The Education and Training Foundation (ETF) today 0fficially unveiled a new website to help FE and skills providers stop learners falling prey to radical terror groups.

The website, officially unveiled this morning but launched on Friday (April 17), is called Prevent for Further Education and Training: Complying with the Prevent Duty.

It contains a wide variety of guidance for practitioners, support staff, leaders and managers, and governors and board members. Each group can download information tailored to them that explains their responsibilities and what training and support is available to ensure that they meet the legal requirements of FE institutions, introduced under section 26 of the counter-terrorism and security act 2015 in February.

The counter-terrorism and security act places a duty on providers to have “due regard to the need to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism”. Although the law change does not “confer new functions” on providers, they are still required to consider the potential for radicalisation alongside other safeguarding issues.

Olivia Dorricott (pictured right), ETF director of leadership, management and governance, said: “We are so pleased to extend our support to the training and education sector to cover the prevent duty and have moved quickly to create a website with useful resources and guidance.

“The new website has already had over 900 visits without any promotion.

“Our website has a range of materials to support people from across the sector, including material reflecting effective practice across the sector already, and we will continue to build on and refresh the resources over the coming weeks ahead of the duty coming in to force in July.

“We encourage everyone to use, share and feedback on what’s there so we can continue to work with the sector in this important area.”

The launch of the new ETF website comes three weeks after FE Week reported that the 157 Group and Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) had launched their own toolkit to help colleges and independent learning providers (ILPs) comply with the new government rules.

An AELP spokesperson said: “When AELP was approached by the ETF, we got a good response from ILPs to help ascertain training and other needs for this matter.

“We also worked with 157 Group on a best practice toolkit which shows providers how they can meet their responsibilities under the duty and we urge providers to familiarise themselves with it if they haven’t already done so.”

Dr Lynne Sedgmore CBE, executive director of the 157 Group, said: “In FE colleges, we understand prevent as another form of safeguarding our learners, in this case from the risk of radicalisation.

“As with all important guidance, education professionals are always concerned to make sure they are doing the right things for their learners, all the more so when the guidance concerns such a key area of focus for our society at the moment.

“We recently published our own toolkit for providers seeking support in this area, and it is good to see the ETF also supporting providers through their new website.”

David Corke, director of education and skills policy at the Association of Colleges (AoC), said: “AoC supports this new duty, which adds an extra level of safeguarding to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism, and we worked with the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills as the legislation went through parliament.

“Colleges already have a duty to safeguard their students, and we have held webinars and seminars to make sure they are prepared for the introduction of this additional duty on July 1.

“As the implications of the duty become clearer in practice, AoC will play a part in disseminating good practice.”

Nearly 40 per cent of under 19 Functional Skills (FS) enrolments at general FE and tertiary colleges and independent learning providers (ILPs) failed to achieve their qualification last academic year, it has been revealed.

The figure is based on the Skills Funding Agency success rates tables, published this month, which for the first time included FS data.

It has prompted a call from a range of academics for the government to provide added support for FS teaching to boost 16 to 18 success rates from 64.3 per cent for general FE and tertiary colleges and 52.9 per cent for ILPs (see page 7 for more FS provider type success rates).

The combined FS success rates for colleges and ILPs was 62.9 per cent, with 203,680 enrolments out of 323,320 achieving their learning aims — meaning 119,640 did not.

University of Wolverhampton education lecturer and researcher Dr Matt O’Leary said: “I don’t think these success rates are lower than might be expected — that’s not to say they shouldn’t be higher, but in order to improve them then there needs to be recognition on the government’s part that they have a responsibility to invest in adequate resources to enable the FE sector to staff these courses with specialist teaching staff.”

He added: “Given the manner in which functional skills were foisted upon the sector by former Skills Minister Matthew Hancock, and how little or no regard was given to how these new programmes would be resourced, or to staffing implications, I think providers have done well to produce the results they have.”

Professor Ed Sallis, whose Education and Training Foundation review of non-GCSE English and maths provision, including FS, concluded last month, agreed.

“I believe the results show lecturers and trainers need more practical support and training to deliver FS successfully and that more work needs to be done on developing the pedagogy of vocational maths and English,” he said.

Paul Grainger, an Institute of Education academic, highlighted Professor Sallis’s report and the importance it had placed on FS. The results “could be better,” he said, but argued the qualifications were performing better than GCSEs post-16.

“You have to consider that most candidates will have failed at GCSE the year before,” he said.

“The pass rate for GCSE maths retakes is 5 per cent, so FS are working in a way that retakes are not,” he said.

The success rates for all institutions’ provision of level one 16 to 18 FS was higher than level two — at 66.5 per cent of 258,660 enrolments resulting in an achieved learning aim, compared to a 53.5 per cent success rate out of 92,020 enrolments.

English level one 16 to 18 provision for all institutions had a success rate of 65.5 per cent, while for level two it was 59.1 per cent. For maths, the level one success rate was 52.5 per cent, while for level two is was 45 per cent.

David Corke, Association of Colleges director of education policy, said: “Colleges are performing above average in successfully delivering FS courses but their efforts are hampered by the fact there is a shortage of specialist maths teachers to teach these courses.

“The ETF is right to offer bursaries to attract more specialist teachers to the sector and we are keen to see the outcome of this scheme.”

Association for Employment and Learning Providers chief executive Stewart Segal said: “We believe that the success rates will improve given that FS are only two years old and providers are still building staff capacity.”

He added: “Much of ILP provision in English and maths is outside apprenticeships and traineeships and therefore it is about helping the hardest to help including those who aren’t attending college or are long term unemployed.

“We should also bear in mind that among the unemployed who don’t complete are many who will secure a job as a result of the learning.”

More success rates analysis

————————————————————————————————————————————–

Editor’s Comment

Hoping for a Functional Skills funding achievement

It’s quite a statistic that more than one in every three under 19 Functional Skills enrolment in general FE colleges and independent learning providers (ILPs) fails to result in achievement.

Taking into consideration the well-intentioned drive to increase the country’s numeracy and literacy skills by getting more people back to the classroom until they get a grade C or equivalent in maths and English and you can’t help but fear that could rise this time next year, when the current academic year’s success rates come out.

Behind the problem, as the sector will tell you, is the need to staff the growing number of aforementioned classrooms with adequately skilled English and maths teachers. And this is proving an issue.

It’s an issue that is already affecting the sector’s Ofsted ratings, as exclusive analysis by FE Week revealed back in January when a growth in grade three and four ratings from the education watchdog was laid bare.

Appropriate financial support from government to help develop, attract and retain the right calibre of teaching staff is the easy answer. The harder question is whether that’s likely from the next government, whatever colour the party in power.

Croydon College has revealed its revamped free school proposal in its second attempt to open its own secondary school.

The London-based college’s proposals were rejected in March in the last round of free school applications after the Department for Education (DfE) said that its plans “required more detail”.

The college’s new proposal for the school, to be called New Croydon Academy, includes an increased focus on science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics (Steam) subjects.

Croydon College principal Frances Wadsworth said: “We’ve gone back to the drawing board and working alongside the New Schools Network and some high profile experts, I think our proposal is stronger, clearer and more innovative than before.”

The proposal is expected to be resubmitted on May 28, with the school, if successful, due to open in 2017.

Ms Wadsworth said the planned secondary school and sixth form, which would have capacity for 180 students in each year, would address a local need for more pupil places and give parents an extra option over where to send their children.

She added the value of Stem (science, technology, engineering and maths)  subjects was “nationally understood”.

“STEM is… very important for Croydon — however, so are the arts,” she said.

“Croydon School of Art is a jewel in Croydon’s crown and we believe the experts and the collective experience we have at the art school can help bring our vision of developing skills and behaviours which prepare young people to be creative, effective and digitally confident citizens, employees, entrepreneurs and leaders in the 21^st Century to life.”

She said feedback that the college had received so far on the current bid had been “very encouraging”.

She added: “Croydon’s parents and carers have continued to be very supportive and I thank them for their interest.”

Currently, 11 college-sponsored free school bids have been approved, with six already open and five more in development — including schools sponsored by New College Swindon and New College Pontefract, which applied alongside Corydon’s initial free school bid.

An online questionnaire seeking feedback and views on the plans is available at www.croydonacademy.org.uk/questionnaire, and will close on May 20.

New College Stamford was remaining tight-lipped about the position of its under-fire principal April Carrol after staff passed a second vote of no confidence in her.

A University and College Union (UCU) spokesperson said that around 80 members of staff passed the first no confidence vote through a show of hands during a meeting at the college on March 23 that was open to members of UCU and Unison and non-union affiliated employees.

He added that 123 employees then backed a second motion of no confidence in an online vote organised by the UCU a fortnight ago, with only three employees allegedly voting against it.

He said the votes were called because Ms Carrol had “upset, frightened and bullied a whole range of middle managers and support staff” and would not negotiate with the unions over her plans for new working conditions, including extending the college year from 33 to 36 weeks.

A spokesperson for the grade two Ofsted-rated college said on Tuesday (April 14) afternoon that Ms Carrol, who was appointed to the post in July last year, was “currently on leave” but had approved a press release “before she left for her holiday”.

She said in it that the no confidence motions only represented “the views of a minority of staff, as not all staff were invited to the poll undertaken by the UCU.”

She added: “The union’s priorities appear to be the conditions of service for staff, whereas for the vast majority of staff their priority is to work hard to ensure our students, employers and the community have the successful college the community deserves.”

However, FE Week was told later that day (April 14) that staff had been told Ms Carrol had been suspended.

The spokesperson for the 4,000-learner college refused to confirm or deny whether Ms Carrol had been suspended.

However, she said on Wednesday (April 15): “Current staff have been consulted over proposed changes which involve updating the college contract for teachers from an agreement in 1998.

“The consultation opened on March 19 and will close on April 19.”

She added that the college, which received a £2.2m adult skills budget last academic year, was in “a healthy financial position”, but “the proposed updates are being developed to ensure the college remains in a sustainable financial position”.

A Unison spokesperson said: “We are unable to comment until we know for certain what is happening with Ms Carrol.”

 

Level two and three “total achievement” levels for people aged 19 and above have declined over the last five years, a report charting the success of government policies has found.

The government introduced ‘business plans’ for each department in 2010 featuring a series of ‘impact indicators’ that were supposed to help the public keep tabs on key policies.

And the Institute for Government (IfG) report, called Whitehall Monitor: Deep impact (pictured), charts progress for each of these indicators.

It said that “very few of these indicators have specific targets against them”, so IfG checked a variety of performance levels “for each indicator in 2010 and at the time of writing” to see if they had improved, stayed the same or got worse.

For the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), the report said that “fewer than half of the department’s indicators have progressed since 2010 — just nine out of 20 have moved in the right direction”.

Of the indicators directly affecting the sector, the report found that there had been a decline in the ‘total achievements in level two or three’ of people aged 19 and over.

David Hughes, chief executive of the National Institute of Continuing Education, said this was “hardly surprising” as “the overall funding for FE has fallen significantly”.

The report, however, recognised an improvement in the performance level of another FE indicator — ‘qualification levels of the working age population’.

The IfG only found a decline in performance for one Department for Education (DfE) indicator — level two English and maths qualification levels for learners aged up to 19 — out of 28 in total.

Also with regards to FE, the report found that there had been overall improvement for ‘education and work-based training at aged 16 to 17’.

Stewart Segal, chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, said this “reflected well on the fact that the DfE, providers and employers have worked well together to introduce flexible programmes such as traineeships that give more opportunities to young people.”

David Corke, director of education and skills policy for the Association of Colleges, said: “It would appear [from the report] that the introduction of raising the participation age, until the age of 18, has had a positive impact on the DfE performance, but not for BIS.”

Dr Lynne Sedgmore, executive director of the 157 Group, said that there was “little evidence” that DfE and BIS made any use of the indicators. Both of the coalition parties declined to comment.

See feweek.co.uk for more reaction to the report.

 

Councils are facing a call to better promote FE provision for learners with special educational needs (SEN) after a survey revealed just one in eight families were told about options outside local authority control.

The results of the survey run by the National Star College, a specialist FE institution in Gloucestershire, revealed that 88 per cent of parents were not told about alternative options, including general and specialist FE colleges.

A further 30 per cent of the 1,600 respondents said they had been “stopped or discouraged” from visiting, being assessed for or applying for places at colleges and other institutions outside council control.

It has prompted a call from Association of National Specialist Colleges (Natspec) chief executive Alison Boulton (pictured below left) for councils to provide better information for families.

She said: “Rather than local offers which promote the minimum, there needs to be some long term thinking in the system that supports young people and families to look to a positive future.”

In 2013, the children and families act put councils in charge of finding provision for all SEN learners and established new education health and care (EHC) plans to guide them through their education.

But concerns about the implementation of the legislation have been raised after the survey revealed 54 per cent of parents did not know they could indicate a preferred institution on their child’s EHC plan.

Ms Boulton added: “The act was promoted as placing young people and families ‘at the heart of the new system. It will provide them with greater choice and control over services.’

“This timely survey undertaken by the National Star College clearly shows that there is some way to go before the legislation achieves its important ambitions.

“Without impartial and comprehensive information, young people and their parents cannot make informed choices, nor can they be confident that they are being offered the choice of college that will best meet their needs.”

Martin Doel, chief executive of the Association of Colleges, has backed calls for councils to provide more information. He said: “It is important for local councils to ensure that parents are made aware of all the options available for their child’s education.

“We would be disappointed if parents felt that they were not being informed about college provision.”

But David Simmonds (pictured below right), chair of the Local Government Association’s children and young people board and deputy leader of Hillingdon Council, said it wasn’t surprising that most parents were being pointed towards provision which local authorities have a duty to provide.

He said: “It is an issue which has been around for quite a long time. Generally, alternative provision tends to come at a much higher price and local authorities have a responsibility to ensure they have their own arrangements and facilities to support the vast majority of children.

“In the vast majority of schools, local authorities will be able to provide the quality provision needed, so it’s not a surprise that the vast majority are being offered local authority provision.”

The survey results can be found at nationalstar.org

Click here for an expert piece by National Star College principal and Natspec chair Kathryn Rudd

 

The Liberal Democrats have joined the apprenticeship numbers race, matching Tory plans to create 3m starts in the next Parliament by doubling the number of businesses with apprentices.

The party has announced it will push starts past the 3m by 2020 if it wins the election by giving out 200,000 extra apprenticeship grants for employers (AGE) and continuing with government plans to scrap employer national insurance contributions for apprentices under 25.

The Lib Dems claim they will use the incentives to double the number of businesses hiring apprentices, from 180,000 to 360,000, by the end of the next parliament, which they say will lead to a rise in the number of starts per year to 600,000 a year by 2019/20.

The party had initially resisted plans to join what has been described as a numbers race on apprenticeships. During the party conference season last summer it remained quiet on a numbers target despite a pledge by the Tories to boost starts to 3m by 2020 and a promise by Labour that as many learners would do apprenticeships as go to university by the end of the parliament.

But in a statement, business secretary Vince Cable (pictured) said he wanted to beat Germany on the number of employers providing apprenticeships, in order to equip young people with “the skills they need for the future”.

He said: “The world is changing at an accelerated rate and we need equip our young people with the skills they need for the future, to ensure they can compete in a global market place, in ever changing technologies and the digital economy.

“That is why the Liberal Democrats will double the number of employers providing apprenticeships over the next five years and create more apprenticeship starts per year than Germany.

“To achieve these objectives requires significant investment in skills by both government and the private sector. As we grow our economy, the Liberal Democrats believe we must enhance adult skills training and our further education colleges.”

The Lib Dems have also pledged to open more national colleges and to focus on apprenticeships at level four and above in areas where there are skills shortages.

But Association of Employment and Learning Providers chief executive Stewart Segal has warned that increases in the number of employers offering apprenticeships could be hampered by impending reforms.

He said: “We share the ambition to significantly increase the number of employers offering apprenticeships but doubling the number will mean that we have to get the current reforms for the programme right in terms of not creating potential barriers against employer engagement such as mandatory cash contributions and adding complexity to the system.”