Latest news from FE Week | FE Week

Colleges sent back to drawing board after ‘aggressive’ renaming

Plans for a college name-change that a local MP branded “an aggressive act” towards nearby competitor colleges have been thrown out by Skills Minister Matthew Hancock’s officials.

Worcester College of Technology and New (North East Worcestershire) College are merging from August and wanted to become “Worcestershire College”.

But Conservative MP for Mid-Worcestershire Sir Peter Luff complained the move would have undermined rival institutions and confused potential learners.

He argued the name would have suggested the college was the leading FE provider in the county.

And it appears Mr Hancock’s officials at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) agreed. A BIS spokesperson told FE Week: “The request to change the name of North East Worcestershire College to Worcestershire College following the merger with Worcester College of Technology has been declined. All parties have been informed and the decision was taken in line with the department’s name-change guidance.

“The guidance states that a corporation name should not be confusing or misleading and as such should not wrongly suggest regional or national pre-eminence, or imply that a college serves a wider or different area than is the case. We are more than happy to consider a new name-change application.”

Both colleges accepted the decision and said they were now “working with BIS to agree an alternative”.

A spokesperson for both colleges said: “As part of the consultation process, all stakeholders were invited to comment on the name of the merged college.

“We felt that the name ‘Worcestershire College’ reflected the catchment area of our learners as we provide training throughout the county. Unfortunately, the application was unsuccessful.”

Sir Peter had written a strongly-worded email to college bosses before the decision was made. “I strongly oppose the name ‘Worcestershire College’ and have made my position very clear to the government,” he said.

“Sorry to be negative, but it is a grossly insensitive name when you are not the only FE college in the county, but one of three. South Worcestershire and Pershore [which is situated in Worcestershire, but part of Warwickshire College]… are excellent institutions that would be marginalised by the name chosen.

“This county-wide name for a college that only serves part of the county would make their marketing much more difficult and be confusing to potential students. Indeed, it looks a very aggressive act to me — I urge the governors to think again.”

Nobody from South Worcestershire College was available for comment. Warwickshire College declined to comment.

Blinder for VQ Day learner of the year

A former Runshaw College BTec media production student now working on BBC gangster drama Peaky Blinders has been named VQ Day learner of the year.

Owen Henley, aged 22, now a freelance camera assistant, was chosen from nine regional winners.

Owen, who is currently working on a second series of Peaky Blinders, starring Tom Hardy and Cillian Murphy, received the award from Edge chief executive Jan Hodges at a ceremony in London on Tuesday (June 3).

He said: “I’m so pleased, but I was really surprised to win. I was reading everyone else’s profiles and thinking they had done so well.”

Awards were also given out on the night for the newly qualified teacher of the year, which went to Bishop Auckland College sport, fitness and uniformed public services curriculum manager Katy Graham, and employer of the year, won by electrical contractor Clarkson Evans.

Pic: VQ Day learner of the year Owen Henley.

Lambeth College’s ‘indefinite strike’ heads into day four

Teachers and lecturers at Lambeth College are preparing for a fourth day of industrial action as part of their indefinite strike over contract terms for new staff.

Members of the University and College Union (UCU) walked out on Tuesday (June 3) threatening not to return until a dispute over contracts being introduced for new members of staff which the union says would leave them with longer working hours and less sick pay and holiday.

Picket lines are forming every morning from 7.30 outside the college’s Brixton, Clapham and Vauxhall sites.

The college said 100 out of its 300 staff had taken part. The union puts the number of those involved at 180.

Lambeth principal Mark Silverman (pictured) has offered free lunches to staff who continue to come into work during the strike in a move the union described as “bizarre” and “desperate”.

UCU regional official Una O’Brien said: “This desperate stunt from the college aimed at reducing support for UCU’s strike proves the old adage that there is no such thing as a free lunch.

“Staff and students want an employer prepared to listen to employees’ concerns, not a complimentary sandwich.”

A college spokesperson told FE Week: “The lunch is to offer support to staff who are working really hard to ensure classes run and exams take place.

“At the heart of the college are learners who we are focused on ensuring, get the best experience and achieve. Most staff are in working and this is a small gesture to say thank you.

“It is in no way offered to those who return to from strike as an inducement. That is just incorrect.”

Mr Silverman told FE Week last week that the new contract terms, which would affect staff beginning after April 1 this year, were “in line with sector norms”.

He added: “We are keen to resolve this — I have always said our door is open for discussions.”

For more coverage read edition 105 of FE Week, dated Monday, June 9.

Apprenticeship target in Queen’s Speech draws ‘to-ing and fro-ing’ warning on reforms

The government has been warned about “to-ing and fro-ing” on apprenticeships policy after a Queen’s Speech today in which the programme was given a target of 2m starts in England.

The annual speech sets out what the government’s priorities will be for the next term of parliament and this year apprenticeships featured just a week after the government revealed employers would be paying out a third of the training costs in future.

The Queen said: “My government will continue to deliver the best schools and skills for young people. My government will increase the total number of apprenticeship places to 2m by the end of the Parliament.”

The speech drew a swift response from Chris Jones, chief executive of the City & Guilds Group.

He said: “If we really want apprenticeships to be seen as a credible and valuable route to a career, we desperately need to see stability in the system. Too much to-ing and fro-ing on the policy around apprenticeships only serves to confuse people.

“We know businesses can benefit from taking on apprentices, particularly with ever-increasing skills gaps but things keep changing around apprenticeship policy.

“For employers and young people alike this only causes confusion. We should be making the system easier to navigate, not harder. We need a strong, stable, consistent system that meets the needs of young people, employers, and our economy.”

Guidance notes issued following the Queen’s Speech confirmed that she had been referring to the government’s target to have had 2m apprenticeship starts over the course of the Parliament.

According to figures from the government’s FE Data Library, the current total of apprenticeship starts from the beginning of the academic year 2010/11, after the current government was elected, stands at just under 1.6m.

Skills Minister Matthew Hancock responded to the speech on Twitter saying: “I’ve got my marching orders from HM Queen ‘My Government will increase the number of apprentices to 2 million by the end of this Parliament’.”

The guidance notes also outlined the government’s plans to route apprenticeship funding through employers and require a 33 per cent cash contribution from them, as outlined in FE Week last week . The guidance added: “We are also planning to route funding for apprenticeship training through employers in the future, to give them greater control and purchasing power over apprenticeship training.

“Requiring genuine co-investment will ensure employers have a greater stake in guaranteeing that the training provision their apprentices receive is of high quality.”

The Queen further announced measures to crack down on employers who fail to pay their staff the minimum wage — this could have an impact on apprentices, as a report published in October found that in 2012, more than one-in-five apprentices were not being paid the legal minimum of £2.86 an hour.

The Queen said: “Legislation will impose higher penalties on employers who fail to pay their staff the minimum wage.”

The guidance notes expanded on this by saying that parliament intended to “strengthen UK employment law by tackling National Minimum Wage abuses” through the introduction of the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Bill, due to be put before parliament before the general election in May.

Test match Pakistani cricketer bowled over by refurbishments

Pakistani test match player Yasir Ali was bowled over by South Cheshire College students’ refurbishments at his cricket club.

College staff approached Elworth Cricket Club, in Cheshire, to see if its students could help with any work that needed doing.

They were told the dining area in the clubhouse needed revamping, so level three bench joinery learners produced new wood panelling in the college workshop that matched existing woodwork around the bar.

They then spent a day fitting the panels below the serving hatch by the kitchen, which impressed Pakistan all-rounder Yasir Ali, who is overseas professional for the club.

He said: “The students have done a great job and we are pleased with the work.”

The students were supervised throughout by joinery lecturers Craig Harrop and Martin Smith.

Mr Harrop said: “The students applied themselves very well throughout the project and hopefully, it will lead to other community work for them.”

Pic from left: Bench joinery students Ryan Dennehy and Sean Ralphs, both aged 19, and Bradley Podmore, 18, Elworth Cricket Club professional and Pakistani cricketer Yasir Ali and club chairman David Buckley stand by the new-look kitchen serving area

Campus E18

Suffragette musical opens Lola’s eyes to female struggle for vote

An allegorical tale that uses birds to bring to life the story of Emmeline Pankhurst has given Essex college learners a whole new outlook on the struggle for female equality, writes Paul Offord.

Playing a character based on feminist icon Emmeline Pankhurst made musical theatre student Lolo Adaja appreciate how times have changed for women.

The 18-year-old had never even heard of the Suffragettes, who fought for women’s right to vote in the UK in the early 20^th Century, before she read the script for Angry Birds — a musical commissioned by Havering College of Further and Higher Education.

She said: “If I put my hand on my heart, I hadn’t heard of the Suffragettes before this. I was aware of the struggle against slavery, but didn’t know women had to fight so much for their rights.

“I now know that if Emmeline hadn’t campaigned so hard with the Suffragettes, the other girls on the course and I wouldn’t have had a chance to go to college. We would have just been married off young and raised children.”

The play begins in a mythical birdland and features young birds at a failing school, who are inspired by the feminist struggle.

The following plot is loosely based on the struggles of Mrs Pankhurst, leader of the British Suffragettes, and her family and friends. However, they are all birds and the lead character is called Emmeline Peahen.

It was penned by musical theatre composer Dougal Irvine, who rose to fame through musicals Departure Lounge and Britain’s Got Bhangra, as a final project for a class of nine level three learners.

Simon Gray, lecturer in musical theatre, said: “They were a special class so we wanted to do something special for their final project.

“Dougal sat the class down and asked them what issues were important to them. They discussed the portrayal of women in the media and it became clear that something related to feminism would work well.

“There are nine girls in the class and just one boy, so it worked perfectly. He decided if the Suffragettes had been alive today they would be punk rebels, like the Russian feminist group Pussy Riot.

“Then he changed it again by making the characters into rebellious birds, so it was kind of like George Orwell’s story Animal Farm too.”

As well as acting all the parts, the students also directed and choreographed the show under guidance from Mr Gray and Mr Irvine.

The musical featured 25 original songs and lasted for two hours. It was performed five times late last month in the space of a week to packed audiences at the college.

“It has been such a great experience for all of us. At the beginning we were sceptical about someone writing a whole musical for us, but as soon as we saw the script and took on board the subject matter we were so excited,” said Lola.

“I liked the concept Dougal used — as he made it about the struggle for the birds to be allowed to sing, symbolising the struggle for women to be allowed to express themselves.”

The other cast members were Eden Bishop-Jones, aged 17, Lauren Ghost, Louise Hatchard-Dougherty, Ashley Runeckles, Jemma Lord, and Molly Taylorson, and Joanna Hunt, all 18, and Lisa Steel, 20.

“It was so uplifting because there were a lot of young people who came along to see it who probably would never have thought about watching a musical before, but were interested in the subject matter and really enjoyed it,” said Mr Gray.

“It is such a good musical that would appeal to all sorts of people and we would definitely like to perform it again. We would like to film it and I think it could work if we took it to the Edinburgh Festival.”

Mr Irvine said: “I am really happy. It has been a real collaboration between me and the students and they brought a lot of ideas to the table.

“It has been empowering for them to see a show from through creation to production. They were also forthcoming with suggestions on how they could tweak it.”

Main image: Level three musical theatre students perform musical Angry Birds. Inset right: Lola Adaja Pics: Adam Sainsbury

AELP Annual National Conference 2014

Download your free copy of the FE Week 16-page supplement covering AELP Annual Conference 2014 in partnership with OCR.
Click here to download (10 mb)

Introduction

Apprenticeship reform was always expected to dominate the agenda at the Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) 2014 annual conference, and that was certainly the case on day one.

It was already clear that, despite his protestations, Skills Minister Matthew Hancock still has a long way to go before he groups such as the AELP on his side, and now they have seen the devil in the detail, it appears the Confederation of British Industry’s (CBI) support is wavering too. In this supplement, we look in detail at the proposed reforms, crunch some of the numbers and bring you coverage of the growing distance between the CBI and the government on emerging apprenticeship funding policy, an area which has usually seen them united in the past.

We are also delighted to be here to celebrate Stewart Segal’s first year in office. Last year at this very conference, then-FE Week deputy editor Chris Henwood sat down with Stewart to speak about his vision for his first year. And so this year Chris, now editor, spoke with him again to look back on an eventful first year, and ahead to one of the most important years in the FE sector’s history, with the run-up to the 2015 general election.

We also exclusively spoke to Education and Training Foundation chief executive David Russell about the important role he believes his organisation can play in promoting the work of independent learning providers. At the end of the supplement, we have special expert pieces from six of the highprofile speakers attending this year’s AELP conference, from Education Funding Agency chief executive Peter Lauener to Ofsted’s new FE and skills national director Lorna Fitzjohn.

We hope this special souvenir supplement provides the ideal accompaniment to one of the most important events in the sector’s calendar at a key time for everyone in the FE and training world.

This time next year, it could be all change for the government, and the future of FE has never been more uncertain.

Jack tackles England colleges’ rugby squad

Level one Warrington Collegiate plumbing student Jack Sherratt has been selected for the England colleges’ rugby league squad.

The prop forward, who has also been nominated for the college’s plumbing student of the year award, caught the national selectors’ eye while playing for the North West and Cumbria colleges’ representative team. The 19-year-old trained with the national squad for the first time on May 28 and is set to feature in a tour of Belgium next month.

Jack, who is also a key member of his college’s rugby team, said: “It’s a huge honour to have been selected to play for England.”

Jack’s tutor, Jon Brown, lecturer in plumbing and gas, said: “This is fantastic news. Jack is an exceptional student who has worked hard to ensure that his college work is at the same standard as his sport.”

Steve McCormack, lecturer in rugby league, said: “It’s an amazing experience to play at such a high level. Jack is certainly a talent to watch.”

Picture Caption: Jack Sherratt with plumbing tutor Jon Brown.