Two new advisers have been appointed by the Education Funding Agency (EFA) to help Sixth Form Commissioner Peter Mucklow haul in under-achieving providers.

The first of them is chair of governors at Blackpool Sixth Form College (SFC) and national leader of governance advocate at the National College for Teaching and Leadership (NCTL), John Boyle.

The other is Mike Southworth, who retired as principal of Priestly College in December after serving in the post since 2002.

Mr Southworth and Mr Boyle started their new posts on August 11, and the Department for Education (DfE) told FE Week on Tuesday (September 15) that they are the only two SFC advisers that have been appointed.

It comes after FE Week reported online on Monday that FE Commissioner Dr David Collins would be appointing a new intake of FE deputy commissioners (FEDCs) and advisers.

A DfE spokesperson said that the roles of the advisers will, for example, involve “supporting the intervention process [led by Mr Mucklow] to tackle poor performance [in SFCs], either in terms of financial management or quality”.

They will also work alongside Mr Mucklow and FE Commissioner Dr David Collins on upcoming area reviews, covering 16 SFCs and 22 general FE colleges in Birmingham and Solihull, Greater Manchester, and Sheffield city region, which were announced by the government on September 8.

The advisers will carry out “the institutional analysis which underpins the reviews and their recommendations”, the spokesperson added.

Mark Bramwell, associate director of SFCs at the Association of Colleges (AoC), said: “We congratulate John and Mike. We have worked with them both closely for a number of years as active members of AoC’s sixth form college portfolio group.”

James Kewin, deputy chief executive of the Sixth Form Colleges’ Association, said: “Both [Mr Southworth and Mr Boyle] are well known and respected in the sector, and it will be helpful to have advisers with SFC expertise assisting the SFC Commissioner.

“But our view remains that the area review policy and process is deeply flawed — we await the outcome of the Birmingham review with great interest, particularly the extent to which they include school and academy sixth forms.”

The area reviews for Birmingham and Solihull, Greater Manchester, and Sheffield city region will start on September 18, 21 and 28, respectively, but affected principals have told FE Week of concerns that the reviews do not cover school sixth form provision.

Mr Boyle and Mr Southworth are on reactive contracts, meaning that they have no minimum or maximum number of hours to fulfil, so will work when they are called upon at a rate of up to £600 a-day.

A Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) spokesperson confirmed that it was looking to recruit three FEDCs, who will earn £700 a-day, and an unspecified number of advisers, who will earn £600 a-day.

The application window for the two-year positions closes on September 30.

Interviews are then pencilled in from October 26, with appointments expected from November 1.

The last round of appointments took place in November 2014 — raising the number of Dr Collins’.

FE Week reported in November that five former principals and one ex-vice principal made-up the new intake of advisers for Dr Collins.

They were Phil Frier, Dr Beri Hare, John Hogg, Steve Hutchinson, Chris Jones and Lynne Craig.

Their appointments took the total number to advisers to 11, with existing advisers David Williams, Joanna Gaukroger, Marilyn Hawkins, Malcolm Cooper and Lynn Forrester-Walker.

 

Ofqual’s replacement for the Qualifications Credit Framework (QCF) will give awarding organisations more freedom to review and develop their qualifications, the watchdog’s vocational qualifications boss has said.

The new Regulated Qualifications Framework (RQF), which comes into force on October 1, will take away the rules and structure of the QCF and instead focus on outcomes.

Speaking at the Skills and Employability Summit in London, on Thursday (September 17), executive director for vocational qualifications at Ofqual Jeremy Benson said: “A valid qualification must assess skills and knowledge sufficiently well.

“It enables assessment results to be interpreted and used appropriately, and allowing people to be confident that those results can be relied upon.

“Having a detailed set of rules specific to vocational qualifications is not the best way of securing validity,” he added.

Mr Benson said that the change is part of Ofqual’s aim to improve people’s confidence in vocational qualifications, and comes after a review and consultation over the QCF, carried out over the past year.

First introduced in 2008, the QCF was intended to take a “building block” approach to learning, he added.

Each student could put together their own learning pathway, made up of different building blocks, or units, each worth a certain number of credits.

However, Mr Benson said that this approach did not work as well as it could have done.

“To achieve the QCF’s ambition, the rules placed much focus on consistency of structure, but did not focus enough on validity — or put another way, it didn’t consider whether the qualifications might actually be any good.”

As part of the recent review, Ofqual looked at the impact of the rules and regulations of the QCF on those who work in the vocational sector, including colleges and training providers.

What they found was that “the rules too often get in the way of – rather than support and enable – good qualifications.”

“Even if these rules made life easier for awarding organisations, many of them told us that the rules were in fact stopping them from innovating, or even from taking the approaches to assessment that most suited the topic being taught,” Mr Benson said.

He also said that they would not be replacing one set of prescriptive rules with another.

The new RQF is intended to act as a tool to help people understand the different qualifications regulated by Ofqual, not to be a rule or process, he said.

He described the new RQF as a library and said: “There’s a range of books on offer, and as libraries do, we’re stacking the books in an order. Our shelves are arranged to fit books from entry level one up to level eight.”

Mr Benson said that these levels are generally well understood, both in terms of existing qualifications and how they relate to levels in other frameworks.

The books on the shelves would be arranged in size order, he added, with the shorter reads on the left and the bigger books – “War and Peace, for example” – on the right.

The size of the books represents qualification sizes, he said, which will be described in terms of total qualification time (TQT).

This is defined as an estimate of the number of hours that would be required for a learner to reach, and demonstrate, the level of attainment needed for a particular qualification.

Part of the TQT will be made up of guided learning hours, Mr Benson said, as they are helpful to people planning curricula and timetables.

He added that the TQT will also recognise the amount of time a learner can expect to spend in any form of study or training — but not under the immediate supervision of a tutor or any other education or training provider.

Continuing the analogy, Mr Benson described Ofqual’s role within the RQF as a librarian.

“Now, a librarian doesn’t decide what should be in a book, or the number of chapters it should have — though they may take a closer interest in some more than others, as we do,” he said.

“Rather, a librarian helps people to understand the different books available and to find what they’re looking for.”

As well as providing a catalogue of registered qualifications, Ofqual’s role will be to carry out a range of regulatory activities, he said.

These will include audits, to test how far awarding organisations can show they meet the new requirements, he added.

He said that it will also be encouraging and reporting on good practice, to ensure that awarding organisations do more than just meet the bare minimum requirements, and had written to all awarding organisations about
the changes.

Apprenticeship target is ‘once in a generation’ opportunity

 

Skills Funding Agency (SFA) and Education Funding Agency (EFA) boss Peter Lauener told delegates that the government’s 3m apprenticeship target amounted to a once-in-a-generation opportunity.

The SFA and EFA chief executive said at the Skills and Employability Summit that hitting the figure by 2020 would be difficult.

But he said that it was “not quite as big a challenge as it would have been had we not laid the foundations as a country in the last parliament”.

Mr Lauener added the special emphasis that will be placed on the vocational qualifications over the next five years presented a “once in a generation opportunity to embed apprenticeships in a new way in the structure of society, as a high quality and structured route to jobs and careers”.

Apprenticeships make a strong contribution to the economy, Mr Lauener said, offering a return on investment per pound of between £18 and £28.

“That’s a return to employers, it’s a return to wages for young people. They are, in short, a good investment.”

Mr Lauener said there was significant scope for more apprenticeships in some sectors, including construction, information communication technologies, and engineering and manufacturing technologies.

He acknowledged that there was work to be done to encourage more employers to take on apprentices and suggested that employer-to-employer communication was the best way for employers to learn about the benefits of apprenticeships.

 

 

 

Chief Executive of the Sixth Form Colleges’ Association (SFCA) David Igoe will be standing down at the end of March.

Eddie Playfair, chair of the SFCA Council, announced this morning that he had received and accepted his resignation.

Mr Igoe will though be carrying on in the post until March 31, he added.

Mr Igoe, who was SFCA executive chair from 2007 to 2009 before becoming chief executive, told FE Week this morning that “there is nothing untoward”.

“I have been thinking about it for a while and am of an age [he is 65], so now seemed a good time to stand down, after I have served my six-months notice,” he added.

Reflecting on his time in the post, Mr Igoe said that he was “most proud of how SFCs maintained their quality and their offer to young people over a period of relentless cuts and changes to the post-16 landscape.

“The SFCA itself has grown to meet these challenges but remains a small highly committed team which punches well above its weight”.

Mr Playfair thanked Mr Igoe for his “outstanding leadership of the Association through a period of great change”.

“He has been our first chief executive and has established this role as a key one on the education landscape, providing eight years of exemplary service,” he added.

Mr Playfair said that Mr Igoe had “represented, supported and championed our sector skilfully and effectively in contexts which have not always been easy for us.

“We all appreciate the quality and depth of his commitment to the cause of sixth form colleges across England”.

He said that Mr Igoe had assured him that it would be business as usual for him right up until the end of March.

“He is well aware that the sector is facing unprecedented challenge on funding and structural review and he is committed to ensuring the SFCA will not be deflected from its crucial task of supporting colleges,” he added.

Mr Playfair added that the SFCA council will meet on Friday (September 25) and will be discussing the arrangements for appointing a new chief executive.

“We will keep members informed about the process,” he added.

The number of young people employed as apprentices in England is “a disaster” and Ofsted inspectors will be ensuring schools are promoting “all the options” to learners, chief inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw has told MPs.

Sir Michael appeared in front of the new education select committee on Wednesday (September 16), where he faced questions about the role of Ofsted.

Quizzed by MPs about the importance of destination data for both schools and colleges, Sir Michael said an “important” line of questioning for school head teachers would be about post-16 options and careers advice.

He said: “What’s really important for inspections of secondary schools is that HMI ask questions about post-16 provision, whether schools and head teachers of secondary schools are providing youngsters with all the information that they need to make good choices and not restricting that information to get youngsters into their own sixth form.”

“That’s really important and that’s going to be a big emphasis this year. We are going to be asking a lot more about careers guidance than ever before,” he added.

Sir Michael said: “The fact we’ve only got six per cent of youngsters going into apprenticeships is a disaster, and it’s really important that schools are fair on their youngsters and make sure that all the options are put to them.

“It’s a disaster area in schools. It hasn’t been focused-on in the way that it should. It should never be seen as a bolt-on or an
add-on.”

Sir Michael was joined by Ofsted’s chief operating officer Matthew Coffey, who said that Ofsted had been pushing for better use of destination data.

He said: “We’ve said for a long time how important destination data is, particularly at the end of key stage four and key stage five, in FE colleges, for example. It’s really important that colleges understand the impact of what they’re doing on a young person’s later development.

“So we have maintained this call for several years and the government is absolutely responding, to be able to develop measures that are going to be publicly available to add to the public accountability framework.”

He added that many good providers track destinations themselves, adding that “in fact a lot of FE colleges spend a lot of their resources for very good reasons, to understand the impact of the different courses and how they can improve further”.

 

Further education colleges offering 14 to 16 provision may have to wait until the trade union bill passes to the House of Lords before learning if tough new strike laws would apply to them.

The bill passed its second reading in the House of Commons on Monday (September 14) evening, in the face of passionate opposition from Labour MPs including new Shadow Business Secretary Angela Eagle, who called it “draconian”.

It states that strikes in “important” areas such as education of school-age pupils, aged five to 16, would need the support of 40 per cent of those eligible to vote.

But FE Week reported in July that the FE sector had been left in limbo, after the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) said that it was not yet known if up to 20 colleges which can currently recruit at 14 would be affected.

During Monday’s debate, Business Secretary Sajid Javid said that the government had “consulted on which occupations within those sectors should be subject to the additional 40 per cent support threshold”.

But he did not specify when the government would respond to consultation responses, other than to say that “details of the scope of the 40 per cent threshold” would be published “by the time the bill is in committee in the other place [the House of Lords]”.

A BIS spokesperson subsequently declined again to confirm whether the 40 per cent threshold would apply to colleges offering 14 to 16 provision.

He said that this would be explained in the government’s response to its consultation on what the scope of the 40 per cent threshold should be, but could not give a firm date for when that will be published.

Ms Eagle said during Monday’s debate that “with the number of days lost to strike action down 90%in the past 20 years, there is no need whatsoever to employ the law in this draconian way”.

She also warned that “clause 3 [of the bill] ensures that the 40 per cent level of support restriction will apply to a much bigger list of sectors than the internationally recognised definition of ‘essential services’ and, ominously, allows sectors to be added by secondary legislation that is as yet unpublished.

“From listening to the Secretary of State, it appears that the government does not intend to publish it until the bill is in the Lords [at a still to be confirmed date].”

Under rules set out in the bill, a 50 per cent turnout requirement will be set for all strike action, with a separate requirement that strikes in “important” areas such as education and health have the support of 40 per cent of those eligible to vote.

At the moment, strike action can be called if a simple majority is in favour. It means that no matter how many eligible voters cast ballots, any vote share over 50 per cent in favour will count as support.

Brian Lightman, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders said: “We are fearful that the introduction of this legislation will cause resentment when the sector needs support and encouragement.”

Peter Pendle, deputy general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL), told FE Week in July that the confusion over whether a number of colleges would be subject to the tougher strike rules was “another case of the government not fully thinking through legislation”.

“It would be plainly ridiculous if in FE colleges and secondary schools with students younger than 17 years old two different sets of rules applied,” he added.

It was reported in FE Week on September 2 that six more general FE colleges had been listed by the Education Funding Agency (EFA) as intending to take on learners from the age of 14.

It brought the total number of colleges “intending to deliver the programme” over the coming academic year to 20, the EFA confirmed.

 

The National Union of Students (NUS) has rejected calls to back the government’s prevent duty legislation, repeating its “legitimate” concerns about new duties on colleges to tackle extremism and radicalisation.

From September 21, FE institutions will be subject to the prevent duty, which requires them to put policies in place relating to IT systems, staff training, external speakers, gender segregation and other areas in order to prevent potential “radicalisation” of learners and exposure to “extremism”.

The NUS voted to oppose the rules at its conference in Liverpool in April, on the grounds that they promote mass-surveillance, “further criminalise Muslims and Black people”, include “intrusive” new measures and pose a “significant threat to civil liberties and freedom of speech on campuses”.

Business minister Jo Johnson (pictured) has written to the NUS reminding it of its “responsibilities in preventing radicalisation and challenging speakers”, but the union has rejected calls for its support and questioned its own responsibilities in this area.

A spokesperson told FE Week: “NUS believes there are legitimate concerns about the impact the counter terrorism and security act will have on student welfare.

“Criticism and debate is at the heart of the policy-making process, and so we would encourage government to listen and reflect on the legitimate concerns that exist to their agenda, rather than attacking organisations for simply not agreeing with their approach.

“As students’ unions are not public bodies, and therefore not subject to the act, it’s confusing that the government are so focused on our work.

“NUS is a campaigning organisation so our opposition to this agenda – based on both principled and practical concerns, and passed at our most recent national conference – is both valid and appropriate.”

Mr Johnson, who is the minister for universities and science, said it was important there “can be active challenge and debate on issues relating to counter terrorism” and said provisions for academic freedom were part of the prevent guidance for colleges.

He added: “It is my firm view that we all have a role to play in challenging extremist ideologies and protecting students on campus. Ultimately, the prevent strategy is about protecting people from radicalisation.

“It is therefore disappointing to see overt opposition to the prevent programme. The legal duty that will be placed on universities and colleges highlights the importance that the government places on this.”

The legislation has also come under fire from University and College Union general secretary Sally Hunt, who said the best response to acts of terror was to keep colleges as “open democratic spaces, rather than close down debate and create mistrust between teacher and student, which is what these plans risk doing”.

She added: “Universities and colleges have a responsibility to ensure the safety of their students and staff and not to allow activities which are intended to foment hatred or violence, or support for unlawful activities such as terrorism.

“However, universities and colleges rightly cherish, and must continue to promote, academic freedom as a key tenet of our civilised society. It is essential to our democracy and right to freedom of speech that views are open to debate and challenge within the law.