Lambeth College staff who went on a five-week strike just before the summer holiday and are considering further industrial action have been presented with “improved” offers over controversial contract changes.
University and College Union (UCU) members walked out indefinitely on June 3 in a dispute over new staff contracts introduced on April 1, which the UCU said would leave staff with longer working hours, less sick pay and less annual leave, before returning to work on July 9.
The UCU opened a ballot on September 22 on whether to renew strike action ahead of scheduled talks between college and union leaders on Monday (October 6).
A spokesperson for the UCU said on Thursday (October 9) that it was now considering “an improved offer from the employers” before the ballot was due to close today (October 13).
A college spokesperson said it had offered a guarantee that staff taken on before April 1 would stay on the original contract until at least September 2017.
Alternatively, existing staff could accept a £1,500 “cash incentive” to transfer to the new contract by September 2016.
The spokesperson said both options would be dependent on staff agreeing to work an extra hour per week from September — increasing their overall annual working hours from 828 to 864.
Mark Silverman
Principal Mark Silverman told FE Week: “I would urge UCU to accept the opportunity to end this dispute and ensure that our learners will not suffer the damage of further strike action.
“This offer will enable the college to have a contract that is fit for purpose and will allow us to continue our journey of improvement to secure an outstanding college for Lambeth and south London.
“Should UCU reject this offer and return to strike action we will take every necessary step to prevent disruption to our learners.”
A UCU spokesperson, who confirmed the ballot would still close today, said: “We did meet [with college management]. We received an improved offer from the employers which we are now considering.”
The college was slapped with an Ofsted grade four rating in 2012 but worked its way up to a grade three last year.
The new contracts at the centre of the row offer 50 days a year annual leave, including bank holidays — which is 10 days less than that given to staff on old contracts.
However, Mr Silverman has said the terms of the contract 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 this year.
Main pic: UCU members at Lambeth College on indefinite strike in June
Childcare qualification providers have called for Functional Skills to be reinstated as entry requirements for early years educator (EYE) qualifications after Skills Minister Nick Boles showed his support for the qualifications.
The government announced in February it would only fund EYE apprentices who had already gained at least a grade C in GCSE maths and English, rejecting Functional Skills.
But the debate has been reignited after Mr Boles said he wanted to make Functional Skills “legitimate, valid, respected [and] admired” and pledged an Ofqual review into how they could improve.
Currently, all publicly-funded learners over 19 need the GCSEs to do a level three EYE qualification and all apprentices will have to from September next year. At the moment learners without the qual have to complete them by the time they finish the course.
Marc Ozholl, funding and apprenticeship specialist at the Council for Awards in Care, Health and Education (Cache), told FE Week Mr Boles’s comments “gave hope”.
“I passionately feel it would be very good for the sector if Functional Skills were to
be offered as an alternative — it’s encouraging that the minister is stopping to think about it,” he said.
However, director of charitable learning provider Alt Valley Community Trust Gilly Mason warned damage had “already been done”.
“I know of several providers who have dropped EYE provision because demand for it has fallen,” she said. “They also don’t have the staff to deliver GCSEs so even if just the exit requirement remains in place many won’t be able to keep offering it.”
She added: “A lot of young people looking to go into childcare now will have known what they wanted to do at 14, but at the time thought they would only need Functional Skills and so didn’t pursue a GCSE grade C.
“Back then Functional Skills was a recognised qualification, but now they can’t go down that route.”
A Department for Education spokesperson said there had “never been any plans to drop Functional Skills” and that they were “a part of our plan for education and are a vital tool”. But he declined to comment specifically on EYE qualifications.
An Ofqual spokesperson said: “Ofqual has completed a programme of audit work looking at Functional Skills qualifications.
“We are now reviewing our findings with awarding organisations where we will be following up on certain aspects, before reporting publically.”
He declined to say when the report would be published.
Plans for the third annual Skills Show have been unveiled, featuring more than 50 hands-on activities, a new tour bus and ‘late show’ preview.
Former Dragons’ Den investor Theo Paphitis was on hand at London’s Skyloft to run through the careers advice and have-a-gos that will be on offer alongside the finals of national skills competitions at the November 13 to 15 event at Birmingham’s NEC.
A tour bus to take the Skills Show experience around the country was also revealed, along with the Skills Show Late — a preview event for the main attraction, which is expected to attract around 80,000 youngsters.
The launch, on Wednesday (October 8), featured some taster have-a-gos of its own, including jewellery making, music mixing and computer programming.
“I think anyone who’s been to the Skills Show will know exactly what keeps me coming back, it’s the enthusiasm and the drive and that’s what’s going to make it better every year,” said Mr Paphitis.
“And when you get a marauding bunch of tens of thousands of kids actually enjoying thinking about work, you know you’ve cracked it, and that’s the biggest challenge any educationalist has, and that the challenge any employer has — it’s such a great event.”
The finals of the national skills competitions will also take place at the Skills Show, with top-scoring competitors hoping to be talent-spotted as a potential competitor at WorldSkills 2017 in Abu Dhabi.
Carole Stott, chair of Find a Future, the body which oversees the Skills Show said: “Skills competitions are at the very heart of the show. This year, in order to bring the skills competitions part of the show alive for our visitors we’re introducing showcase stages.
“We’re going to be showcasing 33 skills competitions, using demonstrations, talks and conversations with competitors as well as with colleges and training providers to explain the competitions and really help people understand the expertise and excellence that they will see on display in competitions.”
The skills on display at the show will be split into five categories: engineering, built environment, IT and business administration, social and professional services and cultural and creative arts.
Each category will have its own hub, with have-a-gos, spotlight stages, featured exhibitors and careers advice.
More than 50 hands-on activities will be available to try including furniture design, electric installation, carpentry, car bodywork, nail art, computer aided design, stone masonry, media make up, robotics, floristry, photography, cooking, animal management, roofing, sound engineering, music production, games design, forensics and beauty therapy.
Main pic: From left: National Express managing director Tom Stables, Find a Future chair Carol Stott, Theo Paphitis, and Find a Future chief executive Ross Maloney
First look at this year’s Skills Show
A sneak preview of the Skills Show will be on offer to employers and teachers for the first time this year with the ‘Skills Show Late’.
Find a Future chair Carol Stott said: “The Skills Show late on November 13 will be an important opportunity for employers, partners, teachers and stakeholders to network, to speak to sponsors and to engage in a highly innovative and forward thinking debate on the future of technical and professional education.”
Skills Show sponsors City & Guilds will also be hosting an employer speed-dating event.
Barking and Dagenham College access to IT student Natasha Howard, aged 30, helps FE Week reporter Rebecca Cooney have a go at computer programming
Drilling home Skills Show message with mobile attraction
Skills Show chiefs hope to drive home the skills message with their very own roadshow aboard a specially commissioned National Express bus.
The bus is kitted out for have-a-gos including visual merchandising, engineering, electrical installation, news reading, confectionary and hospitality.
It will be rolling into eight locations between October 21 and November 8, including Leicester, Ipswich, Durham, Liverpool, London, Portsmouth, Bath and Birmingham.
A further 220 regional Skills Show experience events have taken place around the country this year, but that is not enough for Skills Show patron Theo Paphitis.
The entrepreneur said: “Such a great event can’t just happen in Birmingham, it’s not fair to the rest of the United Kingdom.
“And I know the team at Find a Future are looking at this and trying really hard to find a way to do this — not just having a battlebus going around but having satellite shows and maybe shows just as big as the NEC in other parts of the country because the proof of the pudding is in the eating and there’s an awful lot of proof here.”
Sixth form colleges have shared their enrolment figures for 2014 after taking part in a joint Association of Colleges (AoC), Sixth Form Colleges’ Association (SFCA) and FE Week enrolment survey.
No fewer than 54 sixth form colleges, or 58 per cent of the total, responded to the online survey, which ran for 10 days from September 12.
The AoC revealed the findings for general FE colleges last week, and now it’s the turn of the SFCA.
The figures reveal a slightly larger enrolment increase for sixth form colleges than for general FE colleges as the SCFA deputy chief executive James Kewin explains below.
This year’s enrolment survey has produced some interesting findings.
In total, 54 sixth form colleges completed the survey (a response rate of 58 per cent) based on the number of students they forecast will be recorded in their 2014/15 R04 ILR return.
Despite the demographic downturn and proliferation of schools, academies and free schools, sixth form college enrolments have increased by 1.7 per cent this year.
Improvements in exam performance and reputation were the most frequently cited reasons for this.
There has been a 14.6 per cent increase in the number of students enrolled at a sixth form college without a GCSE in maths at grade A to C.
This is an astonishing finding given the national increase of 4.8 per cent in the proportion of young people awarded an A* to C in GCSE maths this summer.
The survey responses suggest that the new condition of funding (that requires all 16 to 19 students to study maths and/or English unless they have at least a grade C at GSCE) has led many school and academy sixth forms to become more selective.
In effect, sixth form colleges are stepping in to help young people that have been failed by better-funded schools and academies and — as a result of the cut to funding for 18-year-olds — will be financially penalised for doing so in many cases.
It is important that sixth form colleges are not also penalised by Ofsted and the new 16 to 19 accountability measures for doing the right thing — these students require additional and tailored support to successfully progress to higher education or employment.
Increasing their number will put pressure on stretched budgets, and questions the wisdom of excluding sixth form colleges from the ‘golden hello’ scheme for maths teachers in FE.
The survey also showed a smaller increase (4 per cent) in the number of students enrolled without a GCSE in English at grade A* to C.
In terms of overall enrolments it seems that the bigger sixth form colleges are more likely to experience an increase in student numbers, and the smaller sixth form colleges are more likely to experience a reduction in student numbers. We’ll be sharing these findings with policy makers shortly.
Plans to boost apprentices’ pay by more than £1 an-hour have been cautiously welcomed amid concerns the rise could dissuade employers from offering apprenticeships.
Business Secretary Vince Cable used his speech to the Liberal Democrat party conference on Monday (October 6) to announce his submission to the Low Pay Commission (LPC), which states that the minimum hourly wage for first year apprentices should rise from £2.73 to £3.79 — a rise of almost 40 per cent.
It comes after Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg commended his party’s record on apprenticeships in his keynote speech, and repeated his pledge to protect education funding “from cradle to college”.
If approved, the minimum wage rise will bring the rate in line with that earned by 16 and 17-year-olds in regular work, a move which has been welcomed by the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (Niace) and the Federation of Small Businesses.
But the Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) and Confederation of British Industry (CBI) warned the proposed wage rise risked putting employers off providing apprenticeships.
Nick Clegg
Dr Cable said: “Nowhere is a long term perspective more necessary than in educating our population for a competitive, knowledge economy.
“That is why I was determined from day one of our government to breathe life back into apprenticeships and into adult education. I drew on the inspiration of my parents, who left school at 15 to work in factories and who got on in life through vocational education and adult learning.
“In government we have launched almost 2m apprenticeships — a quantum leap in ambition — and we are now reforming them to improve quality and employability. And I want to see apprenticeships properly valued. So today I am proposing a £1 an-hour increase in the minimum wage for all first year apprentices and I am writing to the Low Pay Commission to put this in place.”
Dr Cable also used his speech to call for an expansion of higher-level apprenticeships and community learning.
He said: “I want to see a big expansion in degree level advanced apprenticeships which end the false apartheid between academic and vocational education; and a big expansion of community adult education including helping the mentally ill to be properly integrated back into society.”
Niace chief executive David Hughes said Dr Cable’s pledges were “important”, and welcomed plans to expand community learning.
He said: “While he has continued the focus on apprenticeships during this party conference season in his proposals to increase apprentice pay by £1 an hour, he has extended that in committing to increase the number of ‘degree-level apprenticeships’. I am pleased though that he has gone even further in his understanding of how critical lifelong learning is for our future economic recovery.
Business Secretary Vince Cable
“Vince Cable’s commitment to an expansion in informal and community learning, especially for those with mental health issues, will have a huge impact, particularly for those who are the most reluctant learners.
“We need an adult skills revolution to ensure a vibrant and dynamic future economy that will deliver prosperity for all. His statements will go some of the way to ensuring we have a skills system fit for the 21st Century.”
John Allan, national chairman of the FSB, welcomed the planned wage rise in principle, but said the LPC’s advice would be critical to ensuring a minimum wage rise did not harm apprentice numbers.
Mr Allan said: “His support for apprentices will be welcomed by businesses, which are facing skills shortages in sectors such as construction and IT.
“We now need to see the government follow through and deliver the high quality apprenticeships employers demand. Cost of training will be an important factor in these reforms and will influence take up by employers.
“While we support gradual increases in the apprenticeship minimum wage, policy makers must listen carefully to the LPC’s advice before committing to significant rises.
“The UK has benefited from a flexible labour market, which has helped companies keep people in work during the recession. In undertaking further reforms, policy makers need to find the right balance between workers’ rights and maintaining that flexibility.
“An authority overseeing and streamlining employment-related issues would help employers that currently have to contend with a patchwork of different enforcement agencies.”
But both the AELP and CBI have warned that the proposed wage rise could put employers off taking on apprentices.
Stewart Segal, the chief executive of the AELP, said his organisation would be making its own submission to the LPC, adding: “Many apprentice training providers believe that that there is some justification for a significant increase in the apprentice rate.
“But the apprentice rate should not be increased to the point where it adversely affects employer recruitment.
“There is also a case that adult apprentices over the age of 24 should not be on an apprentice rate at all, ie they should at least be on the national minimum wage.”
Katja Hall, CBI deputy director general, said: “Apprenticeships are a vital route for young people to get a step on the career ladder and are part of the answer to solving the UK’s skills crisis.
“Yet too few apprenticeships at the moment go to the young and relatively unskilled. Companies already pay their share into training, so raising the cost of taking
these young people on would be unwise and put off many smaller firms from getting involved.”
Nick Clegg on FE and skills * Selected quotes from the Liberal Democrat leader’s conference speech
Of all the faultlines that have opened up in this Coalition government, the one that has been most revealing is the way in which self-proclaimed Conservative educational reformers sought to suffocate almost every single initiative designed to instil opportunity at an early age — for all children, not just some. Because a world class education system is one that releases the potential in all children, not just some.
My mother worked as a teacher for children with dyslexia when myself, my brothers and sister were growing up. Those days it wasn’t as readily recognised that very bright children can be hampered by learning difficulties which may obscure their talents, but don’t make them any less bright.
Those days countless children were discarded by the education system because children were not treated as individuals, they were expected to conform to the rigours of the classroom or be left behind.
And my mother drummed into us what seems so obvious today. That you don’t write anyone off. You don’t overlook anyone’s talents. Given half a chance, everyone can shine.
For me, that is what our new commitment to helping with the travel costs faced by all college students is all about. That is what protecting funding from cradle to college — even as we clear the deficit — is all about.
Parity of esteem commitment from presidential candidate
A Liberal Democrat presidential candidate has confirmed her commitment to fighting for parity of esteem for the FE sector.
Lady Brinton (pictured below), who is campaigning to replace MP Tim Farron as president of the party, was a speaker at a fringe event organised by the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education, the Association of Colleges and the 157 Group.
She told the fringe at Glasgow’s SECC conference centre that she still supported a motion passed at last year’s conference which called for a joined-up education system for all young people.
She said: “Our paper which conference agreed last year makes the clear claim that we must go to a 14 to 18 curriculum and it must be completely complementary to the FE and schools sector.
“There must be parity of funding, and ability for young people to follow the right path for them. As long as we continue to talk about a pre-16 curriculum, and actually fund our schools and do our exams that way we will be locked into this system.”
She spoke about the shock of hearing that Hackney University Technical College (UTC) had been forced to close its doors due to low enrolment, and said any change in the area of FE would take time.
She said: “I was appalled to hear that one of the UTCs has had to close down because it can’t get enough young people to come in at 14 because the schools they’re in from 11 are saying ‘stay with us’.
“We can’t do it overnight, this is going to be a longer debate, but the policy we passed last year sets out a really good framework I think.”
Lady Brinton was joined on the panel by National Union of Students president Toni Pearce, who echoed some of her concerns about the way FE is viewed in the education system.
Ms Pearce said: “I’m really pleased that in the last few years lots more people have been talking about how you begin to make academic, vocational and technical education sit together more holistically in the system, and I think it’s really exciting, but none of that seems to be done in the mainstream.
“We set up different organisations, UTCs for instance, which I think are brilliant but are not seen as mainstream, and actually we’re doing the opposite in our schools and removing vocational or applied methods of teaching and assessment, whilst telling people we think they should be going to UTCs to learn technical skills.
“When you do that you create a two-tier system in which you say ‘if you stay in mainstream school, you’re clever, and if you leave to go to a UTC, you’re stupid’. You have to think very carefully about where you’re placing esteem in the system.”
Functional Skills could have been saved from the qualifications scrapheap with Skills Minister Nick Boles having revealed hopes for them to become “legitimate, valid, respected and admired”. Roger Francis looks at how this might be achieved.
The government’s decision to change its policy on Functional Skills, which was reported in FE Week, will be warmly welcomed across the sector.
It would appear that in Nick Boles we have a Skills Minister who is prepared both to learn from and to listen to the opinions and concerns of a broad cross-section of individuals and organisations within in the vocational training arena.
I was particularly impressed that the Minister seems ready not simply to passively reinstate Functional Skills alongside GCSEs, but wants to actively promote the qualifications.
That being the case, I believe there are four areas he needs to address if Functional Skills are to have a significant impact on the huge skills crisis that we face in the UK.
Firstly, in order to attract quality provision, he needs to ensure that Functional Skills are fairly and adequately funded.
The current system is unduly complicated with different rates for delivering the same qualification to different groups of learners. For example, employers are expected to contribute 50 per cent towards the cost of delivering functional skills within the apprenticeship framework. However in practice, this rarely happens, thereby making delivery of arguably the most challenging component of the frameworks, commercially unviable.
The government is proposing to “fully fund” Functional Skills within the trailblazer programme, but the proposed funding of £471 per outcome is again woefully inadequate, especially compared to the funding available for GCSEs. This situation will have to change.
Secondly, there needs to be an effective campaign to promote Functional Skills within the business community. While companies who run apprenticeship programmes fully understand their value and benefits, the vast majority of employers who are yet to engage with apprenticeships, are often blissfully unaware that the government will fully fund standalone maths and English qualifications.
There needs to be an effective campaign to promote Functional Skills within the business community
Yet, as we have found when working with a number of clients, these standalone programmes can have a significant impact on raising the overall skill levels within an organisation and transform the lives of learners who participate.
Thirdly, the government needs to encourage innovative approaches to the delivery of Functional Skills.
Many of the learners we support regard themselves as failures when it comes to maths and English.
Our first job is often to simply restore their confidence and to persuade them to re-engage in the learning process. You will not achieve that simply by using the same methods which, for whatever reason, have failed before.
We should be looking to use platforms such as mobile with which they are familiar and to incorporate concepts such as collaborative learning and gamification.
But at the same time, technology alone cannot solve the skills crisis.
We need to ensure that practitioners, who provide essential mentoring and coaching, are provided with effective ongoing support and development opportunities.
Finally, I was pleased to see that the Minister intends to ask Ofqual to carry out a rigorous review of Functional Skills.
I have no doubt that the qualifications have already had a significant impact, particularly compared to their predecessors such as Key Skills and Skills for Life. However, there is clearly room for further improvement.
I believe there are opportunities to further embed the qualifications into the new apprenticeship frameworks and we should look at extending the current range of courses through to level three in line with the move towards higher level apprenticeships.
There is also a need to look again at the ICT qualification, which remains the “forgotten” Functional Skill, and understand why uptake of this important programme has been so patchy.
Taken alone, none of these proposals will have a significant impact but as a package, I believe they will provide the basis for ensuring that Functional Skills genuinely become the gold standard for basic skills within the workplace.
While TeamUK’s impressive haul of medals at EuroSkills steals the headlines, the benefits of competing run much deeper, explains Maureen Evans-Olsen.
Winning isn’t everything; but wanting to is, according to Vince Lombardi.
The phrase has certainly stuck and looking at the jubilant celebrations that took place at the closing ceremony of EuroSkills Lille 2014, it seems Lombardi might have been onto something. The passion and hunger for success was evident in every young person present.
Of course, no-one would turn down a medal and the UK is continuing its success in performing well at international skills competitions.
At EuroSkills Lille 2014, which took place from October 1 to 5, the UK won three gold medals, six silver medals and three medallions for excellence in skills ranging from automobile technology and mechanical engineering CAD to visual merchandising and hairdressing. This result placed the UK fifth in Europe.
However, the value of entering international skills competitions lies not
only in winning that celebrated gold medal, but in sharing the knowledge of how the success was achieved.
By assessing the way all of the 450 young skilled workers from 25 countries in Europe prepared for and performed at EuroSkills, we are able to benchmark the apprenticeship programmes in this country against those in other countries.
Analysing the way each country addresses the tasks set in the competition and the criteria for assessment and marking offers real insight into how standards in apprenticeships and training can be raised.
It is this attention to detail in the assessment that supports our ambition for apprenticeships to be world class, ensuring that the programme is rigorous, responsive and meets the needs of employers and the future economy.
Training managers are able to transfer their knowledge, experience and new techniques learned to their lectures and classes at the colleges where they teach
All of the 21 members of TeamUK for EuroSkills Lille 2014 were part of Squad UK for WorldSkills São Paulo 2015 and were supported in their training for the competition by dedicated training managers.
The 21 competitors were at the beginning of their development programme and were all eager for success.
The role of their training manager was to prepare and deliver a detailed training and development programme based on their knowledge and experience of the skill.
Their experience comes from working with the countries and regions who are members of WorldSkills and of their knowledge garnered from the high class apprenticeship programmes in this country and others.
The competitor journey starts with a series of regional and national competitions where the ultimate goal is a gold medal in the WorldSkills UK national final competitions held at The Skills Show each year.
When a competitor reaches this pinnacle in the UK they may be selected for a place in Squad UK which affords them a specialist development programme, a dedicated
training manager and an opportunity to be selected for TeamUK.
Training managers work with Squad and TeamUK to guide their development and raise their performance to an equivalent level six and beyond, however it is not just the competitors that benefit from this training.
The training managers are able to transfer their knowledge, experience and new techniques learned to their lectures and classes at the colleges where they teach.
Building on the work from the expert network of training managers, the Association of Colleges recently launched the WorldSkills vocational masterclass programme.
The aim of this programme is to demonstrate that the coaching and higher level teaching strategies used to train the WorldSkills competitors can provide all learners and teaching staff with an opportunity to achieve success through a world-class education and training system.
Through the collective success in the WorldSkills UK national competitions and WorldSkills international competitions, Find a Future is inspiring young people about the different careers that exist and providing them with the chance to unlock their potential and get excited about the world of work.
Visit www.theskillsshow.com to register for The Skills Show, which takes place from November 13 to 15, at the NEC Birmingham.
The success of the British team at the EuroSkills competitions this month demonstrates the skills and talent of our young people.
In the hospitality industry we have a plethora of competitions, ranging from Masterchef, both for amateurs and professional cooks, Futurechef, for school pupils, to the premiere Salon Culinaire competition organised by the Craft Guild of Chefs at the bi-annual ‘Hotelympia’ international trade exhibition.
Past winners of these competitions have gone on to greater success in the industry.
In addition to the cookery competitions, the restaurant industry’s skills are dissected by assorted restaurant critics and restaurant guides with their awards, rosettes and stars.
The most respected, the Michelin Guide, was published last month creating a further 15 Michelin-starred restaurants in the UK, nine of which are in London.
London is now the culinary capital of the world with 48 Michelin-starred restaurants and more than 150 different ethnic cuisines available.
Around 20 years ago most of these Michelin restaurants would probably have had a head chef from the continent.
However, today more than half of these restaurants have British head chefs and most of their brigades of cooks are also British.
This is a tribute to the work of FE college catering departments and training restaurants, and especially the apprenticeship providers in this sector.
Several of the chefs who initially trained at their local FE college have progressed to become national celebrities — Gordon Ramsay, Heston Blumenthal, Marco-Pierre-White.
Let us hope the promises made by all parties to substantially increase apprenticeship numbers were not just political rhetoric, but will be met with actual cash increases to grow the programmes
One of this year’s new Michelin Guide star winners, Jason Atherton of Social Eating House, started his career in the kitchen on the YTS programme.
Jason helped HIT (Hospitality Industry Training) launch its traineeship programme for the hospitality sector last year and practices what he preaches with trainees and apprentices in his kitchens.
To meet the demand for highly-trained chefs for the fine dining sector, my own company HIT has launched a professional chefs academy in partnership with three prestigious hotel chains and some independent restaurants.
A feature of our academy will be master-classes from Michelin-starred chefs, many of whom HIT currently works with.
The growth in eating-out in the past few decades, the explosion of restaurants and coffee shops in the high streets, plus the conversion of pubs into gastro pubs has required a continual demand for skilled chefs and front of house staff.
Overall, the FE skills sector has risen to this challenge to provide the skilled workforce needed to make the UK a destination of choice for overseas visitors and London, the culinary capital of the world.
I trust the politicians who wined and dined their way through their party conferences over the past few weeks, appreciated the skill and dedication of the hotel and catering staff who served them.
Let us hope the promises made by all parties to substantially increase apprenticeship numbers were not just political rhetoric, but will be met with actual cash increases to grow the programmes.
Similarly, the new minister seems to be looking carefully at the predecessor’s proposed reforms.
When he studies the various consultations, he should note that those actually involved in apprentices, employers and providers alike were adamant that the suggested reforms were not needed or would not work.
It was outside bodies, without the experience of delivering apprenticeships themselves, who failed to understand the minutia and the hidden wiring involved, who pressed for changes.
Funding directly to employers, rather than to providers is purely a political stance with no benefits to either party, just a further bureaucratic burden to employers.
In fact for independent learning providers, it will mean a substantial reduction in funding as they will have to charge employers VAT and pass it on, almost in full, to the government.
This can only mean a reduction in service and therefore quality or more providers withdrawing from apprenticeship delivery.
MidKent College acting principal Simon Cook is to continue in the role until August next year following the death this summer of Sue McLeod, it has been announced.
Mr Cook was appointed acting principal in July after the death of mum-of-one Ms Mcleod at the age of 53.
College governors have ruled that he will remain in the post until next summer to “allow the college the space and time to settle after losing Sue.”
Ms Mcleod, who joined the college as a travel and tourism lecturer in 1993 before climbing the ranks to deputy principal and then principal, had been diagnosed with a brain tumour the month before her death.
Mr Grix’s contract as part-time chief executive and the College’s chief accountable officer will also be extended to August 2016. It is planned to advertise for a permanent principal at Easter next year.
Governors’ chair Sheila Potipher said:
“We feel that this option will allow the college the space and time to settle after losing Sue and is the best strategy for ensuring our
future success.
“With our highest-ever enrolments this September, we are looking forward to a bright positive year ahead for our students and staff.”
A restructure of the executive and senior management teams at Abingdon-based independent learning provider Qube Learning has resulted in Joe Crossley’s appointment as commercial director.
Mr Crossley said: “I’m delighted to have been given the opportunity to work for Qube. I’ve been involved with them in several capacities over the last three years and look forward to working with the rest of the executive and the management team to support the business to achieve its goals in
the future.”
Debbie Gardiner, chief executive at Qube Learning, which was rated as good by Ofsted at its last inspection, in 2010, said: “I’ve known Joe for some time and am absolutely delighted that has decided to join Qube.”
She added: “Joe will work closely with me and the other directors to bring about change and continuous improvement across the organisation.”
