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Lambeth College poised for indefinite strike — again

Indefinite strike action could be set to hit Lambeth College for the second time in eight months, after unions unveiled plans to walk out in a continuing row over staff contracts.

The University and College Union (UCU) has released a timetable of escalating one, two and three-day strikes starting next week, culminating in an open-ended strike from Monday, January 19.

Its members walked out for five weeks beginning in June over plans to introduce contracts for new staff, which the union says would leave teachers with longer working hours and less annual leave and sick pay — returning three days before the summer holidays.

Una O’Brien, UCU regional official, said: “The situation at Lambeth College is now very clear and the management cannot be in any doubt at how angry staff are about the new contracts.

“We hope that strike action, which will certainly mean major disruption again at Lambeth, won’t be necessary. The college needs to sit down with us to talk through changes to staff contracts and work towards finding a solution staff are happy with.”

The new contracts at the centre of the row offer 50 days a year annual leave — 10 days fewer than that given to existing staff.

However, Lambeth principal Mark Silverman has said the terms of the contract, introduced from April 1, were “in line with sector norms”.

He said they were part of the college’s recovery plan following financial deficits of £4.1m in 2012/13 and £3.5m last year.

Mr Silverman said: “I’m disappointed that UCU are calling members out on strike when their own representatives are, in negotiations with the College, increasingly accepting of the current situation where we have two contracts co-existing.”

A strike ballot which opened on September 22 was shelved early the next month while the union considered an “improved offer” from the college, where existing staff would stay on the original contract until September 2017, or accept a £1,500 “cash incentive” to transfer to the new contract.

However, in the latest ballot, the results of which were announced last week, 66 UCU members voted to strike, from a turnout of 80 members from a staff of 250.

The first strike is expected to take place on Thursday, December 4, for one day, followed by a two-day strike on December 9 and 10 and a three-day strike is scheduled for December 15, 16 and 17.

Following Christmas, a two-day strike is planned on January 7 and 8, with three days of striking on January 13, 14 and 15 before the indefinite strike is set to begin on January 17.

A UCU spokesperson said: “We have welcomed a commitment from the college that it will not impose the new contracts on staff employed before April 2014.

“However, the union remains unhappy with the two-tier employment structure the contracts have produced and wants the new contract removed or a fresh one drawn up with its agreement.”

Mr Silverman said: “We have given strong assurances over the last year that the new contract is for new staff, and that we will not be imposing it on existing staff, and I’m pleased that UCU are now acknowledging this.

“We have launched a voluntary scheme where existing staff can transfer to the new contract and accept the incentives that UCU declined last month.

“A good number of staff have already made the transfer, and staff still have a further six weeks to volunteer.

“With staff transferring to the new contract voluntarily, UCU more accepting of both the two-contract status and the college’s assurance of not imposing changes, and such a low turnout on the ballot, one has to wonder what further strike action hopes to achieve.

“Our focus now is to manage the strike effectively and ensure that our learners are not disrupted.

“We plan to keep the college open and functioning throughout further industrial action.

“We will focus on supporting our learners, and we are absolutely determined that we will not allow them to be disrupted.”

All-age apprentice starts down for second consecutive year but improvement for 16 to 18

The number of new apprentices in 2013/14 was down by nearly 70,000 on the previous year — the second consecutive annual fall, according to official figures out this morning.

All-age apprenticeship starts were at 440,400 last academic year, down 13.7 per cent, having been at 510,200 the previous year, and 520,600 in 2011/12.

The 2012/13 fall in all-age apprenticeship starts was the first since 2005/06 when the figure of 175,000 was down 7.5 per cent from the previous year.

Within the fall in the 2013/14 figures, were decreases from 165,400 to 159,100 (-3.8 per cent) for the 19 to 24 age group and 230,300 to 161,600 (-29.8 per cent) among those aged 25+.

A spokesperson for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) said: “The introduction of the 24+ Advanced Learning Loans impacted on the number of adult apprenticeship starts recently — but as soon as it became clear that loans were not the preferred route for employers or prospective apprentices we decided to remove apprenticeships from the loans programme. As such we look forward to seeing this trend reverse in future and a boost to the number of adult apprentices.

“We are reforming the funding of all apprenticeships to put employers in the driving seat and ensure apprenticeships deliver the skills businesses need to grow and compete. More than 1,000 employers are now involved in designing high quality apprenticeships as part of the successful trailblazers initiative.”

However, one positive note in the apprenticeship figures was that 16 to 18 starts were continuing to recover and were up on 2012/13, from 114,500 to 119,800 (4.6 per cent).

It was the first annual increase for the age group in two years, with the 2010/11 number of 131,700 having been 12.8 per cent up on the previous year.

The final (rather than provisional) figures were in today’s Statistical First Release, where the number of traineeship starts for 2013/14 was also revealed to have been 10,400.

“Traineeships are off to a strong start, with the first year of the programme seeing more than 10,000 young people taking the opportunity to gain the skills and work experience that will put them on track for a rewarding career,” said the BIS spokesperson.

“Leading employers such as Virgin Media, Barclays and the BBC have committed to create thousands more traineeship opportunities over the coming years and, following a public consultation, we are now broadening the learner eligibility for the programme from January so that even more young people can benefit.”

For analysis of the figures, read edition 120 of FE Week, dated Monday, December 1.

The Skills Show 2014

Click here to download the supplement

Welcome to this FE Week supplement covering the Skills Show 2014.

It was an action-packed three days at the Birmingham NEC, with more than 75,000 visitors experiencing more than 50 have-a-go activities and getting inspiration about careers and skills.

Alongside that, we had the National Skills Competitions finals, where, as well as winning a gold medal, talented youngsters could be invited to compete for a squad place for WorldSkills 2017.

We’ve got a quick guide to the Skills Show and some information about its organising body, Find a Future, on page three.

The Skills Show isn’t just about one event however, so you can find out more about the Skills Show Experience and Roadshow, which spread the Skills Show message around the country, on pages four and five.

On pages six and seven we take a look at some of the things happening at the Skills Show and ask some familiar faces what they think of it, and City & Guilds UK managing director Kirstie Donnelly and her PR intern Maria McSorley take on some of the have-a-gos.

Next, Find a Future chief executive Ross Maloney and chair Carole Stott discuss this year’s show and their future plans on page eight, before Skills Show volunteers get some well-deserved credit and then Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg gives his verdict on proceedings on page nine.

Amid the hustle and bustle of the show, the UK’s top skills learners were battling it out in the National Skills Competitions and we talk to some of the training managers, judges and competitors from page 10 to 13.

But it isn’t just young people who want careers advice — their parents want to know how to support them, as Chris Mosler, blogger for Mumsnet and Thinlyspread.co.uk, explains on page 14.

On page 15, Association of Employment and Learning Providers chief executive Stewart Segal explores the role of independent learning providers in WorldSkills and the Skills show.

The Skills Show finished in style on Saturday night and we’ve got coverage from the closing ceremony and interviews with the gold medal winners on page 16, followed by full results tables on pages 20 to 23.

The Skills Show may be over but the mission to promote the skills sector and provide careers advice continues, and you can join in the conversation online with @FEWeek.

FE Week Readers’ Manifesto

Click here to download the FE Week Readers’ Manifesto

As we head into the last six months before one of the most unpredictable general elections in the last century, it is clear that FE and skills are going to be on the agenda nationally. But is that a blessing in disguise?
We have already been through a party conference season in which politicians of all political persuasions fell into that age-old trap of knowing the cost of everything, but the value of nothing.
Apprenticeships, considered by our sector to be an essential and specialist form of vocational education, have been reduced to a makeshift solution to youth unemployment, and an ill-advised race to pledge more and more apprenticeship starts has been promised from all sides.

But while it seems everyone wants to talk about apprenticeships, our leaders are still uncomfortable speaking about funding for FE, or rather, the lack of it.
Without the comfort and security of the funding ringfence enjoyed by schools, FE has been left out in the cold by government cuts and frequent changes in policy, which have placed additional administrative burdens on colleges and left lecturers, college leaders and providers even more stretched, and their learners at risk of a sub-standard education.

In the run-up to a general election, all politicians get desperate. Desperate to score points over each other, desperate to win votes by talking the public’s language, and it is our job to make sure the pressure is on them to speak FE’s language too.
It would also be nice for our politicians to publish manifesto pledges which may not necessarily make the news at 10, but are formed from on an understanding and appreciation of the sector’s needs, requirements and aspirations.

The last five years may have seemed tough with the tightening of purse strings in FE. But what is clear is that the next government, no matter what political colour, will have to make deeper and more aggressive cuts. It will make the previous five years seem like the ‘good old days.’

In conducting our manifesto survey, FE Week has sought to unite our amazing sector in one voice, so we can tell those who seek public office and those who elect them what their priorities must be for vocational education and skills policy.
The results will not surprise many in the FE sector, but they make one thing very clear: we cannot go on as we are.

The FE sector trains some of the most vulnerable young people in England. Young people who have been failed by the schools system, hung out to dry by government and left to a life of working for minimum wage, or as one of those most talked-about statistics, those who are Neet – not in education, employment or training.

The FE sector gives those people a chance.

Our sector also gives adults, who may have been failed by a school system many decades ago, the change to come back into education and improve their prospects, and to quote at least two government ministers, there is nothing “Mickey Mouse” about qualifications which get anyone who wants to learn back into the classroom.

The FE sector also gives those people a chance.

But far from simply being a dumping ground for the leftovers of a school system which rewards only the academic achievements of learners and recognises only grades and not potential, FE also trains some of the brightest and the best England has to offer.

More and more young people are choosing vocational pathways into highly-skilled fields such as aviation, aerospace, engineering and manufacturing, into fields like accountancy and law, where apprenticeships were once the norm, but now university is trumpeted by schools and careers advisers as the only route.But these options are not being presented to enough young people as they go through school. This is simply wrong and must change. It is a failing of our education system, which must be addressed, but will take a generation.

Through the results of this survey and the subsequent readers’ manifesto, the FE sector can speak with one voice, loudly enough to ensure above anything else that we cannot be ignored as the race to Number 10 reaches its conclusion.

The phrase ‘sooner rather than later’ has never been more pertinent.

Shane Mann,

Managing director of Lsect Ltd, publisher of FE Week

Campus 35

Learners clean 100-year-old bricks for new skills centre

Birmingham Metropolitan College students cleaned-up more than 6,000 bricks that will be used for its new skills centre.

The college’s original Erdington Skills Centre, which dated back to the early 20th century when the site was a technical school, was demolished to make way for a new £4m building.

More than 6,000 bricks were taken from the site to the college’s James Watt Campus, in Birmingham, where level one brickwork students used heavy machinery to clean cement and grime from them.

They will be used for the new centre that will contain purpose-built classrooms and workshops for the construction trades.

Learner Francis Dean, aged 49, who is studying brickwork after being advised to register for the course by Jobcentre Plus, said: “It was great to see how the bricks would have originally looked after we had finished cleaning them.

“It’s a good idea to re-use materials and has been an interesting project to work on.”

Assistant faculty director for construction Keith Acton said: “The bricks are probably around 100 years old. We were especially keen to recycle materials from the original building to keep some historical context.”

Picture caption: Learner Francis Dean

New website for healthcare charity

A healthcare-support charity has a new website thanks to Rugby College student Lewis Flavell.

The Friends Support the Hospital of St Cross and the Community and Mental Health Services in Rugby approached the college to see if they could help to revamp the charity’s website.

Computing management curriculum leader Ed Shuker gave 11 students from Rugby and Royal Leamington Spa colleges the project as part of their website design module.

Charity representatives were kept informed as the learners developed plans and designs over seven weeks before they opted for the website developed by 19-year-old Lewis.

He said: “It’s a great project and I’m proud with what I’ve come up with. I’ve also been working with the charity to help with some technical challenges with transferring my design to the charity’s own content management system. It’s good to know that the website I designed is now live and being used to help local people.

Picture caption: From left: Lewis Flavell and The Friends Support the Hospital of St Cross and the Community and Mental Health Services in Rugby communications leader Willy Goldschmidt by a screen showing a page of the new website

‘Aha’mageddon on TV set after comedian tells learners to wreak havok

Performing arts students from Croydon College acted alongside comedian Steve Coogan in his latest Alan Partridge series, writes Paul Offord.

It is not every day that students are encouraged to wreak havoc on the set of one of the nation’s best-loved comedy shows.

But that was the basic instruction given to 19 performing arts learners from Croydon College when they starred in the second series of Alan Partridge: Mid-Morning Matters, set to be screened on Sky Atlantic in the new year.

They played unruly youngsters from a local comprehensive invited into the fictional North Norfolk Digital studio to talk to Mr Partridge, played by Steve Coogan, about their school’s playing fields being sold off.

Level three learner Kellie Blair, aged 20, said: “We sat in Alan’s little studio and were basically told to throw things at him while he tried to present his show. Some of the students then started shouting at him and we were all winding him up until a big argument broke out.

“The students with speaking parts probably only had about half an hour to learn their lines and the rest of us were given a basic idea what they wanted and left to improvise. Then Mr Coogan would ask us to do certain things slightly differently and we’d see how that went until everyone was happy with it.”

Programme makers Baby Cow Productions approached Croydon College after Mr Coogan specifically asked for youngsters from outside of traditional stage schools to act in the episode.

The show’s producer Ted Dowd, from Baby Cow, said: “Steve [Coogan] was keen not to have stage-school kids because they always seem to have their natural instincts and realism sucked out of them.”

Mr Dowd was full of praise for the college learners’ good manners behind the scenes during filming on November 13.

He said: “It was so great to have them come up after and say thanks for letting them be involved. You don’t expect that these days.

“Steve did a good job of directing them — without making them feel intimidated or self-conscious. It is always a fine line to tread… but he’s an old pro. Steve had great fun and it worked a treat.”

Level three learner Mark Choppin, 17, was one of six students who had speaking parts.

He said: “It really was such an amazing opportunity. We learned so much in a short period of time about film acting and production. It will look impressive on my actor’s CV.”

James Miller, the college’s programme leader for performing arts and production, said: “It was a fantastic and valuable experience for the students, who gained practical knowledge about acting and filming. It was also pretty special to think they were directed by Mr Coogan.”

Kellie, who hopes to act on TV after graduating, said: “It was pretty surreal to be working with him [Mr Coogan], but I found it very inspiring for my future career. He was really nice. He seemed to care a lot that we were all happy with what we were doing during filming and was even nice enough to pose for photos with us afterwards.”

She added: “It was good to see how they make a TV show like that and everyone was very professional. It’s definitely something that I would like to go into one day.”

Picture caption: Mr Coogan directing the learners

Learners design charity Christmas cards

Level three graphic design students from Kingston College have designed Christmas cards for the African Vision Malawi charity.

Learners were challenged to come up with images reflecting ‘The warm heart of Africa’.

Designs for five cards were selected by the charity that supports children and vulnerable people in Malawi, one of the poorest countries in the world.

Graphic design tutor Alison Richards said: “They found the charity’s work very inspiring and have developed ways to visualise themes such as Christianity, shelter, peace and unity, while reflecting the culture of Malawi through their use of fabric patterns and colour palettes.”

Charity chair Heather Palmer said: “I was truly amazed at the professionalism of these young students.”

Visit www.africanvision.org.uk/shop to to buy the cards.

Picture caption : From left: Students Nikola Ban, aged 17, and Malaika Hardy-Fraser 18, show-off their cards with Karen Alderson and Heather Palmer, from African Vision Malawi, and fellow learners Paige Coote, 17, and Lisa Mason 18