyone to a dinner party, living or dead, who would it be?
Someone whose company I did enjoy a lot who has now died is Lord Brian Flowers, who was the rector of Imperial College, a famous physicist and sort of my mentor. And the other would be someone I admire, such as Nelson Mandela
What did you want to be when you were growing up?
I went through all the usual things growing up such as a footballer, a doctor and a surgeon — I think I even wanted to be a dentist at one point
