Latest news from FE Week

Education must be more closely linked to the workplace

Labour leadership contender Yvette Cooper explains why she thinks that 21^st century education should be more geared towards the workplace.

Education — life long education — now more than ever should be at the heart of what Labour stands for.

It is crucial to our fight against inequality and injustice, but also to a strong modern economy as well.

Yet far from supporting the vital education we need, this government has cut it back, and nowhere more so than in Further Education.

Indeed the sector that is so crucial for the vocational skills and adult education we need has been hardest hit of all.

That has to stop. And Labour has to have the confidence to campaign for an alternative plan.
As Labour leader, my top priorities would be tackling inequality and ensuring we have a curriculum to educate young people for the future.

I want to broaden our vision of a good education to include wellbeing and the whole student, their happiness and confidence.

For me, the most important thing is raising standards, focusing on the quality of teaching and inspiring teachers without being so prescriptive that it inhibits good teachers from being able to use their experience and their ideas.

Everyone should be afforded the same opportunities, no matter what their background – and Labour has championed this.

The Tories began their period in office by cutting the education maintanence allowance and has begun this parliament by cutting another £450m from FE.
We need to work with business to create more apprenticeships.

We had a policy before the election of giving more control over the funding to business in return for more, higher quality apprenticeships, but I think we need to do more to develop that with business directly and to make that a real proposition.

The public sector needs to pull its weight too — as too many Government departments and agencies are very poor at employing apprentices and we need to do better and more public contracts should specify the need to create apprenticeships.
Education has got to be centre stage for us at the next election. From Sure Start right through to lifelong learning: this isn’t just about children and young people. Education in the 21st century has to be more closely linked to the workplace, and has to be a lifelong process.

FE colleges are a deeply undervalued resource in achieving that.

Too often they have been a Cinderella sector with little support and little understanding from policy makers.

In devolving more control over skills, apprenticeships and business support to city and county regions, I want to ensure that we see a revival in our FE sector — playing a real role in ensuring that young people and people of all ages can access high quality flexible education.

It’s time for a vocational revolution so we get rid of the snobbery about the difference between academic and vocational education and properly value the talents of all.

Follow German model for longer lasting and ‘higher quality’ vocational training

Labour leadership candidate Liz Kendall looks to the German system for an apprenticeship model that she would like to see followed in this country.

My dad left school at 16. His formal education stopped but he developed his skills in the workplace.

He trained on the job and studied in his spare time, eventually passing his banking and finance exams.

Together, he and my mum were able to buy a house and create a good life for their children.

You rarely hear that kind of story today. If you leave school without the right qualifications you’re written off.

If you’re in a low paid job you are likely to be stuck there.

All too often, learning stops at the end of formal education — and that’s a huge problem when too many young people leave school without the qualifications they need.

Thanks to the Tories, there are now 500,000 fewer adult learners in the UK than there were in 2010 — a drop of almost 20 per cent from 3,540,500 adult learners participating in Government funded Further Education in 2009/10 to just 2,929,600 in 2013/14.

And the FE sector has faced enormous funding cuts under the Tories: earlier this year David Cameron announced a 24 per cent cut to the FE sector, which comes on top of £1bn worth of cuts to the adult skills budget over the last Parliament.

Further Education has always been a vital route for people who want to get on in life, especially people from disadvantaged backgrounds.

It provides a ladder into high skilled, high paid work, giving people a chance to have a career rather than a minimum wage job or a life on the dole.

The Conservatives claim to support aspiration but their dismal record of repeated and deep cuts to FE demonstrate that they only care about the aspirations of a privileged few.

It is in the DNA of the Labour Party to support aspiration for all, no matter where you start from in life. As Labour leader, I’d make sure FE is given the support it deserves.

We’ve got to give people the chance to learn and develop skills throughout their lives.

You can’t have power and control over your own life if you don’t have the skills you need.

We need to take a different approach.

The Labour Party I’d lead would see FE shaped at the local level, so that young people who want to stay in the communities they grew up in have the right skill sets for the local jobs market.

And if we want our young people to be able to compete with the very best in the world then we have to learn lessons from the very best in the world in how we can help them.

If you look at Germany, for example, apprenticeships there are generally likely to last longer and be of a higher quality.

We have to make sure that Britain can support people to get training to a similar extent.

We have to make sure apprenticeships are there are there for young people as well as older workers; and that small businesses are able to employ apprentices as easily as large firms.

We have to enable employers to make sure apprenticeships are providing the right skills, and we need to work with trade unions who are well-placed to advocate for the needs of apprentices — apprentices who can be an important part of the increase in trade union membership we want to see.

Building a fairer, more equal and prosperous society must be the aim of the next Labour government. More support for the FE sector, and better apprenticeships, are a crucial part of that.

Extending access to student finance could help more people on to apprenticeships

Labour leadership candidate Andy Burnham proposes reforming the funding model for post-18 education, including apprenticeships, as part of his vision for FE.

This week is a time of nervous anticipation for many young people, as they wait to find out their A-level and AS-level results

Newpapers will be full of jubilant teenagers excited about their next step in life, but we hear little about the 50 per cent of young people who do not go to university.

It is a telling silence.

And it can be little wonder that many of our young people do not choose to take up apprenticeships, when they hear little of them.

They don’t know how to find the places, they don’t hear about the success stories, and few of their friends and families can help them.

We have to raise the status of technical education to give it equal value to academic education.

This is vital to our economy, vital to ensuring that we have the high tech skills of the future, and vital to the futures of millions of young people across the country.

A lack of focus on technical education is one of our greatest public policy failures of the last 50 years.

It cannot be allowed to continue.

A bright young person who wants to get an apprenticeship should have the same ambition, excitement and sense of purpose as their counterparts who want to go to university.

Just like university students, they should have an easy way to learn about the opportunities across the UK and be able to apply for them in the same way.

The best way to raise standards in schools is to give all young people hope that there is something waiting for them after school.

So if I’m elected leader, I will propose a national Ucas-style system for apprenticeships — one that all providers have to use — and extend access to student finance to help people to move to take up an apprenticeship.

I will also propose a reformed funding model for post-18 education, looking at a progressive graduate tax to replace tuition fees for university, and extend support for apprenticeships.

No young person should have to start their career weighed down by a millstone of debt.

Labour will lift it off them.

We should be able to make a simple promise to all our young people.

If you work hard at school and get the good grades, you will know you will be able to get a high-quality apprenticeship or place at university.

It is at the heart of what a Labour Party under my leadership will be all about.

Making sure everyone, no matter who they are or where they are from, can get on in life.

Three sentenced over loans scam at London college

These three men have been sentenced after conspiring together in a loans scam at a London college.

Nathan Simmons (pictured above left), aged 30, admitted eight counts of fraud after hacking into a colleague’s account and signing-off 44 higher education loan applications between December 2012 and May 2013 while working as an administrator at East London’s Newham College, Southwark Crown Court heard.

Leon Marshalleck (pictured above centre), 29, and Peter Couzens (pictured above right), 30, both admitted fraud and converting criminal property after they passed their details to Simmons on the promise they could keep a cut of the loan cash in their name.

The SLC paid out £117,416, but loans worth £209,571 were blocked.

Simmons, of Meath Road, Stratford, was jailed for two years and Marshalleck and Couzens were both ordered to carry out 120 hours of unpaid work on Friday.

Prosecutor Simon Sandford said: “Investigations by the SLC revealed that 44 students had been paid student loans on the basis they had enrolled at Newham College when in fact they hadn’t.”

He added: “Mr Simmons was the inside man who was an employee of Newham College who used another employee’s login without that employee’s knowledge to authorise bogus applications for loans.

“The other defendants allowed their personal details and bank account to be used for bogus applications,” he said. “They then withdrew the money in cash in return for a cut of the proceeds.”

Father-of-three Simmons, who has previous convictions for affray, battery and possession of cannabis, and served a seven-year jail term for heroin and firearms offences in 2007, secured the part-time job on a temporary basis at the college through his girlfriend’s mother, an examinations officer, but Judge Andrew Goymer said she was “wholly innocent” of involvement in the fraud.

He said: “He [Simmons] had himself been in prison so it looked like a very good opportunity for an ex-offender to better himself and turn his back on crime and that indeed is what he should have done.

“Unfortunately, he chose to let her down badly by going back to crime at the very place where he worked.”

Marshalleck and Couzens each received £6,159 from the SLC through the scam, keeping a cut of at least £1,000 each and handing over the rest to unknown third parties.

Couzens, of Stroud Green Road, Finsbury Park, who has no previous convictions, told police he had provided his name and account details “to make easy money” but did not fill out the applications himself, the court heard.

In addition to the 120 hours of unpaid work, Marshalleck, of Woodville Road, Surrey, who had previous convictions of cannabis and counterfeit currency possession and further drugs offences, received a six month suspended prison sentence, while Couzens was ordered to pay £1,000 compensation.

A spokesperson for the college said: “The SLC contacted us about the irregularities. An investigation took place immediately, as a result of which, the staff member concerned was dismissed and the Police were notified.”

A Crown Prosecution Service spokesperson said more information would be provided about how it planned to reclaim the lost money for the SLC in November.

An SLC spokesperson said: “The SLC detected these fraudulent applications and cooperated with the police during their investigation.

“The SLC’s counter fraud services team works closely with police and other law enforcement agencies to tackle student funding fraud and protect the public purse.”

Image: Nathan Simmons, Leon Marshalleck and Peter Couzens

Singing, dancing and an ambassador’s welcome mark Team UK visit to Sao Paulo schoolchildren

It had singing, it had dancing, it had speeches and it had an international flavour — no, it wasn’t the WorldSkills opening ceremony, but a hugely colourful visit to a Sao Paulo school by Team UK.

From a schoolboy violinist playing God Save the Queen to pupils dressed as the Village People dancing to Macho Man, every moment of the visit to Plinio Damasco Penna, in the north of the city, will live long in the memory of WorldSkills UK competitors.

The visit kicked off the day of the opening ceremony and came as part of the WorldSkills One School One Country programme in which all the competitor nations and regions are assigned to a local school where children then find out about their team, get to meet them the day before competition and present their findings to the competitors.

And the youngsters at Plinio Damasco Penna had four months to carry out their research, to produce a show with pupils acting out The Beatles’ Twist and Shout, among other impressive and fun representations of UK culture. They also put on demonstrations of their own culture.

In return, the children experienced the Team UK chant led by 21-year-old construction metal work competitor Christopher Hanson, from City Training Bradford and Richard Allan Engineering, and mechanical engineering apprentice Andrew Beel, also aged 21, from New College Lanarkshire and Pacson Valves. The youngsters were also invited to join in for a second rendition.

Hairdressing competitor Eleni Constantinou, 22 and from Coleg Sir Gar and Tino Constantinou hairdressers, said: “It was really good to see how much they wanted to support us and how much effort they put into making us feel welcome.

“I wasn´t expecting to get an experience like that at all. It meant so much to see how they respected us and what we do. It really was lovely.”

School principal Adriana Cunha Premoli said: “We researched all about UK with the children, and thankfully some of our teachers have been there before.

“The children loved putting on the presentations for Team UK and we wish them all the best of luck for the competition.”

The arrival of British ambassador to Brazil Alex Ellis later complemented the morning, which got under way at around 9am with flag-waving children lining the school entrance for Team UK.

He told competitors: “A really big thanks to all of you for coming to Brazil. There are worse places to be, but thank you very much indeed for coming.

“It’s fantastic you’re here — have a great week. This country is all about that — I’ve never lived in a place with so much expression and popular culture. It’s like no other country in the world in that respect. Do us proud this week — be stars.”

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Also in the UK visiting party was Skills Funding Agency and Education Funding Agency chief executive Pater Lauener in his capacity as official UK delegate to WorldSkills 2015.

He told FE Week: “The sheer exuberance of the welcome that was conveyed by the children and also the Team UK competitors joining in as incredible. There were more selfies being taken than I´ve seen all year. It was just terrific and it was great to see the ambassador come along as well and be part of the occasion.

“It was a big change from my day job but it was really interesting coming to see a school in a not particularly affluent part of Sao Paulo, but I’ve seen some great teachers and kids that want to build their lives and the skills that WorldSkills is about will help them build their careers and lives.”

Mr Ellis told FE Week: “This has been a fantastic visit. It’s great to have a host school go to such effort to impress our competitors and also for them to see a real bit of life in Sao Paulo. It´s not a posh end of the city, but you can see the amount of creativity and passion that exists in a place like this.

“I hope this visit will help the children here realise there is a world beyond Sao Paulo. This is a huge city of 20m people and so it can be hard to think of the world beyond. But there is Britain and a lot of the things the children were doing this morning, like singing and dancing, was related to the UK and that’s what I hope the children get — the idea of a world beyond and the UK should be part of that.

“Obviously, Team UK have to perform to their highest possible standard and be great ambassadors for the country, but at the same time I also hope they get to see a little bit of Brazil and think ‘this is interesting, this is somewhere I could come, this is somewhere I could learn a bit and where I could teach a bit’. The future is going to be internationalization.”

He added: “I used to be a teacher. My father was a head teacher and my grandfather was a teacher, so it´s great to get out and do things like this.

“And also we want to build up relationships at all levels in Brazil — it´s not just about me, it´s about all the people that come here from the UK and from WorldSkills. It´s about the kids in the school here and that we all understand a little bit more about each other — that is the best kind of diplomacy.”

‘Share the lessons of Sao Paulo,’ flag-waving competitors are told as WorldSkills 2015 opens

The flag-bearing best young tradesmen and women of the world were urged to share with everyone the life lessons of competing in Sao Paulo as the curtain went up on the 43^rd WordSkills competition.

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WorldSkills president Simon Bartley addressed the thousands gathered in Ibiraquera Gymnasium last night after around 1,200 competitors took part in the ever-popular parade of nations. This year it included a growing number of team chants and presentations — including Team UKs which even managed to raise a smile with the audience.

However, Mr Bartley’s speech delivered a message of the benefits that skills can bring to lives across the globe.

“Thank you everyone,” he said. “Thank you Sao Paulo 2015 competition organisers. Thank you CNI. Thank you Senai. Thank you sponsors. Thank you volunteers. Thank you for everything you have done for this our 43^rd WorldSkills competition and our first in Latin America.

“Your dedication and hard work will make sure or competitions have the opportunity to show the world a level of expertise that ensures our message that young people are more than capable of improving our world with the power of skills.

“That message should be heard louder and clearer than ever before.”

The ceremony, which started at around 7pm and closed at around 9.30pm, took place at a venue around four miles from here the competitions will get under way today, at Anhembi Park.

It was hosted by television presenter Didi Wagner and included presentations on the concept behind the medal designs, as well as competitor and expert oaths.

“Tonight, we choose. Over 1,200 skilled young professionals chose to represent their countries and regions at their professions as competitors,” said Mr Bartley.

“Over 1,100 dedicated trainers, teachers and industry representatives choose to represent their countries and regions and their professions as experts. Over 800 of us choose to be volunteers.

“We all choose to be part of the greatest skills movement in history, raising the awareness of the power of skills to transform lives, economies and society.

“And if we are choosing, so is the world — tonight the world is choosing to join us. Our families, our friends, our work and college colleagues have chosen to be part of the millions on social and digital media watching you in every time zone and in every continent and in every country of the world. They want you to succeed. They need you to succeed.

“The next four days are going to be tough. Tougher than anything you have experienced so far, but let me ask you to do four things. First — compete fairly and in the spirit of friendship and mutual development. Second — make friends with your fellow competitors.

“The next four days are the first days of the rest of your lives. Lives where you will treasure those that you have met here in Sao Paulo.

“Third — share what you are doing with everyone, colleagues, experts, WorldSkills, the world. You will never have an experience like Sao Paulo, so fourthly enjoy yourselves and good luck to you all.”

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Raising corporation tax could fund expansion in lifelong learning

Labour leadership candidate Jeremy Corbyn spells out his vision for FE, which would include a 2 per cent increase in corporation tax to expand lifelong learning.

Further education has a vital role to play in creating a good economy.

Education is not only about personal development, it is also a collective good that benefits our society and economy.

We all benefit from a more educated and skilled workforce. That is why I set out how we could scrap university fees and restore grants, and why I have set out a plan to move towards a National Education Service that sees education as an investment.

We start a long way from where we want to be: George Osborne is taking us in entirely the wrong direction.

The adult skills budget has been slashed by 40 per cent since 2010 and more cuts are coming this year. The cuts are staggering not only in their scale, but also in their gross irresponsibility.

Cuts to FE courses also narrow the opportunities of those currently awaiting their GCSE results.

A country that doesn’t invest in its people has taken the path of managed decline. The only global race we will win is to the bottom.

In a fast-changing world where new technology is making new industries and making others obsolete, we need lifelong learning that offers new skills and understanding throughout our working lives.

The UK already lags behind countries like the US, Germany, Japan and France on productivity.

How can we build and expand the sectors of the future, with the skilled workforce that requires, if we cut back on opportunities for lifelong learning?

In 2020 we should start by reversing the cuts to the adult skills budget and expand it into a lifelong learning service by adding 2 per cent to corporation tax (still comfortably the lowest in the G7).

This funding would be hypothecated to expand adult learning into a lifelong learning education resource.

The best employers understand the business case for investing in staff — in increased employee productivity and staff retention — and that’s why it is right to ask business to pay slightly more in corporation tax to fund it.

The extra tax revenues brought by a high skill, high productivity and high pay economy will fund further expansion.

This will give working age people access throughout their lives to learn new skills or to re-train.

In a return to ambitious joined-up government, Jobcentre Plus needs to work with colleges to offer claimants opportunities to improve their skills, rather than face the carousel of workfare placements, sanctions and despair.

While slashing college funding, George Osborne boasts of increasing apprenticeships.

Yet too many are low quality, failing to give young people the transferable skills they need to get on.

So colleges should work in partnership with employers to accredit apprenticeships and courses that offer high quality transferable skills.

Reversing further education cuts is the first stage in developing a lifelong learning service for a lifetime of opportunity.

Investing in education is key to a more prosperous future for all.

We must also value the staff who deliver that future, by ending the public sector pay cap and fairly rewarding staff.

Government accused of ‘making a mockery’ of sixth form college financial planning following damning new survey

The government has been accused “making a mockery” of sixth form college (SFC) financial planning after a survey revealed more than a third of SFCs fear they will cease to be a going concern by 2020.

Daphne King, principal of East Norfolk SFC (ENSFC), in Gorleston, spoke out in response to the Sixth Form Colleges’ Association (SFCA) annual funding survey report, published today.

It showed that 96 per cent of SFC leaders questioned were either concerned or extremely concerned about the financial health of their colleges.

A further 36 per cent said that it was either likely or extremely likely that their college would cease to be a going concern by 2020, while 72 per cent reported dropping courses because of funding cuts.

The report, based on an online survey of the 93 SFCs conducted in June 2015, which 72 responded to, also revealed that a large majority of respondents did not believe their expected 2016/2017 funding would allow them to provide high quality education (70 per cent) or support disadvantaged students (83 per cent).

Ms King (pictured above), who told FE Week on July 21 that her grade two Ofsted rated SFC planned to “strengthen” its existing partnership with fellow grade two Ofsted-rated Paston SFC (PSFC), in North Walsham, has today said: “The [SFCA] survey results will strike a chord with every principal who’s trying to strategically plan ahead.

“We can’t take another cut. It is making a mockery of our planning — how can we plan effectively when more cuts could be on the horizon?”

Lowestoft SFC also confirmed to FE Week on July 21 that it was looking at forming a “partnership” with fellow grade two Ofsted rated Great Yarmouth College and grade three Ofsted rated Lowestoft College, following a review of post-16 provision in North East Norfolk and North Suffolk, which also covered ENSFC and PSFC.

It came after SFC Commissioner Peter Mucklow (pictured right) warned that large-scale mergers may be needed among SFCs to cope with looming funding problems, in a letter to every SFC in the country on July 16.

FE Week also revealed on June 22 that another SFC, Totton College, in Hampshire, is set to “join with “crime prevention charity Nacro from November.

The decision was made after Mr Mucklow warned that Totton could not function alone, having been hit with a grade four across-the-board Ofsted rating on June 15 and placed under Financial Notice to Improve by the Education Funding Agency.

The SFCA annual funding survey report also found that 39 per cent of SFCs had been forced to drop courses in modern foreign languages, while 24 per cent had cut STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and maths).

A further 81 per cent said they were now teaching students in larger class sizes because of the funding cuts, the report added.

It said that in 2011, SFCs experienced, on average, a 10 per cent reduction in their programme funding as a result of entitlement funding for tutorials, enrichment activities, and additional courses being reduced from 114 hours per year to 30 hours.

A 16-19 funding formula introduced in September 2013, the report added, saw “average” SFCs lose 6 per cent of their funding, and a reduction in funding for 18-year-olds introduced in 2014 left SFCs, on average, a further 1.2 per cent worse off.

James Kewin (pictured left), SFCA deputy chief executive, said the report showed that “the sector cannot survive on starvation rations”.

“The government should end the funding inequalities that exist between SFCs and school/academy sixth forms — particularly the absence of a VAT refund scheme that, according to our report, left the average SFC with £317,964 less to spend on the front line education of students last year,” he added.

In response to the report, Malcolm Trobe, deputy general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said his organisation was “extremely concerned” about the funding situation, which meant “it is simply not possible to employ teachers in every subject area”.

Nansi Ellis, assistant general secretary at the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, said: “Forcing SFCs to withdraw courses in modern languages and STEM subjects is illogical at a time when employers are desperate for entrants with these skills and knowledge.”

Shakira Martin, National Union of Students vice president for FE, said the survey showed that “continued attacks” on the sixth-form sector showed that the government was not “putting its money where its mouth is when it comes to providing opportunities and choices for young people”.

Nick Pearce, Institute for Public Policy Research director, also predicted the “continued demise of the SFC as a distinct institution”, having read through the report.

A Department for Education spokesperson said: “We have protected the schools budget and ended the unfair difference between post-16 schools and colleges by funding them per student, rather than discriminating between qualifications.”