Cable in ‘kill off FE’ claim at Lib Dem conference

Business Secretary Vince Cable has claimed that government officials suggested “killing off FE” by cutting sector funding, it has been reported.

Dr Cable told a fringe event at the Liberal Democrats’ conference in Glasgow that civil servants in his department said in 2010 that “nobody will really notice”.

The BBC website reports that he claimed to have blocked the move, suggesting the money saved could have gone towards keeping his party’s pledge to axe student tuition fees.

“We took a big political hit for that decision,” said Dr Cable, but he added that it was worthwhile to safeguard “post-school” training, which doesn’t enjoy the safety of ring-fenced funding.

“I have a so-called unprotected department. We were going to have our budget cut by 25 per cent. The biggest items were universities and students, and FE,” he said.

“And I could have taken the advice we had from the civil servants, who said ‘well, why don’t you just effectively kill off FE. Nobody will really notice.”

He added: “The easy way out would have been to have taken all the money out of the FE sector and out of training and I said ‘we are not doing that’.

“It is absolutely critical for the future skills base of the country that we have strong post-school training and education.

“So although the FE sector has been cut — I won’t pretend they have had an easy life — we have , to a significant extent, protected them.”

Cable calls for 40pc apprentice minimum wage rise

Apprentices’ pay could rise by almost 40 per cent if a plan by Business Secretary Vince Cable is approved.

Dr Cable has announced his recommendation to the Low Pay Commission (LPC) that the minimum wage for first year apprentices should rise to £3.79 per hour — the same level as the current rate for 16 and 17-year-old regular workers. Since the start of the month, apprentices have been paid £2.73 an-hour.

Dr Cable, who will address the Liberal Democrat party conference in Glasgow today (Monday), has said the move would help 31,000 apprentices if approved by the LPC.

He said: “The National Minimum Wage has successfully protected the incomes and jobs of the lowest paid workers in the UK.

“This year it will see the first above inflation rise in the minimum wage since the recession.

“Thanks to the Lib Dems, apprenticeships are helping to create a stronger economy and opportunities for young people. I want the minimum pay for apprentices boosted by £1 an-hour.”

It comes after an LPC consultation on all rates of the UK minimum wage came to an end on September 26. Its findings are expected to be released in February in the form of a report to the government, which will then make future decisions based on its recommendations.

It has been asked to look at simplifying the rate for apprentices, prompting fears the system could entail a new minimum rate for all apprentices with learners above the age of 18 no longer moving up after 12 months to the higher rates enjoyed by normal workers.

It also comes after Labour confirmed that under its plan for the adult minimum wage to rise to £8 an hour, apprentices’ minimum wage would also rise to £3.36 per hour — a 23 per cent rise.

EuroSkills 2014 competitions come to an end — awards await

Day three at Lille brought with it the promise of the final break to the rigorous and testing competitions.

From pretty early on Saturday, the happy din of cheering as the young competitors ended their tasks drifted around the Grand Palais venue every half hour or so.

Timing it well, it was possible to stand next to a skill stand and count down the clock to completion before national flags were draped over competitors Olympics-style — and rightly so.

I was lucky enough to have a schedule that meant I was at most of the Team UK finishing lines, ready to interview.

Speaking to the majority of them, it felt a little like catching a rabbit in the headlights before the media training they’d enjoyed as part of the EuroSkills journey kicked-in.

For sure, some were naturals, while for others it probably felt more of a chore, but from my end it felt just as much a privilege to speak to these young men and women — fresh from being put through their paces — as any actor, politician and sportsman or woman I’ve interviewed.

But the one thing that came through in speaking to them all was a sense of relief, not so much that their competition had ended, but of a wider sense of accomplishment.

So, as we head into the last day, with the judging, awards and closing ceremony all that’s left of EuroSkills 2014, it’s right that such sentiment be something all competitors take away.

Medals tomorrow night? Great. But achievement through simply being here and thereby raising skill levels is the ultimate aim.

Pictured from left: Team UK florists Zoe Rowlinson, Warwickshire College, and Louisa Cooper, South Staffordsire College, both aged 20, after finishing their joint competition

Challenging first day for Team UK at Lille EuroSkills

The massive hall of the Grand Palais in Lille where the skills competitions take place feels like a cross between an workshop, a zoo and a stage set, with temporary restaurants, florists, shop windows and half decorating walls, all open to the pubic gaze.

It’s noisy, it’s busy and its crowded, and at the centre of it all, the competitors remain impressively oblivious to it all, concentrating entirely on their work.

Still, opening day of your first international level competition must be a nerve-racking experience.

After weeks and months of trainers and coaches supporting you every step of the way, the moment when you suddenly find yourself alone in an arena, faced only with the tools of your trade and a tough specification must be difficult to prepare yourself for.

But it’s how competitors handle that moment, and the one after that, which team UK selectors and training managers will have been looking at yesterday.

I know I keep saying it, but these young people are incredibly skilled – and not just in terms of their practical ability.

The trainers prowling around competition areas won’t just be looking for who has the best technical skills, they’ll also have been keeping an eye out for who is coping with the pressure – who realises they’ve made a mistake, stays calm and corrects it, and who just crumbles?

Some competitors will have been chosen because they handle that pressure well, some will have been chosen because they need just a little bit more practice.

After the first day of competitions the mood among competitors is mixed.

John Peerless and Calum Knott, the mechatronics team, have been told they’ve scored highly for the day and despite facing her two worst test areas, beauty therapist Rianne Chester was confident that she’s finished the day towards the top of the table.

The visual merchandising team were less jubilant – after a shaky start, Jasmine Field told me, they pulled it back, only to realise they’d missed a crucial detail at the last minute.

Team-mate Catherine Abbott said:  “We’re a bit disappointed, it didn’t go as well as it could have done. We weren’t on form and it just slowed down the whole day.”

But, despite the setback, the two were looking on the bright side and clearly know better than to let it throw them completely off balance.

“We’ve still got two days of competition so we can get it back,” said Catherine. Jasmine agreed. “We’ve still got still 70 per cent of marks to get back even if we do lose a couple today,” she said.

According to mechnical engineering computer-aided design competitor Andrew Beel the attitude they’re able to have to mishaps and move on is all down to the training and support.

A fault in the machinery he was working with created problems for him during the day.

“I ended up stepping back, chilling out a wee bit and coming back to it,” he said. “Since I’ve been involved with WorldSkills, my maturity has increased so much – I wouldn’t have handled today like that at all before. I’d have thrown my keyboard off the table and walked out.”

However yesterday went, all the competitors are putting it to one side and approaching today as a whole new challenge – which, given the circumstances, is a pretty impressive skill in itself.

But, as Catherine and Jasmine made clear, there’s still everything to play for.

Edition 113: Peter Roberts, Dr Shaid Mahmood and Neil McLean

It will be all change at the top for Leeds City College this year with the retirement of principal Peter Roberts and a new governors’ chair already in post from Wednesday (October 1).

Mr Roberts, a father-of-two and chair of the 157 Group, revealed to college staff his intention to call it a day late last month.

He said: “I turn 60 over the course of this academic year and have decided to retire
next summer.

“To cut a long story short, I have worked in the education sector for some 37 years, and been in FE since 1983.

“I have somehow managed to be in senior management for over 20 years and have been a principal/chief executive since 2002. It is simply ‘my time’.”

He said that no timescale had been set for his replacement to be in post, but that interviews were expected to take place after Christmas with a successor in post near
the end of the current academic year —
when he retires.

Neil McLean, who has been chair of the college board since 2009, has stepped down, but continues as a board member until
the expiry of his term of office in April
next year.

Dr Shaid Mahmood (former vice chair) became the new chair of Leeds City College from the start of this month.

“I am sure that this will be an excellent appointment although Neil will be a very hard act to follow and has been superb as chair,” said Mr Roberts, who started in FE as a lecturer in leisure and recreation at Sheffield’s Stannington College.

Mr Roberts has also worked at Selby College and in 1992 became vice-principal of Rotherham Sixth Form College and later York College. In 1997 he moved as principal to Stockport College before moving, as principal, to Leeds City College in 2009.

“Mr Roberts has led Leeds City College through a period of rapid change and development in the past five years, doing so with tremendous energy and dedication and establishing it as one of the largest and successful FE groups in the country,” said Dr Mahmood

“His retirement after some 37 years — many of them in leadership roles — is thoroughly well deserved. His successor will have a fantastic opportunity to further shape and lead an exciting, vibrant and forward looking college.”

Mr Roberts will step down as 157 Group chair in November, having served in the
post for two years, with the election of a
new chair.

 

Maths proposals add up to a funding change

The charity National Numeracy has launched a manifesto aimed at eliminating the “national scourge” of poor everyday maths skills among the UK population. Wendy Jones explains how it wants to improve adult numeracy.

‘Poor numeracy is a massive challenge for the UK and the arguments for change are overwhelming’ — these were the blunt opening words of National Numeracy’s Manifesto for a numerate UK.

Successive government have failed to make any real difference to adult numeracy. There have been some improvements in literacy — according to the Skills for Life survey a couple of years ago — but numeracy, with a lower starting point,
has got worse.

Half of adults in England have the numeracy skills roughly expected of primary school children (the adult/child comparison offers very crude linkage, of course) and more than three quarters don’t have skills equivalent to those needed for a C grade
at GCSE.

This was the context for our manifesto. A lot of our emphasis is necessarily and controversially on school maths, since that’s where it starts to go wrong for many people.

We want a new and separate focus on numeracy as a discipline that underpins every subject, leading to an additional GCSE in numeracy or core maths. That clearly has implications for the FE sector.

But it’s the thinking on adult numeracy that I’d like to concentrate on. Formal adult maths or numeracy provision has a history of neglect — of being under-valued, under-funded and under-researched.

And even though there clearly are pockets of excellence and successful innovation, the Skills for Life results suggest there has been no scaling up of good practice. We therefore would like to propose some radical cross-sector measures.

First, take the adult numeracy curriculum. We want to remove the ‘tick box’ approach which simply goes through the various skills and processes with no sense of inter-connectedness and no apparent overall goal.

We would replace this with a new model, based on the Essentials of Numeracy developed by National Numeracy in partnership with a group of maths curriculum experts. This links the different areas of knowledge and understanding to the very concept of being numerate, that is, being able to use maths to solve everyday problems, make decisions and reason, knowing which maths to use and being ready to try different approaches.

We also propose a change in the way adult numeracy is assessed and courses funded.

Providers should not be rewarded simply on the basis of the qualifications achieved — this encourages a focus on low-hanging fruit and discourages efforts with the most challenging students.

Instead, account should be taken of the student’s starting point and the progress made — the distance travelled. This is particularly important in maths where many start from a very low base and where real achievement may go unrecognised.

It’s an approach we work into our own National Numeracy Challenge, which encourages adults to improve their skills online and measures the progress they make.

We have purposefully not attempted to cost our proposals. Such costings are often wide of the mark and give politicians an immediate excuse to sideline ideas. Nor have we commented on the cut in the adult skills budget or looked at the workforce issue — we leave that to others.

Costings are often wide of the mark and give politicians an immediate excuse to sideline ideas

Instead, we major on the fundamental change in attitudes needed if the UK is to become numerate. We propose a new drive to spread the positive messages that numeracy is an essential life skill, that it can be learned and that dismissive attitudes
are harmful.

We also want to see more research into how people can be persuaded to improve their skills and develop resilience and persistence (we’re already working on this with the Behavioural Insights Team — the ‘Nudge Unit’ started in the Cabinet Office).

It is a matter of changing beliefs and behaviour — and removing the structural barriers that currently get in the way. We know that’s a huge task — but we need to start on it now.