Professor Alison Wolf has told of her hopes that a new national vocational education centre to influence policy and develop best practice will address the country’s “woeful” FE research record.

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) is giving £3m for three years — with an option to extend a further two years with more funding — for a centre to explore the role of vocational education.

It has invited bids to run the new research centre, and already counts Professor Wolf as board leader. The Kings College London academic, whose government-commissioned review of vocational education for 14 to 19-year-olds was published in early 2011, told FE Week: “I am absolutely delighted that the government is funding this new research centre. We are woefully short of good, up-to-date research in this area and the new centre should be a major asset to future policy.”

She will be joined on the board and research bid assessment panel by City and Islington College principal Frank McLoughlin, whose Commission on Adult Vocational Teaching and Learning (CAVTL) last year issued a report calling for a national centre of excellence to be established.

Director of spatial economics research at the London School of Economics Henry Overmann and Nuffield Foundation education director Josh Hillman make up the rest of the board and panel, which is to be advised by the Education and Training Foundation (ETF). An ETF spokesperson said: “It’s an exciting prospect and an important development to help us understand more fully how to realise the vision of a vocational education and training [VET] system with employers at the heart. We are looking forward to working with the new research centre on experimentation and evaluation, building on our work on implementing the CAVTL report.”

The assessment panel will be boosted by Frank Bowley, deputy director for Skills Policy Analysis at BIS, along with representatives from the Economics and Social Research Council and the Higher Education Funding Council for England.

The BIS statement calling for bids to run the centre said there would be no restrictions on where the college could be based or the number of organisations that could enter together.

 

The apprenticeship minimum wage could rise by 23 per cent if Labour wins next year’s general election.

The party has clarified its position on the rate for apprenticeships, which went up to £2.73 per hour on Wednesday (October 1).

A party spokesperson told FE Week that under its plans, he would “expect” the Low Pay Commission (LPC) to continue with the scale of the current gap between the apprenticeship rate and the adult rate.

It comes after Ed Miliband (pictured) announced at the Labour Party conference last month that the adult rate would rise to £8 an-hour in the next Parliament if he became Prime Minister in May.

The current rate, which increased from £2.68 an hour, is 42 per cent of the adult minimum wage — currently £6.50. Based on the same percentage, the rate for apprentices would rise to £3.36 an-hour under Labour’s plans.

The Labour spokesperson told FE Week “We will set an ambitious target to make work pay with an £8 minimum wage in the next Parliament, alongside our plans to boost quality apprenticeships.

“It is right that there is a separate youth and apprentice rate, which reflects young people’s interests in training and development from employers. We would expect the Low Pay Commission to take into account the gap with the adult rate, as they do now.

“The next Labour government will also ensure that apprentices are properly rewarded by increasing the penalties for non-payment of the minimum wage.”

It comes after Skills Minister Nick Boles told an FE Week fringe event at Conservative Party conference last week that he had met with Business Secretary Vince Cable to talk about the apprentice minimum wage.

Mr Boles said: “We are very aware of this issue. It is something on which I have had meetings with Vince Cable. We have asked for certain things to be worked up, we are getting submissions.

“We are very aware of the concern and have some sympathy with it. Obviously we have another concern, which is that the last thing we want to do is choke off the supply of apprenticeships because it becomes something employers no longer think is worth their while.

“It is in a sense related to the broader discussion on the minimum wage. We want to increase it, the other party wants to increase, but we don’t want to increase it so fast that we choke off the supply of jobs.”

It also comes after an LPC consultation on all levels of the minimum wage came to an end on September 26. An LPC spokesperson told FE Week a report outlining the consultation responses would be sent to the government in February.

 

Two general further education colleges have been given the green light to open free schools in the latest round of government approvals.

Weston College and Bedford College were among the sponsors of 35 new free schools announced by the Department for Education (DfE) last week.

Weston’s free school, Bristol Futures Academy, will specialise in alternative provision for 14 to 18-year-olds with behavioural issues or who have found mainstream education challenging.

A college spokesperson said it, in partnership with Bristol City Council, had identified a shortage of such provision within the city.

The college plans to open the school with 25 pupils aged 14 and 16 from September next year, with space for 100 pupils at full capacity.

Assistant principal Jacqui Ford said: “The aim is to keep young people in school as far as possible, while providing discreet provision outside of this.

“We will be looking to empower those pupils who, for one reason or another, find being at school difficult, and making sure they see education as the key to making good decisions about their path in life.”

Although a site has not yet been chosen for the school, FE Week understands an existing site in Bristol is likely to be converted, rather that new accommodation being built.

Meanwhile, Bedford College plans to open a technical academy for 13 to 19-year-olds, specialising in science, service and creative technologies, alongside GCSEs in September 2016.

Principal Ian Pryce said: “We will be bringing in professionals from the advancing industries of science, technology, engineering and maths [Stem] to give extra special classes to make sure academy students can compete in the jobs market a decade from now.”

A college spokesperson said Bedford College research had shown there was enough local demand for the school to open in 2015.

However, after Bedford College was asked to step in and rescue the ailing Central Bedfordshire University Technical College in June, the college was given extra time to prepare its free school bid.

And Mr Pryce stressed his new free school would fill a gap in local provision.

“It isn’t about comparing what the local upper schools offer, it is about keeping up with how rest of the world is educating its young people,” he said.

“Otherwise we will be left behind, unskilled and with huge youth unemployment such as they have elsewhere in Europe already.”

The college hopes to offer places for around 624 young people. Negotiations on the location of the college are ongoing.

Two FE colleges and one sixth form college are understood to currently be bidding to open their own free schools.

Croydon College and New College Swindon want to open free schools with sixth form provision, while New College Pontefract — a sixth form college — is hoping to open a free school for 16 to 19-year-olds.

If the bids were successful, all three free schools would open in September 2016, adding to the FE sector’s existing free school offer with South Staffordshire College and Hadlow College already running one each. Richmond upon Thames College won permission earlier this year and plans to open a free school in 2017.

The latest DfE bidding window for free school application is due to close on Oct 10.

Main pic: left Jacqui Ford, right Ian Pryce

 

 

 

Hundreds of skilled young tradesmen and women from across Europe came together to compete in a range of skills at EuroSkills 2014, in Lille.

The competition kicked off with a lively opening ceremony at the 7,000-seater Zenith Arena on Wednesday (October 1) with performances from former winners, welcome speeches and a parade of competitors.

The president of WorldSkills Europe, Jos De Goey (picture below right), took to the podium to wish the competitors good luck, but told them: “Be warned, this will be no easy ride.

“We expect hard work and a high standard of know-how and commitment from you in whatever line of business you represent. In return, you will have the experience of a lifetime.”

Among the UK team at the ceremony was professional restaurant service competitor Lucy Jones, aged 20. She told FE Week: “It’s been amazing, everyone’s enjoyed every step.”

Lucy, like the other UK competitors at EuroSkills, was chosen for the provisional WorldSkills squad in June. Since then, she says, it’s been busy. Everyone works full time and then training, it’s all the days off you have, all the breaks you have you’re studying, going to training sessions and flying everywhere,” she said.

However, all the training seemed to have paid off, and all the competitors — apprentices and former apprentices — sounded confident about the competition ahead.

Calum Knott, a 22-year-old mechatronics competitor, said: “It should be a really good competition. The quality of skill is incredibly high, there are some very, very good competitors – in my category there are some people who’ve come second in EuroSkills before so we’re expecting a really tough fight but we hope to aim high.

“We’re looking forward to the challenge – there’s no point competing against people you’re better than.”

Team UK was up against competitors from 24 other European nations, all hoping to win gold, silver or bronze.

Larissa Van Ewjik (pictured above right), 18 and from the Netherlands, was competing in the hotel reception category. She said: “I’m a little bit nervous but I will do it, I’ll be OK. The people I’ve met from other countries have been really nice, really friendly. I really liked having the chance to meet them.”

The competitors faced two days of gruelling competition on Thursday and Friday, with the winners expected to be declared on Sunday evening.

For results and more coverage, look out for the FE Week supplement available online today (Monday, October 6) and free with next week’s edition.

 

The principal of an East London college that stepped in to save sixth form learners dumped over their AS-level grades by an Eton-backed school has called for all providers to “keep faith with learners”.

Eddie Playfair (pictured), as exclusively reported in FE Week sister newspaper Academies Week, has welcomed a number of former London Academy of Excellence (LAE) pupils through the doors at Newham Sixth Form College (Newvic).

They had been kicked out by LAE, which promotes itself as a feeder for “Russell Group and other high status universities,” after failing to achieve three C or above results at the end of their first year.

And they told Academies Week how they were only informed of the grade requirement during the school year — rather than during the application process.

But with Newvic offering A-levels by different awarding bodies, they face the prospect of starting all over again with a further two years of FE study. And with government funding for full-time 18-year-old learners having been cut by 17.5 per cent, the college itself is facing a further budget squeeze as it takes on the responsibility of teaching the ex-LAE learners.

Mr Playfair said: “It does seem to me that those providers who do have a very high threshold to progress from first to second year are not keeping faith with their students and are not seeing students through and not necessarily supporting students through those ups and downs of study.

“The more providers that do that, the more movement there is going to be and more students who will be affected by this. Ideally, I would prefer to see us all taking responsibility in our role, whether students do well or not.”

LAE said it told students and parents about the requirements in a letter in January. There is no information for prospective students about the policy on its website.

Head teacher John Weeks, formerly deputy head teacher at Brighton College, conceded that a “small proportion” of learners had not met the school criteria to get a place at a top university and so had since left.

“A number of students, following school-based and independent careers guidance, given both before and immediately after AS results day, have moved to other institutions who offer a broader range of courses,” said Mr Weeks.

“These moves will give them the best opportunity to secure places on university courses right for them.”

Visit academiesweek.co.uk/lae for more on this story, including Mr Weeks’ full response.