Southwark Council has hit out at Lewisham Southwark College in a row over its allegedly rejected plan to split the college in two.
Southwark Council published proposals last month to de-merge Lewisham Southwark College and which would put the council in charge of contracting out provision for the parts that used to be Southwark College before the 2012 merger.
However, last week college principal Carole Kitching (pictured) said the plan had been rejected by FE Commissioner David Collins.
Mr Collins is currently carrying out an area-based assessment of south east London’s FE and skills provision after both Lewisham Southwark College and its nearest neighbour Greenwich Community College were slapped with an inadequate grade.
Southwark Council leader Peter John blasted the alleged decision.
He said: “We’ve had no formal notification from the FE Commissioner, but frankly, if he wants to back a failing college, then that is up to him.
“What I do know is that the council owes it to local young people and older learners to fight tooth and nail to ensure they get the education they deserve, and move seamlessly into careers in Southwark.”
He accused the college of “not preparing students to compete in the jobs market”, despite local opportunities available.
He said: “Lewisham Southwark College has already let down Southwark’s young people, and all residents, by the poor quality of its further education offer in recent years.”
He criticised the college for selling off its Bermondsey site in 2012 and said last month’s decision to sell the Camberwell campus was “short-sighted”.
He said: “It is time for the minister and the FE Commissioner to stop propping up a college which is letting down our residents.
“The commissioner seems determined to put the interests of the college’s managers over those of students and local employers. This is wrong and has to stop.”
As the college is in administered status, meaning the principal cannot make any decisions about staffing, finance or assets without the commissioner’s approval, a council spokesperson said it hoped that this could be used to prevent the sell-off of the Camberwell site.
Lewisham Southwark College declined to comment on Mr John’s comments.
When the college announced that Southwark Council’s plans had been rejected, it said in a statement that the commissioner and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) “have now confirmed that the proposal is not an option that would be considered or progressed”.
It added: “Instead the college has been given time to work on its planned recovery which has recently been praised by both the FE Commissioner and received positive comments towards changes made by Ofsted.”
Principal Carole Kitching took up the role in June.
She said: “Lewisham Southwark should be, and will be, stronger together.”
Barnfield College has come under fire for spending public money on a sponsorship deal with its local football team.
The college was forced to defend itself when Luton Town football club fans took to social media to express their anger after the college was revealed last week as the sponsor for the club’s shirts for the 2015/16 season.
The college has had a financial turbulent history in recent years. After the departure of former principal Sir Peter Birkett in 2013, when financial irregularities were discovered, the college was judged inadequate for financial control by the Skill Funding Agency, and was slapped with a grade four from Ofsted this January.
Twitter User @digitaldaisies tweeted “I love Luton Town FC, but what are Barnfield College playing at? An FE college sponsoring team kit? Ridiculous.”
Another user, @Drew_Freeman, wondered “where Barnfield are getting this money from to sponsor Luton” while @danny_buckley_ described the deal as “bizarre”.
Facebook user Adrian Farr accused the club of “making profit from local people’s misery” by accepting the college’s money.
Neither the college nor the club have revealed how much the deal, which replaced a previous arrangement with Luton-based budget airline easyJet, was worth.
However, director of education PR company Empra, Ruth Sparkes, told FE Week the deal might have been a worthwhile investment.
She said: “Working with sports organisations, whether that’s through sponsorship or other methods of collaboration can be a very good idea for colleges, but, only the college will know whether it can afford to do so, or what the Return on Investment is.
“Sports can often be a way to engage very hard to reach students and their families. I’m talking about students who would never go to an open event, or call the college or ever think that college was for the ‘likes of them’.”
She added: “Sponsorship, like all forms of advertising costs money, the cost needs to be balanced with the visibility, brand awareness and PR that can be harnessed from the deal — local teams are very important to their communities, and that might be attractive leverage for a college or training provider.”
Barnfield head of marketing Jacky MacKay, defended the deal.
She said: “Any money which has changed hands as a result of the sponsorship was already set aside as part of the marketing budget.”
She added the college’s marketing budget for the year was “within the sector norms”.
Barnfield isn’t the only college offering sports sponsorship — Truro and Penwith College sponsor the Cornish Pirates rugby team, Cornwall College sponsors Cambourne rugby club, Grantham has a sponsorship deal with Kesteven Rugby’s under 15s team, and Guildford City football club counts Merrist Wood College among its sponsors.
Luton Town Football Club declined to comment on the backlash against the deal.
In a statement on the website announcing the new sponsor, chief executive Gary Sweet said: “It’s fantastic to have Barnfield on-board.
“With the departure of easyJet as shirt sponsor, we were hoping to be able to enter into a new agreement with an organisation with strong links to the town.
“When Barnfield came forward as a potential sponsor it made perfect sense and we’re absolutely delighted to have them involved.
“Working with Barnfield will help us raise the profile of both the club and the college and will offer huge benefits to the club, its supporters, Barnfield and its students in many other ways.”
The Prime Minister wished everyone from WorldSkills Team UK the best of luck in letters handed to them at a special send-off event in Westminster.
[You can leave your message of support for Team UK at the end of this article.]
In a letter to eachof the competitors who are flying out to Brazil tonight, David Cameron congratulated them on their success in qualifying for the team and said: “I would like to take this opportunity to wish all those involved every success this year.”
David Cameron
He added that future learners would be inspired by their exploits in Brazil and said: “I hope you will enjoy the experience and I look forward to seeing how much you can achieve on behalf of our country.”
The letters were given out at today’s event in Great George Street, London, close to the the Houses of Parliament, where parents, team leaders and staff from Find a Future, which organises the UK’s WorldSkills entries, came to say good bye and good luck to the competitors.
Skills Show Patron and former former Dragon’s Den star Theo Paphitis was among those who attended.
“Everyone in this room is proud of you,” he told the competitors.
“You’ve got the drive and the ambition to do what’s right for yourself, but in this particular instance, you’re doing something even more magnificent, which is representing the UK.
“And it’s something that’s going to stay with you for the rest of your life and you’re going to be so, so proud.”
Peter Lauener, the UK’s official WorldSkills delegate and chief executive of the skills and education funding agencies, told the team members to make the most of the experience, by interacting with their team mates and other competitors.
“You can sense the togetherness between you that’s come because you’ve trained together, you’ve learned together, you’ve been to lots of events,” he said.
“And that’s going to be the foundation of success in Sao Paulo, together with the immense amount of hard work that each of you have done individually.”
Find a Future chair Carole Stott also had a few words of encouragement for team members who, she said, had got this far through “hard work, your own determination and your own perseverance”.
“We all know here that you’re going to do us proud in Brazil,” she added.
The competitors were each issued with a special enamel pin.
Cookery competitor Danny Hoang, aged 21, said: “I’m really proud to be able to wear the enamel, only a select few have been able to receive it and to be part of it is very special.
“I can’t wait to get started — I’ve been pretty nervous, but I’ve done everything I can to prepare for it so I can’t wait to get started.”
Danny’s mum Suan and brother Lawrence were at the event to see him off.
Suan said: “I’m so, so proud of him, not just for himself, but representing the UK as well.
“Words cannot describe it — I’m just so proud about what he’s achieved so far.”
Unfortunately one member of Team UK won’t make it to Brazil.
Sheet metal technology competitor Harley Brian, 20, has had to withdraw from the competition after a leg injury meant he was unable to fly.
A Find a Future spokesperson said: “Unfortunately, due to a serious knee injury, Harley Brian has been withdrawn from the Sheet Metal Technology competition at WorldSkills Sao Paulo and will not be travelling to Brazil with Team UK.
“We are maintaining close contact with Harley and his family, and will provide further information as soon as it becomes available. Everyone at WorldSkills UK would like to take this opportunity to wish him a speedy recovery. He will not be replaced in Team UK.”
The rest of the team will fly to Brazil tonight, in preparation for WorldSkills, which will run from August 12 to 15 andFE Weekwill be joining them.
Keep up with all the action before and during the competition on feweek.co.uk or on Twitter with the handle @FEWeek and the #GoWSTeamUK hashtag.
The WorldSkills competition won’t be the only event taking place at Sao Paulo’s 400,000 square metre Anhembi Park this week.
As competitors go head to head for a place on the medals podium, skills sector leaders from around the world will be putting their heads together to work out how to improve skills training internationally.
City and Guilds WorldSkills manager Michael Osbaldeston will be among the delegates at the conference, which will take place from from August 11 to 15.
“As well as cheering the team on, while I’m out there, I’ll also be attending the international conference because it’s really important we have the thought leadership behind the skills,” he told FE Week.
“I’ll be looking forward to meeting old friends for the WorldSkills family and community — that’s one of the great things about WorldSkills, you have friends in Canada, Korea and China.”
The conference will include sessions on the Brazilian training system Senai, future trends in skills development and opportunities to gain insights from vocational training around the world.
The Brazilian Education Minister Renato Janine Ribeiro will also lead a seminar on best practices and strategies.
Mr Osbaldeston said: “We need to share best practice, we need to understand what best practice looks like, we need to do work that encourages the further development of WorldSkills around the world, and the recognition of the role those skills play in the international economy.
“It’s going to be great privilege and I’m thoroughly looking forward to it.”
Mr Osbaldeston also said he and City and Guilds wanted to wish Team UK “the very best of luck”.
He said: “They’re a great bunch of young people, they’ve got a tremendous bunch of training managers and people behind them and they’ve just demonstrated what a fantastic team we’re putting forward on this occasion.
“In many ways they don’t need good luck, because they’re well prepared, they know what they’re doing.
“These are the finest of the finest young people in the land, so do well, enjoy and good luck, we’re proud of you.”
Keep up with all the action before and during the competition with FE Week – on feweek.co.uk or on Twitter with the handle @FEWeek and the #GoWSTeamUK hashtag.
Independent learning provider t2 Business Solutions has been hit with a grade three Ofsted rating after concern was raised about failures to safeguard learners and vulnerable adults.
But t2, which was previously rated ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted in May 2012, has now slumped to a grade three-overall rating, with the report warning that leadership and management ‘requires improvement’.
It stated that “the organisation failed to carry out disclosure and barring services (DBS) checks for some new staff and too many of them did not have a current DBS check in place prior to inspection”.
Managers had ensured, the report added, that these staff did not have unsupervised access to young people as soon as the issue was identified.
However, concern was also raised that “the designated safeguarding officer and team who would routinely have access to sensitive information have not completed an accredited training programme leading to a qualification or appropriate DBS”.
Rob Marr, managing director of t2 group, which includes Marr Corporation Limited and was allocated £13.8m by the Skills Funding Agency (SFA) as of April this year, conceded that “DBS checks on some new members of staff, who were not carrying out regulated activity and who represented just 5 per cent of our workforce, were not carried out in a timely fashion”.
But he said: “We carried out an internal investigation into the source of the problem, which became a disciplinary matter.
“We have since strengthened our internal procedures by implementing all staff recruitment recommendations within three days of the inspection taking place.”
When asked by FE Week if he expected that t2 would be allowed to continue running its ‘outstanding’ traineeships following the grade three overall Ofsted rating, he said: “It is our understanding that we can continue to deliver [them] this year. However we will be unable to grow our provision.”
An SFA spokesperson said: “If a provider [such as Totton College] is currently eligible and delivering traineeships, but receives a grade three Ofsted inspection, they can continue to deliver but only under certain conditions regarding the growth of their programme.
“However, if providers with a grade three fail to receive a grade one or two on their next inspection, they would no longer be eligible to deliver.”
The Ofsted report stated that t2 was running around 4,300 intermediate, 2,900 advanced, 400 higher apprenticeships, and 40 traineeships at the time of the inspection.
It said that Totton’s senior leaders had “sensibly refrained” from developing a post-inspection action plan (PIAP) in view of the “transition period” to overall Nacro control, it added.
But the report said that work had started “on identifying the key issues relating to, and the root causes of, the college’s poor performance in 2014/15, and this now needs to proceed quickly”.
Senior leaders, the report added, were forecasting approximately half as many enrolments at the start of 2015/16 as in 2014/15.
It comes after FE Week exclusively revealed on June 26 that the government had paid a “one-off settlement” to write off the pension liabilities of the cash-strapped sixth form college as part of a deal to remove it from the public sector.
The Education Funding Agency (EFA) paid Hampshire County Council the undisclosed figure, believed to run into millions, to prevent pension liabilities from being transferred to Nacro, which improved from an ‘inadequate’ Ofsted rating in March 2013 to ‘good’ last June.
A merger has been on the horizon for the college, that had around 1,700-learners in June, since last December — when former principal Mike Gaston said it was looking at its options after sixth form college commissioner Peter Mucklow warned it could not function alone and it was placed under Financial Notice to Improve by the EFA.
An EFA spokesperson said that Nacro, which had around 3,200 learners in June, was “working closely with Totton College to address the priorities identified in the report”.
No-one from Totton College was available to comment and Nacro declined to comment.
The UK’s WorldSkills competitors are set to head off for Brazil tonight — and a number of them will be boarding the BA flight from Heathrow with the encouragement of their local MPs still ringing in their ears.
With the much-anticipated start on Tuesday (August 11) growing ever nearer, seven of the UK competitors were given the House of Commons boost.
Lucy Jones, the 21-year-old restaurant services competitor for Team UK who goes to Hampshire’s Brockenhurst College and works at Chewton Glen Hotel and Spa, was treated to tea with New Forest West MP Desmond Swayne (both pictured above).
He said: “Lucy has done incredibly well to make it into Team UK. It’s a great achievement and I’m looking forward to seeing how well she can do in Brazil.
“Her success demonstrates the opportunities WorldSkills UK skills competitions provide for young people. Through competing she has learned a lot and this has helped her career, enabling her to carry out an important role in a thriving local business.”
Chichester College’s cabinet-making competitor Edward Harringman, aged 22, and employed by Harringman Cabinet Making, met up with Hastings and Rye MP Amber Rudd, who said she was keeping her “fingers crossed” that returns with a medal.
“I wish Edward all the very best for WorldSkills Sao Paulo 2015,” she said.
“Edward’s success demonstrates the value of vocational education as a viable first choice for school leavers. Not only has he learned and developed a skill to a high standard thanks to excellent teaching at college, he is now the owner of a successful local business.
“I look forward to seeing more young people in my constituency having a go and following in Edward’s footsteps.”
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Redcar MP Anna Turley tried her hand at plastering when she met 22-year-old Robert Johnson, Team UK’s plastering and dry wall systems competitor, who works at Classic Plaster Moulds.
“I was delighted to meet Rob recently and to hear about his achievements,” she said.
“He is an inspiration to his and future generations and is proof that vocational learning can lead to great opportunities and successful careers. I wish Rob and the other members of Team UK the best of luck for the competition – I am sure you will do our area and our nation proud.”
Joinery competitor Dale Hodgins got the chance to meet Gloucester MP Richard Graham, who was “delighted” to see the 22-year-old represent the constituency and Team UK.
“Let’s all get behind Dale and show the world what Gloucester can make,” said Mr Graham.
Dale is an Oxford & Cherwell Valley College learner and is employed by Oakleigh Joinery.
Mike Watson, representing the UK in CNC Milling, met up with Thornbury and Yate MP Luke Hall.
Mr Hall said: “Mike is an inspiration to future generations of the UK’s workforce.
“His achievements prove that apprenticeships can lead to great opportunities and successful careers for individuals and businesses. The members of Team UK are ambassadors for our nation and I wish each and every one of them the very best of luck.”
Mike, aged 21 and from City of Bristol College and who works for GKN Aerospace, said: “I think WorldSkills will be an amazing experience but it will be an intense week and very hard work. I have been training very hard for it so can’t wait to finally get there and meet everyone.”
Eddisbury MP Antoinette Sandbach met Matt Beesley, a 21-year-old former Reaseheath College who is competing in landscape gardening.
She said: “Matt is an inspiration to future generations of the UK’s workforce. His achievements prove that vocational learning can lead to great opportunities and successful careers for individuals and businesses. The members of Team UK are ambassadors for our nation and I wish each and every one of them the best of luck at WorldSkills São Paulo 2015.”
Matt, who works for Beesley Landscapes, said: “Being selected for WorldSkills São Paulo 2015 is an incredible honour and is something I’ve been working towards personally for over two years. I have spent every spare minute training for the competition and I am determined to give it my all.”
And Henley MP John Howell visited RAF Benson to meet Royal Air Force technician Senior Aircraftman (Technician) Shayne Hadland, 24.
Shayne showed Mr Howell how to repair rotor blades and wiring looms as part of what is needed to keep front-line helicopters in the air.
“These skills are vitally important to the safety of aircraft and it is very good that the Royal Air Force is supporting them,” said Mr Howell.
“This is one of the few places that provide this level of training. They are to be applauded.”
Shayne said: “The goal is to be the best young aircraft engineer in the world. I don’t think there is a bigger prize than that.”
Keep up with all the action before and during the competition with FE Week – on feweek.co.uk or on Twitter with the handle @FEWeek and the #GoWSTeamUK hashtag.
Exam board OCR will not face action over events which almost led to it failing to issue A level results last summer, Ofqual has confirmed.
The qualifications watchdog has released its investigation into a series of issues at OCR last year which put at risk the delivery of the 2014 GCSE and A level results.
A letter sent to OCR’s chief executive Mark Dawe confirms that the company will not face a fine or any other action, despite stating that “catastrophic” consequences almost occurred due to a confluence of events including a company restructure and problems with the exam board’s e-marking system.
The report highlights that OCR faced a “number of significant and known risks”, including an extra 900,000 more papers to mark compared to the previous summer due to the new linear exam structure.
It adds that additional monitoring put in place by OCR last summer resulted in more exam markers being stopped from marking than in previous years.
The document also highlights “certain issues” with the Scoris e-marking system used by OCR, which moved to 100 per cent e-marking for the first time in 2014, and says the firm’s “intensive” restructuring programme over the preceding year had “limited the effect of contingency planning undertaken” for dealing with Scoris.
Glenys Stacey
In a letter sent to Mr Dawe in April, but published for the first time today, chief regulator Glenys Stacey said the events last summer caused Ofqual “the greatest concern”.
She stated: “For a time there seemed to be a real possibility that OCR would fail to issue timely results.
“The consequences had that happened might have been catastrophic; for candidates, for schools and universities and for the wider system.
“The detrimental impact on public confidence in our system might have taken years to overcome.”
But Ms Stacey also confirmed in the letter that Ofqual had decided against fining OCR or taking any other action.
An OCR spokesperson said: “Last summer’s marking did not go as smoothly as OCR would have wanted. We welcome the regulator’s report as it confirms we delivered the results on time, took the right steps to improve our system resilience and that Ofqual did not need to take any regulatory action. OCR met the UCAS deadline – seven days before results day itself – despite having nearly a million extra scripts to mark electronically.
“Although we delivered the results on time, as soon as possible after the actual results day we launched a voluntary ‘warts and all’ investigation. We then appointed an experienced, senior team whose job was to ensure we learnt the lessons of the summer and took the right action to make our processes more robust.
“Regardless of the timing of this report, students and teachers can feel confident about this summer. All A Level marking has been completed and the quality of marking has been upheld. The Ofqual report does not raise any issues about last year’s marks, so teachers and students can be confident about the marks they received then.”
Malcolm Trobe, deputy general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said he was pleased OCR had responded quickly to ensure that all results did come out in time, adding: “It is also important to emphasise that there have been no issues identified with this year’s exams.”
He continued: “There are clearly lessons to be learned and it is good to see that Ofqual has highlighted in its report the specific issues which caused problems. This will help to inform all the awarding bodies as they move into a period of curriculum reform which will affect exams from 2017 onwards.
“In the new GCSEs and A levels, all exams have to be taken at the end of courses. This will put a great deal of pressure on the system each summer and will mean that many more markers are required.”
Frustration is growing among Trailblazer apprenticeship designers with many of the new standards still awaiting government approval for delivery almost a year after they were published.
Twenty two standards published by the Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) in November are still waiting to be approved despite months of consultation and design having already gone into them by employers.
There are now 24 standards judged ready for delivery by BIS after it approved their assessment plans, which also include details of how the standard will remain consistent across the sector.
However, there remains 104 standards published but awaiting approval for delivery, with those still waiting since November having been rejected in the initial submission round in February before being resubmitted in June.
Terry Fennell (pictured right), operations director at the Food and Drink Training and Education Council, chairs the butchery Trailblazer — which is still waiting for one standard to be declared ready to use — and said many Trailblazers were getting “a little uneasy” about the delay.
He said: “Employers on the butchery group have committed a lot of time and effort since March 2014 to the development of a new apprenticeship assessment plan that was submitted in June, so its naturally a little frustrating to be kept waiting for a decision.”
Julie Hyett, talent lead at insurance company Aon, chairs the insurance trailblazer and said they were due to hear last week whether their standard for insurance practitioner was ready for use, but had not yet been told of a result.
Ms Hyett said: “It should have all been wrapped up by now — it’s been rumbling on for quite some time and we’re just sitting on our hands waiting for BIS to come back and approve the plans.”
The group’s initial assessment plan was rejected in February, said Ms Hyett, over small linguistic changes which the government had required, and had to be resubmitted in June — a submission date that had to be pushed backwards because of May’s general election.
Ms Hyett said the group was prepared to “default” back to the old apprenticeship framework if the new trailblazer standard was not deemed ready to use in time, but admitted the delay had been “frustrating”.
“Obviously we want to crack on with the trailblazers — that was the purpose of developing them, but we have to work in line with the government and I think there’s a degree of understanding that they don’t operate to the same time scales,” she said.
Last month, when 15 new standards were published, the government announced it would be moving to a monthly deadline for assessment plan submission dates, along with the submission deadlines for standards and expressions of interest in developing a standard.
The guidance note, published on July 22, said the move was “aimed at removing current bottlenecks in the development process and should speed it up considerably”.
A BIS spokesperson said: “It is up to individual employer groups to decide when they are ready to submit their standards for formal approval.
“There are no deadlines for approval as it’s important employers have the time they need to ensure the standards developed meet the requirements of their industry.”
It is understood the latest round of standards declared ready for use, which could also include standards published back in December, March and last month, is due to be published by the end of the month.
The figures, from the Skills Funding Agency (SFA), also show that only four employers started more than five Trailblazer apprenticeships between August last year and April and 60 per cent of all these were accounted for by just Jaguar Land Rover.
Stewart Segal
The 300 starts came from a pool of nine Trailblazer apprenticeships, and half of these starts were with Warwickshire College, which is among only four providers to start more than 10 apprenticeships on the new standards.
The low figures will make uncomfortable reading for the government, which has stated an “ambition” for all apprenticeship starts from 2017/18 to be Trailblazers.
The Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) and the Association of Colleges (AoC) both said they were unsurprised by the low take-up figures.
Stewart Segal, AELP chief executive, called for a review of the funding and audit systems for Trailblazers to ensure they were working effectively and to encourage close working between employers and providers.
“It is not surprising that there are very low numbers of starts on the new Trailblazer standards,” he said.
“It has taken a lot longer than planned to put together the standards, the assessment plan and getting the right processes in place to get apprentices started.
“The majority of the 300 starts involve large employers and it will be an even bigger challenge to involve smaller employers.”
Teresa Frith
Teresa Frith, AoC senior skills policy manager, blamed the low number of starts on confusion over programme assessment plans.
She said: “It’s no surprise that employers and providers have been slow to take up Trailblazer apprenticeships because, at the current stage of development within the Trailblazer programme, there is insufficient detail for providers about the independent end-of-programme assessment that apprentices will have to undertake.”
She added the “vast majority of colleges” and the employers they work with had not been involved in the process.
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) declined to comment on the figures.
However, when June’s Statistical First Release data revealed only 300 apprenticeship starts since the beginning of 2014/15, a spokesperson said: “Trailblazers is a new programme and the figures included in the June 2015 SFR are provisional in-year estimates.
“The figures are subject to change when the final full year data is published in November.”
Table 1: The name of the employers with Trailblazer starts and how many starts they had
Employer
Total
ACTDRIVE TECHNOLOGY LIMITED
–
Allpay
–
Barclays Bank plc
10
Bright Future Software Ltd
40
COMPUTER EYEZ (SOUTH) LTD
–
CROSSLAND AND DUDSON TRAINING LIMITED
–
I-Dash Ltd
–
Jaguar Land Rover
180
JSL Computers
–
Kaonix Solutions Ltd
–
National Grid Plc
20
Supplenta Ltd
–
Sysdoc Ltd
–
Telis Limited
–
Vestey Foods Group Limited
–
Waymark IT
–
Grand Total
300
Table 2: The name of the providers with Trailblazer starts and how many starts they had
Provider
Total
B-Skill Limited
–
Capita PLC
10
EEF Limited
10
Huntingdonshire Regional College
10
National Grid PLC
20
North West Training Council
20
Total People Limited
40
Warwickshire College
150
Grand total
300
Table 3: The number of starts against each Trailblazer Standard
Trailblazer standard
Total
Electrical/Electronic technical support engineer
10
Manufacturing engineer
20
Mechatronics maintenance technician
30
Network engineer
10
Power network craftsperson
20
Product design & development engineer
40
Product design & development technician
80
Relationship manager
10
Software developer
50
Grand total
300
Notes on the data (supplied by BIS):
. The tables have been produced using provisional in-year estimates for the first nine months of 2014/15 – August to April
. Volumes are rounded to the nearest ten except for grand totals which are rounded to the nearest hundred. The rounding convention is consistent with SFA/BIS statistical release and has been applied to these counts in order to minimise the risk of disclosure breaching the Data Protection Act 1998
. ‘-‘ Indicates a base value of less than five
. Provisional data for 2014/15 are subject to change until final data are published in November 2015
