Lewis George is heading across the pond to tee up a golf scholarship in the USA after successfully completing a sports course at South Cheshire College.
The 18-year-old jetted off to the University of Central Arkansas last month to study kinesiology and drive forward his golfing talent at the same time.Lewis completed a sport development and fitness BTec level three extended diploma in June and said he was thrilled to be offered the “amazing opportunity”.
“Golf has always been a way of life for me,” he said. “I loved the sports diploma at college and I gained some coaching skills on the course which I’m hoping to use in the future.”
Now playing off a plus two handicap, Lewis first picked up a club when he was just six years old and lowered his handicap to five by the age of 12.
Since then he has won numerous club competitions and has represented England at under-16 level.
Main image: Lewis George outside South Cheshire College before he jetted off to the US
The government has been crystal clear about the need for structural reforms (spending less on FE, curriculum rationalisation, higher and technical specialisation and financial sustainability) and their desired outcome is fewer and more financially sustainable institutions [read: colleges]. The status quo is not an option.
Rather than take you through the pages and pages of policy intention and guidance, covered on feweek.co.uk and also elsewhere in these very pages, I wanted to focus on what is missing and what those in the Offices of the FE and Sixth Form Commissioners, or indeed any Local Enterprise Partnerships (Leps), local authorities or colleges wanting to instigate a review, should not forget.
Talking to learners is essential
It’s inevitable when you have FE principals, Leps, local authorities, regional school commissioners and employers around a table, they will talk about information, advice and guidance. While not a core objective of Area Reviews, there will be implications around learner choice and accessibility of provision nonetheless. There will be issues Area Review teams probably wouldn’t consider without insight from learners around issues such as quality, progression opportunities, student support and transport.
An ‘Area Review of Post 16 Education and Training Institutions’ that only looks at colleges won’t be worth it
If you’re a training provider, local authority provider or higher education institution, the provision you offer will be looked at as part of a review’s analysis of what’s available to learners and employers, your performance and financial data will be analysed by a local steering group, but you’ll only be subject to recommendations if you opt-in. Achieving consistency across all Area Reviews is cited as a key responsibility of the FE and Sixth Form Commissioners and a big part of that has to be about who is in scope. Having neighbouring reviews, one of them fully involving training providers and Universities, while the other only looking at FE and Sixth Form Colleges, leaves the whole process open to criticism later down the line. More than that though, the reviews should be empowered to make recommendations covering all provision that contributes to the economic growth and wellbeing of areas, people and businesses. Which leads on nicely to…
Nothing to say on community learning?
The absence of any reference to adult and community provision should be a cause for concern, primarily because the reviews are about economic contribution and what this could mean in the spending review. If community learning provision is not in scope for Area Reviews, then it gives no opportunity for local areas to, unless they choose to, objectively analyse the economic (in its widest possible sense) impacts this provision delivers for people and businesses. You can see how in areas with higher proportions of older people, for example, benefit from people who can be economically active for longer, and reviews should be able to demonstrate how important a lifelong learning infrastructure will be as our population gets older.
Saving money doesn’t just mean FE cuts
There is a danger that Area Reviews focus very narrowly on the impacts of post 16 provision in local areas using direct economic metrics around productivity, business growth or earnings in isolation of the wider benefits that learning brings to communities that save people, businesses and the public sector money. If you’re going to deep-dive into the economic impacts and potential that post 16 education and training does and could deliver for a local area, you should also look at things like changing demographics, crime, social care, health services and migration.
Area Reviews are not going to be the mechanism when we win the argument that Central Government spending on FE is an investment, not a cost, but they can empower local areas with their own resources to make things happen.
Not starting from scratch
The Area Review policy documents have dramatically under-estimated the amount of rationalisation, integration, specialisation and collaboration that colleges in particular have already delivered in the last five years. The sector never stands still and so it’s right that, given this experience, college leaders play a principal role throughout the review process.
Dr Sue Pember’s vast senior civil service experience has been serving Holex and its adult and community learning provider members for around a month now. She outlines her hopes and fears for the sector.
Adult education is an area to which I am personally committed and believe that for many participants it is their lifeline to society and a better life.
Many adult education services work in partnership and manage complex relationships with other services, such as probation, Job Centre Plus, social care, colleges and universities. They do this because they want the best overall package of support for their students; state funding coupled with robust fee polices allows them to work with these other services in a way that is both value for money and effective.
Going forward, my greatest concerns are that (during the frenzy of the next spending review) decisions will be made without understanding the consequences. We have seen this in the last few months.
My greatest concerns are that (during the frenzy of the next spending review) decisions will be made without understanding the consequences
Government’s desire to increase funding in certain policy areas has led to several decisions being made which taken separately seemed fine, but together, the impact on many providers was to take 24 per cent from the adult budget on top of the more visible 2010 spending review cuts.
The next set of decisions around adult education must be transparent and fully debated, and must not be the unintended consequences of other policy decisions.
It is now recognised by many economists that for our country to meet its full potential it needs to improve productivity. Therefore, going forward, there is an argument for increased investment in adult skills.
Second chance education is about putting right what went wrong in schools; it is about acquiring the skills the nation needs, it is about confidence and personal well-being, which in turn leads to more fulfilled employees and citizens who are less reliant on state support and leads to the bonus of improved productivity and a more competitive and successful economy.
Adult education services — whether delivered through local authorities or colleges — are at a cliff edge and there is a risk that the unintended consequences of other policy decisions could decimate the service, leaving a large hole in the fabric of our society with no means of filling it.
Without these services many people will feel isolated, there will be no easy means of quickly reallocating resource into areas of need such as where there has been large scale redundancy and the need to support people back into work, or providing part of the solution when there have been civil unrest and breakdowns in society.
My role on behalf of Holex members will be to act as an advocate, generate summaries and analysis of current government initiatives and share this information with the network. This will include responses to formal consultations, regular updates, and alerting members to changes in funding and data.
Sharing good practice and looking at how best we can contribute to localism and the devolution agenda will be a key work stream. For example, should adult and community learning providers be in or out of the new area reviews?
This fast changing policy and funding landscape will be the background for my future work with Holex members — a big challenge but I cannot think of a better group of people to be working with.
John Woodcock has spent a lot of his time since being appointed Shadow Minister for Young People following May’s General Election telling the FE and skills sector that he’s in “listening mode”.
But in the four months the MP for Barrow and Furness has been in post, just what has he heard?
“There is a group of people who have adapted well to a policy environment in which an awful lot is expected of them, without the help they would like — both in terms of resources and also a stable policy environment,” he says.
People really believed in and had a view of the kind of change that a third term Labour government could make and the kind of country that we were building
“But I share the apprehension of many people who are saying: ‘Yes, you are recognising the importance of what we do’ — which is a good thing, you never want FE to be not talked about or mentioned by a minister — ‘but you are talking about us in a way which is either totally unrealistic or is potentially forcing us down a route which is not going to do the best for young people’.”
And this, he says, is why like many he’s “concerned” by the government’s 3m apprenticeships target.
Woodcock, aged six, on a family camping trip
“Colleges are being forced into a numbers game where they know they could be providing better service, but the way the government is driving incentives in the system leaves them to be potentially churning out numbers rather than giving people the start they know they really could do,” he says.
When we meet in his parliamentary office, looking out at Big Ben, 36-year-old Woodcock is noticeably more effusive and at ease before the interview begins — perhaps, as an ex-journalist himself, he’s struggling not to second guess how his answers might sound in print.
During his time studying English and history at Edinburgh University in 2000 he started doing shifts at The Scotsman newspaper, as well as editing university newspaper The Student, previously edited by Woodcock’s future boss, Gordon Brown.
Woodcock felt journalism was “a chance for creative writing and to get into that pursuit for truth and exposing stuff,” he explains.
John Woodcock protests outside parliament in 2011 with a group of Furness bowlers to save bowling greens
“In the end I spent more time on journalism than my degree,” says Woodcock.
His “big break” came when he volunteered to work the unpopular Christmas and Boxing Day shifts and he was eventually offered a full time job, which he paused his degree to take up.
The most memorable time on the paper was in September 2001.
“I was in the office on 9/11,” he says.
“I always remember that day, and then the week and couple of weeks after it when the nation was just absolutely fixed on this issue, and reporting on that felt really important and a privilege.
“I remember doing a shift as a night news editor — which was absurd, given I was only 21 — and through the occasional miscommunications that you get in newsrooms, they suddenly realised they had no main story on page five, and it was the day they first released photos of some of the people who had died when the towers collapsed, and they asked me to write a piece on those photos in 25 or 30 minutes.
Woodcock campaigns in Barrow and Furness town centre for the 2015 general election
“And actually it was one of my best pieces of writing, so clearly that’s what you need to do to get good copy out of me — hold a gun to my held and tell me it’s got to be done in 10 minutes.”
Does he work well under pressure then?
“I guess — I survived a year in Downing Street with Gordon Brown, and there was occasional pressure in that environment,” he says, with a laugh referring to Brown’s infamous reputation for flying into a rage with staff.
Eventually, however, Woodcock’s thoughts turned back to university, and life beyond.
“After doing journalism for a while I realised you have to write a lot of stuff you don’t really agree with, and it was coming up to the 2001 election and I wanted to be part of it, and I began wondering ‘Do I want to be a journalist in 10 years’ time?’” he says.
So he headed back to university to finish his degree, and became involved with his local Labour Party.
Woodcock had been “delivering Labour leaflets before I could walk” in Sheffield, where his father was a Labour councillor.
His father’s name, incidentally, is also John — “which has been a source of confusion and annoyance for most of my childhood… just… why would you call your son the same name as you?” — and he was a PE teacher and youth worker, while Woodcock’s mother, Christine, taught at Rotherham College of Arts and Technology.
Woodcock’s student involvement in the Labour Party led to him being elected to run the student wing of the party in London, and then to a job on the 2005 election “back in those glorious days when Labour won elections,” he says ruefully.
“Looking back now it seems fabulous,” he says.
“It was such a privilege being part of a campaign where you saw so many really good, committed people, not only to getting over the line and winning.
“People look back on that time and say it was all about image and media management or spin, but actually it was so much deeper than that.
“But people really believed in and had a view of the kind of change that a third term Labour government could make and the kind of country that we were building.”
After Labour’s victory, Woodcock worked as an aide to his Barrow-in-Furness predecessor John Hutton, before becoming a special advisor to then-Prime Minister Gordon Brown in 2008.
Woodcock takes on the younger generation in a game of football at Barrow park just before the general election this year
The experience, he says, was “fascinating”.
“The way of making decisions in Number 10 could be chaotic and short-termist, but actually it was also such a privilege to be there and see Gordon in action in the financial crisis — the speed of response, and the level of understanding that he brought to that leadership, he genuinely brought to the world, was also an amazing thing to witness,” he says.
In 2010, Woodcock ran in his own right and won, leaving him in the “weird” position of celebrating his victory as his party came to terms with defeat.
“New MPs have to guard against it, because you personally are just elated and proud that you have been elected into this amazingly privileged position for the first time, and you’ve worked your socks off to get there, and that’s sort of tempered by the fact that we did badly overall,” he says.
Woodcock’s tenure as MP got off to flying start — within five months he was appointed Shadow Transport Minister — but that came to an abrupt halt when he fell from a ladder trying to get into his attic.
He thought he had “got away scot-free” without injury — but had reckoned without the last effects of hitting his head on the way down.
“It took a while to diagnose what had happened and a long while to realise how slow the process of recovery was going to be,” he says.
Suffering from tiredness and lack of concentration, Woodcock was forced to cut back his hours and step down from his shadow post to focus on constituents.
“But I think the most impacted was family life,” says the father- of- two.
“Unfortunately the condition meant that lots of noise and changes in focus very quickly scrambled your head and I would have to sort of go and be in a quiet place — and having two small children is the absolute opposite of that.
“So wanting to spend time with the kids but finding that within 10 minutes it would make your head boil over, and not feeling like being the kind of dad you should be was tough, and it led to me being depressed.”
Woodcock says he’s “really glad” he made the choice to seek help with his depression — and was very open about his decision to do so.
“The only reason I had felt able to do that was because other people in public life, particularly parliamentarians, and [former Blair aide] Alistair Campbell had spoken about it,” he explains.
“So I thought maybe I should speak publically and be open about it — in the way I was open about my physical accident.”
The public response, he says, was “almost universally nice”.
“And each time someone talks about mental illness, although people are generally supportive, there is less made of it and that is a really good thing — the only way we can help the one-in-four people who, in any given year, will have a mental health condition, is that if it just becomes a normal thing.”
Now, back on the shadow cabinet with the young people role, Woodcock is looking to the future, with his involvement with Liz Kendall’s campaign for Labour leadership — but, following one of the biggest swings against Labour in the election this year, he’ll also have to keep one eye on his constituency.
And for the sector he’s been listening to, he says, his main ambition is the ever thorny issue of parity of esteem.
“We have a long way to go on that,” he says.
“But it is absolutely achievable. I am really optimistic about the power of colleges, of institutions, of the people in them to play the role that we need FE to play, to be able to give people the chance to better their lives — so I hope I can play a role in doing that during my time here.”
It’s a personal thing
What’s your favourite book?
It changes all the time, but at the moment it’s Robert Caro’s biography of Lyndon Baines Johnson. It’s had four volumes now, and each is around two inches thick. They’ve only just got to the bit where he becomes president and it’s an incredible analysis of human life, but also how power works in politics. Highly recommended.
What do you do to switch off from work?
I tend to my clematis in my back yard, and just recently I have joined a crown green bowling team and we play on a Friday evening. I had my first match recently. I used to play as a kid in the junior leagues in Sheffield, and I had my first competitive match as a grown up on Friday, and I won. I beat a 13-year-old — he was a good.
What’s your pet hate?
I just can’t bear people who put bags on seats and deliberately make it difficult for you to sit down, or put their feet up, on trains. Just so annoying.
If you could invite anyone living or dead to a dinner party who would it be?
The Beatles when they liked each other. I think they would have been really good fun when they liked each other. Björk, and I’d really liked to have met Hugh Gaitskell and Barbara Castle (Baroness Castle of Blackburn) within the Labour Party. I’m not sure that mix will go so well, but yes.
What did you want to be when you were growing up?
I wanted to be a fighter pilot after watching Top Gun, but I learned quite early on that I’m slightly colour blind between blue and green. I don’t think I’d have made a very good fighter pilot anyway, but that quashed my dreams before I left my middle school.
Leicester College has branched out from simply delivering apprenticeships in a college sector first by taking the “unique” step of registering with the Skills Funding Agency as a Trailblazer apprenticeship assessor.
Leicester, which taught around 2,400 apprentices last academic year, can provide end-point assessment for level two property maintenance operative apprenticeships, developed by the property services employer Trailblazer group. It is among other assessors for the apprenticeship, including City & Guilds among others.
“It is important the college is proactive within the evolving landscape of apprenticeship training,” a spokesperson for the college, rated as good by Ofsted in 2011, told FE Week.
“In June 2015, when the opportunity to become an apprentice end-point organisation arose Leicester College successfully applied for inclusion on the register.”
She added: “Although it is unique for an FE college to be on this register, we are well placed through our extensive facilities and expert apprenticeship team to deliver this.
“As an end-point assessment organisation we can support employers and lead providers in the delivery of assessment as part of an apprenticeship programme. Our involvement also allows us to disseminate apprenticeship changes to our own teams, employers and apprentices.”
The college currently offers more than 60 different types of apprenticeships, for example in engineering, hospitality and catering, and fashion and textiles. It would not be allowed to assess its own apprentices.
And the register also lists the geographical areas in which such organisations can assess.
Employer provider BT was also listed by the SFA as an assessment organisation for level four network engineer and software developer apprenticeships, developed by the digital industries Trailblazer group which the company is a member of.
A spokesperson for BT, which received a grade one Ofsted rating in May 2012 in a report that praised its “outstanding” apprenticeships provision for more than 1,600 learners, said: “Following conversations with the SFA, it was decided that BT should consider applying for the register of apprentice assessment organisations, given our involvement and pedigree in this area”.
He said that BT had “no immediate plans for the use of the registration” which it applied for in June, but it would provide “future options” and “could allow us to reach out, support and offer assistance to the sector as a whole”.
Council and business leaders have remained tight-lipped over financial support for college mergers as the FE sector continues to wait for guidance on proposed post-16 area reviews.
Guidance on the reviews, which were announced in July, was due to be published last month, but at the time of going to press had only been seen in draft form in a document leaked to FE Week.
The draft guidance places responsibility for the funding of mergers and other changes recommended following the reviews on colleges, local enterprise partnerships (Leps) and councils, with a threat that skills funding could be withdrawn from providers which do not “take action” as part of the programme.
The document, authored by Skills Minister Nick Boles, says: “We will expect colleges, Leps, local authorities with relevant devolved skills budgets to provide funding and support to implement changes, particularly as we expect change to deliver significant net savings in the longer term. Government finance would need to be provided as a last resort.
“While participating in these reviews and implementing their recommendations is voluntary, recognising the independent status of colleges, I strongly urge every college to take part.
“As confirmed in the policy statement, ultimately we would expect funding agencies and Leps to only fund institutions that are taking action to ensure they can provide a good quality offer to learners and employers, which is financially sustainable for the long term.”
Dr Ann Limb, chair of the South East Midlands Lep, said: “As government guidance on area-based reviews has not yet been published it is premature to speculate on how any changes resulting from the reviews might be funded.
“Leps and FE colleges serve the local communities in which they are located and it is therefore likely different solutions will be found for different areas.
“In the South East Midlands, I am confident that we will work collaboratively with our excellent colleges to implement the findings of the area-based review once it has been completed.”
But Dr Mary Bousted, general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL), said it was “totally unrealistic” to expect colleges to foot the bill for the reviews, which she described as being “forced upon the sector by the government”.
She added: “Colleges have absorbed cuts of 35 per cent to their funding since 2009, and from September 2015 are losing an additional 24 per cent of their adult learning budgets, as well as being expected to find nearly 4 per cent of savings within this academic year.
“If surplus funds are available within college budgets, they should be spent on educating and developing the skills of local young people and adults, not responding to the whim of a Government pursuing an ideological agenda.”
University and College Union general secretary Sally Hunt said: “Colleges have already sustained massive funding cuts and now need to prioritise their resources on students rather than jumping through hoops to secure future funding.
Association of School and College Leaders general secretary Brian Lightman said: “The last thing colleges need is a further funding pressure at a time when funding levels are so low that many colleges are struggling to maintain basic levels of provision.”
No one from the Local Government Association was available for comment. See feweek.co.uk for more on the leaked area review guidance.
Pilot qualifications in post-GCSE maths that were launched late last year have been fully rolled out by the Department for Education.
The qual, designed for use in the tech bacc, will be available to students who have already achieved a C or above in their maths GCSE, and is more practical in nature than the AS-level despite being of the same Ucas point value.
The level three core maths qual was on offer to a number of schools last year, but has been made available to all schools and colleges from this month via City & Guilds, AQA, Pearson Edexcel, Eduqas and OCR.
Kirstie Donnelly MBE, City & Guilds managing director, said: “This practical, workplace-relevant qualification provides a high standard of maths in a real world context, helping to drive up standards in the UK and ensuring employers have the skilled and talented workforce they need to thrive.”
OCR subject specialist Jo Deko said: “We welcomed the announcement of core maths qualifications for post-16 students who have achieved a grade C or better in GCSE maths, but do not wish to go on to study the subject at A or AS Level.
“We launched our pioneering new level three qualifications last year and a number of providers have been piloting them. We are delighted that they are now available for all post-16 education providers to use with their students.”
An independent learning provider that faced losing its Skills Funding Agency (SFA) contract after an Ofsted inadequate rating over safeguarding fears four months ago has managed to hold onto its public funding deal following a good Ofsted judgment.
Leicester-based firm Qdos was given three months’ notice that its SFA contract would be torn up after inspectors reported in April how two staff members had regular and unsupervised access to learners under 18 without relevant criminal checks.
However, company boss Elena Ryabusha (pictured) said the concerns related to two unrelated incidents which were a result of oversight, rather than systematic failures.
A positive monitoring inspection in May found Qdos was making progress to address issues — leading to the SFA granting the firm a three-month stay of execution.
Qdos was then re-inspected on July 28 and rated as good, with inspectors praising the firm’s significant improvements.
The SFA has now confirmed it has withdrawn the termination notice.
Ms Ryabusha told FE Week: “My staff have been through a tough and emotional journey to make this happen and I am very grateful to work with such resilient, tough and hardworking people.
“Many times each one of us felt we are buckling under pressure but we kept going. We had a threat of losing our company and our livelihoods and we fought for it.
“This was not a journey for faint-hearted and we have endured it together and have come out on the other side victorious.”
She praised the SFA for its support following the inadequate grading when, as FE Week previously reported, talks took place to secure a delay to the contract termination pending full reinspection.
The SFA did not respond specifically when asked if other ILPs newly-rated as inadequate would also have a chance to retain their public funding contracts.
But a spokesperson said: “Following two subsequent Ofsted visits, reasonable improvements were noted and as a result Qdos had been given a ‘good’ rating by Ofsted for its overall effectiveness.
“In response, on July 31, we notified Qdos Training Limited that we would lift the notice of termination due to take effect in September and its contract would continue.”
Ofsted is required to re-inspect an inadequate provider within 15 months of the last inspection.
A spokesperson for the education watchdog said: “Inspectors found the provider was taking effective actions during the monitoring visit. Therefore, a decision was made to re-inspect it soon after its last inspection in order to see the full impact of the changes made.”
The inadequate report, which came after a good result in 2011, called for disclosure checks on all staff working unsupervised with young learners “as a matter of highest priority”.
It also said Qdos should “systematically train staff” to understand safeguarding and led to the SFA giving the provider a three-month notice to terminate its contract.
Qdos, which had an SFA allocation of £763k last academic year and has around 80 learners, offers apprenticeships and classroom-based programmes in customer service, ICT and administration.
Upon re-inspection the firm was praised for its rapid improvements. It received a ‘good’ grade across the outcomes for learners, quality of teaching, learning and assessment and effectiveness of leadership and management categories.
Ms Ryabusha said improvements were driven by providing training programmes for all staff in safeguarding, health and safety and equality.
The online programmes were also followed up by external and internal workshops.
Ms Ryabusha added: “All we talked about was impact on learners. Our every minute of every day was devoted to improving quality of our provision.”
General FE colleges are hoping fears they could be overwhelmed with higher education gripes prove unfounded as they start the new academic year subject for the first time to the same complaints scrutiny procedure as universities.
An FE Week report in February revealed that complaints from students at FE colleges on higher education courses would be scrutinised by the Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education (OIAHE), because of a law change which coming into effect for 2015/16 through the new Consumer Rights Act.
The OIAHE previously only dealt with complaints from FE higher education learners if they related to something for which the validating university was responsible and concern has been raised that streamlining the system could lead to a rise in complaints.
However, FE providers can get better access to guidance on updating their higher education complaints systems through subscribing to OIAHE at a heavily discounted rate, which was agreed following talks with the Association of Colleges (AoC).
An OIAHE spokesperson told FE Week: “The rate an individual FE college will pay will depend on how many higher education in FE students it has.
“But as an example, a college with 500 HE in FE students would pay £579, while a university with the same number of students would pay £827 — so the college has a discounted rate of 70 per cent.
“As FE colleges only joined on September 1, they will pay for only four months of 2015 membership.”
Joanna Forbes (pictured), legal director at law firm Shakespeare Martineau LLP, said that she had been contacted over the summer “by a number of colleges to look at their complaints procedures in light of the changes”.
She added that a key change to OIAHE procedure, which GFE colleges will have to abide by, was an extension introduced in July to the time limit for lodging a complaint from three to 12 months after the college complaints procedure has been completed.
She thought that this could encourage more complaints and said: “My general view is that colleges are not currently as well set up to deal with HE complaints as universities.
“I think as a rule that is because FE students tend to complain less. One reason for this is that FE students haven’t always had anywhere sensible to go with their complaint, so it hasn’t been clear who they should complain to or how.
“The availability of the OIAHE will now enable them to complain more, which I don’t think is a bad thing necessarily, as colleges can learn from what students complain about.”
Nick Davy, higher education policy manager at the AoC, said: “We would need to monitor the extension of the time limit for reporting complaints to make sure that they are being dealt with as soon as possible.
“We do not envisage a significant increase in the number of complaints because students already had the right to go to the OIAHE, through their awarding university, once the internal complaints system had been exhausted.”
