Vocational education charity the Edge Foundation is the new lead sponsor for the Skills Show, it has been announced.
Show organisers Find a Future revealed today that the three-year lead sponsorship deal with City & Guilds, in place for the first Skills Show event, was ending.
The pricetag of the Edge Foundation’s one-year sponsorship of the Skills Show, which takes place in November, was not disclosed.
David Harbourne (pictured below right), Edge Foundation acting chief executive, said the charity was “really looking forward” to becoming the lead sponsor, having offered some sponsorship in previous years.
“Everyone at the Edge Foundation is thrilled that we’re sponsoring The Skills Show,” he said.
“It’s our mission to champion and celebrate all forms of technical, practical and vocational learning, and The Skills Show is a brilliant way to see some of the country’s most talented young people show off their skills in a remarkable range of competitions.
“Tens of thousands of young people — not to mention their teachers and parents — will find out about careers, courses and apprenticeships, and even try their hand at new skills.
“We’re really looking forward to it.”
Last year’s Skills Show attracted 75,000 visitors to the Birmingham NEC to watch the national finals of more than 60 skills competitions, try more than 50 have-a-go activities and access careers advice.
Find a Future chief executive Ross Maloney (pictured left) has: “The Edge Foundation believes, as we do, that all young people should have the opportunity to achieve their potential, and that the UK’s future workforce needs to be equipped with the skills they need to be successful in the modern, global economy.
“Their support and involvement with this year’s event is invaluable in ensuring that we continue to spread the vocational message to all our target audiences — it’s good to be working with them again.”
This year’s Skills Show will run from November 19 to 21 and will also feature squad selection for the 2017 WorldSkills championships in Abu Dhabi.
While the major political parties’ focus on FE and skills is to be welcomed, they need to look beyond qualifications reform says Tim Oates.
When you recognise that banging your head against a brick wall actually hurts, the most sensible course of action is to stop doing it.
Strange then, that while all the major parties announced that vocational education and training would be an election priority for May 2015 (which is a good thing), the emphasis was yet again on qualifications reform, something which has repeatedly failed to increase quality and volumes in vocational education and training (Vet) to any significant extent.
Wholesale qualifications reform is one of the seductive options for policy-makers. It is easy to announce, can be put in place swiftly, and seems to promise much.
But it is as seductive as a siren song, and equally deceptive.
Of course we need high quality, relevant, and effective qualifications. They do indeed set standards, define curricula, and assist labour-market signalling — enabling employers to find where skills are, and helping employees gain benefit from skills and knowledge which they have developed. But they are part of a complex jigsaw of measures which needs to be in place within Vet, not the sole thing upon which policy hopes should rest.
The UK economy continues to suffer from significant, acute and chronic labour shortages, particularly in technical occupations; long duration initial vocational training volumes have suffered a decline, not an increase.
If arrangements were working, we would have an excess of training places, low youth unemployment, and imperceptible skill shortages.
The route to increased quality and volumes lies in complex action, including a reduction in bureaucracy, careful management of incentives and drivers, and policy sensitive to different sectors
The oft-cited figures relating to employer expenditure on training include a massive chunk of spending on health and safety and other instrumental, short term courses — hardly the provision which upskills the workforce and trains young people in the manner required by an advanced economy.
Thank goodness that the recent Education Select Committee report on apprenticeships has not only seen past the surface of the data but also recognised that the route to increased quality and volumes lies in complex action, including a reduction in bureaucracy, careful management of incentives and drivers, and policy sensitive to different sectors.
This greater subtlety in analysis and policy recommendations is sorely needed.
Cambridge Assessment has long-argued that the same qualifications reform policy has been blindly used to apply to forms of Vet which should be sharply distinguished: work experience in schools; vocationally-oriented learning in full-time educational settings; initial Vet; upskilling and development provision for employed workers; and provision for unemployed workers.
These forms of Vet are different in form, content and aim, and require different policy support from the state. Policy-makers frequently have underestimated the complex issues which affect different forms of Vet: ownership of the curriculum, links with a changing labour market, pay rates, marginal costs, regulation, sector demarcations and other interacting factors.
Overall Vet policy has been relatively insensitive to the way in which incentives, drivers, and specific conditions operate in particular industrial sectors. Unless policy moves away from a preoccupation with wide-sweeping policy such as wholesale qualification reform, ‘grand plans’ for Vet are likely to continue to result in disappointment.
Welfare-to-work provider A4e has been sold to recruitment services firm Staffline in a £35.4m deal that includes £11m of debt being taken on.
Nottingham-based Staffline Group claims the move will make it one of the biggest contractors of the Work Programme of the Department for Works and Pensions (DWP).
It will mean Staffline has a presence in half of the programme’s 18 regions as a prime contractor — through its Eos and Avanta divisions, and now A4e — and six further regions as a sub-contractor.
The firm claims the takeover will give it access to learners through 150 sites throughout the UK — which, it claims, is the largest geographical reach of any Work Programme contractor.
Staffline chief executive Andy Hogarth (pictured right) said: “We are delighted to be announcing today the acquisition of A4e.
“This is an exciting milestone in Staffline’s growth, considerably expanding the size and geographic reach of our employability offering and will result in the combined business being one of the largest Work Programme providers in the UK.”
Its Staffline Recruitment division, which had a final 2014/15 Skills Funding Agency (SFA) contract worth £540k, was rated as good by Ofsted last month. Its Eos Works division was allocated £955k of European Social Fund (ESF) cash by the SFA while Avanta, a £65m acquisition last summer, had an SFA allocation of £8.2m and was rated as good by Ofsted last month.
It is understood that Avanta and Sheffield-based A4e will be “integrated” and rebranded PeoplePlus over the coming months.
A4e, which employs more than 3,000 staff and had a £30m SFA allocation, posted pre-tax losses of £11.5m in 2012-13, but had climbed to a pre-tax profit of £2.2m for the year ending March 2014.
Mr Hogarth said: “The significant strengths of both businesses will be united and we are confident that our leading position will be a strong platform from which to develop our strategy, services and innovation.
“We look forward to creating a winning team and business, and delivering significant shareholder value.”
Staffline has agreed to acquire A4e’s entire issued share capital for £23.5m and will assume A4e’s net debt of £11m. The sale is thought to have netted A4e founder Emma Harrison, owner 85 per cent of shares, around £20m.
Andrew Dutton, chief executive of A4e, said the buyout meant “starting a new chapter in the history of A4e”.
“Staffline is exactly the right fit for us: its ambitions, robust financial position and its people and business values will all support the combined business as we grow together and build on our position as a leading Work Programme provider in the UK,” he said.
“A4e is now in the perfect ownership to both develop our customers and support our employer relationships and I wish the combined business every success in the future.”
Delivery of extra freedoms for the FE sector has been “limited” despite being central to government policy for years, a report commissioned by the 157 Group has said.
The consortium of colleges worked with law firm Eversheds LLP on the report, which is a result of interviews with sector leaders including Business Secretary Vince Cable on the subject of freedom and flexibility.
According to the report, entitled Freedom and flexibility: colleges and skills in 2015, the survey results show the “limitations of what has so far been offered and the real potential for future policy development”, and that a “real difference” could be made in terms of implementation of policies, not by new policies themselves.
The 18-page report calls for widening of colleges’ statutory powers and also calls on government to heed a warning that initiatives like sponsoring academies carry “significant risks” for colleges as well as benefits.
It also calls for a more “sensible” framing of employer engagement, with the “encouragement of strategic partnerships and mutual respect”, and goes on to say that “neither employers nor providers have all the answers to our future skills needs”.
It says the apprenticeship funding debate should be re-visited, with a “more realistic outlook”, to establish how to maintain employer choice without “disincentivising their increasing participation”, and says the government may wish to consider asking the Competition and Markets Authority to clarify what steps the law would allow providers to take to collaborate further with businesses.
Dr Lynne Sedgmore
Dr Lynne Sedgmore CBE (pictured), executive director of the 157 Group, said: “Freedom and flexibility have been two of the buzzwords of the last five years and, in this publication, we aim to provide an overview of what that has meant – for institutions, for communities and, most importantly, for employers and students.”
The report goes on to call for a drive towards “more strategic relationships” between the FE sector and employers after the election, and that the services of the Education and Training Foundation should be “developed, strengthened and supported” beyond May 7.
Other suggestions include one that proposals for a Royal College of Teaching should include the FE sector and that a clear focus on learners should be reflected in policy, with learners encouraged to help govern FE institutions and more support with travel and subsistence costs.
Sarah Robinson OBE, chair of the 157 Group and chief executive of Stoke on Trent College, described the report as a “high-level commentary on the skills landscape in April 2015”, adding: “In particular, we build upon the principles articulated in our manifesto for FE and skills: that future policy should be guided, wherever possible, by stable structures, equal treatment, the freedom to innovate and durable funding.
“Our analysis, published today, indicates that while our skills system is undoubtedly more ‘free’ than it was five years ago, there is still a long way to go in matching the reality of policy with the rhetoric of politicians.”
More than a third of the workforce at NCG’s 1,200-worker Intraining division were today facing redundancy following one of the biggest job loss announcements to have hit the sector.
The loss of a major Department for Work and Pensions training contract and “uncertainty” over the renewal of European Social Fund (ESF) programmes, along with fewer than expected apprenticeships, combined to force a restructure of the Sheffield-based company.
Bosses at the independent learning provider, which last year posted a pre-tax loss of £1.39m and has a current Skills Funding Agency contract of just under £2m, have launched a consultation on the job losses, which are expected in the next few months.
Intraining managing director Linda Dean said: “Like many organisations in the current climate, we have had to make some difficult choices in response to the continued changes and challenges in the training sector.
“A major factor is the continued uncertainty over the renewal of several ESF contracts, which come to a natural end in July.
“We have also reviewed our structure to match the activity on some of our larger contracts which are running at a much lower level than previous years, and that looks likely to be the case in future.
“We have a sustainable business that is well-balanced and able to meet the needs of our customers, colleagues and stakeholders.”
A spokesperson for NCG, which operates from 142 locations nationally and also comprises Newcastle College, West Lancashire College and Kidderminster College, youth charity and training provider Rathbone and Newcastle Sixth Form College, said the wider group “continues to operate in a strong financial position”.
Ms Dean added: “The proposed actions we are discussing with colleagues in the business are to ensure that we are in the best position to be both successful and sustainable in the short, medium and long term.
“We regret that it is likely that this will result in an impact on some of our colleagues at Intraining and we have started a formal process of consultation.
“We understand that this will be a difficult period for colleagues, learners and their families and we will work hard to ensure that they have access to any support they need and we will keep them fully informed at every stage.
“We will also support colleagues to apply for any opportunities elsewhere in the organisation wherever that is possible.”
The jobs blow at the division of the grade two-rated NCG, which has around 4,000 staff in total, is one of the largest among a number to have hit the sector recently.
It comes just a week after Birmingham Metropolitan College announced plans to shed 250 jobs in a bid to reduce costs “significantly”.
Andrew Cleaves, principal of the 30,000 learner college, which employs 1,600 staff, blamed government funding cuts.
Editor’s Comment
Job losses are sadly all too common in the FE and skills sector and have been for a little while.
It’s almost the case that not a day goes by when an FE Week reporter is alerted to some ‘restructuring’ plans in which a workforce is scaled back.
One of the horrible jobs as editor of this newspaper is to decide which of these we report — or indeed do not report — these. It boils down to consideration of the sheer number and how much of the workforce that represents.
It’s as unpleasant as it is necessary, but it’s never forgotten that these ‘job losses’ refer ultimately to people — a distraught mum, a heartbroken brother, a despondent niece.
So the effect of cutting a workforce of more than 1,000 by around a third will clearly be devastating — to many families, communities and also, let’s not forget, the organisation itself.
But the Institute for Fiscal Studies said last week that further public funding cuts are guaranteed no matter who emerges victorious from the General Election.
Inevitably this will lead to more headlines about jobs losses.
Restructures will also abound and that’s a theme that our next government should think long and hard about — what FE and skills structure does it want and can afford, and how will it communicate and achieve that vision?
The findings of the report, produced by Coralesce with funding from the Education and Training Foundation, were revealed at the Women in Technology conference on Tuesday (April 21).
The Women in Technology Project Research Report 2015 called for a “two-way” street, “with industry and education working together” to level the playing field between women and men in the technology sector.
The report findings, the report front cover featuring a poster designed by Tower Hamlets College students
“The UK workforce is currently 46 per cent female but only 15 per cent of IT professional workforce is female,” report author and Coralesce curriculum director Bev Jones told delegates at the event in East London, just a stone’s throw away from Shoreditch, the heart of the UK’s tech industry.
The 33-page report’s co-author, Coralesce director Christina Conroy, said: “One of the challenges is clear when you look at where the new jobs are coming from.
“Of the 10 fastest growing jobs, eight of those were in technology… and if girls aren’t going into these areas, they’re missing out on all these new jobs, they’re missing out on the growth in the economy and they’re ending up marginalised, to lower paid jobs.”
She warned of a “cycle of non-engagement” that education and industry needed to act against.
“What tends to happen is that because there’s so few women in these organisations you get androcentric work environments — ones which are all very macho,” she said.
“And because there are so few women, this isn’t challenged and you get a lack of diversity of products and services aimed towards women.
“Then you get a poor perception of that industry among women, and they tend not to apply for those jobs.
Bev Jones, Tower Hamlets marketing co-ordinator
“So the problem can’t be solved in just education or industry, it has to be working in partnership.”
The problem wasn’t just one of equality, she said — increasing the number of women working in technology could generate £2.6bn for the economy.
“Industry recognises this as a problem as well,” she said.
“But also we think by encouraging more women into tech will benefit FE by actually getting people to use learning technology — through, for example, designing lesson plans to get women into technology which actually use technology.”
Ms Jones said one crucial factor for the FE sector was staff capacity to use technology in order to help young women engage with it in lessons.
Careers advice was also important, she said, as many young women could not name female technology role models and were not aware of the roles available or the benefits attached.
However, she added: “Most the stakeholders we spoke to felt trying to do something now in the FE sector was too late because they’ve made their choices — that there needed to be interventions and nursery and primary level.”
However, Coralesce project manager Pauline Odulinski said focus groups with young women at Tower Hamlets College had pointed to a different conclusion.
She said: “Of course you’ve got to get the message over in schools at an early age but one of the interesting things with the Tower Hamlets girls was we asked them if they liked science and maths and the vast majority said they did.
Sian Palmer completes a group activity
“In actual fact you don’t have go to ten-year-olds, I think you could go in just before GCSE about their careers choices and once you raise their awareness, I think it would make a real difference.”
She also suggested colleges could have open days and invite women from the tech industry as mentors to raise young women’s awareness and interest. Ms Conroy agreed.
“At GCSE, IT courses are nearly half and half girls and boys,” she said.
“But when you look at A-level computer studies, it’s about 6.5 per cent, in vocational it’s 18 per cent, which is the same at undergraduate level — and that reflects the numbers that go into industry.”
The key, she said, was in partnerships which the project was looking to create between individual employment providers and an industry partner, to look at ways to break the cycle through mentoring, internships and careers advice.
Ultimately, she said: “You can’t solve it with big government schemes, you have to sweat the small stuff. You have to do a bit here, a bit there and gradually it does get better.”
Main pic: From left: Christina Conroy and Pauline Odulinski present the report findings
Lynne Sedgmore called for a review of the drive for more UTCs in light of the second UTC closure, and here she considers what problems might be affecting the programme.
The news of the failure of another UTC, this time in the Black Country, may tempt some FE observers to indulge in schadenfreude.
It would be understandable given the way in which pioneers of the UTC movement crowed about high profile links with universities and systematically downplayed the practical support of FE colleges.
It is particularly understandable given the hubristic comments of some of their more high profile backers on what these newcomers could teach FE about vocational pedagogy or links with industry. It would be wrong to gloat however, since the failure represents another blow to technical and vocational education that we can ill afford.
Although only two UTCs have closed, many are struggling and several having to be rescued, often by a local college. There are several reasons specific to UTCs that help explain these failures.
As institutions they are generally too small; they are often poorly integrated into the local provider ecology (though this was not the case at Walsall) and they rely heavily on support from employers which can be fickle and promise more in advance than is subsequently delivered.
The main reason, however, is that delivering high quality vocational education in England is nowhere near as easy as some UTC enthusiasts seemed to think.
UTCs (and of course studio schools) are assailed by the same factors that make life difficult for FE colleges. There is, for example, the rhetorical support from all parties for higher level skills which unintentionally, but effectively, denigrates learning for lower status occupations — bricklaying, hairdressing or care.
Delivering high quality vocational education in England is nowhere near as easy as some UTC enthusiasts seemed to think
There is the determination by politicians, in the face of the evidence, to characterise our vocational education system as broken, thereby justifying yet another bout of destabilising ‘reform’.
There is the wilful disregard of the consequences for public perceptions of stripping vocational qualifications from school league tables in the name of reintroducing ‘rigour’. There is the confusion in the minds of the general public and most employers engendered by constantly inventing new organisational forms rather than building on what people know and trust.
Initial vocational education suffers disproportionately from the bizarre underfunding of the 16 to 19 phase compared with the rest of secondary education.
Although post-16 institutions are more badly affected, a fully-recruited UTC would still have half its year groups funded at the lower rate compared with two years out of seven for an 11 to 18 school. If it chose to educate those over the age of 18 it would experience a further reduction in the unit of resource.
UTCs, like colleges, must struggle against the lack of independent and impartial careers advice in many schools. A high profile launch helps, but in the long run it is hard to make headway against the default assumption that bright kids go into the sixth form.
UTCs, like colleges, also suffer from the policy confusion around apprenticeships. Government cannot make up its mind whether apprenticeships are a route to highly skilled occupations or the answer to youth unemployment and in seeming at times to advocate both the message to young people and parents is muddied.
At the same time the single-minded obsession of policymakers with apprenticeships is damaging to other aspects of vocational education.
Even where it is visible it is not clear whether it is an alternative to an apprenticeship, a preparation for one or a pathway that offers a choice of progression opportunities.
I’m really sad therefore that the hard work and enthusiasm that went into the development of the Black Country UTC has come to nought.
I fear, however, that unless any further expansion of UTCs is rooted in partnership and not unnecessary competition there will be further setbacks to come.
If we really want to encourage a high quality vocational route for 14 to 18-year-olds UTC enthusiasts need to work closely with those FE colleges who are also working to provide vocational qualifications to young people. The best chance of success is through collaboration.
Six out of 30 University Technical Colleges (UTCs) are operating at up to just a third full — with two running at no more than 14 per cent capacity, FE Week can exclusively reveal.
The two — Central Bedfordshire UTC and Wigan UTC — did not recruit any learners into Year 10 in 2014/15, according to data released under the Freedom of Information Act.
It comes just a week after Black Country UTC, in Walsall, followed Hackney UTC in announcing it was closing due to problems in attracting learners. They both have current Ofsted grade three ratings.
Overall capacity data for each UTC only takes into account year groups for which it actively recruited — so UTCs opening in September have capacity figures for years 10 and 12 only.
Hackney UTC has not been included in the overall figures as it did not recruit any new learners this year. For UTCs opening in September 2013 and before, figures include capacity for all four years.
The data, collected from each UTC, shows that Central Bedfordshire has 92 learners across the three years for which it recruited, meaning it is operating at 14.1 per cent of its 650-learner capacity, while Wigan is 12.2 per cent full, with 61 of 500 spaces taken.
Lord Baker
A spokesperson for Central Bedfordshire UTC, which was taken over by Bedford College last year after the UTC was graded inadequate by Ofsted, said: “We are not recruiting for year 10. We are reviewing recruitment procedures, but we are recruiting into sixth form.”
A Wigan UTC spokesperson said the school was currently focussing on 16 to 19-year-olds while it was joining Bright Futures Education Trust, but would “extend its offer” once the transition was complete.
Joining Wigan and Central Bedfordshire with the lowest student numbers were Visions Learning Trust (Lancashire UTC) which was 20 per cent full, with 120 learners of a possible 600, Buckinghamshire UTC with 25 per cent of its 600 places filled and Plymouth has 30.7 per cent (200) of a possible 650 learners.
Black Country UTC, where a “disappointing” Ofsted inspection result yet to published was also said to be behind the closure decision, was exactly a third full, with 160 of a possible 480 students.
And in total, 55 per cent of UTC places have been filled this year.
UTCs are specialist colleges for 14 to 18-year-olds, offering technical education alongside core subjects, and were brainchild of former Conservative Education Secretary Lord Baker, chair of the Baker Dearing Educational Trust.
A spokesperson for the trust defended the recruitment figures saying that attracting learners “at age 14 is difficult”.
The UTC project was launched in 2011 — two years before general FE colleges were able to recruit full-time learners from the age of 14 — and has enjoyed cross-party support.
On the day news of the Black Country UTC closure broke, Prime Minister David Cameron launched the Conservative election manifesto at UTC Swindon, pledging “a UTC within reach of every town”.
David Cameron
And Shadow Education Secretary Tristram Hunt has called for “considerable growth” in the number of UTCs.
Including Hackney, there are currently 30 UTCs. A further 20 are due to open by 2017.
But last week, and in light of the Black Country UTC closure announcement, Association of Colleges deputy chief executive Gill Clipson urged caution from the government saying it needed to factor the need for “consistent demand” into plans for further UTCs.
She said: “For UTCs, or indeed any new institutions to be successful in recruiting a significant number of students there needs to be a consistent demand across all the necessary age groups. We hope that the next Government will factor this into their plans before opening any new institutions.”
Her warning came amid pleas from the 157 Group and University and College Union for a review of the UTC expansion drive with general FE colleges offering a viable alternative.
A spokesperson for Baker Dearing Educational Trust said: “UTCs developed in response to demand from employers who tell us about a severe skills shortage, particularly at level four.
Gill Clipson
“We know that recruitment at age 14 is difficult, most young people don’t change school at 14 but for those that know where their interests lie, a UTC gives them a really good start with their technical education and a great connection to the world of work.”
Visions LearningTrust, Buckinghamshire, Plymouth and Black Country declined to add further comment.
All of the six UTCs at up to 33.3 per cent capacity opened in September 2013 or earlier.
And all of these saw a fall in the percentage of available places filled since last year — except Visions, which went from 15.5 per cent to 20 per cent, while Black Country rose from 31.5 per cent to 33.3 per cent full.
Baker Dearing has previously defended the low recruitment of newly-opened UTCs, saying it could take time for local parents and children to understand the offer.
The Baker Dearing Trust spokesperson added: “Ninety per cent of UTC students surveyed last year told us they were glad to have made the switch.”
UTCs ‘ill-conceived’
The Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) has thrown its weight behind calls for a review of the push for more University Technical Colleges (UTCS), branding them “ill-conceived” and a “vanity project”.
The damning verdict on UTCs comes after Black Country UTC announced this month it would be closing due to a shortage of learners and a poor Ofsted grade. It was the second UTC to announce closure over learner number problems. However, the Conservatives and Labour have both called for more to be built.
But Dr Bousted, ATL general secretary, said: “The closure of the Black Country UTC shows the investment of taxpayers’ money in UTCs is ill-conceived. Lord Baker’s initiative, although well intentioned, was a vanity project that took no consideration of how UTCs would further fragment FE.” She added: “The government’s willingness to find millions of pounds to support this project, and promise more for it, shows its desire to break up state education and fails to address the expected acute shortage in secondary places within the next parliament.”.
A spokesperson for the Baker Dearing Educational Trust said: “We would expect to play an active part in any review of the UTC programme if that was to be required by an incoming government.”
Find a Future chief executive Ross Maloney (pictured left) has: “The Edge Foundation believes, as we do, that all young people should have the opportunity to achieve their potential, and that the UK’s future workforce needs to be equipped with the skills they need to be successful in the modern, global economy.
