The National Union of Students (NUS) has issued a damning report on the issue of apprentice pay, branding the minimum wage of £2.73 an-hour “exploitative”.
The 21-page Forget Me Not (pictured above inset) report paints a bleak picture of apprentice finances backed by the evidence of several case studies, including a 17-year-old named Sam who earns £95.55 a-week in the first year of his healthcare apprenticeship but, despite living at home, is left with just £40.76 a-week after meeting his travel, food and course costs.
Joe Vinson (pictured above), NUS vice president for FE said: “This report shows that we could have a whole generation being shut out of vocational education because of financial constraints. I hope that our report will trigger a serious investigation in to the financial well-being of apprentices and lead all political parties to commit to making apprenticeships more accessible for all.
“Nobody is talking about the everyday reality for individual apprentices — it’s time we stopped talking about ‘the other 50 per cent’ and actually took action to fix the huge inequalities that exist between these types of education.
“Expansion of places just isn’t good enough, and it’s hiding the truth – we really need a new deal for apprentices.”
The report highlights how the three main political parties have voiced their support for apprenticeships in the run-up to the general election in May, how funding for the programme has increased in recent years and employers will be incentivised to take on apprenticeships from April next year by not having to pay National Insurance contributions.
But, it says: “While employers are encouraged to employ more apprentices and the Government is ploughing money in to funding them, what is the situation for the individual apprentice? What benefits and funding sources does an apprentice have access to?”
The report calls for the government to scrap the apprentice minimum wage, arguing that learners “should be entitled to at least the national minimum wage for their age”.
“The minimum wage for apprentices is exploitative and not enough to cover basic living expenses,” it says.
The recommendation is covered in a section on pay, and further areas in which recommendations are made are travel, sick pay, family budget, childcare, bursaries and bank accounts.
It also recommended free transport for all 16-19 year olds, extending the bursaries available to students in FE to apprentices and called for banks to be encouraged to offer special accounts for apprentices, similar to those available for undergraduates.
“Apprenticeships are often framed as a chance to ‘earn whilst you learn’. They supposedly offer a chance to gain a skill and a qualification whilst working in a ‘real’ job with a wage. Yet for many apprentices their low wages quickly disappear on travel, rent and food,” the report says.
“The NUS believes that apprentices need a better system of support in place in order for them to properly afford to complete their course. Without this apprentices are being forced to take on extra work, borrow money or drop out altogether.”
The NUS report comes two months after Apprenticeship Pay Survey 2014 showed how younger apprentices were being hit hardest by minimum wage non-compliance with nearly a quarter not getting the right pay levels last year.
It indicated that 24 per cent of apprentices aged 16 to 18 and learning at levels two and three were paid less than the apprentice minimum wage, which was £2.68 an-hour at the time of the survey, but rose 5p from October.
A spokesperson from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills said it had “gone all out to support apprentices”.
She added: “Our reforms mean that companies are getting people with the skills they need. And those doing apprenticeships can earn while they learn with careers in TV producing, accountancy or engineering – available to a degree level.
“To support our hard-working apprentices we recently proposed that they should get an extra £1 an-hour. We are waiting for the Low Pay Commission to get back to us on this idea. In the meantime, apprentices are earning an average of £6.79 to £11.63 an hour depending on their level of apprenticeship.”
The Association of Colleges (AoC) has defended its members’ efforts to meet business needs for a digitally skilled workforce after a group of Peers said provision was “patchy, unresponsive and not meeting employer needs”.
Matt Dean, AoC technology policy manager, hit back at the House of Lords digital skills committee’s latest report, Make or Break: The UK’s digital future.
The report further said: “FE colleges need to move up a gear and provide industry-designed and endorsed short courses that are going to lead to a job.”
But Mr Dean said government and businesses needed to act to fill the skills gap, claiming colleges needed more resources and more input from employers.
He said: “The report rightly highlights that there is some excellent provision of education and services in colleges to help prepare young people and adults for the world of work.
“But for this to be more widespread, there needs to be more support from government, funding agencies, regulators and awarding bodies; for example, in streamlining the accreditation of new qualifications to meet the requirements of digital industries.
“Colleges already work with a large number of employers, because they recognise the importance of forging these links, and they would like to do more. However, this requires more businesses to be willing to develop staff training that reflects industry practice and that might be provided by, and within, the college.”
His insistence that colleges were working to fill the skills gap has been backed up by FE technology experts and sector leaders.
Bob Harrison, a member of the Further Education Learning Technology Action Group (Feltag), said: “I think the FE sector has already decided it needs to sort itself out, and it is nice to have the weight of the House of Lords behind it, but I would say that the time for reports has passed, and it is now time for action.”
Education Foundation co-founder Ian Fordham, who co-authored November’s Digital Colleges: The Journey So Far report, said: “A systemic challenge needs joined up solutions. As our report showed, far from colleges sitting in the trenches, many are now the ‘digital warriors’ — pioneering new approaches to learning and responding directly to industry needs.
“The authors have rightly laid the gauntlet down to colleges, but also aims its fire at schools, universities and government to take steps to turn Britain into a digital nation.”
Sixth Form Colleges’ Association chief executive David Igoe said: “Sixth form colleges, like schools have a critical role to play in developing the use of digital technology as a pedagogical tool and to encourage career pathways for both genders into engineering and the myriad of industries now highly dependent on digital — for example media and journalism.
“All this needs appropriate investment in IT and digital infrastructure and we would welcome any move to ensure colleges have the platforms and connectivity to respond to whatever new technology emerges in the coming years.”
Stewart Segal, chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, said: “Apprenticeships in the digital sector were one of the first standards to be developed in the Trailblazers and training providers have been involved in the process.
“And with the taking forward of the Feltag report, we believe that there will be growth in the number and quality of apprenticeships in this sector at all ages over the next five years.”
However, David Hughes, chief executive of the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education, called for more recognition of the lifelong needs for digital skills rather than a “narrow focus on young people in schools, colleges and universities”.
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills declined to comment.
Key findings on FE and skills from the Lords committee
Further education will play a key role in developing high-level digital skills
Evidence showed that FE colleges were already well-placed to link local people with training and jobs, but provision is patchy, unresponsive and not meeting employer needs
There is an urgent requirement for comprehensive industry input into the further education system. The Government should encourage strong partnerships between industry and colleges. Training delivery must be revamped. Further education colleges need to move up a gear and provide industry-designed and endorsed short courses that are going to lead to a job
Skills funding is not presently targeted sufficiently to improve the capacity of the UK’s workforce and grow its economy. Provision is cumbersome and slow to adapt
Over recent years there has been a decline in the number of apprenticeships taken up across all subjects. In England apprenticeship starts across the board in 2013/14 had fallen by 13.7 per cent from the previous year. Apprenticeship starts in ICT fell from 19,520 in 2010/11 to 14,120 in 2012/13; and dropped again to 13,060 in 2013/14
There is no evidence that apprenticeship numbers are yet anywhere near meeting the ambitions of the scheme. In fact, witnesses agreed that the number of apprenticeships, particularly high-level apprenticeships, was far below what the economy needed
Further education leaders must be at the forefront of improving technology use in the sector and implementing the recommendations of the Further Education Learning Technology Action Group (Feltag), the government has said.
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) published an update on progress made by the sector in the six months since it published its response to the Feltag report, which came out in February last year.
The update, published on February 13, said: “The level of engagement by providers and individuals has been very encouraging and shows no signs of abating.”
It added: “Many colleges and providers are realigning their teaching and learning strategies accordingly, but there is more to do and it will be the leadership in the sector that will make it happen.”
The update pointed to the learning futures programme from the Education and Training Foundation (ETF), and delivered by Gazelle, and its work with technology charity Jisc as an example of FE leaders and managers developing capabilities.
One of the key recommendations in the Feltag report was that all courses should include 10 per cent online delivery to receive funding by 2015/16. However, the update echoed Skills Minister Nick Boles’s comments at the BETT conference last month that the recommendation was “more of a vague target” than a requirement, saying the government had reviewed the recommendation “in the light of concerns raised about setting a target without first testing the impact”.
It added it was carrying out a “temperature check” on current online delivery levels which, along with the 2014/15 ILR data returns, it would use to make future funding policy.
Introducing the update, Mr Boles said government would remain “engaged” with the process. But, he added: “It is for the FE sector to shape how technology is best used to deliver the most efficient and effective learning outcomes.”
The report also called for investment in technological infrastructure said almost 100 colleges had taken up the offer of BIS funding to upgrade their systems.
Feltag also recommended Ofsted scrutinise providers’ use of technology in the classroom as part of its inspections. However, the update said Ofsted was “agnostic” about specific methods of teaching, but it had “accepted the recommendation that it should increase its training and guidance for inspectors around education”.
In the future, the report concluded, the ETF and Jisc would be “helping providers and practitioners to create better digital content” and engaging employers to improve access to industry-standard technologies, as well as planning how to develop Feltag over the next year.
Colleges could lose out on funding if local enterprise partnerships (Leps) don’t engage with them, Association of Colleges chief executive Martin Doel has warned after
the Skills Funding Agency (SFA) published new guidance.
In a document entitled Local Enterprise Partnerships: increasing their influence on skills budgets, the SFA said future funding agreements would require colleges to demonstrate a relationship with their Lep. It also says that Leps will get a say in how additional growth funding is allocated.
But Mr Doel warned that colleges that had tried and failed to engage with Leps because of a lack of interest from the Leps could lose out on funding. He said: “It is well recognised that the capacity of Leps to engage in this activity is variable as is their level of interest, despite the determined effort of colleges to engage.
“It is also important to ensure that this work does not develop into an overly bureaucratic exercise that consumes scarce resources in detailed planning that is a poor fit for the complex, multi-layered and rapidly changing needs of a modern economy at the local, sub-regional, regional and national levels; colleges have a role to play at all of these levels and work with many stakeholders and to many other imperatives as well as Leps.
“However, colleges should not be punished financially because their Lep does not engage with them, or because the Lep identifies and chooses to fund other local priorities, such as roads or buses.”
The release of the document comes after Ofsted’s annual report on FE and skills for 2013/14 raised concerns that Leps were “not collaborating sufficiently to ensure that vocational training is planned to help reduce skills shortages”.
In 2012, an AoC report set out the “need to improve the conditions for more meaningful engagement” between Leps and colleges after it identified issues in the first year of the new organisations’ existence. But last year, Mr Doel told FE Week that “all but two” of the Leps were now engaged with local colleges.
Nevertheless, as well as encouraging Lep representatives to join governing boards in their areas, the SFA document also invites Lep input into the SFA’s review and allocation process for underspends. Leps will also be asked to assist and support procurement activities, it says.
South East Midlands Lep chair Dr Ann Limb (pictured), speaking on behalf of the LEP Network Management Board, welcomed the document and the powers it laid out for Leps.
She said “This report is both welcome and timely. It clarifies in detail the helpful role SFA can play at both national and local levels in ensuring employers skills needs are met.
“It offers an overarching framework which should encourage consistency of delivery with opportunities for local flexibility and innovation. It will guide Leps in their discussions with FE colleges and training providers in setting local economic and skills priorities.”
After a traumatic few years battling with more than just her own cancer, 18-year-old Jalé Turner from Sir George Monoux College has been recognised with the prestigious Diana Award for her charity work for Teenage Cancer Trust, writes Billy Camden.
An East London teenager’s determination to turn her own terrifying brushes with cancer into a positive experience to benefit others has been honoured with a Diana Award.
Jalé Turner was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in 2013 — just a year after her sister, Sabrina, had recovered from ovarian cancer.
And the 18-year-old, who studies A-levels in performing arts, sociology and media studies at Sir George Monoux College, went on to raise more than £1,000 for the Teenage Cancer Trust following her own recovery.
She was honoured for her fundraising effort with a Diana Award last month after being nominated by dance teacher Baris Celiloglu.
“When I found out I won I was ridiculously shocked, I didn’t expect to win. I started crying, Baris started screaming, I was pretty ecstatic and very honoured,” said Jalé, vice president of her Walthamstow sixth form college’s student union.
Jalé raised funds with a party in September 2014 that saw more than 90 guests with entertainment from the college’s performing art students and other local talents, plus a raffle and games.
Ms Celiloglu said: “I nominated Jalé for a Diana Award because of her zest for life, commitment to her studies and passion for inspiring other young people. She is an incredibly resilient and determined young lady who has triumphed over great adversity.”
Jalé’s battle with cancer had started half a year after her sister, now 20, had recovered from her cancer.
After feeling symptoms, doctors told Jalé that she was just “stressed out”, but when a lump appeared on her throat, they diagnosed her.
“It was really scary. At the time I was about to take my GCSEs and I was scared I wasn’t going to be able to go to college,” she said.
“In some way I think I had mentally prepared myself because I could feel what my body was doing and that something wasn’t right. It reached a point where I was more relieved that we knew what it was and it could be treated.
“Once I knew my diagnosis I was 100 per cent sure that I was going to get through it and it was going to get sorted.”
Jalé will now attend an award ceremony on March 10 as well as a concert on March 5 as part of the Diana Award where she will get the chance to meet patrons of the award, Prime Minister David Cameron and Prince Harry.
Ms Celiloglu said: “I am incredibly proud of her. Not only is she an extremely talented performer and an exemplary vice president of the student union but she has shown the world what can be achieved against all odds.”
Jalé said: “If any students have a passion for something then I try and bring that to the college and figure out how to support them and get them to campaign and give them the chance to do what I have done.”
Main pic:
From left: Learner JalŽ Turner and dance tutor Baris Celiloglu
The principal of a large and well-established FE college writes about life at the top — the worries, the hopes, the people and the issues they have to deal with every day.
We’re just half way through the year already and what a year it is shaping up to be.
While the wait for the Skills Funding Statement stretches into February for a second consecutive and frustrating year, there has been plenty going on at my college.
There is some really positive and exciting work being done by both my students and staff and I’m pleased to say there is a general feeling of positivity and progress all round.
However, there is a ‘but’. Last week, I was stopped and asked by a staff member about the budget cuts and if I knew yet how bad it was going to be.
It struck me immediately that staff in most colleges are now so used to the annual cull and bad news that more bad news is almost automatically expected — and I found that particularly sad and worrying.
My college will, along with every other, experience painful and savage adult funding cuts.
Indeed, one of my vice principals has speculated it could be as much as 20 per cent.
But does it really matter? Well, yes it does, because for the last three years there have been deep cuts in adult funding nationally.
I found it laughable that recently the sector was commended on its ability to deal with this so well.
Personally, I think we have rolled over and allowed this to happen. Enough as they say is enough.
The idea of protecting the FE and skills budget has had quite some coverage of late despite being seen by the parties as one of the less vote-filled battlegrounds. Labour and the Lib Dems say they will ringfence 16 to 19 spending within the education budget, but the Tories won’t.
My college will, along with every other, experience painful and savage adult funding cuts. Indeed, one of my vice principals has speculated it could be as much as 20 per cent
This might sound a crumb of comfort, but it’s somewhat of an empty promise if within that ringfence 16 to 19 money can be shifted to schools — and this is a very real concern.
Especially considering rumours of around 50 colleges failing financially, for one reason or another.
Just imagine the national uproar if the relative number for schools was bandied about. Dr Lynne Sedgmore’s recent article speculated as to the reasons this was happening and suggested the affected colleges had been hit by a “perfect storm” — more like a hurricane in my opinion and we’re not through it yet.
Meanwhile, the college sector will go about its business — a business that seems increasingly to involve stepping in where others have failed or turned away from the challenge. I’m thinking of prison learning here and of academies. I’m also thinking of improving the English and maths skills of those let down by school provision.
So we need to continue to raise the profile of our sector with MPs and ensure they understand the value and worth of education by providing as rich and diverse offer to our communities we can.
Colleges always have and will continue to respond positively to government policy and change — we’re past masters at this.
Going back to the 50 or so colleges that are struggling, it must be crushing to colleagues who have worked so tirelessly and in some cases for so many years to suddenly find out your college is no longer financially viable.
Colleges that over extended themselves through capital projects are faced with stark choices as demonstrated by FE Commissioner Dr David Collins’ recent proclamation to sell off a site in his old patch in Cheshire. Dark days for many ahead I would suggest and some tough choices too for many.
Indeed, I wonder how many colleagues will simply decide it’s not worth the worry, retire or seek an alternative way out. I am conscious of at least four who are already doing just that.
Ian Clinton took over at Stockport College in the wake of an Ofsted inadequate rating and within a year his work was recognised with a grade three result. Here he outlines key areas of focus in the quest to improve as he prepares to pass on the principal baton in April.
Taking on the principal’s role at a college that has been called ‘toxic’ is not for the faint-hearted.
Recent examples have seen sector ‘grandees’ struggle to achieve impact during interim or new roles.
I believe you need to take on such a role for the right reasons, namely to make a difference for students, staff, the local community together with businesses.
Students often only get one chance and therefore forget strategy in the first instance, and focus on what a good head of a department does. There needs to be a rapid, clear and focused drive to get the focus right.
Timetables to retain students by putting Functional Skills in the middle of the day not either end. Ensure staff comply with register completion and that they chase up each and every absence from day one and not wait several days for contact. Poor attendance is often a precursor to dropping out, use a carrot and a stick approach that includes rewards from free breakfast, trips and visits but also involve parents and employers as appropriate.
It is essential, to my mind, to take quick decisions and stick to them. Also take the big decisions yourself, but allow colleagues to take those that are not ‘mission critical’. It is a false assumption that grade four colleges only have grade four staff.
Often, there are individuals and indeed teams as talented as in grade one institutions. Exploit that, share best practice, promote those staff and listen to them. Staff voice is as important as student voice. It is also important to catch staff ‘doing it right’ and as much as possible make sure all good news is celebrated and communicated to the wider college community and beyond.
It is a false assumption that grade four colleges only have grade four staff
The Corporation Board sometimes wants interims to ‘steady the ship’ and come up with a plan. I would never take on a job on that basis as standing still means you will get further left behind. The focus needs to be on driving up standards and maximising the ‘soft’ impact measures.
Success rates are achieved largely once per year, but many measures of effective outcomes can be delivered in-year, these include work experience, enrichment, student appreciation of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) issues, diversity of Preventing Violent Extremism (PVE).
There is no doubt that bringing in expertise through external appointments or interims can be invaluable. Such colleges are ‘baggage light’ and can help you implement a whole college transformation process.
Of course, this will not account for much if you do not tackle the financial health of the institution from day one. This may well mean redundancies, staff morale issues and trade union hostility. My view is to get on with it quickly, communicate on an on-going basis with the whole college and to make sure the rationale is clear and that you are doing it for the long term and student centre gains despite the short term heartache.
Reliable and accurate data is essential and if your MIS system fails to deliver, get a better one and ensure all staff ‘own’ it. There can only be one system and one ‘answer’. Equally, it is important that as principal, you ‘sample’ and triangulate across your college.
Know what is going on, at least in part of every corner of the college. Talk to staff and students and take the ‘long way round’ to get to the next meeting.
Try not to be over precious about the governance/management divide. Encourage your board to challenge but also expect them to be critical friends — they are here to help, so use them for walkthroughs, student and staff councils etc.
I have found the FE Commissioner and his team to be tough yet immensely helpful. With Ofsted, it is important to challenge their initial assumptions to make sure you make your college progress obvious.
In conclusion, a few pointers, do not overdo external meeting attendance, your priority is in the college; keep a clear sense of proportion on all things FE, remember to enjoy what is still a fantastic job and to make sure you have the occasional chuckle over Sir Michael Wilshaw’s latest attempt to play politics.
A career in post-school education seems to have been on the cards for Paul Grainger right from the day he started his very first job.
As co-director of the centre for post-14 research and innovation at the Institute of Education (IoE), it’s an age group he has long found professionally more rewarding.
His first job, in 1973, was teaching English at Wilsthorpe Comprehensive School, near Derby, but he moved into FE two years later at North East Essex Technical College and School of Art, in Colchester.
“I absolutely loathed teaching in a school. The children had no ambition at all,” says the father-of-four, from Birmingham.
“I took to FE straight away as it’s education for a purpose — teaching young people to engage in the economy and behave as adults.
“I started off at my first college just lecturing English, but also started teaching for a pre-vocational training course that allowed students to sample several different vocational areas like retail, horticulture, business and caring. I was made head of department for O-level resits in 1980.”
Grainger (rear) with, from left, Ken, mum Joan, Harry and Grainger’s paternal grandmother, Elsie
He has been with the IoE, which is part of University College London, since 2006, initially just to run its post-14 network for London providers and local authorities involved with educating the age group.
“It has involved organising a lot of conferences and seminars for like-minded people interested in post-14 education,” explains 65-year-old Grainger.
“I was also able to help launch the Centre for Post-14 Innovation and Research in 2007. We are an academic group who run courses, conferences and do consultancy work.
“We also do serious research into post-14 education, particularly looking at policy. We’re constantly talking to ministers and policy makers looking at things like whether A-levels should be replaced with a baccalaureate system [which involves studying a wider variety of subjects].
“We think that would give learners a broader range of skills and prepare them better for work and life.”
However, his own preparations for work and life were dealt an early blow with his introduction to schooling at the age of four coming within a hospital setting as he recovered from polio.
The disease left him without use of his left arm, which was amputated four years ago, and a weak upper-body.
“I was more or less the last case of polio in this country, because the vaccination came out a few weeks later,” he says.
“I was eventually moved to an old tuberculosis hospital in Windermere where I recovered for the next nine months. My parents [mum Joan and dad Ken] were only allowed to visit once a month and I actually had my first school lessons there.
Wedding day bliss. From left: Harry, Grainger’s wife Liz, grandson James (with train), bridesmaid Jayden Trubshaw and son Marcus
“I think it was natural for me to develop an inclination towards academia as I couldn’t play a lot of sport as a child.”
He adds: “My illness definitely influenced my career choice, as well as I suppose my parents both having been teachers.
“When you have had polio your options are fairly limited. Teaching was a fairly stable option for disabled people to go into.”
Joan started her working life as a junior school teacher, but, said Grainger, government rules at that time preventing married women from teaching forced her to change careers when she tied the knot with Ken in 1949.
“She worked for the Government National Survey doing market research for the rest of her career, which fitted well around raising children,” he says.
“My parents were both children when the Second World War started, but joined-up around the time of D-Day and went with the advancing allied forces through France.
I took to FE straight away as it’s education for a purpose — teaching young people to engage in the economy and behave as adults
“My dad was an RAF weather forecaster and my mother was a radar operator in the Army.
“My dad heard you could get demobbed faster after the war finished if you went into teaching, so that’s how it started for him.
“He was promoted quickly and became a head teacher at Cadishead School [in Manchester] aged 35, before moving to the larger Holy Croft School, in Keighley [Yorkshire], which is the main area I remember growing up in from the age of 11. I regard myself as a Yorkshireman.”
Grainger would go on to achieve a first class degree in English and politics from Keele University in 1972 and completed a masters degree at the University of Birmingham, focusing on poetry in latin preaching manuals from the 14th Century, a year later.
But, having made a start to his working life at school and then college in Colchester, Grainger’s career was put on hold in 1984 when he was involved in a car crash that killed his 63-year-old dad.
Grainger on his university graduation day with dad Ken
“We were pootling along up the A12 in Chadwell St Mary [Essex] when someone crossed the central reservation and hit us head-on,” says Grainger, who lost his 80-year-old mother 18 years later.
“My father was killed and it broke every bone in my body. It’s something you never quite get over, as you can’t help thinking ‘what would have happened if I’d stayed at home that day’.”
He took around six months to recover enough to return to work and the traumatic period coincided with Grainger’s divorce from first wife Victoria.
He opted for a change of scene the following year, moving to South Thames College, Wandsworth, as head of department overseeing BTec and bridging courses preparing learners who had done badly at school for vocational training.
He then spent five years from 1990 as an FE inspector for Wandsworth Local Education Authority (LEA), in the days before inspections were carried out by Oftsed.
The LEA also tasked Grainger, through his role as an inspector, with improving vocational training facilities at local colleges and schools.
He was given a £2m budget, through the government’s Technical and Vocational Education Initiative, to pay for new facilities such as computers and better libraries.
He said: “It was part of a wider move to encourage more students into vocational education, much like what is happening today — so what goes around comes around.”
Grainger’s next job, from 1995 to 1997, was as vice principal and director of curriculum at Wigan and Leigh College where he says “the local mining industry was being run down at that time and a lot of manufacturing businesses were closing”.
Grainger (centre right) with the family boat, Bronte Gold, and, from left, Harry, Ken and Maud
He added: “It meant that fathers and mothers were often being laid-off at the same time and they needed retraining. We did a lot of work re-educating people to use computers and giving them other skills to change careers.”
His was appointed vice principal and director of curriculum at South East Essex College, Southend, in 1997 and says: “I worked under a brilliant principal called Tony Pitcher who had a huge influence on me.
“He took a college which had been moribund under the local authority and used the benefits of increased independence through incorporation [from 1994] to make it extremely efficient both in terms of education and finances.
“Our proudest moment was beating one of the local grammar schools in 1999 with A-level point scores. I also oversaw the establishment of links with the University of Essex. It was one of the first moves into higher education for an FE institution.”
But Grainger admits to having found it a “bit of a culture shock” when was he was appointed principal of Widnes Sixth Form College in 2000.
“It was quite a lethargic college and I was brought in to shake things up. We expanded and became the Widnes and Runcorn Sixth Form College and our turnover went from £2m a year to £7m.
Grainger on a beach holiday with daughter Maud (left) and son Harry
“However, I admit that I misjudged the level of local support for keeping it a sixth form college. I was working towards making it into a general FE college, but my governing board disagreed with me and we agreed to go our different ways in 2005.”
Grainger divorced second wife Heidi the following year, but last September married Liz in a service attended by his children Harry, 37, Maud, 34, Imogen, 26, and Marcus, 24, and grandson James, five.
He says: “It is wonderful being married again to a lovely woman. Liz walked across a farmer’s field in her wedding dress to the church in the village of Thornton Curtis, North Lincolnshire, where we live.
“My sons dressed in full morris dancing garb and formed an arch of honour for her with their sticks to welcome her.
“It’s quite strange sometimes to think that I’m now past the age that my dad passed away, yet I’m still having all these rich experiences and will hopefully have many more to come.”
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It’s a personal thing
What is your favourite book, and why?
Grainger (centre) with, from left, daughter Imogen, son Marcus, Harry and Maud
The Voyage of the Beagle by Charles Darwin. It’s a young man’s adventure story. A trained naturalist sailing round a partially explored world keenly observing strange phenomena. He has not at the time developed the theory of evolution but throughout the book, tantalisingly, the penny is about to drop
What do you do to switch off from work?
I enjoy gardening. I can’t play much sport because of my disabilities, so that keeps me fit. It gives you a good all-round workout. Two of my other great loves are drinking a good pint of beer and travelling on steam trains
What’s your pet hate?
Management speak — silly phrases like ‘going forward’ and ‘take it on board’
If you could invite anyone to a dinner party, living or dead, who would it be?
John Donne, who I think was the wittiest poet of them all. I would also probably invite Geoffrey Chaucer and another writer from the Middle Ages called William Langland. I would ask Emily Bronte along too
What did you want to be when you grew up?
I very much like the theatre and might have been interested in acting, but that was not really an option because of my disabilities
As the countdown to the general election approaches the two-month mark, Mick Fletcher assesses the early FE and skills sector battleground of ringfencing.
For some time now it has seemed that there is little difference between the main political parties in respect of FE policy.
They are all in favour of apprenticeships, keen on English and maths, and give rhetorical support to removing the academic vocational divide.
They all talk of devolution, are keen on new types of institutions like University Technical Colleges and assert, without presenting too much evidence, that FE colleges need reform, with specialisation the answer.
As the general election approaches, however, some important differences are beginning to emerge.
In the last couple of weeks both Labour and the Conservatives have set out their overall strategy for education finance.
The Conservative proposal is to maintain funding per school pupil in cash terms — ie it will ignore inflation, but take account of growth.
The Labour proposal is to maintain funding levels for schools in real terms — ie adjusting for inflation, but apparently ignoring growth in pupil numbers.
Sam Freedman, head of research at Teach First, has calculated the difference is not great. On reasonable assumptions about inflation, the Conservative cut could amount to 10.5 per cent over the life of the next parliament and the Labour cut 9.5 per cent.
After years of real growth in school budgets either would be hard.
Whether college budgets are protected depends on what happens to apprenticeship funding — and that is where another difference seems to be emerging
An important difference however is that Labour explicitly sees the 16 to 19 budget subject to the same sort of ringfence, while the Conservatives would stay with the current policy, which excludes post-16 work and has therefore seen sixth forms and colleges bear the brunt of Department for Education (DfE) cuts. So while Sam is probably right that there is not much difference for schools as a whole, schools with sixth forms and post-16 providers would appear to benefit more from the Labour stance.
This is amplified by the fact that over the next five years the total number of 16 to 18-year-olds is set to fall while those aged five to 16 will increase substantially.
There will clearly be pressure within DfE to respond to changing demographics and the Conservative proposals offer no guarantee that post-16 budgets will not continue to be robbed to pay for growth lower down the school system: but does Labour promise any better?
Some have argued that if pre- and post-16 provision is within the same ringfence that is exactly what will happen so it is worth looking carefully at what the Labour statement says — “Labour will transform FE colleges: because we will ringfence the 16 to 19 FE, sixth forms and apprenticeships budget — ensuring that it rises in line with inflation — we can support the reform of FE colleges into new Institutes of Technical Education.”
This statement, repeated in slightly different ways, does suggest real terms protection for the post-16 budget. Whether college budgets are protected however depends on what happens to apprenticeship funding — and that is where another difference seems to be emerging.
Labour has repeated a commitment to restrict apprenticeships to provision at level three and added to that a ‘guarantee’ that anyone who ‘gets the grades’ would be able to start one.
Getting the grades seems to be defined as two A-levels, so the future of 16 to 18 apprenticeship provision, much of which (hairdressing and construction particularly) is at level two, would appear to be bleak.
The Conservatives by contrast have proposed to create 3m apprenticeships without much detail on how or what will count.
The choice on apprenticeship policy seems to be between a Conservative proposal that is generally vague and a Labour one that is quite precise but with a big hole at its centre.
What the FE sector needs to know is what exactly is proposed for those young people who are not doing A-levels prior to choosing between a degree or a high status apprenticeship at age 18.
If the apprenticeship route is cut off, and FE colleges are steered towards work at levels three and four to become Institutes of Technical Education, what is the newly ring-fenced 16-18 budget for?
