A Gloucestershire College worker who has cerebral palsy takes on his third fundraising charity challenge this month, cycling 100 miles in a day in aid of the Mind mental health charity, writes Billy Camden.
A determined fundraiser from Gloucestershire College will embark on his toughest event yet when he aims to raise £200 for mental health charity Mind by cycling 100 miles in a day.
Helpdesk and booking clerk worker Owen Thomas, aged 26, who suffers limited mobility having been born with cerebral palsy in his legs, wants to travel the equivalent of 161 times around a velodrome on a static exercise bike at GC Gym, at the college’s Cheltenham Campus.
He has previously walked from Gloucester to Stroud to raise money for the Brittle Bone Society and trekked 30.7 miles from Stroud to Gloucester to Tewkesbury in aid of Cancer Research UK.
Owen Thomas working at Gloucestershire College
And his latest effort is due to take place on February 16, after enlisting the help of current students to design posters promoting the challenge.
“The college has been absolutely amazing, everyone has been incredibly supportive and aided me in getting a reach out there,” he said.
“I’ve always said this isn’t a personal publicity thing for me, it is about getting the right recognition for the charity and the college have been great in getting that message out to as many people as possible.”
He added: “Each event I have done has escalated, I always aim to do more each time. I always want to set myself challenges and also send out the message that I don’t get held back by my disability.
“I won’t let it hold me back or dictate me.”
And Mind is a charity close to his heart.
“The charity is close to my beliefs. Some of my friends and family, as well as some of our most prominent visionaries and famous faces have suffered with depression, including Virginia Woolf, Stephen Fry and the late Robin Williams,” said Owen.
“But depression is still seen as a taboo subject because of a lack of understanding and knowledge. My message is this: please don’t be ashamed or scared to reach out and please seek help and advice.
Owen Thomas trains for his 100 miles in-a-day cycle ride at GC gym
“There are many people and charities like Mind that can help you.”
He added: “I want to raise awareness for and dispel the myths surrounding an illness which affects so many people, and hope the people of Gloucestershire will get behind me. If my cycling challenge inspires just one person to seek help, it will all be worth it.”
Owen is himself a former student of Gloucestershire College, where he studied A-levels in history and English literature and language and retook his GCSE in maths.
Shelly McCatty, public relations and copywriting executive for Gloucestershire College, said: “We are all incredibly proud of Owen for taking on such a tough challenge to raise awareness and money for Mind. His enthusiasm and fundraising supports the college’s values.
“We hope that people come along to cheer Owen on and donate to the cause, and wish him the best of luck for the big day.”
A director of a general FE college has defended its quality assessment procedures after FE Week research found it had 128 subcontractor agreements — the most in the FE and skills sector and 15 per cent more than anybody else.
Skills Funding Agency (SFA) figures for 2013/14 show that the total value of subcontracting by Yorkshire-based Calderdale College, which has around 6,000 learners and received a good rating in April last year, was £17m.
With a standard management fee of 12 per cent, more than £2m could have been retained by the college.
Joanne Patrickson, director of external funding for Calderdale College, said: “Our college is the lead accountable body on behalf of the West Yorkshire Consortium of Colleges [a group of seven local colleges] that delivers numerous European Social Funded (ESF) projects as procured by the SFA.
“All sub-contractors are subject to a stringent and robust due diligence process and pre-contract quality assessment prior to contracting.
“Post contracting, all sub-contractors are assessed periodically based on a risk assessment for both the maintenance of due diligence standards but more importantly observation of teaching learning and assessment.”
The college’s £17m figure was divided up between 128 subcontracting arrangements, putting it ahead of the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) next, which had 111 worth a total of £13.8m.
A spokesperson for the independent learning provider, which was rated outstanding in November 2012 and has around 15,000 apprentices on its books, said: “CITB is a levy body [which means it is funded by construction industry firms], a charity and a non-departmental government body.
“We only provide training where there are no other trainers available to do the work.
“For the rest, we contract with suppliers from education to provide training courses or places on training courses.
“To ensure the quality of provision we have teams operating across the country which work closely with employers, training providers and trainees to ensure a consistently high standard of provision.
Its management of “around 10 per cent” means nearly £1.4m was retained.
A total of 4,218 contracts worth £919.2m were signed by 590 prime providers with 1,527 subcontractors across the sector in 2013/14. The average value of each contract was £217,913 and on average a provider will have 7.1 subcontracts.
The highest combined value of subcontracting for a lead provider was £73.3m for Learndirect. It had 70 contracts, and with a maximum management fee of 30 per cent it could have top sliced nearly £22m.
A spokesperson for Learndirect, which had 193,340 learners when it was last inspected in April 2013 resulting in a good rating, said: “We have a robust quality control and improvement process to ensure delivery through subcontractors is to a high standard.
“This includes performance reviews, spot checks, business improvement support, audits, and learner satisfaction surveys.”
The second biggest combined figure was £37m dished out by West Nottinghamshire College through 56 contracts. And with a management fee of up to 20 per cent, it could have held £7.3m back.
Sacha McCarthy (pictured right), director of employer engagement for 32,000-learner Vision West Nottinghamshire College, which was rated as good in July 2012, said: “Partnerships [with subcontractors] are a strategic theme of our college and have been part of our long-standing approach to employer-responsive provision.
“The college has invested heavily in stringent quality control measures that ensure that partner provision is as good, and in some cases, better than the college’s own offer.”
An SFA spokesperson told FE Week there was “no limit on the number of subcontractors a provider can have”.
She added: “Providers that contract directly with the SFA are responsible for the entirety of the value of their contract and all of the provision it funds.”
College principals have been enlisted in the effort to register learners to vote in May’s general election.
The Electoral Commission, which oversees elections in the UK, has joined forces with the National Union of Students (NUS) and the Association of Colleges (AoC) as well as higher education bodies in the campaign.
Nick Boles with City Lit principal Mark Malcolmson
They have written to college principals and university chancellors asking them to raise awareness among students via emails, poster campaigns and campus registration drives.
Martin Doel, AoC chief executive, said: “The next government will be making crucial decisions that will affect everyone’s future — as well as the next generation in education.
“It’s important everyone has their say at this summer’s election which is why we’d like to see colleges and other institutions to encourage their students to register to vote.”
A similar effort to get learners voting took place at Croydon College last month with a visit and talk by Lady Doreen Lawrence OBE — the mother of Stephen Lawrence, the teenager murdered in a racist attack in east London in 1993.
Liam Byrne at Newham Sixth Form College
She spoke to students from across all subject areas after taking a tour of the grounds. Business student Kediashia Kay, aged 17, said: “She was inspirational. The session was a real eye-opener — to understand how important one vote can be, and that one person can make such a huge difference.” Principal Frances Wadsworth said: “The session was about being able to show students that one person can make a difference, and whether they vote Conservative, Labour or whatever — they will have taken part in an important democratic process that will, whatever the outcome, affect their lives.”
From left: Lib Dem parliamentary candidate for Taunton Deane Rachel Gilmour, Nick Clegg and Somerset College principal Rachel Davies
And recently colleges have been getting visits from politicians, including Shadow Skills Minister Liam Byrne at London’s Newham Sixth Form College (NewVIc) and Seevic College in Essex, while Skills Minister Nick Boles has been to London’s City Lit and Somerset College has played host to Lib Dem leader Nick Boles.
Toni Pearce, NUS president, said: “At a time when many feel that politics isn’t relevant to them, we need to do everything we can to encourage young people to take part in democracy. Students hold the key to the next general election, registering to vote is a step closer to making sure they use it.”
Toni Pearce
Commission chair Jenny Watson said academic institutions were “in a unique position to directly contact” students. “We hope that as many academic institutions as possible will support our efforts to get students registered,” she said.
Chancellor George Osborne and the leaders of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) signed The Greater Manchester Agreement in November. The devolution agreement, and its impact on the region’s FE and skills budget, is assessed by Lisa O’Loughlin.
From the Government’s point of view, The Greater Manchester Agreement is a major step towards creating a “Northern Powerhouse”, and it has stressed that the deal includes Greater Manchester having its own directly-elected Mayor with powers over transport, planning, policing and skills.
The proposals also include devolving further powers to the GMCA over support for business growth, skills and joined-up health and social care budgets.
This agreement is not based on the same model as London. There will be a transition period of about two years and then, when legislation is passed and direct elections, which are scheduled for 2017, take place the scope of the Mayor’s powers will be more extensive than in the capital, covering policing and other social issues.
But, at the same time, in recognition of the 10 areas and their local authorities in GMCA, there will be a much more collegiate approach, with the Mayor working alongside each authority’s representatives. So it’s important to realise there will be powers that remain with the ten authorities combined into GMCAawith the Mayor as an equal partner, and others that will be specifically for the Mayor.
It is up to The Manchester College, and all of Greater Manchester’s skills providers, to get stuck in
The agreement means that the GMCA will, in effect, be a team of 11 rather than the existing 10, with the Mayor acting as leader and chair with a huge area of devolved powers and funding covering matters such as business support budgets, integration of health and social care across the city region, the Apprenticeship Grant for Employers (AGE) and, crucially for us, the power and funding to re-shape and re-structure FE provision in Greater Manchester.
Those powers and funding for skills will already be devolved to the GMCA during the transitional period, in which the Mayor will be appointed rather than directly elected.
This is recognition by the Government of Greater Manchester’s desire to shape skills provision to deliver the needs of its economy.
We are going to play our full part in working with GMCA and Whitehall to re-shape and re-structure skills provision within Greater Manchester so that a new, forward-looking skills system is in place by 2017, with FE and The Manchester College at its heart.
The college is well-placed to take full advantage of these new powers and devolved funding since we have already done a lot of work aligning our curriculum with the needs of employers.
GMCA will also assume responsibility for AGE which will enable the combined authority to refocus incentives or vary the level of financial support available to different types of learner, sizes of business and subject areas in apprenticeships, for example, according to local need.
We’ll be more able to respond to labour market need and economic priorities. There will be a recommissioning process led by GMCA and the Government (Department for Business, Innovation & Skills, Department for Education, Skills Funding Agency and Education Funding Agency) which will identify the future shape and funding (including pricing of adult skills budget courses) of FE provision in the Greater Manchester city region.
We realise that any change needs to be cost neutral, but that’s OK — what matters is that the money is spent where it can make most impact on our employers’ and learners’ economic prospects.
The process started in December and will run throughout the 2015 Spending Review so that we can all start to deliver a revised curriculum offer from 2017.
It happened in GM first because of the foundations laid by long-standing and productive co-operation between the 10 local authorities, but there is no reason in principle that the same sort of agreement couldn’t be reached in other large city regions.
Devolution of powers and funding is something that wins support across the political spectrum, and it is up to The Manchester College, and all of Greater Manchester’s skills providers, to get stuck in and proactively make the new world work to the advantage of our economies and communities.
Truro and Penwith College and Runshaw College dominated this year’s league tables for general FE (GFE) and tertiary colleges, government figures released on Thursday (January 29) revealed.
Cornwall-based Truro and Penwith College scored with top marks for value-added — the progress its learners make over their course as expressed as a proportion of a grade — and average point score per student for A-levels.
And Runshaw College, in Lancashire, had the top vocational scores for average points and value-added.
Providers were assessed on a range of measures — including average points score per student, where each grade, such as A or distinction, is given a numerical value and an average taken across the cohort.
Truro and Penwith College principal David Walrond said learners and staff deserved “huge credit” for the results.
Runshaw College deputy principal Michelle Brabner said: “We are proud to have students that are such ambitious and life affirming young people.”
Meanwhile, Rochdale College was been crowned top sixth form college for the second year running for the progress its A-level value-added score.
The Manchester-based provider had the top value-added score for A-levels for a sixth form college in the government’s 16 to 18 performance tables.
Rochdale Sixth Form College principal Julian Appleyard said: “We are delighted the hard work of the staff and students is yet again reflected in these tables.”
Rochdale was joined at the top of the sixth form league tables by Greenhead College, which came top for average points score for both A-level and vocational courses, and Cardinal Newman College, which had the best vocational value-added score.
Michelle Brabner
Greenhead College principal Anton McGrath said: “We are very pleased — the one thing we have tried to do is make sure horizons for our wide range of learners are as broad as possible.”
At the other end of the scale, St Francis Xavier Sixth Form College in London came bottom for value-added on A-level courses while Leeds-based Notre Dame Sixth Form College was last for vocational value-added scores.
St Francis Xavier principal Stella Flannery described the value-added measure, which had been included in last year’s data, as “unproven and untested” and said the figures represented 21 per cent of the overall student cohort. She added: “We are concerned that this measure is being used in isolation.”
Notre Dame Sixth Form College principal Terry Coen said he was “concerned” by the result but vocational qualifications were only a “small part” of the college’s offer which it hoped to develop into “rigorous qualifications”.
Among the bottom value-added scores for GFE and tertiary colleges were County Durham’s Derwentside College for its vocational provision and Central Bedfordshire College for A-level provision.
A Central Bedfordshire College spokesperson said the college no longer offered A-levels.
For average points, the bottom scorers for A-levels were Doncaster College and Gateway Sixth Form College, and for vocational figures were Barrow-in-Furness and Derwentside College.
Principal of Barrow Sixth Form David Batten said the data did “not represent a true picture” of students’ progress as the data was based on learner birth dates, meaning some learners who had completed were excluded, while others were only half way through their course.
“This clearly means that the figure cannot be used to make valid comparisons,” he said.
No one from Cardinal Newman, Derwentside College, Doncaster College or Gateway Sixth Form College was available for comment.
Most UTCs and studio schools miss targets
A majority of studio schools and University Technical Colleges (UTCs) failed to meet the government’s minimum GCSE achievement target according to league tables.
Of the 17 studio schools and UTCs for which data was available, 14 fell below the government “floor” of 40 per cent of learners achieving five A* to C grade GCSEs including English and maths.
The tables included figures for UTCs and studio schools which opened in 2012 or earlier — so at least one cohort has completed a GCSE cycle.
League tables came under fire this year after thousands of vocational and GCSE alternative qualifications were disqualified from the data.
This could have worsened results for UTCs and studio schools, as students could have performed well, albeit in vocational subjects excluded from league tables.
Of the dozen studio schools listed, only Bournemouth-based Leaf Studio met the target, with 49 per cent of students gaining the five GCSEs.
This was followed by Midland Studio College Hinckley with 34 per cent, Stephenson Studio School (30 per cent), Bradford Studio School (24 per cent), Da Vinci Studio School of Science and Engineering (21 per cent), Barnfield Business and Enterprise Studio (17 per cent) and Parkside Studio College (16 per cent).
Next came Inspire Enterprise Academy (10 per cent), Hull Studio School (6 per cent), Stoke Studio College for Construction and Building Excellence (4 per cent), Tendring Enterprise Studio School (1 per cent) and Kajans Hospitality and Catering Studio College (0 per cent).
Among UTCs, three of five failed to meet the minimum — Visions Learning Trust UTC (0 per cent), Black Country UTC (21 per cent) and Hackney UTC (29 per cent).
Only Aston University Engineering Academy (52 per cent) and JCB Academy (65 per cent) exceeded the target.
Conversely, most Studio Schools and UTCs performed well at post-16, with highest ranking Central Bedfordshire UTC scoring an A-level average points score of 766.7 — on a par with top performing general FE and tertiary colleges, and the lowest score — for Da Vinci Studio School of Science and Engineering — was well above the lowest scoring general FE and tertiary colleges at 530.7.
In 16 to 18 vocational education Aston University Engineering Academy came top of the league, scoring higher than the top performing general FE and tertiary colleges with 835.1.
However, UTC Reading gained a post-16 vocational average points score per full-time student of just 299.6 — making it the second worst institution in the country for this measure.
No one from the Baker Dearing Trust, which oversees UTCs, the Studio Schools Trust or UTC Reading was available for comment.
For UTC Reading principal Joanne Harper’s response, click here or see FE Week edition 127, dated Monday, February 9.
A threefold increase in the number of inspections by Sixth Form College Commissioner Peter Mucklow this academic year is likely to get worse, Sixth Form Colleges’ Association chief executive David Igoe has warned.
Mr Mucklow (pictured right) was sent to just one college in 2013/14 — his first year in the job. But with six months of the current academic year still to run he has already carried out three inspections.
Mr Igoe told FE Week: “We are aware of the increase in visits and expect this trend to continue. Most sixth form colleges are coping well with funding cuts, but it is inevitable that more and more will experience financial problems and trigger commissioner visits.”
Mr Mucklow inspected 995-learner Hartlepool Sixth Form College on January 22 following its inadequate Ofsted rating in November.
He visited 1,075-learner King George V College (KGV), in Merseyside, a month after its inadequate grade was published in November last year.
And he had inspected 4,602-learner Totton College, in Hampshire, in October, which was deemed by Ofsted to require improvement in March, after concerns were raised about a lack of improvement since being issued with a financial notice to improve.
Meanwhile, his 2013/14 inspection of 2,180-learner Prior Pursglove College, in Guisborough, in February was triggered by an inadequate-overall Ofsted report published the same month.
“Poor Ofsted results are also often related to funding. When a college is expending all its energy on balancing the books, it is easy to take your eye off the ball with quality of learning,” said Mr Igoe (pictured left).
The Department for Education (DfE) declined to comment on the increased number of inspections.
However, a spokesperson said a report on Hartlepool college would be “published in due course” by the commissioner.
She added: “A number of recommendations have been made to improve outcomes at KGV and the Education Funding Agency is working with the college on its implementation of them.”
The commissioner’s report on KGV raised concerns about teaching and learner progress and called for the recruitment of a senior vice principal from outside the college with proven experience in improving teaching and assessment for 16 to 19-year-olds.
A KGV spokesperson said: “KGV is acting on Ofsted’s recommendations to improve the college.
The senior leadership team has produced an action plan [submitted to DfE last month] on the steps needed to achieve this.”
A spokesperson for Hartlepool college said: “The visit was positive. Mr Mucklow and his team were very supportive and helpful.”
A Totton College spokesperson said: “More and more colleges are being given a financial notice to improve and this reflects the challenging times for the FE sector.”
Judy Burton, principal of Prior Pursglove College, said: “We have made significant progress since the commissioner’s visit.”
“A week is a long time in politics,” were famous words from Labour Prime Minister of the 1960s and 70s Harold Wilson. It stands to reason then, that a full five-year Parliament feels like a lifetime.
You might already be sick of the general election — the ‘costed spending commitments’, ‘the other lot have got their sums wrong’, and ‘yes but look, Ed Miliband lol.”
How much longer do we have to wait before UKip leader Nigel Farage gets a photo op at a college hair salon, or a college bar? Perhaps an English for Speakers of Other Languages class?
There’s never a dull moment in FE, goes the most overused sector cliché, and a lot has happened since our 2010 general election.
The parliament started with a re-emergence of mass student protests in London over education cuts and increases in university tuition fees (‘24+ Advanced Learning Loans’ was too hard to fit on to placards and has too many syllables to rhyme well).
We saw college students organise days of action opposing the abolition of Education Maintenance Allow-ance — even principals were getting involved.
Plans to devolve planning of 19+ FE to Regional Development Agencies were scrapped, and then Regional Development Agencies were scrapped. We had a ‘bonfire of the quangos’ in the public sector and the ‘big society’ to clear it up.
Some of what we do now is funded through a new loans system, which hasn’t had the desired impact, and is potentially about to
be expanded.
Then there was the higher education white paper that never happened, complete overhaul of the state school system and curriculum and an increase in 19+ apprenticeships to the tune of around 203,000.
We know already that no matter who makes up the next government, there’s even less money to go around
Even though we know that the next five years are going to be just as, if not more, difficult than the last five, there are some things I think we can learn and look out for.
Deciding to deal with university tuition fees so early in the parliament was a strategic move. It meant that an entire cohort of undergraduates could enrol and graduate under the new system and gave enough time to describe the fees increase as a success in terms of not negatively impacting on admissions of young people from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Fantastic as it is to sugarcoat participation in this way, the unfortunate core of this political Smartie is that part-time and mature students have taken the brunt as the number of adults in learning continues to fall sharply.
We know already that no matter who makes up the next government, there’s even less money to go around.
Both of our core government departments will have a tough time balancing the books; the Department for Education with its forecasted funding shortfall of £4.6bn to accommodate increasing pupil numbers and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills’s expensive system of student loans coupled with its vulnerability as a government department without a ring fence.
Something pretty drastic needs to happen; redressing inequalities in schools, FE and higher education would be a good start, but could go even further by properly linking together pre and unemployment services too.
Now if all of that sounds like a lot, picture FE in the entirety of public policy and the massive changes we’ve seen across the board in just five years.
There’s no way the FE Week editor will give me the word count to go through all of it, so I’ll end with a relevant and necessary call to action.
Thursday (February 5) is National Voter Registration Day (NVRD). FE has access to people of all ages and stages, learners and staff, and the outcome of the next election matters to every single one of us.
Registering to vote has never been easier. It can now be done online and Bite The Ballot has some free downloadable resources which would look great on your VLE. #NVRD
The 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz was marked with a memorial event organised by learners who had visited the notorious concentration camp.
A plaque at Queen Alexandra Sixth Form College was unveiled as part of the event, overseen by North Tyneside mayor Norma Redfearn.
A-level learner Kaldyne Field, aged 17, said: “Going to Auschwitz is an experience I will never forget, it really hits home what went on there.
“The idea of the plaque came to us on the way home from Auschwitz, we wanted to do something that would be permanent, creating a place of remembrance for students and the wider community.”
Coun Redfearn said: “The students have done an excellent job in commemorating the 70th anniversary and taking it upon themselves to educate other young people and their community.”
Main pic: from left; Queen Alexandra Sixth Form College history teacher Steven Driver with 17-year-old A-level learners Harry Smith, Kyran Brady, Kaldyne Field and Connor Burgess
A Weston College student who trained in plastering after being made redundant has launched his own business and discovered an ability in 16th Century skills.
Dan Garner, aged 32, recently completed his level two plastering diploma at the college’s construction and engineering centre of excellence (CECE).
It was there that lecturers found his ability with the 500-year-old skill of pargetting, which uses plaster of Paris mixed with hemp to sculptural effect.
Father-of-three Dan, 32, said: “I was made redundant from a printing company and decided I wanted to work for myself.
“I found plastering easy and then discovered my niche with this creative work.
Plastering lecturer Barry Allford said: “I made a musical note on the wall and Dan then created a cherry blossom branch. I have not seen talent like this in all my
years here.”
Main pic: from left; Dan Garner and Weston College plastering lecturer Barry Allford at work
