A new £10,000 sensory room has been installed in Central College Nottingham’s centre for students with learning difficulties and disabilities.
The room contains state-of-the-art lighting and sound equipment and an interactive sensory floor designed to help improve learners’ confidence and communication skills.
Members of the college’s executive management team played a game of virtual football with students at the official opening event.
Lyndsey Turner-Whitby, Horizons tutor for learners with a variety of disabilities, said: “A lot of staff and students came together to help raise funds for the centre, to add to the money allocated by the college.
“The students really do get so much out of it. It’s stimulating for those that need it, but with the soft lighting and sounds it’s relaxing too.”
Main pic: From Left: Vice principal for learning services Jason Folkett, Horizon students Tamur Khalid, aged 20, and Mandeep Dhamrait, 23, vice principal for curriculum Yultan Mellor, Horizon student Korrey McCoid, 20, college principal Malcolm Cowgill and curriculum manager Mark Johnson
A college marketing officer went that extra mile — and then some — for mental health charity Mind after overcoming depression, writes Billy Camden.
A monumental challenge has been completed by Chichester College marketing officer Tom Walters and friend Morgan Calton, who cycled 2,150 miles across South East Asia in just 22 days.
The duo, who became friends while University of Portsmouth students, endured excruciating heat of up to 46C (114F) with 90 per cent humidity all in aid of fighting depression with both having emerged from their own battles with the illness.
Morgan cycles along in the sweltering conditions on a motorway in Thailand
They managed to raise nearly £8,000 for mental health charity Mind, with college staff and learners doing their fundraising bit with a 100-mile cycle ride on spin bikes in the college canteen.
The duo travelled through North Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore during their three weeks in what was also a race against time. They had no leeway on daily mileage with non-transferrable flights booked exactly 22 days after they set out.
“For much of the route it felt like an out of body experience because it was so hot and the sun was constantly beaming on our head for so many hours during the day that you didn’t feel like you were there. It was like looking at yourself from above,” said 30-year-old Tom.
He added: “We very much want to make people talk and be aware of mental health issues and take that stigma away, especially in men.
“The support from the community in the college has just been phenomenal.”
Tom crossing the water during his South East Asia cycle challenge
Tom crossing the water during his South East Asia cycle challenge
During the trek Tom and Morgan, aged 31, climbed 10,000 ft — two and a half times the size of Ben Nevis — in one day, before coming across the sweltering conditions of Thailand.
“It was then that the heat hit us,” said Tom.
“We were cycling along the Thai equivalent of the M6 along the hard shoulder so the heat from the tarmac and passing lorries made it about 50 to 55C [122 to 131F].”
But as the “life-changing experience” came to an end at the Merlion statue in Singapore, Tom and Morgan didn’t quite get the sensation they had anticipated.
Tom said: “For 22 days all you’re thinking about is the finish line and how you’re going to feel when you get there. But actually it was a massive anti-climax.
“We were expecting to be so tired, worn out and shattered, but we weren’t. We got stronger as the days progressed. The finish was brilliant, but when we got there it was a bit like ‘what do we do now?’ so in the 12 hours before the flight back, to celebrate, we drank heavily.”
Main pic: Tom Walters (left) and Morgan Calton at a fundraising event before their challenge for Mind.
It was reported in FE Week that 33 per cent of the 57 general FE colleges (GFEs), sixth form colleges and independent learning providers (ILPs) inspected and reported on between January 1 and May 5 this year were downgraded to a three or ‘requires improvement’ rating compared to 17 per cent of 64 inspections for the same period last year.
The proportion of new grade one or ‘outstanding’ results fell 3 per cent, with no new grade ones so far this year compared to two in the same period last year, and new grade two or’ good’ ratings as a proportion of inspection results fell from 50 per cent last year to 32 per cent, the proportion of grade fours went from 2 per cent to 9 per cent. So is there a trend in Ofsted results that is a cause for concern?
Ofsted needs an updated and uniform CIF to capture the complexity of colleges and it will now run shorter, more focussed inspections with the expansion of the following areas of provision graded “where appropriate”; 16 to 19 study programmes, 19+ learning programmes, apprenticeships, traineeships, employability, learners in receipt of high needs funding, community learning and 14–16 provision in colleges full-time & part-time.
We must honestly examine the link between inspection outcomes and management input
For this group of college inspections, however, the overriding factor for a college to downgrade appears to be cultural.
The GFEs who went down a grade all underwent recent management change, Mid Kent College (change of principal), Tameside (change of principal), Solihull (new principal), Wigan & Leigh (change of principal) and New College Stamford (change of principal) which would understandably lead to an unsettled atmosphere and contribute to a change of grade.
There were 11 ILPs downgraded, four (37 per cent) of which had never been inspected before, so they were not technically downgraded, just awarded their first grade. Their grades are not truly relevant in this context. The remaining seven (63 per cent) are struggling due to the pressure on funding in terms of overall budgets and that funding rates have not kept pace with inflation.
Previously, ILPs outperformed GFEs and the small numbers who have now fallen to a three are the first victims of the vicious and destructive cuts. We will sadly see more, but it is not caused by Ofsted.
Of the SFCs, amazingly, Bilborough principal Chris Bradford and its governing body admitted they weren’t surprised by their grading, but claimed they had already put in place measures to turn it around. New College Telford has also recently undergone a change of principal, and Strode’s, according to Ofsted, require improvements in teaching and learning and has been slow to implement changes, again a management issue.
Leaving aside the issues of funding which impact us all, we must recognise that while Ofsted will never be ‘perfect’, nor will ‘FE and skills’; I’d prefer a peer-based review, but whatever the method of appraisal, we must honestly examine the link between inspection outcomes and management input.
Let’s look at the results from question two of the Ofsted Better inspection for all consultation on its incoming new CIF. It asked ‘Do you agree or disagree with the proposed ‘effectiveness of leadership and management’ judgement?’
Support for the ‘effectiveness of leadership and management’ judgement was very strong … support was also high among staff working in … the FE and skills sector. Respondents commented that it was right for leadership to be emphasised strongly in the new framework.
As the college inspections in the table demonstrate, change of leadership is destabilising. Colleges must have stable, reliable and outstanding leaders to be successful. Leadership and management are key to the culture of the college, engagement of the staff, ethos in which they work and by definition, how learners achieve.
Rather than taking a shallow look at the data and shouting ‘fix’, we should be focussing on being the best leaders and managers we can, to create the right culture for our staff, learners and success.
Lewisham Southwark College and Greenwich Community College are both considering merger as part of reviews with the FE Commissioner having been rated as inadequate. Dame Ruth Silver argues for a broader assessment of South East London FE that does not necessarily entail merger.
Here we go again, round and round the mulberry bush, looking at mergers as the solution to yesterday’s problems, lacking serious strategic intent, with the obvious operational focus serving today’s need for good housekeeping while failing tomorrow’s opportunity to act in fellowship, with the whole system of providers in local education, training and employment provision.
Yet again it is restricting what our sector can become in service to its peoples.
What a waste of an unignorable moment: even worse, yet again it is combining weakness with weakness and failing to honour the wisdom of Gregory Bateson who cautions that, ‘it’s difference that makes a difference, sameness gives us more of the same.’
We can and need to do better than the usual response — more of the same is dangerous to more institutions.
The vicious funding attack on adult and community education in colleges and elsewhere, following decades of continual squeeze, closes down avenues where colleges and their learners are known to thrive
Any serious analysis of the South East London colleges’ difficulties clearly reveals that the state they’re in is, in large part, the outcome of consistent long term funding-led operational squeezes from stronger, privileged and more improving parts of the whole system.
To illustrate, the terrific success of Adonis’ Challenge Initiative in London’s reinvigorated, repurposed schools has resulted in an extreme narrowing of the pipeline which brought a strong supply of young people through our doors: they are now staying where they are and thriving and colleges struggle without them.
Add to that the rise and rise in the valuing of apprenticeships in the hands of independent learning providers and employers has also narrowed a pipeline of other young adults and colleges also struggle without them.
The vicious funding attack on adult and community education in colleges and elsewhere, following decades of continual squeeze, closes down avenues where colleges and their learners are known to thrive. Universities too have taken up supply routes for folks who were previously the population of FE.
The state of the colleges in the sector is just as much sending out serious distress signals about systems in collision as it is about inadequate funding, perilous timescales for change and a crisis in succession as our colleagues leave or fall. It is Darwinian.
What to do? As ever, we have been very near to scoping solutions on this and they were cut short when funding ceased. The LSIS regional sustainability advisers, some seven years ago, participated with respected others in how, in local circumstance, a truly connected system of education and training could happen — and with some enlightened London chief executives, we even got as far as rehearsing some of the parts of strategic planning for the whole system working within a progressive borough.
Two things got in the way, funding of course, but we all know that money is rarely only ever about money — it is also a signifier of territories, power clashes, respect , love even, and votes, of course.
As a sector, we have much to learn about the importance of subsidiarity in a collective contribution to a bigger goal than simply the institutional.
FE Commissioner Dr David Collins stands in a place of possibility as the reviews begin — he is absolutely the one who can invite contributors from the wider local system, starting with what’s walking towards the area, what’s being asked of all provision, players and communities, construct with others the coming strategic context and what is needed to capture it for all, with performance analysis for positioning on strengths.
He must call on ambitions, the evidence and research of other systems and sectors for this is a time for new thinking.
Review is inadequate, reform is not enough. This could be the time for the reformulation of our purpose, in modern times.
Staff costs are, like all variables, a source of savings that come under review in times of austerity. Ian Sackree makes the case for strong HR leadership to offer guidance on staffing issues.
Over the years I have seen HR used well and appropriately, and I have also seen it used poorly and inappropriately to retro-fit and shoe-horn poor management decisions taken without HR advice as if they were made by HR in the first instance.
In these challenging times the latter application of what should be a strategic, business and change-enabling resource is simply foolish and wasteful. How can you avoid this bear trap and get the best out of your HR?
Firstly, while most HR directors are friendly and outgoing, do not take this easy-going persona as an excuse to by-pass their contribution. It is imperative that HR is viewed as a strategic resource and applied to each aspect of strategic problems, challenges, and change-management processes.
Times are tough, money is tight and around 70 per cent of the scarce resource each college receives goes out monthly on pay and people.
Therefore, ensure that the HR director is never far away from the ‘top table’ and is ‘in at the beginning’ of a good idea or proposed problem-solving solution.
HR managers should challenge staff utilisation — but don’t keep ‘bashing’ the lecturers who generally account for only one-third of the wage bill
At this time more people are exiting the sector than joining it, a sad reality of reduced real-time funding.
Notwithstanding, each person’s exit must be handled correctly to avoid a legal, and expensive backwash.
Don’t let managers who ‘know a bit’ about HR lead on this; use the experts because that’s why you employ them. On the converse, where recruitment is taking place each lecturer computes to an annual recurring £50k investment, senior managers up to £100k per annum (or more) so commit at least as much time to each appointment as you would to spending the equivalent money on non-pay.
You would not renew the college vehicle fleet after a 30-minute interview, so don’t slack when it comes to assuring that new recruits are the very best available. Use HR to fully validate the credentials and skills set of anyone you allow to join your organisation, and don’t be afraid to make it challenging to get in.
A good HR director will provide strong, yet appropriate challenge to ensure that the organisation is following the important rules (not the less important rules), and using its resources well.
My advice is to accept, and support that challenge across the college. Pay costs measured against total income must be pushed downwards to 60 per cent, a repetitive annual task if income is falling year-on-year.
HR managers should challenge staff utilisation — but don’t keep ‘bashing’ the lecturers who generally account for only one-third of the wage bill.
Deploy your HR Task Force across the college to find and resolve waste, because it is out there. In many high-performing colleges HR directors work very closely with finance directors in a collaborative way. Good cop, bad cop (you decide) but regardless of who is who, this approach should be encouraged. Get ‘money’ and ‘people’ right and the rest follows.
The sector has had many back-to-back difficult years and staff tensions are often high and stress can be rife. In tightening times avoid temptation to cut your people-related HR horsepower.
Never before has it been so important to do the HR-basics well, focussing on good employee and union relationships, morale (a leadership thing), managing attendance and ensuring that in the absence of pay awards the organisation does everything to respect, motivate, develop and recognise high performers who have decided to stick around.
In summary, a well-resourced HR function led by a skilled, forward thinking HR director is essential.
Your HR director must be many things to many people in order to do their job well, but one thing they should never be is left in the corner as an observer in this kinetic and frenetic time.
Use them as the strategic enablers that they are and your organisation will reap the benefits.
At first, the 17-year-old Andy Cole thought nothing of his head teacher’s long, contemptuous blow into a handkerchief.
But when it happened again, just moments later, Cole realised it was the head teacher’s ludicrous reaction to his desire to go to art school.
Today, Cole is on the other side of the desk as principal at the College of North West London (CNWL), but it’s an expression of prejudicial thinking from on high that has stuck with the 54-year-old.
Cole with his art in the 1980s
“It was a grammar school and quite snobby,” says Cole of his Bury school past.
“In the constitution of the school it said the head teacher came from Oxford, Cambridge or Bristol, so by definition the aspirations of the school were fairly university-focussed.
“And I was on track to do A-level maths, physics and art because I said I wanted to go and be an architect and I was told those were the only subjects that would get me there, which was demonstrably untrue.”
Cole turned out to be “absolutely appalling” at physics, and so began bunking off to do double art or maths instead — and was eventually found out.
“I got called into the head master’s office and I was given this whole spiel in front of my mum asking how I was going to get anywhere, and then the head master said: ‘What do you want to do with yourself?’”
When Cole replied he was hoping to go to art school, the handkerchief came out. And it happened again when Cole explained that he’d looked in to it and didn’t need the physics A-level to study art.
“I thought at first it was coincidental, but literally every time I mentioned the word art, or art school, out came the handkerchief, he blew big time into his handkerchief,” recalls Cole.
“It was just a surreal experience.”
Fortunately, and much to Cole’s surprise, his mum Jose and dad David were “extremely supportive”.
Cole’s painting Boxer Quadroon (1987, oil on canvas)
So Cole found his way to Hull School of Art and Design (now part of Hull College) via a foundation degree from Rochdale College of Art (now part of Hopwood Hall College).
Cole then headed for a post-graduate degree in London, which, at the time, was “truly a different world” to the recession-hit North and offered plenty of painting work converting old East End and Docklands warehouses into loft apartments.
“That gentrification of urban industrial space was piggy-backed on artists’ communities, so you were mixing with some fairly famous artists because these were like living-working spaces, so you could get cheap but big accommodation and it was a fairly lively environment, shall we say,” he tells me.
“I didn’t have a full-time job until I was 31 — at that point I was just getting by being a painter and an artist’s assistant.”
Cole was also exhibiting his own art work at the time in smaller galleries in the UK and in 1987, managed to secure an exhibition in New York’s then up-and-coming Lower East Side.
Inspired by the New York trip, he and a friend started a gallery in a room above the Black Bull pub near Chelsea Football Club, providing exhibition space for fellow arts students — giving Cole the distinction of having granted Turner Prize-winning artist Martin Creed his first ever exhibition.
Cole’s own artistic career, however, never took off in the way he had hoped.
“I was living in accommodation that didn’t have central heating and it had got to a point where I thought, ‘You know what? I’d quite like a washing machine’,” he says.
“I gave myself until I was 30 and if I hadn’t made it as an artist then I would bite the bullet and admit defeat, and get a proper job.
“I held on until 31 and I hadn’t made it, so…” Cole shrugs, but he’s grinning and to be honest he doesn’t look like a man defeated — perhaps that’s because of the route he chose instead.
Cole (left) with younger brother Nigel
Cole had begun teaching part-time after finishing his postgraduate degree at Portsmouth Polytechnic, now Portsmouth University, although, he says, the experience of higher education teaching left him feeling “a bit of a fraud”.
His first encounter with FE was at Thurrock Technical College (now part of South East Essex College).
“I was asked if I would do a bit of cover — allegedly just for a day or two,” he explains.
“So I rocked up and was shown to a portable cabin at the bottom of the car park.
“The kids were what we would call NEETs [not in education, employment or training] now, stuck in the rubbish accommodation, nobody wanted to teach them and they were just killing time really.
“I didn’t know what I was doing but I thoroughly enjoyed working with them.”
The college asked him to return the next day, and the next, and after two weeks, offered him a permanent contract.
“I was like, ‘Why?’ and they said, ‘You were the first person who lasted more than a day with them’,” he says.
To this day, Cole struggles to understand why those learners had been viewed as problematic.
“Maybe it was my age, I was close enough to them, and maybe it was the fact that I wasn’t a trained teacher and had no preconceptions about how you did it, I was just responding to what they were interested in and how they were learning,” he says.
“I think what I really found interesting that process of learning how you learn, how you get from the point where you don’t know something to the point where you do.”
He took up a fulltime job at Thurrock in 1991 — just in time to experience the upheavals of incorporation.
Cole’s daughters Madeleine and Elspeth (middle left and right), wife Justine and daughter Isabelle on New Year’s Eve 2014
“There came a point where you could have all these changes done unto you or be part of the solution, if you like,” says Cole.
“It did quite quickly become apparent that the world was going to change, with colleges becoming masters of their own destiny to a certain extent and I just wanted to be part of what that world would look like.
“So that’s when I got a course management job at Borders College in Scotland and I started from there.”
However, Cole and wife (then-partner) Justine, “very quickly decided that Scotland was beautiful but London was where the money is” after the company Justine was working for went bust, and the pair returned South, where Cole became a manager at Henley College.
From there, he moved to Havering College, then Newham College and Newham Sixth Form College, before becoming a vice principal at City of Westminster College.
“I didn’t really start thinking about becoming a principal until maybe about five years ago, just when I became a vice principal. And then I realised actually, there’s a stage beyond that,” he says.
In 2014, he became principal of CNWL, a college which has seen its fair share of financial difficulties — although, as Cole notes wryly “show me the college that doesn’t”.
“One thing I can be certain of is that in five years’ time the FE sector in London will look pretty different to what it looks like now,” he says.
“We’re almost at a tipping point — taking a 24 per cent cut to anything is going to affect some fundamental change.
“The optimist in me says that as a necessity, people will become more collaborative and start to share — not just as federations, which is just about money — but will actually genuinely start to share their strategies and their visions, and start to really see how best we can use a finite resource to best serve our communities.”
And, the father-of-three believes, his somewhat unconventional introduction to teaching puts him in a good position to lead his college into that uncertain future.
“I’m told I have a slightly alternative view to many people when it comes to certain things,” he says.
“FE gave me a second chance — it gave me the chance to re-engage and get my education back on track, and helped me to realise my vision.
“So it’s about that personal second chance that I’ve had, and I think we’re at a point where we risk denying people that second chance opportunity, so I do like engaging with people who are passionate and want to improve themselves, but maybe don’t know they want to do it.
“So I guess there is something there about that alternative view — my natural inclination is to go with the underdog.”
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It’s a personal thing
What’s your favourite book?
Poetics of Space, by Gaston Bachelard, which is about dreams, and architecture and spaces. It was a fairly seminal book when I was an art student. And From The Diary Of A Snail by Guenter Grass. It deals with ambiguity and memory
Cole’s father David and mother Jose at their wedding in 1958
What do you do to switch off from work?
I just spend time with the kids and the family, and I do quite a bit of walking, usually in and around urban areas and into parks and things, because one of my daughters comes into London on a Saturday for a dance class in Kings Cross, so I end up walking around the back streets of Bloomsbury quite a lot and visiting the occasional hostelry, but a bit of time walking and a bit of time with the family
What’s your pet hate?
I’m not sure I have one really, but I guess it’s self-interested people, self-serving people. And if we’re going to be political about it, people who pretend to listen but don’t really
If you could invite anyone, living or dead, to a dinner party, who would it be?
Personally, I find family and friends to be the best company. I would have loved to have met my dad’s side of the family — my dad was brought up in a children’s home, and he only met his mother, who lived in the West Indies, once, and he never knew his father. So I would love to get to know that side of the family. No famous people
What did you want to be when you were growing up?
An architect. One of our family friends was an architect and he built his own house in 1960, and it was like the archetypal Conran building, it was all done out in that typical 60s décor which, growing up in a northern mill town, was quite radical and I was just fascinated. But then I discovered art
The College of Haringey, Enfield and North East London (Conel) is under new leadership.
Andy Forbes took on the role of principal late last month, moving from the same post at Hertford Regional College.
He took over from interim principal Louise Twigg, who had been in post since November.
Starting his career as a school English teacher, Mr Forbes has worked as vice principal at Blackpool and the Fylde College, director of widening participation at The Oldham College, chair of Oldham Race Equality Partnership and specialist adviser to the Parliamentary Select Committee on Social Cohesion.
Mr Forbes said: “Students of all ages and at all levels get a really positive experience at Conel and — most importantly — the great majority pass with flying colours and go on to university, further training or into good jobs. I will ensure that the college continues to play a key role not only in education but in supporting economic growth for our local communities.”
He has been replaced as principal on an interim basis at Hertford by Desdra Kingdon, deputy principal, finance and resources.
He joins a senior team including vice principals Stewart Cross, finance and resources, and Kurt Hintz, curriculum and learner experience, that has been in post since the start of the academic year.
Meanwhile, the chief executive of Skills Show organisers Find a Future Ross Maloney is set to step down at the end of next month in a return to his previous employers, the Scouts, as director of operations.
He told FE Week: “I feel privileged to have had the opportunity to lead and build Find a Future, in partnership with the board, staff and stakeholders, to deliver life changing experiences for so many young people.”
It comes just over a fortnight after the Edge Foundation was unveiled as new lead sponsors of the Skills Show for 2015, with City & Guilds’ three-year agreement having come to its natural end.
The board was working to find a new chief executive through “a robust executive recruitment process,” said Find a Future chair Carole Stott.
Meanwhile, the Workers’ Educational Association (WEA), the UK’s largest voluntary sector provider of adult education, has made two new appointments to its senior leadership team.
James Ward is the new director of marketing, membership and income growth and Ian Hanham joins as chief operating officer.
Prior to his appointment, Mr Ward was the director of business development at The English Speaking Union and director of development and communications at the University of Westminster.
Mr Hanham was previously director of corporate resources at EveryChild. He has also been deputy finance director at WaterAid and head of financial planning and reporting for the British Red Cross.
Ruth Spellman, WEA chief executive, said: “They will be playing vital roles in raising awareness of the importance of adult learning with policy-makers, generating new sources of support for the WEA and developing our educational offer.”
A former Canterbury College tutor has been jailed for animal cruelty after forcing his dogs to fight “barbaric” matches against wild animals, resulting in appalling injuries.
Steven Alston (pictured) was sentenced to 160 days behind bars, banned from keeping animals for life and ordered to pay £10,000 in court costs last week after pleading guilty to causing an animal fight to take place and causing unnecessary suffering.
District judge Justin Barron, who heard the case at Folkestone Magistrates’ Court, said he would have passed a stronger sentence if the law had allowed it.
Inspector Cliff Harrison, from the RSPCA’s special operations unit, described Mr Alston’s actions as “a sickening form of deliberate and premeditated animal cruelty”.
“It isn’t just the animals targeted that suffer sickening injuries, but also the dogs used in this barbaric activity,” he said.
“No animal deserves to be used and treated in this way. I am pleased that the court clearly took a similarly strong view and has prevented the defendant from owning a dog ever again.”
The RSPCA has released images of the injured dogs, many of which needed reconstructive surgery after having parts of their nose, jaw and muzzle ripped off in fights.
Canterbury College has distanced itself from 49-year-old Mr Alston, who taught bricklaying there between 2005 and 2010.
A college spokesperson told FE Week: “The horrific crimes for which Steven Alston has been convicted do not relate to the college or his time here.
“He left the college in 2010 following a departmental reorganisation that led to his position in the college being made redundant.”
Jonathan Edwards, defending, told the court Alston had lost work because of publicity from the case and that his earnings had subsequently been hit, meaning his financial situation was”precarious”.
Major – one of former bricklaying tutor Alston’s dogs that suffered appalling injuries while in his care. The dog has since been rehomed
He also claimed Alston had used painkillers to reduce the dogs’ suffering, adding: “He is not completely dismissive of their injuries and is not callous but a man who valued the animals in his care. There was no intention to hurt them.”
Mr Alston’s activities were uncovered when his wife, Lucy, aged 44, accidentally dialled 999 on a phone in her pocket and police responding to the call discovered eight wounded terriers, as well as equipment for digging out wild animals, at his home in Littlebourne, Kent.
The Canterbury College spokesperson added: “The details of the case as published are disturbing and if any student or member of staff at the college is affected by the graphic content of some of the news reports then the college will provide whatever support it can.”
In his introduction to the report, Policy Consortium member and FE journalist Ian Nash said: “Concerns over funding, external bureaucracy, workload and the pace and volume of change top the list of concerns among those polled in the survey.
Ian Nash
“As the government continues to transfer skills funding to employers – despite evidence from employer ownership pilots that it doesn’t work – broader education initiatives with a proven track record have been severely curtailed.
“Equally alarming, say survey respondents, despite the ring-fencing of schools cash, is the failure of the Coalition Government to ensure that it is used by them in sufficiently tackling the levels of pupil underachievement in schools.
“This has left colleges with the unachievable target of bringing everyone up to GCSE A to C or equivalent in maths and English by age 18, with the demand that they ‘do it again’ until they make the grade.
“Moreover, the reduction in funding means that the sector is perceived as being less important than schools and higher education, say the respondents. The top two concerns around funding and government priorities appear to impact directly on status and morale in sector.
“Unnecessary and damaging competition with schools – as the Government’s free schools and other structural reforms take priority over all other considerations – is also a major concern. The proliferation of providers, especially small school sixth forms, was identified by many as a cause for concern both for young people and FE providers, says the survey report.”
