Latest news from FE Week

New Lords committee on social mobility set to look into apprenticeships

A newly-established House of Lords committee on social mobility launches its first investigation tomorrow — and apprenticeships are set to be route of investigation.

The group of a dozen Lords, chaired by Labour peer and former Bristol East MP Lady Corston (pictured above), will look into the transition from school to work.

It will hear from officials from the Department for Education and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills in its first evidence session, starting at 11.05am (follow @feweek for live updates).

The committee, which was appointed on June 11 and includes Innovation Code creator and Lib Dem education spokesperson in the House of Lords Lady Sharp (who was profiled by FE Week two years ago), is expected to look into the government’s 3m apprenticeship target, FE funding, employer engagement, careers advice and recent changes to child poverty measures.

Lady Corston told FE Week: “There’s been a great emphasis on what we call the royal route, people who take A-levels and then university, and of course there are apprenticeships, although for young people there’s not nearly as many as there should be, and we know there are people who are Neet [not in education, employment or training].

“But there’s this missing middle — a very large cohort about which we know nothing and I’m very interested in finding out what’s happening to them, and what happening in FE, generally.

“There’s some evidence of some considerable downward social mobility and we’ve got to see if that’s the case.”

A committee spokesperson said an estimated 40 to 50 per cent of young people fall into the “missing middle” category referred to by Lady Corston, but that “it would seem that no investigation on any significant scale has been carried out”.

“The committee is looking to unpick the group known as the ‘missing middle’ and to assess if the provisions currently in place are supporting those most in need,” she added.

In the committee’s second evidence session tomorrow, from noon, representatives from the Institute of Fiscal Studies, the Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion at the London School of Economics and the UK Commission for Employment and Skills are expected before the committee.

A committee spokesperson said potential future witnesses included Former Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, chair of the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission and former Labour MP Alan Milburn, Demos, the Centre for Social Justice and the Institute for Public Policy Research.

Joining Lady Corston on the committee in addition to Lady Sharp is Lady Berridge (Conservative), Lady Blood (Labour), Lord Farmer (Conservative), Lord Holmes (Conservative), Lady Howells (Labour), The Earl of Kinnoull (crossbencher), Lady Morris (Labour) Lord Patel (crossbencher), Lady Stedman-Scott (Conservative) and Lady Tyler.

“We’ll be taking evidence from people who can point out to us some of the anomalies in our present system and how we could make much better use of the human capital that we’ve got,” said Lady Corston.

The committee is due to report its findings by March 23.

TUC general secretary tells Unionlearn conference that fighting FE cuts is ‘first priority’

Trade Union Congress general secretary Frances O’Grady told delegates at the Unionlearn conference that fighting the “false economy of FE cuts” was “our first priority”.

In her speech to today’s conference at Congress House, in central London, Ms O’Grady (pictured above) warned that the next five years will “test our mettle”.

“Our first priority must be to fight the false economy of cuts to FE,” she said.

“As we all know, the government is intent on shrinking the state back to the same level it was at in the 1930s.

“Nowhere is this more at risk from this ideological drive than FE. Thousands of FE staff face redundancy or more casualisation.

“This is no way to go about tackling Britain’s skills shortages, or provide the parity between vocational and academic education that everyone seems to be talking about.

“These cuts have disastrous implications for learners, for our skills base and for the economy. They will exasperate inequality, damage productivity and slow the economy.”

Her comments reflected widespread sector concern over loss of funding to FE, which has faced adult skills budget cuts of around 35 per cent since 2009 and is now gearing up to deal with the consequences of a further 24 per cent cut in 2015/16.

Ms O’Grady added there was no denying that the country was experiencing an economic recovery, with record numbers of people in work.

But she said: “The fact is that our economy remains far too dependent on too many people in low-paid, low-skilled, insecure jobs.

“We will never meet our productivity potential unless we start remembering who really creates the wealth in this country and the answer is simple, ‘it’s workers’.

“That’s why a case for a national drive to improve the skills of all working people should be common sense.”

The conference also featured talks on the economic benefits for workers and the wider economy of union-led learning, part-time education, and wider FE, by Peter Horrocks, vice chancellor of The Open University, and Ben Nield, assistant director at the Marchmont Observatory, University of Exeter.

Neil Darwin, chief executive of the Greater Cambridge Greater Peterborough Enterprise Partnership, also addressed delegates.

He said: “The challenge for me around skills is enormous. It is one of our top three priorities, the others being housing and infrastructure. It’s vitally important to consider how we train our people into valued work.”

After hearing of Ms O’Grady’s speech to the conference, a spokesperson for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills said: “We will continue to focus investment in areas that have the most impact on increasing the skills of our workforce and help increase productivity across the country.”

On your marks, get set, go! — apprentices’ Brathay challenge final gets underway

This week learners from up and down the country are battling to be crowned apprentice team of the year in the fourth annual Brathay Apprenticeship Challenge final.

The eight teams of nine apprentices have been whittled down from more than 800 entrants to earn a place on the finale on Lake Windermere in the Lake District, where they have been taking part in teambuilding activities such as orienteering, high ropes and boat racing, since Monday.

And the eight teams will be hoping to make a splash in the last leg of the grand finale, the whaler boat race, and the prize giving ceremony, which takes place tomorrow.

To get there, the teams — made up of apprentices from the same employer, group of small businesses, industry, supply chain or provider — completed fundraising projects in their community with the top performers making it through.

This year the eight teams to have made it through to the final of the competition organised by youth charity Brathay and the National Apprenticeship Service (NAS) are teams from Redrow Homes, Nottingham City Homes, Sellafield power plant, Pera Training, Dale Power Solutions, Plymouth City Council, HSBC and British Airways.

British Airways apprentices. Back, from left: Sukhdeep Mohain, aged 19, IT apprentice, Samuel Austin, 21, cargo, Jordan Taylor, 22, engineering, Rickael Green, 19, cargo, and Aaron Taylor, 20, Heathrow operations Front, from left:Natalie Hewitt, 18, Heathrow operations, Samantha Kent, 21, people services, Jaspreet Gurdev, 23, and Katie McMonagle, 22, both finance services — British Airways apprentices. Back, from left: Sukhdeep Mohain, aged 19, IT apprentice, Samuel Austin, 21, cargo, Jordan Taylor, 22, engineering, Rickael Green, 19, cargo, and Aaron Taylor, 20, Heathrow operations.
Front, from left: Natalie Hewitt, 18, Heathrow operations, Samantha Kent, 21, people services, Jaspreet Gurdev, 23, and Katie McMonagle, 22, both finance services

NAS director Sue Husband said: “The challenge gives apprentices a chance to show not just their employers but the wider community the high ambitions and achievements that apprentices have when they are given the chance.

“Enhanced apprenticeships experiences such as the Brathay Apprentice Challenge benefit both employers and apprentices, giving employers a workforce with transferable skills and apprentices the chance to develop skills and experiences that will move them forward in their career.”

In last year’s competition, when a team from PepsiCo emerged victorious, apprentices managed to raise more than £30,000 for charity, conduct more than 360 school visits to talk about the benefits of apprenticeships and recruit 50 new businesses to offer apprenticeships.

Godfrey Owen, chief executive of Brathay Trust said the community projects test learners’ “leadership, communication and team building skills and these skills are not something that are always tested purely in the workplace”.

He added: “While the teams build these skills they are also teaching other young people about apprenticeships and showing both employers and students that an apprenticeship is a valued career path.”

Main pic above, from left: Plymouth City Council apprentices Steven Bryant, aged 20, customer services (facilities management), Jacob Ellis, 20, marketing, team captain Lee Bond, 25, Nick Tomlinson, 27, both project management, Jake Holmes, 19, level three business administration, John Horler, 25, Lewis Walsh, 24, Joseph Gore, 24, all three project management, and (not pictured) Tommy Clift, 19, business administration

2020 VISION: The Changing Face of Further Education and Skills

Barnfield academy chain gets new name

The academy trust that was built up by Barnfield College has announced plans to sever its last link with the college by changing its name.

The Barnfield Academy Trust, which formally split from Barnfield College in March, announced today a new name — the Shared Learning Trust.

Trust chief executive Andrew Cooper said: “This is an exciting opportunity for our family of schools to make a very clear and decisive move away from the Barnfield name and begin our next chapter.”

The trust, which also has a new logo (pictured) is made up of five schools — the Vale Academy, Moorlands Free School, West Academy, South Academy and The Studio School, Luton.

Mr Cooper said: “The new name was one of those ‘it does what it says on the tin’ decisions. It’s a name that reflects some of our core values, not least the message that at the heart of all our schools is a strength brought about by working together in partnership and sharing our passion for good practice in teaching and learning.”

Last week the trust was released from an Education Funding Agency notice to improve, issued in February last year.

The decision to break away from the Barnfield College-led Barnfield Federation took seven months to enact.

It came more than a year after the Skills Funding Agency and Education Funding Agency both published critical findings of their investigations into the federation following the departure of former principal Sir Peter Birkett, who was knighted in 2012 for his services to FE and the academy movement.

In January this year, the college received a damning Ofsted grade four inspection verdict, which Luton South MP Gavin Shuker said blamed on Sir Peter’s focus on the academy chain, saying it had “starved [the college] of resources”.

The inspection result led to the college being the first to be visited twice by FE Commissioner David Collins, who previously visited in January 2014 following financial concerns and called for at least half the governors to be replaced.

A Barnfield College spokesperson said: “Barnfield College wishes the trust all the luck in its future endeavors.”

The trust is also developing a new website which will be launched at www.thesharedlearningtrust.org.uk from September 1, with individual school websites to follow from October.

New education and business committee members revealed

The new memberships of the two parliamentary select committees which oversee FE have been provisionally announced.

Iain Wright, the Labour MP for Hartlepool and new chair of the business, innovation and skills select committee, will be joined by Labour colleagues Paul Blomfield, the MP for Sheffield Central, newly-elected Hove MP Peter Kyle and Cardiff Central MP Jo Stevens.

Conservative members of the committee are Richard Fuller, who represents Bedford, new Cannock Chase MP Amanda Milling, Amanda Solloway, who was first elected as MP for Derby North in May, Kelly Tolhurst, who beat Ukip defector Mark Reckless in Rochester and Strood, North Warwickshire MP Craig Tracey and Warwick and Leamington’s Chris White.

Michelle Thompson, the Scottish National Party MP for Edinburgh West, will be her party’s sole representative on the committee.

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Meanwhile, the education select committee, chaired by Stroud’s Conservative MP Neil Carmichael, will be made up of Conservatives Lucy Allan (Telford), Michelle Donelan (Chippenham), Suella Fernandes (Fareham), Lucy Frazer (South East Cambridgeshire) and Caroline Nokes (Romsey and Southampton North).

They will be joined by Labour MPs Ian Austin (Dudley North), Kate Hollern (Blackburn), Ian Mearns (Gateshead) and Kate Osamor (Edmonton), and SNP MP Marion Fellows (Motherwell and Wishaw).

The memberships will have to be confirmed by Parliament on Monday.

New guide aims to improve understanding of skills system among policy makers

A comprehensive new guide to vocational education and training geared at improving the level of understanding of the skills system among policy makers will be unveiled in the House of Lords today.

The Guide to the Skills System publication comes from the Skills Commission, an independent group of leading experts and opinion formers from across the education and skills sector.

It will be officially launched in the House of Lords at 12.30pm to more than 140 guests, with speakers including Anne-Marie Morris MP, Parliamentary Private Secretary to Skills Minister Nick Boles, and John Woodcock, Shadow Education Minister for Young People.

Co-chairs of the Skills Commission, Labour MP and former Children, Schools and Families House of Commons Select Committee chair Barry Sheerman (left), and FE Trust for Leadership honorary president Dame Ruth Silver (below right) said in the report: “It has often been said that the skills system is not fully understood by policymakers.

“Whether this is a fair notion or not, it is with this sentiment in mind, and our conviction of the central importance of skills to our nation, that we have produced this guide.

“In this guide we aim to demystify this policy area and help to overcome some of the initial barriers policymakers can face in conceptualising the skills system.”

The guide, which is aimed at parliamentarians and their researchers, as well as the wider policymaking community, covers key areas including the public funding system, the role of employers, and the devolvement of responsibilities for skills across the UK.

It has spelled out six key messages, including the need to adopt greater systems thinking and boost employer engagement.

Dame Ruth Silver croppped — Dame Ruth Silver

It also called for improvements to the “quality and confidence” of training and providers respectively, a smoother overall policy process, and calls for the provision of “stability in the system” and “fair and sustainable funding”.

The report said: “Parliamentarians should take heed of the calls from employers, practitioners and FE and skills experts for greater stability in the sector.

“FE and skills is the adaptive layer of the education system, yet many feel that the agility of providers and awarding bodies is undermined by frequent policy and procedural change.”

It added: “Policy must be fully evaluated to build on successes and avoid repeating past mistakes.”

The report also called for “improved careers advice” and investment in “high quality vocational programmes (Level 4+)”.

It added that policymakers “must better define” how they expect different types of employers to engage with the skills system.

It said: “The last Parliament saw much progress with measures taken to raise the status of vocational and technical qualifications, and to strengthen paths of progression into work and the study of higher level skills.

“In order for us to build a world class system, we need to fully appreciate the interconnectedness and interdependencies of the skills system, and think strategically about the relationship between its seemingly disparate components.”

Commenting on the report, David Russell, chief executive of the Education and Training Foundation, said: “I hope the guide will be useful and will arm parliamentarians with the knowledge they need to make vital decisions.

“We look forward to working with the government in the next five years, and to help them to make a real difference to everyone involved in the FE sector.”

Dr Lynne Sedgmore (above), executive director of the 157 Group, said: “The guide describes a system which has the key ingredients to deliver world-class provision, and it demonstrates how colleges and other providers are already driving real change, with a focus on local needs and higher-level skills.

“Over the next five years we must take proper stock of what is working well and push forward with policies which we know can deliver high-quality education and training for all.”

Charlotte Bosworth, director of skills and employment at OCR, said: “More than 50 per cent of 16-18 year-olds in education and training take vocational and technical training programmes.

“Young people need stability and security but policy churn and lack of investment is having a detrimental impact on them. This guide is a step in the right direction to help policy makers provide some of that stability.”

Tackling lack of diversity on college boards is ‘priority’

Pirandeep Dhillon, who became a governor at the College of Haringey, Enfield and North East London in March, thinks colleges need to be more imaginative with how they promote board vacancies with black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) communities

Despite not being a focus for the previous coalition or current government, it seems diversity (or the lack of) is back on the FE agenda.

Colleges have long been ahead of their peers in the universities and schools sector in terms of the number of BAME principals compared with heads and vice-chancellors.

Attention has now turned to the issue of governance within colleges and the fact that the majority of governing bodies are still pre-dominantly white British.

In 2015, and given the progress that has been made in attempting to bridge the gap between ethnicity and gender, these figures still make for uncomfortable reading.

As a young, Asian female governor I am very much in the minority.

I became a governor primarily because I wanted to make a difference to the young people in Haringey, Enfield and North East London who attend college, and hopefully bring a different perspective to ensure the college is doing its best by students, their parents and the community.

Given the number of BAME students in colleges, it is imperative that their governors, senior management‎ and teachers reflect this make up.

Young people need role models and peers that look like them, be it ethnicity, gender or indeed age.

As with gender equality, ageism and LGBT rights, the issue of racial equality is a constantly evolving process.

As a governor I am in a position to draw on my own experiences both from a cultural and professional perspective and am encouraged to express my opinion and be challenging where necessary.

We need to be bolder, more ambitious and outward facing to create the change that is needed. This lack of diversity has rightly been identified as an area of priority for colleges

These characteristics require determination and resilience — having sustained dialogue with peers and support once becoming a governor is just as important as recruiting them in the first place.

Otherwise in a somewhat unfamiliar and what can be an intimidating environment, new governors may feel a sense of discomfort and choose not to carry on.

We must ensure that this focus on representation does not become a tick box exercise or tokenism.

One of the key issues, however, is promoting the opportunities available.

I was in the privileged position of having access to knowing how to apply to become a governor because of my contacts and networks.

Greater steps should be taken to explain, promote and support BAME communities and encourage them to become governors.

Many BAME communities have strong social and cultural ‎links within their own locality.

This experience and knowledge would help colleges in their mission considerably.

It’s about removing the perceived sense of superiority and hierarchy and letting people know that anyone can get involved.

One of the key reasons that senior BAME representation is often weak in the public and private sector ‎and a whole host of other industries is because of access to networks and knowing how or who can put you in touch with the right people.

This is exacerbated by a lack of awareness of the role of colleges. We need to be bolder, more ambitious and outward facing to create the change that is needed.

This lack of diversity has rightly been identified as an area of priority for colleges.

Doing so will create inclusive and more productive working environments that rightly reflect the demographic make-up of the students colleges serve.

There will never be a point in time where we can say everything has been achieved. We still have a long way to go to get close.

The focus on governors is a welcome one, but we must go further and ensure senior leadership teams and principals in colleges across the country are also representative.

Many of my friends are governors of schools, both primary and secondary.

Indeed for many aspiring and ambitious young people it is a rite of passage to have on your CV.

It is the sector’s job to recruit bright young people from a range of backgrounds to the FE sector too. We just need to do a better job of selling it.

My journey into FE governance

The rise to the position of chair at Burton and South Derbyshire College was relatively smooth for Everton Burke, but he wants to see more people from black, Asian, minority ethnic (BAME) join college boards.

I became a governor in a college of Further Education (FE) because I wanted to give something back to FE after some 26 years of full time employment in the sector and to make a positive contribution to it.

I would like to be able to take credit for that statement, but the truth is those words were put into my mouth by a close friend who is also a principal and chief executive of a college.

Up until that point I had never considered or been encouraged to become a governor. I thought about it and decided to have a look at what the role of a governor encompassed, including the time commitment as I was a busy person already.

I requested, was sent and completed the relevant application form and duly met with the search committee of the college, which was comprised of the chair of governors, a governor, the clerk to the governing body and the principal and chief executive.

I was asked supplementary questions to my application form, including the question of my commitment to the role and to that particular college.

Within a couple of days, I was informed by the clerk that the search committee would recommend my application to the full corporation at the next meeting and I would be informed of their decision soon thereafter.

I was delighted to receive the good news that my application was approved and I was now a college governor.

I was welcomed at my first meeting by the chair of governors and all the other members present and then we got straight on with the meeting.

I recall the chair offering me the opportunity to contribute to the meeting even though it was my first meeting, but he also said that I shouldn’t feel pressured to speak at my first meeting. I remember thinking ‘I like this chair’.

With my long experience of curriculum, as a former lecturer, I was offered a seat on the standards committee at the second full corporation meeting, which I accepted.

FE needs lots more diversity in the composition of its corporations

At the third and final standards Committee meeting for the academic year I was persuaded to become the vice chair and a year later I was its chair.

A year later I was very surprised and humbled to be voted in as the new chair of governors albeit in the sad circumstance of the death of the chair following a short illness.

I was very surprised because I was one of four black, asian, minority ethnic (BAME) members in a mainly white college from students, to staff, to governors.

I believe that I got the position as their chair because they felt positive about me becoming their new leader.

From new governor to chair in just under three years is something that I am very proud of.

I have the backing and support of all the members and this is reflected in the post meeting feedback summary collated by the clerk.

This was not always the case because some of the earlier feedback stated that I wasn’t summing up relevant agenda items prior to voting and that meetings were running longer than planned.

This presented a real challenge for us, but me in particular, because we had just switched over to the Carver-esq model of governance.

I was convinced that I was getting things more right than wrong, so I took on all the constructive points raised and made subtle changes where necessary.

The relationship between the principal and chief executive, the clerk to the corporation and I remains a strong and critical one for the effective governance of the college.

As stated at the beginning of this article, I had not previously thought about becoming a governor and was not aware of any awareness raising initiatives along these lines.

I believe such schemes would be beneficial in getting more people from BAME backgrounds to explore governance and becoming governors because FE needs lots more diversity in the composition of its corporations.