Government plans to launch a UCas-style vocational database by September next year have been short shrift by the boss of UCas itself.
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg (pictured left) told visitors to the Skills Show, at Birmingham NEC, that the government would set up a “fully-comprehensive national database” of 16 to 18 skills and employer led-courses and opportunities in England next summer.
Mr Clegg said on Thursday (November 13): “By giving access to a one stop shop for the growing number of choices they have, more young people will be able to access the options available to them and make better informed choices about their career paths.”
But UCas chief executive Mary Curnock Cook pointed out that the admissions service had already expanded UCas Progress, which caters for post-16 choices, to offer “national coverage of vocational and academic courses in England and Wales”.
She said: “We have more than 100,000 courses through 4,550 different providers listed in England and Wales and are already registering more than 2.5 million page views per month.
“This service builds on UCas’s 50 years of experience running a national service for higher education and is free of charge for learners.”
It was not the first time Mr Clegg has been rebutted by UCas on the issue.
Head of progress at UCas Gina Bradbury claimed in an FE Week article, published after Mr Clegg first mentioned the idea in February, that it was something her organisation had launched 18 months previously.
Matthew Dean (pictured right), technology policy manager for the Association of Colleges, said: “Providing a co-ordinated central database is a step forward in the way young people find out about the range of qualifications and courses available to them.
“The Deputy Prime Minister is right to recognise that vocational education is not a poor relation when choosing a career path.
“Increasing the number and choice of apprenticeships is important, but the government must work with colleges to ensure that employers are prepared to take on apprentices of all ages.”
Fiona Aldridge, assistant director for development and research for the National Institute of Continuing Education, said: “If this is implemented then we think it’s essential that there is an all-age approach to this rather than just a focus on those aged 16 to 18.”
Lynne Sedgmore CBE, executive director of the 157 Group, said: “This announcement reaffirms the original commitment made by the Deputy Prime Minister, but adds little more detail. We will be keen to see how it will work in practice.”
Mr Clegg also announced a dozen new social mobility business compact champions.
They were Accenture, Aspire Group, Baker & McKenzie LLP, The Co-operative Food, Deloitte, EY, Grant Thornton UK LLP, KPMG LLP, Linklaters, Mears Group, Standard Life and Telefónica O2.
The social mobility business compact scheme was launched in 2011 to provide young people from all backgrounds with “fair and open access to employment opportunities”.
Visit www.feweek.co.uk for more sector reaction to Mr Clegg’s Ucas-style database announcement.
Hartlepool Sixth Form College has crashed from a good to inadequate Ofsted rating.
It received a grade two rating in June 2010, but a report published on Thursday (November 13), based on an inspection in September, gave it the lowest possible mark.
The report said “too few students stay to complete AS courses or progress from AS to A-level,” adding “leadership and management are inadequate”.
It recognised that there had been a “period of instability at senior level” and the 1,000–learner college’s new leadership team, including principal Alex Fau-Goodwin, only took over in September.
Rick Wells, who had been principal since 2005, stood down in August last year. Carole Horseman was acting principal until the end of last academic year.
Mr Fau-Goodwin said: “The new team are very clear about the improvements that need to be introduced.”
The Gateshead and Middlesbrough College Confederation has been terminated after just 12 months.
The two colleges came together in September last year to pool resources and ideas, but are now preparing to split after governors decided the partnership did not “offer additional value to learners”.
The move casts doubt over the future of confederation chief executive Mike Hopkins, who is also chair of the Principals’ Professional Council, with Zoe Lewis having replaced him as Middlesbrough principal after the colleges joined forces.
Both colleges declined to comment on what role, if any, Mr Hopkins would play at the colleges in the future. A joint statement from Gateshead College chair Robin Mackie and Middlesbrough College chair Bob Brady said: “Having undertaken a review we are in agreement that while we have seen some benefits, we do not feel that this arrangement offers additional value to learners at either college at this time. The two colleges remain firmly committed to the principles of working in partnership where it has clear benefits for our students, staff and stakeholders.”
The statement added that the confederation had been formed to “explore collaborative approaches which could benefit both colleges”. During that time we have worked together on a number of projects which have enabled us to secure funding for a joint technology initiative, share best practice and offer combined student projects,” the statement added. It continued: “We are unable to say anything further with regards to Mr Hopkins at this time as discussions with him are ongoing.”
The end of the confederation was made public in minutes from a September 24 Middlesbrough College board meeting where it was revealed that “both parties had agreed to mutually terminate” the confederation agreement on September 10 this year.
In a press release issued at the time the confederation was formed, a spokesperson for the colleges said: “Those behind the move believe the colleges’ combined size, scale, vision and influence will make them more resilient to future challenges and both will benefit from a more regional perspective enabling them to deliver a responsive and comprehensive offer to North East businesses and the wider community.”
It added that the colleges would “work far closer, sharing ideas and collaborating on initiatives that will ultimately deliver even higher standards of training and skills provision”.
The move comes after the FE Commissioner David Collins told three struggling colleges — Bicton College, Norton Radstock College and Stratford-upon-Avon College — that they should join forces with other colleges as they might not survive on their own.
Devon-based Bicton has since revealed plans to merge with The Cornwall College Group by August, while the commissioner’s revisit to Stratford resulted in new hope for its independence after positive feedback from Dr Collins.
The chief executive of a college group under fire for a £93,000 rebrand has defended the spend.
A Freedom of Information request by the Oxford Mail revealed that Activate Learning forked out £93,742 over the last two years on a rebranding exercise to move away from the previous name of Oxford and Cherwell Valley College (OCVC).
Activate Learning logo
Activate Learning, which runs Reading College, City of Oxford College, and Banbury and Bicester College, rebranded in November last year.
The group, which also includes two University Technical Colleges (UTCs) in Didcot and Reading and its own apprenticeships arm in Activate Enterprise along with colleges in Saudi Arabia, spent £13,878 on polling and focus groups, £12,792 on “brand DNA” and £4,350 on the name Activate Learning.
A UCU spokesperson said: “I doubt we will be alone in asking for a justification of why £13,000 of public money was spent on ‘brand DNA’ and what exactly that entails. The total spend is particularly galling when colleges are being told to tighten their belts and brace themselves for more funding cuts.”
However, Activate Learning chief executive Sally Dicketts (pictured beow) defended the spending. “The spending was justified,” she told FE Week.
“The governors said we must come up with a new name and we had to make sure we spoke to staff, students and across all our colleges and schools.
“It is not free when you do it yourself. If we had got our own staff to do it that still would have cost money. This was a job which needed to be done and we chose to outsource it.”
It comes after London-based college LeSoCo, formerly Lewisham and Southwark College, was criticised over a £290,000 rebrand which has since been reversed on many of its campuses.
But Ms Dicketts said the OCVC name needed to change when it expanded to include other establishments where the Oxford-related brand was unsuitable.
She said: “When we were OCVC, we took on responsibility for Reading College, but Reading people were very unhappy about all the branding with Oxford on it. So were the people in Banbury.
“We were losing business because of the name. My role is to increase interest and make sure people want to come to us.
“We were going into a change and having schools for the first time and becoming a private training provider too and the governors said it was the opportunity to choose a theme which all stakeholders wanted and that wasn’t associated with the individual areas.”
Group director of marketing and communications Miriam Braham said: “A new group structure was proposed, including developing a new group entity and re-organising the existing campuses of OCVC to create two new FE colleges [City of Oxford College, and Banbury and Bicester College].
“The total figure quoted reflects our work … across an 18-month period from 2012 to deliver significant pieces of work. This work included extensive consultation with our staff, students and external partners to ensure that our development was in line with customers’ needs.”
Association of Colleges (AoC) chief executive Martin Doel took time out from his preparations for the AoC annual conference in Birmingham to speak to FE Week editor Chris Henwood.
He talked about his thoughts on the political parties in the run-up to the general election next year and also answered questions on a range of FE and skills issues including employer cash contributions reform of apprenticeship funding and Lep (local enterprise partnership) engagement with colleges.
“The difference between our pre-general election conference in 2009 and now, interestingly, is pretty much in terms of the headline policies — it’s hard to see the difference between each of the parties.”
Yes, it’s fair to say Association of Colleges (AoC) chief executive Martin Doel is struggling to differentiate between blue, red and yellow on FE and skills policy in the run-up to next year’s election.
Addressing last year’s AoC annual conference
“They each seem to be saying the same things around four broad areas — more and better quality of apprenticeships, greater devolution, higher quality 16 to 18 education and a focus on higher-level skills,” he explains, speaking to me just days ahead of the AoC annual conference.
These are, says Mr Doel, the four broad areas that will also provide key themes for discussion at the conference, not to mention content for his own speech to delegates tomorrow (Tuesday, November 18) morning.
“If you start to talk about what more and better apprenticeships could be, it seems to me that they’re missing some important points, that no government can create an apprenticeship — an apprenticeship has to be created with an employer,” he says.
“And they are also not saying what the consequences of the current reform programme we’ve had on quantity and quality are, and how that would roll out in terms of the propensity of employers to fund apprenticeships and take on more apprentices and how that’s going to be achieved effectively.
They [main political parties] each seem to be saying the same things around four broad areas
“We need to have a much more comprehensive approach to this, about how you prepare young people to access a high-quality apprenticeship, how they become attractive to employers to be taken on as apprentices, and how you present the offer to employers to see that an apprenticeship is the route to have a more productive and high-quality workforce.”
He adds, on his second point: “When you come to the issue of devolution, after the Scottish referendum, everyone’s talking about more devolution and you get things like devo Manc — Manchester getting a devolved skills budget. Nobody’s quite saying to me how that’s going to work, or what the consequences are.
“If Manchester gets devolution, what does that mean for the rest of the system? How does that fit in with the Leps [local enterprise partnerships]? Everyone’s got a different level to which they are going to devolve responsibility and elements perhaps of the skills budget, but nobody is talking in any kind of precision about how that will be done, nor have they expressed any real understanding of the consequences that may have for things like having a national framework for apprenticeships, but a locally-funded system.
“Nor has it been addressed how you will actually cover the cost of the administration in doing things differently and at 39 different places in the country, when colleges are delivering across Lep boundaries. The road is a lot more complicated than those people that make broad assertions in local government association or other organisations seem to realise.”
The third area in which Mr Doel sees little or no difference between the parties is 16 to 18 education.
“I don’t mean to argue against wanting better quality education for 16 to 18-year-olds, of course we all agree that, but again, what does it mean that young people are spending more time doing English and maths than the vocational aspect of their studying? There’s only so much you can fit into a curriculum,” he says.
“That probably means more young people only get to level two in the vocational aspect of their studies by 18, which means if you want to get to level three, you probably need another year, which means they enter the twilight world of another 17.5 per cent cut to their funding to a rate of funding which is already 22 per cent below 11 to 16-year-olds.
“And the fourth area they are all talking about is the technician gap, and how we can deliver the type of skills that young people need above level three — above A-level — but short of full honours degree in a way that is flexible and allows part-time learning which is deliverable into the workplace, something much more employer-facing at those higher levels.
“So the Labour Party is talking about a technical degree. Well, how is that different from any other degree? Why would universities deliver it? And the government is talking about more higher level apprenticeships. How is the relatively small number of apprenticeships they are talking about at the higher levels going to transform and respond to the technician gap?
“I don’t see enough in the Trailblazers to make that scale of difference to our economy. So how do you make good on those broad aspirations and what they need to do, and in that latter one I think we’d say that colleges have had a much stronger, clearer role in doing that, and actually be incentivised to do that.”
Pre-conference Q&A with AoC chief Doel
Did you raise an eyebrow when you heard the political parties’ promises about the apprenticeship numbers they would deliver if in power after next May?
You’re into political rhetoric from people who only have limited understanding of what an apprenticeship is in the 21st century, but it’s a political-friendly policy.
From any number of dimensions, you can see why apprenticeships would be a good thing to ask for more of, but again you have to understand what an apprenticeship is, what the required characteristics are, and how you actually grow it.
People like Nick Boles or Liam Byrne will be the ones who, if elected, have to turn those things into reality. They are going to have to think hard about doing it, and I have to say, in terms of the current apprenticeship reform programme, we can already see the difficulties where Doug Richard’s apparently simple, straightforward recommendations are proving a little bit more difficult than might be anticipated to turn into a reform programme. This is tricky stuff.
Were you happy to hear the softening of language from Skills Minister Nick Boles towards the cash contributions element of apprenticeship funding reform?
I don’t want to dissuade employers from taking on apprentices — that’s clearly not what you want to do. On the other hand, if you’re not going to have the employer contribution, which is the basis on which the funding has been agreed, the question becomes where do you get the money from? And therefore, how are you going to fund that many more apprenticeships if the employers aren’t paying one third towards it?
Martin Doel is interviewed by FE Week editor Chris Henwood
Your budget is then one third down from where it would be, which is kind of saying you can have a third fewer apprentices because you’ve not got as much to go around. So there’s a resource consequence for not having the money there. My great concern out of that would be that you’re going to try and raid other elements of the adult skills budget.
What are your thoughts on the end of the Institute for Learning?
It’s hard to say where it went wrong, but I think the fork in the road was when it became almost a regulating arm of government and that was hard to reconcile with individual members paying for a service. From an AoC perspective, I don’t ever want to be in a position where I dictate to my members.
How do you assess the performance of Nick Boles as Skills Minister?
He’s refreshingly realistic about saying what he can achieve in what’s only nine months from the end of a governance period. I’ve found his pragmatism around English and maths to be refreshing and we need to continue to have conversations about that.
He’s said he wants colleges to be enterprising and take advantage of these freedoms that they have. I’d be a bit more quizzical about that insofar as my impression of this sector is it’s probably the most entrepreneurial of any within education.
Interestingly, he keeps saying he doesn’t know anything about FE. He knows a lot more and he is a very quick learner, but he can only carry on saying he knows nothing about FE for about another month in my estimation.
The FE Commissioner has recommended three college mergers following around 10 inspections. Are you concerned Dr David Collins might be too merger-friendly?
David’s not for or against mergers. He’s the ultimate pragmatist and he will do what he thinks is best in the circumstances and generally I haven’t found many arguments with the judgments he has made.
I think we need to think about how we support the consolidation process and you’ve got to begin to ask in some circumstances, why would a succeeding college, doing well in really strained times, volunteer to take on the liabilities and difficulties of another college, apart from an altruistic wish to do a good job for others?
It would be quite logical for a board of a college in those circumstances to say ‘Well, I support these students, this community, and I don’t want to put that at risk by going over the road to do that’.
I really do think we need to think about how we support the colleges that are stepping up to do the right thing to assist their colleague institutions that have got themselves into difficulty. I have argued that I think we need to talk about an innovation and growth fund where there is an amount of money made available to support how you can get innovative ways to actually survive in the circumstances we are in and also grow from this position.
You mentioned you hadn’t had many arguments with the FE Commissioner’s findings. What were these arguments?
I think some of the public statements need to be carefully worded in order to retain confidence, while being properly challenging if he finds things that he doesn’t think is going right. There is an issue about retaining confidence in things like banks that invest in the sector, an issue about retaining confidence in people that are employed within the sector and also around confidence among those who access learning within colleges.
Making a statement about some of those colleges that have put themselves into difficulty always needs to be balanced with, ‘But the great majority, in difficult circumstances, are delivering high-quality’.
Do you have any concerns about the Ofsted proposals for a unified common inspection framework?
I kind of buy into the potential of a single inspection framework up to the age of 18 which is predominantly orientated towards directly delivered teaching in a classroom or an equivalent-type environment, but I have some difficulty seeing how it can apply as easily to post-19 and work-based learning circumstances.
It’s hard, for instance, to see how you would assess character formation at a college of an apprentice they only see once a week on day-release? Also, how can you can reasonably sample what a large college does in many different locations? I don’t quite see in that inspection framework how you would have a proper way of understanding responsiveness to local economic need and I don’t see that Ofsted has the expertise currently to make those kinds of assessments.
How do you assess the relationship between Leps and colleges?
All but, I would say, two Leps — and I’m not going to name the two — are now engaged with their colleges. The way in which they are engaged is different in every place. I’m much happier now that Leps are engaged with colleges.
We’ve now got to talk about the quality of that engagement and the quality of the conversations they’re having on both sides. I think without trying to lay down one model, I am interested in the notion of outcome agreements between colleges and their
Leps, but I’d prefer that come from the college to say ‘This is what we’re proposing to do with the monies we have been allocated by government, does this seem right to
you? Are there things you think we ought to be adjusting the mix around?’
Main pic Martin Doel outside the AoC’s central London HQ
Discount supermarket Aldi has revealed plans to create up to 1,000 apprenticeships as it looks to double its high street presence in the UK.
The German chain announced last week it was planning to double its UK store numbers to 1,000, creating up to 35,000 new jobs — around 1,000 of which would be apprenticeships, training towards store management roles.
An Aldi spokesperson said its £600m investment plan included the creation of “at least one apprenticeship position per store, per year, which would see the employment of between 600 to 1,000 apprentices each year as Aldi strives towards 1,000 stores.”
A spokesperson for the firm declined to said who its lead provider would be and would also not say at what levels the apprenticeships would be in.
However, he said: “Apprentice training and development will be supported by a new Apprenticeship Academy located at Aldi’s offices and distribution centre in Bolton, which is due to open in March 2015.”
Prime Minister David Cameron welcomed the investment while visiting Aldi’s UK headquarters in Warwickshire on Monday (November 10).
Mr Cameron said: “Aldi’s plans to create tens of thousands more jobs across the country are a vote of confidence in our long-term economic plan.”
The expansion plan comes after Aldi has increased its retail market share to 4.8 per cent over the past few years as discount chains have attracted customers away from the ‘big four’ supermarkets — Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons.
Aldi currently has around 300 apprentices and the apprenticeship increase will place it far above Sainsbury’s — which said it had 200 level three apprentices training on its team leader programme.
By contrast, Morrisons has 2,600 level two and three apprenticeships across a range of job roles, including food production, refrigeration and management.
Tesco offers apprenticeships from level two in retail to level four in technology and in fashion retail.
A spokesperson said the company offered “thousands” of its level two retail apprenticeships, but declined to give more specific figures or comment on how many apprentices it had.
No one from Asda was available to comment on its apprenticeships, but its careers website claims it offers apprenticeships in retail to existing employees.
Unlike Aldi, none of the ‘big four’ recruit into apprenticeships roles — their apprenticeships are completed by existing employees.
Vocational education and skills was top of the agenda when top politicians addressed business leaders last week.
Prime Minister David Cameron, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and Labour leader Ed Miliband all spoke about FE when they addressed the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) annual conference in London on Monday.
Mr Cameron praised businesses for their role in securing 2m apprenticeship starts in this Parliament, and emphasised his commitment to taking the total to 3m by 2020.
He added: “The ambition I have is that all our young people, leaving school at 18 rather than 16 should be thinking ‘which path am I going to take?’ Is it either a path to university and to a degree or is it an apprenticeship and the potential of doing a degree through that apprenticeship as well.
“I want to see fewer and fewer people leaving school and going straight into the workforce, or indeed, I want to see us almost abolish youth unemployment.”
While Mr Miliband said that a “revolution” was needed in vocational education to deal with a “discontent” among the British public, Mr Clegg spoke about the need for good careers advice and guidance.
A second general FE college principal in a fortnight has issued a public safety announcement following a safety scare.
Norfolk police are investigating a deliberate chemical spill at College of West Anglia on Friday (November 7) that left 30 students needing treatment and one in hospital.
The incident prompted principal David Pomfret to speak out to ease safety concerns.
“I would like to reassure students and staff that we have already started an internal investigation to support the police and will be leaving no stone unturned to ensure this matter is brought to a speedy conclusion,” he said.
The incident was initially thought to have been caused by a gas leak but police and fire service investigators suggested CS gas, mace or pepper spray was deliberately set off.
The incident came just days after Newcastle College principal Carole Kitching announced police would be patrolling its campus as 18-year-old Liam Lyburd appeared in court accused of planning to detonate a pipe bomb at the college.
Lyburd is due before Newcastle Crown Court on November 20. Meanwhile, a Norfolk Constabulary spokesperson told FE Week that no arrest had been made in connection with the chemical incident.
How the 660 FE Week manifesto survey respondents felt about the five most popular reader-generated policy pledges
More than 600 members of the FE sector contributed to FE Week general election manifesto.
After selecting 14 key policy ideas with the help of 35 readers, an online survey was launched to determine which pledges should form our manifesto in the run-up to May’s election.
On these pages and in a 28-page manifesto document published with this edition of the newspaper, we look at the 14 pledges in detail, the five that won the most support, and the sector’s reaction to the survey.
ne education and training funding agency with merged funding streams along with funding stability over the course of a Parliament top the list of pledges in the FE Week election manifesto.
The remaining three most popular pledges to have made it into the select list were increases to the apprentice minimum wage, funding for training for all unemployed young people and free transport for full-time learners up to the age of 21.
In a telling sign of our times, funding was the theme running through the most popular pledges, whether FE funding in general, for transport, to tackle unemployment or rises in the minimum wage.
Sector leaders welcomed the results of the manifesto survey, and the message was clear — money makes the FE world go around.
Martin Doel (pictured), chief executive of the Association of Colleges (AoC), said: “It is not surprising that the call for financial stability in the FE sector has been supported most widely in this survey. We can all appreciate that the government needed to make savings, but the FE sector seems to have had more than its fair share of funding cuts.
“Good careers education is vital to support young people at the age of 14 and 16 in making decisions which could affect their whole future. AoC, through its Careers Guidance: Guaranteed, has been campaigning for career hubs in each local area for the past year, and it is something we have already raised with Nicky Morgan since her appointment as Education Secretary.
“Colleges already work closely with Jobcentre Plus to provide education and training for the unemployed but this is one area where constant funding would be useful to allow them to plan ahead. Supporting adults who are unemployed to retrain is as important for that person as it is for the UK economy.”
Dr Lynne Sedgmore (pictured), executive director of the 157 Group, said: “As the voices of those working in FE, these proposed pledges deserve serious consideration. Two key themes — stability and equity — are present in many of the suggestions.
“The ability to plan for the long-term is vital, and a funding settlement for the whole of the next parliament would be a most welcome achievement. It is also right to call for different pathways through our education system — regardless of age and type of institution — to be treated equally, both in terms of funding and quality assurance.
“The most popular pledges are all about ensuring an excellent student experience – by providing adequate financial support, by providing high quality advice and guidance, by guaranteeing teacher professionalism and by assuring the value for money of new providers. These principles cannot be argued with.”
Stewart Segal (pictured), chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP), said: “It was interesting to note that the highest-rated issue was the need to establish some policy and funding stability in the sector. This is something we have continually campaigned for.
“We are therefore not sure that changing funding departments will deliver the coherence we need. In the past we have seen duplicated policy development even within the same department.
“We believe that the apprenticeship funding reforms will only work if employers are given a choice over whether they are directly funded or the funding is instead passed to their chosen provider.
“For tackling youth unemployment, we have to build the credibility of traineeships which has to become the programme of choice for young people and avoiding new initiatives. Programmes for young people not in work should focus on high quality work related learning and work experience. This has to start with comprehensive careers information.”
David Hughes (pictured), chief executive of the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (Niace), said: “It is not surprising, in a time of great austerity, that the main focus for many people working in FE is on funding. But the longer-term game, and the real benefit of funding stability, is that it can provide the room for colleges and learning providers to invest in new, creative ways of engaging people in learning.
“We need to stimulate demand from people already in work to progress their skills, from people with very low level skills and low confidence and from employers. I hope that funding stability would give the space to help achieve that, because the long-term game for funding is about more employers paying and more people willing to invest in their own skills.”
