Sector leaders have called for more detail about how a new company set up by government to improve careers advice will operate after Education Secretary Nicky Morgan (pictured) “evaded” MPs’ questions about the organisation.
The Association of Colleges (AoC) and Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) said answers given by Ms Morgan when she appeared in front of the Education Select Committee on Wednesday (January 7) did not go far enough to allay concerns about careers advice.
During the hearing, Ms Morgan confirmed the initial £20m funding announced in Chancellor George Osborne’s Autumn Statement would cover the first two years of the company’s work, and that she hoped employers would pay for it after that.
But she deflected several other questions about how the organisation would run, and had to defend it after committee chair Graham Stuart pointed out similarities between its remit and that of the existing National Careers Service (NCS).
Martin Doel, AoC chief executive, said: “It is disappointing to hear that Nicky Morgan was not yet able to give further detail on how to tackle failing careers advice.
“We would like to see the establishment of a careers hub in each local area, supported by schools, colleges, universities, local councils, employers and Jobcentre Plus to ensure that everyone has access to the high-quality impartial advice they deserve.
Alex Cunningham MP
“We hope that the new careers and enterprise company set up by the government will consider our proposal as a means by which all involved can be incentivised to set aside their narrow institutional interest in favour of meeting the needs of young people.”
An AELP spokesperson said: “The probing over how the new company will dovetail with the activities of the NCS has not alleviated our concerns about its creation.
“We would have preferred that England had an integrated all-age service built around the services of the NCS and that the Department for Education’s new investment should have enhanced other existing services.”
During the hearing, Mr Stuart said: “The government announced in its statutory guidance in 2014 that the NCS from October 2014 will expand its offer to schools and colleges.
“The NCS will broker relationships between schools, colleges, local communities and employers. It would appear that from October 1 the very role for the NCS, which it’s being expanded to do, is exactly the role which you now say the new organisation is going to do.”
Ms Morgan said: “They will work in partnership together. The organisations are different. They will work together to deliver that same goal.”
Her performance in front of the committee was later described as “evasive” by member Alex Cunningham.
Speaking at a launch event for a campaign by the National Union of Students (NUS), Unison and the Trades’ Union Congress (TUC) for better careers advice that he hosted in parliament later on Wednesday, he said: “Everyone is united in saying this system is broken. The Secretary of State says she’s listening but we need to make sure she hears as well.”
A key demand of the joint campaign is to ensure access to face-to-face careers advice, as opposed to the online support currently offered by the NCS.
TUC assistant general secretary Paul Nowak said: “Of course online information is important, but when you’re talking about people’s careers, people’s working lives you need to give them more support than just a hyperlink — and we think there needs to be that frontline, face-to-face advice.”
The Further Education Trust for Leadership (Fetl) has announced the four winners in its first wave of fellowship grants to fund research.
Alex Day MBE, Ruth Allen, Tim Ward and Ann Creed will get up to £40,000 each to fund their work.
They will be looking at attitudes to risk in leadership of sixth form colleges, leadership challenges among third sector providers, the impact of leadership on part-time teachers and fostering creative leadership in FE.
Mark Ravenhall, Fetl chief executive, said: “We’re really excited about the chosen research projects. The idea is to pay for the fellows to take time away from their ordinary jobs, so that they have the time to think seriously about future leadership issues in our sector.”
The winning bidders’ identities were unveiled on Tuesday (January 20) at the Institute of Education (IoE), in London, along with their individual research topics.
Fetl, which launched in May with a budget of up to £5.5m left over from the closure of the Learning and Skills Improvement Service, had received 21 applications for fellowships before settling on the four just before Christmas.
They will work part-time on their projects for between three and six months from February.
“The other applications, which were not chosen this time, showed particular concern about how best to deliver the digital curriculum in the wake of the-FE Learning Technology Action Group, employer engagement, governance, developing middle managers, and performance management,” said Mr Ravenhall.
“Half of the applicants were from general FE colleges and others included specialist designated institutions, sixth form colleges, local authority adult learning and independent learning providers.”
Ms Day MBE, director of adult and higher education at Hampshire-based Peter Symonds College, will research attitudes to risk and Ms Allen, group development manager of the Cornwall College Group, will look into creative leadership.
Mr Ward, chief executive of The Learning Curve, a not-for-profit organisation focused on workforce and organisational development in the voluntary and community sector, and chair of the Third Sector Learning Alliance, which supports voluntary, community and social enterprise learning providers, will look at third sector leadership challenges.
Ms Creed, who is currently working as a freelance researcher after completing 18 months as strategic policy officer for the Workers Educational Association in December, will research leadership impact on part-time teachers.
They will work with a university chair in FE leadership at the IoE.
They will also have access to the IoE library, but regular attendance in London will not be necessary and research can be done from home.
Meanwhile, organisations with an interest in FE were also invited in November last year to apply for Fetl grants worth between £10,000 and £100,000, to fund research into sector leadership issues, with entries closing a month later.
Mr Ravenhall said: “More than 50 applications for this funding round were received. Half of organisations applying were learning providers. Other applications were received from membership bodies, think tanks and universities with a strong track record in FE research.”
The names of up to seven chosen organisations are due to be announced next month.
Fetl’s founding president, and former Lewisham College principal, Dame Ruth Silver said: “In this, our first year, we are grateful for the big vote of support [for the fellowships and grants] and the depth of interest in research in the FE and skills sector. We also recognise this has been a first for the sector in approaching a new body with a new focus.”
The next round of applications for fellowships and grants are set to open in April or May.
Main pic: from left; Tim Ward, Ruth Allen, Alex Day and Ann Creed
Tightening purse strings lead to risk-taking interest
With issues of leadership a key theme in FE and skills, FE Week reporter Paul Offord takes a look at the Fetl grant winners and their research. Alex Day features in the first in a series of articles in this and the next three editions.
Running adult and higher education at Peter Symonds College during a period of heavy government funding cuts has sharpened Alex Day’s interest in risk taking.
Mrs Day, who joined the Winchester sixth form college in 1998 and has been its director of adult and higher education for around six years, said her experience of funding issues was the inspiration behind her winning Further Education Trust for Leadership (Fetl) research proposal.
She will be exploring attitudes to risk among sixth form college leaders, particularly in relation to the diversification of income streams.
Pictured below: Mark Ravenhall and Alex Day
She will aim to identify barriers to risk-taking and possible interventions that might support planning and reasonable risk calculation when considering diversification.
Mrs Day, who was given an MBE last year for services to education, said: “It is a really interesting subject area and something that is becoming increasingly important for our sector.
“With the funding cuts we’re seeing, providers are having to look at diversifying where they generate income from, for example through providing increased higher education provision, which all involves risk.
“Any business should have a balanced risk portfolio. If you don’t take risks then you can be left behind and leave yourself vulnerable to change.
“You should have some work that is low risk and low return, some that’s high risk and high return and some in between. Prior to 2000, most definitions of risk were negative and concentrated on ‘the dangers’ of a particular action.
“More recently there has been a change where risk is defined as a combination of perceived ‘opportunities’ and ‘threats’. I think they’ve grasped that in business but I’m not sure we have in FE.”
Fetl chief executive Mark Ravenhall said: “Attitudes to risk and educational diversification are really important issues for the whole sector.
“Although Alex’s proposal focuses on
sixth form colleges, it will explore
principles and solutions that will be
useful for all providers.”
Years of funding cuts in local bus services that have seen around 2,000 routes being trimmed or ended has left FE and skills learners struggling with “even getting to the college gates,” the National Union of Students (NUS) has warned.
Colum McGuire, NUS vice president for welfare, has spoken out in light of a Campaign for Better Transport report that shows half of local authorities in England and Wales have cut funding for buses this financial year, with more than £9m wiped off support for services.
The 24-page Buses in Crisis report says that since 2010, local authority funding for bus services has been slashed by 15 per cent (£44m) with more than 2,000 routes being reduced or withdrawn entirely.
The NUS, which is calling on the government to guarantee free bus travel for 16 to 19-year-olds, claims the issue affecting students in FE and apprenticeships across the country.
Mr McGuire, NUS vice president (welfare), said: “It’s really concerning to see further cuts to bus services for the third year in a row as NUS believe that transport can be a pivotal part to a student’s ability to partake in education. Transport that is expensive, inadequate or non-existent can be really harmful to access to education.
“If there are barriers to even getting to the college gates we cannot expect to see education reaching those who would perhaps most benefit from it. It’s very clear that investment in good transport links and services is beneficial to the whole community.”
According to the NUS, almost half of students living in less built up areas pay more than £20 per week to get to college, and on average paying £7 per week more than those living in urban areas.
Over the course of a year, these differences could add more than £250 to a student’s annual travel costs, it says.
The NUS further says that placement students, apprentices or those at colleges which have merged, leading to longer commuting distances are also more likely to struggle with high transport costs. And its research found that apprentices pay an average of £24 on travel, with many paying significantly more.
The Buses in Crisis report echoes one of the Association of Colleges (AoC) current manifesto calls, which says transport legislation has not caught up with the fact that everyone is now required to participate in education and training until their 18th birthday.
The transport rights for 16 to 18-year-olds in education should mirror those which apply to school children, according to the AoC manifesto.
The Campaign for Better Transport report says: “Government should look at ways of standardising and enhancing concessionary travel schemes for younger people, especially those in education, on apprenticeships or out of work.
“We and Greener Journeys have also suggested introducing a bus bonus scheme which would give a tax break on the cost of a bus season ticket for those in work or apprenticeships — this would cut the cost of bus travel and would encourage more people to travel by bus, widening labour markets and increasing patronage and economic output as a result.”
Joe Vinson, NUS vice president for FE, said: “It’s incredibly worrying to see these cuts being made to transport services. This is already a huge issue for our members in FE.
“The cost of travel can be the difference between making it to college or not, particularly for students from lower income backgrounds, and those living in rural areas. Further cuts to these services could see a whole generation of people being unable to get to college.”
Mr Maguire said: “Sixteen to 19-year-olds should have access to free bus travel, just as older people do, to enable them to be active citizens, and prevent them from falling behind in their education. No young person should be shut out from education because of financial barriers.
“This period of a young person’s life can be critical to ensuring they can build confidence and gather experience, which will serve them throughout the rest of their lives. Shutting people out of society at this stage can have long-lasting detrimental impacts.”
Plans for one of two high speed rail national college campuses are a step closer to fruition after Doncaster City Council donated land for the project.
The council’s cabinet agreed on Wednesday (January 7) to offer the 5.1-acre Carolina Way site as its contribution to the project, one of the first to be announced under the government’s national colleges programme.
Along with a headquarters in Birmingham, the college campus in Doncaster will train apprentices and other learners for the HS2 rail development, which will see journey times between London and northern cities cut.
Mayor of Doncaster Ros Jones said: “We fought hard to bring the national high speed rail college to Doncaster and it will be one of the most important investments in the borough for many years, providing fantastic opportunities for local people to secure highly skilled, well-paid engineering and manufacturing jobs.”
The council said that as well as being involved in shaping the college and its curriculum, it would project manage the construction of the campus, which is expected to start in 2017.
Other national colleges are due to be established to train people for the nuclear, fracking, digital skills, advanced manufacturing, wind energy and creative and cultural industries.
Department for Education (DfE) overtime payments rocketed by nearly 40 per cent between September and November, it has been revealed.
According to workforce management information published by the DfE, overtime payments for the period went from £37,437 £51,729. It comes after the DfE’s overall full-time equivalent (FTE) staff numbers fell to 2,187 in November, down from 2,298 in the same period in 2013.
It also follows a reduction in spending by the DfE on agency staff — from £341,739 in August to £254,945 in November — and consultants, which fell from more than £280,000 in September to £66,112 in November.
Kathy Prendiville, an industrial officer with the PCS union, said: “It is hardly surprising that, having cut the department by nearly 50 per cent over the last four years, we find overtime increasing.
“This, alongside consultancy and agency costs, which are still too high, merely masks what is essentially an under-resourced department, all in the name of austerity.”
A DfE spokesperson said: “Since 2010, we have delivered huge savings for the taxpayer, reducing administration costs by £120m a year. Staff numbers have fallen by 40 per cent over the same period.”
Providers have been given assurances that logistics apprenticeships will continue to be certificated after the industry’s Sector Skills Council (SSC) announced it was closing.
More than 30 jobs are thought to be at risk after the board of directors at Skills for Logistics (SfL), one of 18 SSCs in the UK, announced on Tuesday (January 6) that it was closing, and was considering administration.
A spokesperson for the Milton Keynes-based charity said it had happened “due to pressure placed on the business by the trustees of the pension scheme, which SfL joined following its initial set-up in 2003”.
The Federation for Industry Sector Skills and Standards (FISSS) assured providers of apprenticeships certificated by SfL that they would not be affected.
Mark Froud, FISSs managing director, told FE Week: “In the short-term, FISSS will with immediate affect take responsibility for the certification service for apprenticeships in the logistics sector. SfL certificated around 7,000 apprenticeships in the last 12 months.”
He added: “In the long run, we are working with the UK Commission for Employment and Skills [UKCES] and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills to find a replacement organisation to manage both the issuing authority duties and certification duties. Providers shouldn’t notice any decline in quality or speed of service.”
SfL’s annual accounts in March last year showed it had an income of £3.6m and 34 full-time-equivalent staff. They also showed that as of March 2010 there was a £1.5m black hole in the “defined benefit” pension scheme, established in 2003 with the ITB Pension Funds Open Fund. Three years later that had been reduced by £300,000. SfL had paid more than £200,000 annually towards the deficit in the two years leading up to publication of the accounts.
The SfL spokesperson said: “Like many similar organisations, the significant pension deficit and subsequent on-going recovery payments has placed extreme pressure on a smaller SfL business in a rapidly changing economic environment.
“We have worked hard to exist and be effective over the last two to three years in the ‘new world’ of substantially reduced public funding.
“However, given the reduced activity level in 2015 and obligations to the pension scheme, the board felt it would be better to seek alternative options for the continuing industry skills projects.”
The accounts also revealed SfL received £4m funding from UKCES for 2013-14 and beyond.
A UKCES spokesperson declined to comment on whether it hoped to retrieve any funding.
However, he said: “We are aware the board of SfL has taken the decision to close and is appointing an administrator.
“This is clearly worrying news for staff and their families, and our thoughts are with them. We will wish to work with the administrator and the industry to ensure continuity of work on standards and apprenticeship certification.”
The ITB Pension Funds Open Fund declined to comment.
In these cash-strapped times, many principals would like to shave a few pounds off the expenditure column of their college finances.
And it was no different during the time of incorporation, back in 1992, when a fortuitous boundary decision benefited Martin Ward, as principal of Hull’s Wyke Sixth Form College.
It resulted in bills going to a neighbouring school — an outcome he must look back on enviously today now that he keeps his eye on finances at Leicester College as its governors’ board chair.
“The college [Wyke] was on the same site as a secondary school, and there never had been a boundary between the two, so we had to decide on one,” he says.
“Years later we discovered the council was still paying our gas bill because there never had been a separate gas meter.”
From left: Ward’s mother Doris, brother Peter, father Cecil with Ward at the front 1962
The role at Leicester marks somewhat of a homecoming for 64-year-old Mr Ward, who is also Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) public affairs director, having been born in the upstairs room of the city’s George and Dragon pub. It was run by his mum, Doris, and dad Cecil, who was killed in a motorbike accident when Ward was just 13.
“I never knew him after I grew up, and I never appreciated him at the time — you don’t when you’re a teenager,” says Ward.
He adds it’s “hard to know” whether the tragedy impacted on his school progress.
“I barely know what that 13-year-old was like now, even though there are some things still in my head that are parts of him,” he says.
“So it’s possible that helped me to think I could do right by my dad.”
Ward adds: “I sort of woke up when I was about 13. People ‘wake up’ at different stages in their childhood, depending on who they are and what happens to them — in my case, I was pootling along, not doing very much, and when I got to what we now call Year 8, I found I was in the top maths set.
“And I thought, ‘oh, blimey — I must be quite clever really’ and I never looked back after that.”
His love of mathematics led him to study at Warwick University and on to teaching maths.
He chose teaching because “I liked talking, I liked the sound of my own voice” and found himself drawn to FE.
“I realised that for the people who don’t wake up when they’re 13, but when they’re 17 or 25, it gives them the opportunity to then do what they are really capable of,” he says.
“That’s got to be a good thing, hasn’t it?”
After working his way up to head of department at Queen Mary’s Sixth Form College, in Basingstoke, and a stint as deputy principal at New College Telford, in 1986 he landed the job as founding principal of Wyke College and oversaw its development from the very beginning.
“I was very young to be a principal at 35, and they made a brave choice,” he says.
Ward graduating from the University of Warwick in 1972
“We were given the luxury of two years’ preparation time to develop the college, oversee building work and appoint staff.
“It was a very daunting task. Certainly there were days when I thought if I overlook something really critical we’re going to need on day one it’s going to be very embarrassing — you know, what if there’s no chalk to write on the blackboards?”
Despite this, he says, the project was “really exciting”.
“It’s just such a privilege to be able to open something new, draw all the policies and procedures from the ground up,” he says.
“And it proved to be very successful.”
However, his time at Wyke came to a tragic end following the death in 1999 of Mary, his wife of 29 years, after complications from coeliac disease — a gluten intolerance that is not usually fatal.
“I was at work on Friday morning, I got a call from our cleaner saying I must go home as Mary had collapsed,” says Ward.
“I took her into hospital and thought, ‘they’ll sort this out’.
“They called me at five the following morning to say I must come in and just when I got there she had died.
“The worst thing I ever had to do was ring her father — because you don’t expect your children to die.”
The two years that followed, were, says Ward, “a very dark period”.
“My wonderful vice-principals had to run the college for quite a long period while my head was somewhere else. I was in a very deep depression, I now realise, looking back,” he explains.
He devoted himself to looking after his and Mary’s sons, Edmund, then aged 17, and Michael, then 15.
When he emerged from depression in 2001, he decided it was time for a change.
“Because with the best will in the world, you become a drag on the institution if you stay too long as principal and I felt I really needed to move,” he says.
“I didn’t see the point of running another college just like it, where I hadn’t had the opportunity to open and appoint the staff and so forth — where’s the joy in that?”
For the people who don’t wake up when they’re 13, but when they’re 17 or 25, FE gives them the opportunity to then do what they are really capable of
Ward was already on the council of what was then known as the Secondary Heads Association, and when the job of deputy general secretary came up.
One of the first changes Ward made to the organisation, along with then-general secretary John Dunford, was to change the name to ASCL.
“The name change opened it up a bit more,” he says.
“And I have always had that role in the organisation — saying, ‘and colleges, don’t forget them’.”
In 2002, Ward married old friend Jo, who had two sons of her own — Robert, a year younger than Edmund, and Jon, a year younger than Michael.
“I’ve had the very good fortune to have been married to two wonderful women,” he says.
“Jo’s had the better of me, there’s no doubt about it. I’m a better, more emotionally intelligent person now than I was before — which is not saying a lot, and Jo has really taught me how to enjoy myself, which I had never really got the hang of before. I never really understood that it was all right to really fully enjoy yourself.”
Ward certainly seems to have fully bounced back — he waxes lyrical about both Leicester College and ASCL — so much so that it would be fair to say he’s had some difficulty in retiring.
In 2011 he stepped into “semi-retirement”, moving over into the ASCL public affairs role.
“I was going to stop this summer, then it was going to be next summer, when I’ll be 65,” he says.
“And now I’m going on until 2016, but then I think I really, really have to stop, because there are so many other things I want to do — notably, a lot more travelling than one can fit in with having even half-time work.”
Ward and wife Jo with John Lennon’s statue in Havana 2012
Ward has spent much of his career in sixth form colleges – a type of college that is now seemingly being passed over by government policy in favour of free schools — but he’s optimistic about their future.
“It’s one of these policy drifts that happens,” he says.
“The minister says we’ve got this problem, so let’s open some free schools, but then that becomes an aim in itself — and never mind how you do it or whether it’s actually the right thing to do, because the minister has spoken.
“Will it make any difference whether it’s nominally a school or nominally a college? I think probably not.
“They’re all going to be free-standing institutions with their own governance arrangements and their own lack of funding.
“In 10 years’ time some of these free schools that have opened as sixth form schools will just be sixth form colleges and will be indistinguishable from the ones we’ve had for the last 20 or 30 years, others will have gone bust and disappeared or sort of taken over by the FE college next door.”
It’s a personal thing
What is your favourite book, and why?
The Name of the Rose Umberto Eco. It started the craze for historical whodunnits. It’s set in the 14th century in a monastery and the hero is both very clever and rational, and humane — and therefore someone I’d very much like to be
What do you do to switch off from work?
Cooking. It’s something I came to in later life as it were, and I spent a lot of time trying to do it right — and of course the beauty of cooking is that you get to eat the product and I very much like eating
What’s your pet hate?
Putting people down because they’re different from you. You get that in so many different contexts and forms and it’s often in the popular press. It’s something that certain political parties are pushing very hard at the moment and it’s something that affects the FE sector because it’s different from most of the backgrounds of people making the decisions in Whitehall that are affecting the sector
If you could invite anyone to a dinner party, living or dead, who would it be?
I was tempted to say Socrates, Jesus, Mohammad and Buddha, but thinking about it what I’d really like would be my mum and my dad and my two brothers and all my dear friends who have died all together and tell them I love them one
more time
What did you want to be when you grew up?
I wanted to be grown up. That was it, I’m afraid. No great aspiration to do anything
I arrived back in Britain on Tuesday after three weeks’ magnificent customer service in the United States and the Caribbean.
Unfortunately, thanks to BA, my luggage remained in Philadelphia. And I soon knew I was back in the UK by the ‘jobsworth’ at Heathrow who handled my missing luggage claim.
She tried to persuade me that it was my fault my luggage had not made it back, and couldn’t bring herself to offer an explanation, apology or any idea when it might be returned.
In my experience, customer service is improving in this country generally given a huge boost by the ‘volunteers’ at the Olympics. It needs to be sustained and nurtured if we are to grow our tourism and hospitality business.
It is not surprising that customer service is the single largest apprenticeship qualification, demonstrating the importance employers put on these skills in a variety of public and private sectors to grow their businesses by delivering excellent customer relations.
VisitBritain estimates that inbound tourism will increase by 4.5 per cent this year to £22.2bn — that’s almost a million more than 2014.
Culture Secretary Sajid Javid said tourism was now a major driver of economic growth for Britain.
At the start of the New Year it’s time again for resolutions, not revolutions. My plea for this year is no changes to apprenticeship rules and regulations until the election is over and our new political masters impose their apprenticeship dreams — or from some of the parties’ proposals, their nightmares — upon us.
The sector needs to ensure the political parties understand the consequences of their manifesto proposals.
To let National Occupational Standards disappear seems a national scandal and enormous waste of resources and money to me
We do not need to repeat the apprenticeship loan debacle, which decimated level three and above apprenticeships until it was rescinded.
Currently, apprenticeship numbers are beginning to decline as employers vote with their feet against managing the funding and mandatory cash payments and potential apprentices and parents baulk at an apprenticeship without a recognised qualification.
I’ve been abroad for the past three weeks and had several informal discussions with employers and entrepreneurs from the United States, Caribbean and South America about their respective staff training and development.
It surprised me how complimentary and knowledgeable they were about our apprenticeship programmes in England.
This mirrors the international remarks made at November’s National Vocational Education and Training Conference at the Skills Show and the results of the latest Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) employer and learner satisfaction surveys of apprenticeships.
My main concern is the apprenticeship development we have pulled together over the years, culminating with the Specification of Apprenticeship Standards for England (Sase) being thrown out with the bath water because a few disgruntled employers complained to Doug Richard and former Skills Minister Matthew Hancock wanted to make a name for himself.
If our current Skills Minister, Nick Bowles, is to be believed in saying he sees the Trailblazers as a pilot and not ‘early adopters’ then presumably there will be some analysis of the Trailblazer standards compared with the current National Occupational Standards (NOS).
From what I have seen, most of the Trailblazers have borrowed heavily from the NOS, so unless they show a significant improvement there seems little reason to change. Especially when the NOS are national, co-ordinated, cover all sectors with a single assessment strategy and are respected internationally, particularly by countries introducing work experience and work-place learning.
To let NOS disappear seems a national scandal and enormous waste of resources and money to me.
The final end test for the professional cookery Trailblazer will take two days and cost £2,000 to stage for each apprentice.
It will only test the apprentice’s ability to cook a variety of dishes in an examination environment, cooking one portion of each dish at a time and not their ability to perform in a commercial production environment. Should the apprentice fail their test, it will be for the employer to pay for the re-take. That’s bound to improve achievement rates. Don’t remember reading about that additional cost to the employer anywhere is BIS briefings.
Governors bring a wealth of disparate expertise to the board table, but can sometimes fall short when it comes to their college knowledge. Lawrence Vincent provides 10 key questions governors should be armed with at their next meeting with the principal.
College governing bodies have a responsibility to ensure that the core function of the college — teaching, learning and assessment — is of the highest standard.
How then can college governors discharge this responsibility effectively? With great difficulty, I would argue, without the help of the expert knowledge that sits within the college’s senior leadership team.
It is easy for a principal to build ‘pseudo trust’ with their board by providing carefully controlled data sets that look impressive but give only a surface level view of the effectiveness of teaching and learning.
My Bournemouth and Poole College senior leadership team has built enormous trust with our board thanks to a set of questions under the heading ‘The 10 difficult questions no principal wants to be asked.’
This is, I accept, a masochistic approach to building trust and although these questions cause us serious discomfort, they have enhanced my board’s understanding of teaching and learning no end.
Firstly, how many students dropped out before Day 43, from which areas and why?
This question moves the discussion away from a glib set of standard answers and opens up a more fruitful line of enquiry. For example, is there a correlation between late enrolments and drop-outs? Are some areas of the college more aberrant than others and does this suggest sloppy interview and induction practices? Is there a culture of pressure to achieve enrolment targets that is then corrupting the integrity of student recruitment?
Secondly, how many 16 to 18-year-olds enrolled without maths and/or English grade C and what percentage of these are currently in maths/English classes?
The speed in which students who need maths and English are identified and put in classes reveals crucial information about whole college understanding and support of the maths and English policy and the initial assessment process.
Thirdly, what are student attendance rates for maths and English classes?
Although these questions cause us serious discomfort, they have enhanced my board’s understanding of teaching and learning no end
Whole college attendance figures do not reveal that attendance at maths/English classes is nearly always lower. This question separates the data and gives way to establishing what is being done to drive up maths and English attendance.
Fourthly, what is the lesson observation profile for all maths and English classes?
Again, whole college analysis of lesson observation grades often disguises the weaker profile in maths and English classes.
Fifthly, what is the lesson observation profile for all new teachers in their first year?
Support for new teachers is often weak. By concentrating on them as a distinctive group, wider questions can be asked about the whole college approach to supporting new teachers. This includes ensuring poor performers do not drift through their probationary period.
Sixthly, and for the same reasons, how many new teachers are there and how are they supported?
Seven, how many teachers at any one time are being formally disciplined/performance managed? How long is each case taking and why?
This question demands hard evidence that poorly-performing teachers are being carefully managed and light thrown on the amount of time this is taking.
Eight, which 10 full-time courses have the weakest student progression statistics and what is being done about it?
This moves the scrutiny away from a sole focus on success rates and generates interest in progression rates as a measure of effectiveness. It throws up some very interesting and uncomfortable ‘why are we offering this course’ conversations.
Nine, what percentage of full time 16 to 18 students have undertaken a work placement?
This is rarely looked at but is key within the new study programmes. This creates a whole college view of work experience and often reveals highly inconsistent practice.
And finally, how does the internal lesson observation profile compare with externally-validated lesson observations?
Internal lesson observation profiles are often dangerously inflated. College boards need to know that leadership teams are not fooling themselves. Scrutiny here forces external validation of lesson observations and allows valuable comparison.
