Stoke on Trent College learner Marlena Luczak has been named Student Hairdresser of the Year at the 2014 British Hairdressing Awards.
The 28-year-old level two hairdressing student was one of thousands of learners from FE providers and commercial salons who entered the competition by submitting four photos of a hairstyle created on a model.
The judges were particularly impressed with Marlena’s “red carpet” hair style that involved pinning up long hair in to what she called an “elegant and classic” plaited bun.
She recreated the look on a model ahead of the presentation ceremony in London, organised by the Hairdressing Council and L’Oreal, where she collected her trophy and more than £100-worth of hair care products.
Marlena said: “I really was not expecting to win so it was a bit of a shock. Everyone has been so supportive and people I don’t even know have been coming up to me around college to congratulate me.”
Hairdressing lecturer Jason Davies said: “Marlena is amazingly talented.
“It is a first for the college and we are all so very proud.”
Picture Caption:
From left: Veronika Pantina, who modelled the winning hair style, with hairdressing student Marlena Luczak
Photography learners showed faith in a heavily tattooed college chaplain they used as a model for a series of striking pictures for their course portfolios.
Rob Popejoy, aged 30, who is an Anglican Christian, is a multi-faith chaplain at City of Bath College. Level three photography student Fen Petch-Eades, aged 17, recently took photos of his hands, which are covered in faith-inspired tattoos, for her course portfolio.
Family-friend Harriet Evans, 18, also took pictures of him for her level three photography course at City of Bristol College before graduating in July 2013.
He joked: “It’s great that people recognise I look different and think that I’d look good in photos, but I’m not about to give up my day-job and launch a modelling career.”
Fen said: “I’d noticed all of Rob’s tattoos and just thought his hands would make a really interesting photo.”
Harriet said: “I decided that I wanted a quirky person with tattoos to be photographed in a bow-tie. As Robbie’s personality is naturally relaxed in front of a camera the photographs just came out really well.”
Picture Caption: Rob Popejoy in a photo taken by photography student Harriet Evans.
With around 900 apprentices left uncertain of their future following the administration of Phones 4U, Jane Byford considers the legal position for learners, and also providers, in such a situation.
Although the economy is recovering and most businesses are gradually making their way out of the recession, the risk of going into administration still remains, as demonstrated recently by the demise of Phones 4U.
Insolvency affects all individuals who work for an organisation, but what particular impact does it have on apprentices and their training providers?
As a starting point, it is important to draw a distinction between “contracts of apprenticeship” and “apprenticeship agreements”.
Contracts of apprenticeship are traditional apprenticeship arrangements, the primary purpose of which is to provide training rather than performing work for the employer.
In contrast, apprenticeship agreements are entered into and governed by the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009 and are akin to standard employment contracts.
The agreement is usually between the employer, the apprentice and the training provider and the arrangement must fulfil certain criteria.
At the end of the agreement, the apprentice will receive a recognised qualification and it is not the employer who provides the training but the training provider — often an FE institution.
Terminating apprenticeship contracts is less straightforward than terminating the contracts of other workers and employees.
While most employers are familiar with the rules governing dismissal of employees, ie there must be a fair reason and a fair process followed, many employers are unaware that an apprenticeship cannot necessarily be terminated in the same way as other fixed term contracts.
Without a replacement employer, the apprenticeship often cannot be completed
As the primary focus of a contract of apprenticeship is to provide training, an employer can only terminate the contract in limited circumstances eg severe misconduct or closure of the business.
If the employer terminates in other circumstances, it can be liable for loss of earnings and training for the remainder of the apprenticeship.
On the other hand, apprenticeship agreements can be terminated lawfully provided that the dismissal is fair and in accordance with the contract itself.
Where the employer goes into administration, unfortunately apprentices do not have protection over and above that afforded to other employees.
If the employer becomes insolvent and the employment is terminated, the National Insurance Fund (NIF) guarantees payment of certain employment debts, including up to eight weeks’ arrears of pay (with a cap on the amount that can be claimed as “weekly pay”) and certain amounts in respect of holiday pay, notice pay and redundancy payments.
The NIF also guarantees payments in respect of reasonable apprentices’ fees or premiums, with no cap on what can be recovered, but this protection extends to apprentices themselves, not to the training provider.
On insolvency there is no right to recover loss of future earnings and training, as is usually the case when a contract of apprenticeship is terminated.
Often, apprentices and their training providers will find that, despite the significant amount of time and money that has been invested in the apprenticeship, without a replacement employer, the apprenticeship cannot be completed.
The Skills Funding Agency (SFA) has confirmed that, in such situations, it will seek to identify potential alternative providers and to manage the transfer of apprentices to new providers, as well as redistributing funding to ensure learners and public funds are protected.
While there is no guarantee an apprentice will be safeguarded in the event of their employer going into administration, there is hope the SFA will assist where possible.
This may provide some comfort to apprentices who find themselves without an employer due to insolvency and indeed the SFA has confirmed it is striving to support those apprentices of Phones 4U who wish to continue and complete their apprenticeships.
However, it is well worth FE institutions having and maintaining links with numerous employers, so that they can assist apprentices in finding alternative employer in circumstances such as these.
The Manchester College is set for a new principal next month.
Lisa O’Loughlin takes over from Jack Carney having joined the college in July last year as a vice principal, from Blackburn College, where she was deputy principal.
She starts in the post from November 1 and will work alongside Mr Carney until his retirement on December 19.
John Thornhill, group chief executive of The Manchester College, said: “The combination of Lisa’s leadership style, her experience, knowledge and track record in the sector and her passion for quality and the success of all learners, makes Lisa the ideal successor to lead the college forward on the next stage of our exciting development plans.”
Sue Murphy, governors’ board chair, said: “I am delighted to announce the appointment of Lisa O’Loughlin as principal of The Manchester College.
“On behalf of The Manchester College’s board of governors, I’d like to congratulate Lisa on her new role and I look forward to working with her. This is an important and exciting appointment which I believe will be exactly what is needed to take the college forward at this point. Lisa shares the board’s passion for the college’s continued success and dedication to its mission.
“I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Jack Carney, for his long service and contribution to the college. He has worked tirelessly to raise aspirations, improve lives and support learners from all backgrounds to achieve.”
Meanwhile, the man charged with unifying Ofsted’s FE and skills inspection regime with all other education sectors is to step down from the education watchdog at the end of the year.
Mike Cladingbowl, national director of inspection reform, will be leaving his post on January 1 to become executive principal of a new multi-academy trust in North West England.
It is understood that until then he will continue working on proposals to merge all education inspections under a single framework from September next year, just three years after the current FE and skills common inspection framework (CIF) was introduced.
He said: “I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my national role with Ofsted and being able to make a real difference to education standards in England over the last 12 years.”
He added: “This is the right time for me to be taking on a new challenge. I’m very excited to be returning to my roots in Cheshire and being more directly involved in making a difference in schools. Before that, I still have a big job to do steering through Ofsted’s forthcoming consultation on the future of education inspection.”
Niace is calling for adults to have an entitlement to career reviews, not just in mid-life but at other points in their lives, including returning to work from maternity leave, long-term sick leave and caring responsibilities. David Hughes explains why.
Why, when most of us will now work for 50 or more years, do we expect people to make do with the (often inadequate) careers advice they had at school?
This is even more baffling when we know that people will change career many times and jobs will change enormously in coming years.
This lack of advice and support comes to a head at times of transition — perhaps re-entering the labour market after caring for children, or after redundancy, for instance.
The other big transition we have been looking at in the last year is when people enter mid-life — around the time we reach 50.
This is the age at which most people really start to think about retirement, and it often coincides with concerns about ill health, caring responsibilities, children starting their adult lives and even leaving home.
It is also a time when some people have paid off their mortgage and can see new opportunities.
This is why our Mid-life Career Reviews, which have since become part of the government’s Fuller Working Lives Proposals and have also been endorsed by the Liberal Democrats as part of their Manifesto, are such an effective intervention.
The economic case for helping people in mid-life make the right choices about their careers is profound.
The economic case for helping people in mid-life make the right choices about their careers is profound
Our society is going through a fundamental change. People are living much longer. One-in-six of us is over 65, but by 2050 it will be one-in-four.
Over the next decade there will be almost twice as many vacancies as there will be new entrants to the labour market. There is also a powerful social case — staying in work can help people feel valued and valuable, contributing rather than taking. That makes for better communities and stronger families as well as a stronger economy.
The latest evidence from our Mid-life Career Review Pilot Programme shows that, even though most people want to stay working, the majority end up retiring as soon as they can.
This is often due to ill health or not being able to find the right type of job to fit their desired lifestyle.
We have found in our work that small tweaks to designing jobs and to the workplace can help people stay working longer and that re-training can help people who are not physically able to continue in their job.
It’s absolutely vital older people have the right opportunities to develop their skills and participate in learning so they can stay productive, contribute to their employer’s success, as well as making the final years of people’s working lives dynamic and fulfilling.
Our work has shown that the Mid-life Career Review — a simple and relatively cost-effective intervention — provides the information and confidence people need to take more control of their work and their lives.
It also aligns with Ros Altman’s three Rs — as discussed at our conference last week — retaining, retraining and recruiting.
A recent House of Lords report said that we were ‘woefully underprepared for our rapidly ageing population’. That is no longer an option.
We — national and local government, employers, local enterprise partnerships, providers, charities and individuals — must work together to ensure that as Britain ages it does so in a way that benefits everyone.
And we would like to see the career review model extended to help more people, especially those returning to work from maternity leave, long-term sick leave and caring responsibilities.
People do not like to think about getting older. As a country we have been slow to consider the full demographic implications that await us, some popular, others much less so.
But the simple fact remains that people delaying their retirement and working longer can help to diffuse the ‘ticking time-bomb’ of skills shortages and skills gaps for employers, help people stave off poverty in retirement and save money from the
welfare bill.
Apprenticeship funding reforms have been thrust back into the spotlight after government figures indicated the programme was heading for the second consecutive annual drop in the number of starts.
Provisional data shows that in 2013/14 the number of all-age apprenticeship starts was 432,400, a 13 per cent fall from the comparable figures for 2012/13.
Although the number of 16 to 18-year-olds starting apprenticeships rose 5 per cent to 117,800 since last year, the number of 19 to 24-year-olds fell 3 per cent to 156,900.
And the number of 25 + apprenticeships — the largest apprentice age group — tumbled from 222,200 to 157,700, a drop of 29 per cent.
The government figures, published in the Statistical First Release (SFR) on Thursday (October 16), also suggest the number of people starting apprenticeships has dropped for the second year running.
The final figures for 2012/13 showed the first drop in apprenticeship take-up in seven years (from 510,200 to 499,800 — a 2 per cent drop) and if the provisional figures are confirmed in the next SFR (due in January), they would prove the worrying downward trend was continuing — and include level two.
Skills Minister Nick Boles pointed towards the failed FE loans system for apprentices, which applied to learners from the age of 24 and from level three and was dropped in February, as behind the drop and said he “looks forward to numbers bouncing back”.
Nut he has been warned that the hoped-for recovery in numbers remained at risk from proposals currently on his desk to make employers pay towards apprentice training costs.
Stewart Segal, chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, told FE Week: “While the increase in starts for under 19s is very encouraging, the mixed news underlines why we need to get the apprenticeship funding reforms right, especially in the context of the two main party leaders’ pledges to massively expand the programme by an extra 200,000 starts a year.
“The Skills Minister at the AELP conference on Wednesday [October 15] told providers he was ‘nervous’ about requiring mandatory cash contributions from employers and the evidence that we and other groups have presented about this proposal’s likely effect on volumes suggest that he is right to take his time about pushing ahead with it.”
Dr Mary Bousted, general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL), said: “Although it is good news that there has been a rise in the number of under 19-year-olds starting apprenticeships, it is worrying that there has been drop in the number of over 19s doing so.
“When so many young people are out of work, the government needs to do much more to encourage employers to invest in apprentices.”
Mr Boles, who told this month’s AELP autumn conference of his being “nervous” at the apprenticeship funding reform proposals, said: “I welcome the increased number of 16 to 24-year-old apprentices as well as a marked improvement in the quality of training.”
He added: “Changes in the funding of adult apprenticeships did affect the number of starts between August 2013 and February 2014.
“We have since addressed this and look forward to numbers bouncing back.”
David Hughes, chief executive of the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education, warned the “significant impact” of loans on apprenticeships could “have serious implications for the economy”.
He added the organisation had “concerns” that loans had also affected the uptake of other level three and four courses.
Meanwhile, the number of traineeship starts in the programme’s first year was provisionally put at 10,500.
Mr Boles said the figures were “excellent” and showed traineeships were off to “a strong start”.
Pictured: Nick Boles
——————————————————————————————————————————————
Editor’s comment
On the level
It wasn’t too long ago that FE Week seemed the lone voice drawing public attention to falling numbers of 16 to 18 apprenticeships starts while overall figures rocketed.
Thankfully, that teenage trend appears to have been in arrest since the third quarter of last academic year.
Unfortunately, we are now witnessing falling numbers overall — due to a decline in 19+ starts and, in the main, the 25+ age group.
But what is interesting here, and what the Skills Minister’s apprentice FE loans excuse does not take into account, is that these falls were not limited to levels three and above (those to which FE loans applied).
The failed FE loans experiment most certainly affected 25+ apprentice numbers at these levels — but why also the fall in level two?
These intermediate apprenticeship starts for the 19+ age group fell provisionally by 3 per cent to 200,200 last academic year. It was a 5 per cent fall for 25+ to 104,200.
Could the reason be that there were incorrect assumptions that 24-plus FE loans also applied to level two apprenticeships?
With the quality of advice and guidance again the source of criticism this week (see page seven), it’s a conclusion we might just have to consider while thinking seriously about the wisdom of further funding reforms for apprenticeships.
Jim Proudfoot looks at Ofqual plans for accreditation requirements.
In order for a qualification to be offered in England it must have been accepted onto the Register of Regulated Qualifications to show that it is of a required standard and fit for purpose.
Until now all these qualifications have had an “accreditation requirement”.
This means they have been individually reviewed against the General Conditions of Recognition and also against any other appropriate criteria before being accredited.
This requirement will be lifted next month.
The accreditation requirement will continue to apply to some qualifications, with Ofqual specifying A-levels and GCSEs.
Other curriculum-based qualifications and probably NVQs and qualifications aimed at apprenticeships, those deemed important enough to fund, may be specified at a later date. In fact they may not lose it at all.
Ofqual has not highlighted these qualifications and they may well keep their accreditation requirement. It has cleverly been left open. Each awarding organisation (AO) will be informed about specific qualifications and it may be that one AO has a requirement and another does not for the same qualifications.
It will not be as straightforward as it sounds.
Meanwhile, the rest will go through automatically to the register when submitted by an AO on RITS, the IT system used by the regulators as a portal to the register, but this does not mean any less scrutiny or care will apply.
Ofqual is also consulting on Guided Learning Hours (GLH) as well as the current arrangements for the QCF (Qualifications and Credit Framework).
A major outcome of these initiatives for AOs will be the significant increase in their workload just to ensure that all qualifications remain compliant with the conditions and other relevant criteria. This may also be exacerbated by a change to RITS itself and any potential risk rating that Ofqual applies. The content and structure of the vast majority of their qualifications will not change at all. It will affect funding.
It may be that one awarding organisation has an accreditation requirement and another does not for the same qualifications
There is considerable pressure on AOs already who are still getting used to the new system introduced by Ofqual in October 2010. It is not obvious where the breakdown in communication is. The number of recognised AOs has grown from 25 to almost 180 ranging from the very large to those with only a few qualifications — all vary in how they operate but all react in a similar way to the effects of change and to costs and funding.
Communication and clarity are the issues.
Regulations and other criteria are fairly high-level by nature otherwise they would be unworkable. The MOT certificate confirms a car is roadworthy but, legally, only applies to the time and day it is issued. It is the responsibility of the owner to maintain it or they will forfeit the right to use the road. The same applies to AOs and their qualifications.
Different messages come from different organisations at different times and rumours abound.
Ofqual has been the guardian of standards of qualifications in various guises over the years but it is led by government initiatives. Although it has a certain amount of autonomy it has to report to Parliament and implement what has been decreed.
Qualifications are the intellectual currency that indicate our potential to others and open doors of opportunity. They are also one way of measuring our own abilities and helping us achieve our goals.
There is a danger they will be undermined or devalued by risk taking and, as with the banking crisis, it will be those who can least afford to be given a chance to prove themselves who will pay the price.
A qualification is not an end in itself. It is the responsibility of the individual to use it as they see fit.
Ministers take advice from a range of experts before making a decision. Advice from groups who are not in regular communication with each other can be as detrimental as advice from one individual with nothing to compare it to.
Qualifications and curriculums are cyclical but the basics do not really go away, only the packaging changes.
While we must remain vigilant, it is the practitioners who need support to ensure we remain competitive — success will regulate success.
As the Institute for Learning (IfL) enters the last few weeks of its existence, Dr Jean Kelly’s mood is a mixture of sadness and demob happiness.
Her desk in the open plan offices the IfL shares with dozens of other third sector organisations near Old Street is surrounded by boxes as all 14 members of staff prepare to move on to new things and transfer the IfL’s legacy to the Education and Training Foundation (ETF).
Kelly, aged 65, admits she didn’t always know her tenure as chief executive, which began in May after Toni Fazaeli retired, would be so short, but she’s happy with the organisation taking the reins.
Kelly with grand-daughter Anya Rich, aged two
“There was no way that financially we could keep going as we were,” she says, having witnessed membership numbers fall in the face of increasing fees in response to withdrawal of government funding
“My brief when I took over was to look for other ways that we could really continue to make a difference.
“We tried everything in theory to do that, and nothing really stacked up because what it would mean would have been a diminution of what we were.
“For us, what was important was that qualified teacher learning and skills status [QTLS] went forward. It was such a battle to get that equivalence between qualified teacher status [QTS] and QTLS, but when it came in in 2012, I mean, that was a terrific moment for all of us.”
Kelly (centre left) after her final exams, pictured in Holywell Street, Oxford, with friends
But while Kelly will be sad to leave professional life behind, she is looking forward to having time to do other things, including spending time with her two sons and three grandchildren and enjoying life in her native Charlton.
Growing up in South East London, Kelly attended Addey and Stanhope School, in Deptford, and, like countless others, she cites the hit and miss nature of her education as one of her reasons for going into teaching.
“I had fantastic, inspirational teachers, and some really poor teachers,” she tells me.
“I think they do scar you actually, in some way — you’ve got to be quite strong to get over it. And that stays with you, and it’s something that you can pass on to other people to show that not everybody can do it, and can do it well.”
After obtaining a certificate in education at St Gabriel’s Teacher Training College, in London, she taught in primary schools in the London boroughs of Bromley and Croydon while also studying with the Open University, an organisation she still enjoys a professional relationship with to this day.
But Kelly craved specialism, and at the age of 40 decided to defy convention by going to Oxford.
“It was daunting,” she says. “I saw an advert in the paper, and it said Harris Manchester College was opening its doors to mature students, so I thought: ‘If I’m going to go and do a degree, I want to see what it’s all about at Oxford’.
What I really
love about FE
is there’s always
an opportunity
to do something
else, something
different
“I turned up for the interview, and they thought I had come for a job as a cleaner. I had to fight to establish myself as somebody serious. And that’s what’s interesting, if you’re from a working class background, you are seen as dabbling, but I was totally serious.”
Leaving Oxford in 1992, Kelly returned to London with a fellowship at Queen Mary University where she lectured and received a PhD in 1997, and it was then that her long working relationship with FE began.
Initially managing the Cert Ed programme at Soundwell FE college in Bristol for two years, she returned to London again as manager of the BA/MA professional studies in education at Croydon College before moving on to policy roles with the Learning and Skills Development Agency and the Centre for Excellence in Leadership.
She says: “[IfL chair] Sue Crowley and I wrote an article years ago called Snakes and Ladders, and we said that in FE, your career is a bit like snakes and ladders. It’s not exactly planned, you go up and down, and you might move across or you might slide down somewhere else, and you start again.
Kelly and Europe Singh at a Centre for Excellence in Leadership event (CEL)
“It’s a bit of happenstance and being flexible. I think what I really love about FE is there’s always an opportunity to do something else, something different, and it always presents itself if you are willing to look and willing to take that chance — and I took the chances that came along. And that was really lucky for me.”
As IfL’s executive director for professional development between 2007 and 2014, Kelly presided over the highs and lows of the organisation, and laments the damage done by controversy over proposed membership fees several years ago.
“The damage that was done to us and our reputation in the preceding years was quite considerable,” she says. “It’s hard to come back from that and still get people enthused about what you are as an organisation.
“We’ve moved on and we’re through it, but it was bad. We were in the eye of a perfect storm that blew up around government, unions, employers, and we were kind of caught in the middle. And it was a shame, because we wanted to work with all of them, and to do that well, and it didn’t turn out
that way.
“And of course the real fallout from that was the deregulation of qualifications, of having to remain in good professional standing, of having to have QTLS. That’s a pity. That’s a real pity”
Kelly admits she hadn’t planned on retiring so soon, but decided after the plan to close the IfL was announced that it presented an opportunity “to do things I have always wanted to do”. The death of her trade unionist husband Brian last year was also a factor.
Whether it’s the comfort of impending retirement, or perhaps because she has always been quite outspoken, Dr Kelly is more than happy to share her views on the current government and its education policies.
“We were in the eye of a perfect storm that blew up around government, unions, employers”
“I don’t think the damage has really kicked in yet,” she warns.
“If there is a change of government in May, which I hope there will be, and if that change means going back to what has always been the bedrock of education in this country, then I think the damage could be contained, and it can be rectified. But if it goes on for years and years and years in this way, it could do untold damage.”
As our interview comes to an end, it’s obvious that Dr Kelly’s will not be a quiet retirement, although she insists she will not materialise in the offices of ETF chief executive David Russell.
She laughs when I suggest there might be a Greenwich Borough councillor or London Assembly member in her yet, but certainly doesn’t rule anything out.
Kelly aged five
She says: “I think if you don’t feel that whatever you are doing is making a difference, then I can’t see why you would want to carry on, to be honest. It’s important. It’s a social responsibility, it’s a human responsibility, so yes — I would like to do something like that, yes.
“I desperately want to write and go back and do some work with the Open University, and also the University of the Third Age.
“I am in discussions with the Ministry of Justice because I would quite like to be a magistrate, but apparently I’m too old. They have said I need to talk to the Lord Chancellor, so I am pursuing that.”
What is your favourite book, and why?
The Riverside by Chaucer. I spent more than five years reading every page of this for my PhD thesis and my teaching. I just love language and the history of language and that’s what Chaucer is all about
What is your pet hate?
Queue jumping. At airports, on buses, trains and in shops — in particular those people who do it pretending they haven’t noticed a queue at all
What do you do to switch off after work?
I go home, cook, watch Channel 4 news — I’m very good at putting things into perspective
If you could invite anyone, living or dead, to a dinner party who would it be?
Family. They always turn out to be the best parties after all
What did you want to be when you were growing up?
It sounds boring but I always, always wanted to be a teacher. I used to teach my teddies using a blackboard and easel and a range of chalks. My techniques improved over the years
Further education colleges have a vital role to play in bringing digital skills qualifications up to date to boost computer literacy, a group of Lords has heard.
The House of Lords digital skills committee heard the adult skills budget (ASB) was being spent on the “wrong sort of IT” from a panel of expert witnesses on Tuesday (October 14).
The committee, chaired by Lady Morgan of Huyton, is taking evidence on the digital capability of the nation.
Karen Price OBE, chief executive e-skills UK, the sector skills council for business and information technology, told the committee: “We need to look very seriously at the role of FE colleges and what they can contribute.”
The FE sector, she said, needed to offer short, focussed IT courses for those who wanted digital skills for their job but were not necessarily digital specialists.
But, she said: “The funding system currently works against it. We have an enormous adult skills budget and a lot of it is spent on IT but it’s the wrong sort of IT — it’s qualifications that are 10 years old and very out of date.
“Colleges’ offer is driven by where they can access funding, these qualifications and courses need repurposing.
“It’s not going to cost us any more money and then the amount of adult skills budget spent on it can be spent on relevant material that the market and the community need.”
The Office for National Statistics estimates 2.2m people in the UK have no technical skills, 10.8m have only social or “citizen” digital skills, 13.6m who have non-specialist IT work skills, and 2.9m “digital makers” work in technology-focussed roles.
Rachel Neaman, chief executive of Go ON UK, agreed digital skills qualifications needed constant updating to cover new technologies.
“The idea of setting a curriculum that’s going to last for five to ten years in the digital space is clearly no longer feasible,” she told the committee.
“At the moment the adult skills budget is just over 2bn and yet some qualifications are not relevant to today’s digital world —
those are not going to help us become a
digital nation.”
She added the UK needed to “face the fact that digital literacy has become the fourth pillar of literacy — you have reading, writing, arithmetic and then you have digital skills.”
Maggie Philbin, leader of the UK Skills Taskforce, said: “You don’t get to GCSE, A-level or apprenticeship and stop, learning has to go on otherwise it becomes out of date or obsolete.
“With digital skills… we need to be able to access training at any age no matter what your background… and FE is ideally placed
to do that.”
At previous a committee meeting last month, National Institute of Adult Continuing Education chief executive David Hughes said Local Enterprise Partnerships had made “patchy progress” in helping learners improve digital skills and needed more responsibility.
The committee continues to take evidence, with the next meeting due to take place on October 21.
She recreated the look on a model ahead of the presentation ceremony in London, organised by the Hairdressing Council and L’Oreal, where she collected her trophy and more than £100-worth of hair care products.
