Lewisham Southwark College students’ union president Shakira Martin was today elected as the next National Union of Students (NUS) vice president for FE.

Trainee teacher Ms Martin (pictured) was elected by delegates at the NUS national conference in Liverpool this afternoon beating Sheffield College students’ union and NUS national executive committee member Amy Smith and Leeds College students’ union member Craig Clements.

It comes after Megan Dunn, the current vice president for higher education, won an earlier vote to become the new national president of the NUS.

Both winners will take up their full-time, paid sabbatical posts in the summer. Ms Martin replaces Joe Vinson and Ms Dunn replaces Toni Pearce.

Ms Dunn said: “Whatever government is in power after next month’s election, it won’t be easy, so we have to be ready to stand up alongside each other and say enough is enough. We need action in union meetings, university boardrooms and in parliament.

“I want to put more effort into supporting campus unions, and transforming our national movement to support the work that you do.

“I’m really proud to have been given this opportunity to build a movement around a vision for apprentices not just with a rise in the minimum wage but with a living wage.

“The end of the false choice between further education and higher education – with the focus on how someone wants to learn and what they want to study rather than what they can afford or what they are told is worthwhile.”

See FE Week edition 136, dated Monday, April 27, for more from the NUS conference.

The Education and Training Foundation (ETF) today 0fficially unveiled a new website to help FE and skills providers stop learners falling prey to radical terror groups.

The website, officially unveiled this morning but launched on Friday (April 17), is called Prevent for Further Education and Training: Complying with the Prevent Duty.

It contains a wide variety of guidance for practitioners, support staff, leaders and managers, and governors and board members. Each group can download information tailored to them that explains their responsibilities and what training and support is available to ensure that they meet the legal requirements of FE institutions, introduced under section 26 of the counter-terrorism and security act 2015 in February.

The counter-terrorism and security act places a duty on providers to have “due regard to the need to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism”. Although the law change does not “confer new functions” on providers, they are still required to consider the potential for radicalisation alongside other safeguarding issues.

Olivia Dorricott (pictured right), ETF director of leadership, management and governance, said: “We are so pleased to extend our support to the training and education sector to cover the prevent duty and have moved quickly to create a website with useful resources and guidance.

“The new website has already had over 900 visits without any promotion.

“Our website has a range of materials to support people from across the sector, including material reflecting effective practice across the sector already, and we will continue to build on and refresh the resources over the coming weeks ahead of the duty coming in to force in July.

“We encourage everyone to use, share and feedback on what’s there so we can continue to work with the sector in this important area.”

The launch of the new ETF website comes three weeks after FE Week reported that the 157 Group and Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) had launched their own toolkit to help colleges and independent learning providers (ILPs) comply with the new government rules.

An AELP spokesperson said: “When AELP was approached by the ETF, we got a good response from ILPs to help ascertain training and other needs for this matter.

“We also worked with 157 Group on a best practice toolkit which shows providers how they can meet their responsibilities under the duty and we urge providers to familiarise themselves with it if they haven’t already done so.”

Dr Lynne Sedgmore CBE, executive director of the 157 Group, said: “In FE colleges, we understand prevent as another form of safeguarding our learners, in this case from the risk of radicalisation.

“As with all important guidance, education professionals are always concerned to make sure they are doing the right things for their learners, all the more so when the guidance concerns such a key area of focus for our society at the moment.

“We recently published our own toolkit for providers seeking support in this area, and it is good to see the ETF also supporting providers through their new website.”

David Corke, director of education and skills policy at the Association of Colleges (AoC), said: “AoC supports this new duty, which adds an extra level of safeguarding to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism, and we worked with the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills as the legislation went through parliament.

“Colleges already have a duty to safeguard their students, and we have held webinars and seminars to make sure they are prepared for the introduction of this additional duty on July 1.

“As the implications of the duty become clearer in practice, AoC will play a part in disseminating good practice.”

Nearly 40 per cent of under 19 Functional Skills (FS) enrolments at general FE and tertiary colleges and independent learning providers (ILPs) failed to achieve their qualification last academic year, it has been revealed.

The figure is based on the Skills Funding Agency success rates tables, published this month, which for the first time included FS data.

It has prompted a call from a range of academics for the government to provide added support for FS teaching to boost 16 to 18 success rates from 64.3 per cent for general FE and tertiary colleges and 52.9 per cent for ILPs (see page 7 for more FS provider type success rates).

The combined FS success rates for colleges and ILPs was 62.9 per cent, with 203,680 enrolments out of 323,320 achieving their learning aims — meaning 119,640 did not.

University of Wolverhampton education lecturer and researcher Dr Matt O’Leary said: “I don’t think these success rates are lower than might be expected — that’s not to say they shouldn’t be higher, but in order to improve them then there needs to be recognition on the government’s part that they have a responsibility to invest in adequate resources to enable the FE sector to staff these courses with specialist teaching staff.”

He added: “Given the manner in which functional skills were foisted upon the sector by former Skills Minister Matthew Hancock, and how little or no regard was given to how these new programmes would be resourced, or to staffing implications, I think providers have done well to produce the results they have.”

Professor Ed Sallis, whose Education and Training Foundation review of non-GCSE English and maths provision, including FS, concluded last month, agreed.

“I believe the results show lecturers and trainers need more practical support and training to deliver FS successfully and that more work needs to be done on developing the pedagogy of vocational maths and English,” he said.

Paul Grainger, an Institute of Education academic, highlighted Professor Sallis’s report and the importance it had placed on FS. The results “could be better,” he said, but argued the qualifications were performing better than GCSEs post-16.

“You have to consider that most candidates will have failed at GCSE the year before,” he said.

“The pass rate for GCSE maths retakes is 5 per cent, so FS are working in a way that retakes are not,” he said.

The success rates for all institutions’ provision of level one 16 to 18 FS was higher than level two — at 66.5 per cent of 258,660 enrolments resulting in an achieved learning aim, compared to a 53.5 per cent success rate out of 92,020 enrolments.

English level one 16 to 18 provision for all institutions had a success rate of 65.5 per cent, while for level two it was 59.1 per cent. For maths, the level one success rate was 52.5 per cent, while for level two is was 45 per cent.

David Corke, Association of Colleges director of education policy, said: “Colleges are performing above average in successfully delivering FS courses but their efforts are hampered by the fact there is a shortage of specialist maths teachers to teach these courses.

“The ETF is right to offer bursaries to attract more specialist teachers to the sector and we are keen to see the outcome of this scheme.”

Association for Employment and Learning Providers chief executive Stewart Segal said: “We believe that the success rates will improve given that FS are only two years old and providers are still building staff capacity.”

He added: “Much of ILP provision in English and maths is outside apprenticeships and traineeships and therefore it is about helping the hardest to help including those who aren’t attending college or are long term unemployed.

“We should also bear in mind that among the unemployed who don’t complete are many who will secure a job as a result of the learning.”

More success rates analysis

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Editor’s Comment

Hoping for a Functional Skills funding achievement

It’s quite a statistic that more than one in every three under 19 Functional Skills enrolment in general FE colleges and independent learning providers (ILPs) fails to result in achievement.

Taking into consideration the well-intentioned drive to increase the country’s numeracy and literacy skills by getting more people back to the classroom until they get a grade C or equivalent in maths and English and you can’t help but fear that could rise this time next year, when the current academic year’s success rates come out.

Behind the problem, as the sector will tell you, is the need to staff the growing number of aforementioned classrooms with adequately skilled English and maths teachers. And this is proving an issue.

It’s an issue that is already affecting the sector’s Ofsted ratings, as exclusive analysis by FE Week revealed back in January when a growth in grade three and four ratings from the education watchdog was laid bare.

Appropriate financial support from government to help develop, attract and retain the right calibre of teaching staff is the easy answer. The harder question is whether that’s likely from the next government, whatever colour the party in power.

Croydon College has revealed its revamped free school proposal in its second attempt to open its own secondary school.

The London-based college’s proposals were rejected in March in the last round of free school applications after the Department for Education (DfE) said that its plans “required more detail”.

The college’s new proposal for the school, to be called New Croydon Academy, includes an increased focus on science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics (Steam) subjects.

Croydon College principal Frances Wadsworth said: “We’ve gone back to the drawing board and working alongside the New Schools Network and some high profile experts, I think our proposal is stronger, clearer and more innovative than before.”

The proposal is expected to be resubmitted on May 28, with the school, if successful, due to open in 2017.

Ms Wadsworth said the planned secondary school and sixth form, which would have capacity for 180 students in each year, would address a local need for more pupil places and give parents an extra option over where to send their children.

She added the value of Stem (science, technology, engineering and maths)  subjects was “nationally understood”.

“STEM is… very important for Croydon — however, so are the arts,” she said.

“Croydon School of Art is a jewel in Croydon’s crown and we believe the experts and the collective experience we have at the art school can help bring our vision of developing skills and behaviours which prepare young people to be creative, effective and digitally confident citizens, employees, entrepreneurs and leaders in the 21^st Century to life.”

She said feedback that the college had received so far on the current bid had been “very encouraging”.

She added: “Croydon’s parents and carers have continued to be very supportive and I thank them for their interest.”

Currently, 11 college-sponsored free school bids have been approved, with six already open and five more in development — including schools sponsored by New College Swindon and New College Pontefract, which applied alongside Corydon’s initial free school bid.

An online questionnaire seeking feedback and views on the plans is available at www.croydonacademy.org.uk/questionnaire, and will close on May 20.