East Durham College catering students prepared healthy dishes for elderly residents at a care home.
The group of five level two learners visited Ashwood Park Care Home, in Durham, which provides residential and nursing care.
They prepared a special low-fat shepherd’s pie and a diabetic carrot and currant cake, using sweetener rather than sugar.
The idea behind the visit, which was in celebration of nutrition and hydration week, was to give students practical experience of working in a commercial kitchen.
Catering lecturer Lynn Smith also hoped the students’ visit had given catering staff at the home fresh ideas about healthier dining options for residents.
She said: “It was great to be able to go out and show our support for nutrition and hydration week. We had a fantastic afternoon at Ashworth and we hope our input can have a beneficial effect in the future.”
Cap: Sophie Ord, aged 18, preparing shepherd’s pie.
Chancellor George Osborne was given bricklaying tips by an apprentice.
Mr Osborne visited a site in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, where construction firm Barratt homes is building 800 new homes.
He was shown how to build a wall by level one bricklaying apprentice Tom Fyfe, aged 16, who works for Barratt and does his training with North Warwickshire and Hinckley College.
Tom said: “I’m still learning how to be a bricklayer, but I was able to pass on some bricklaying skills to Mr Osborne.
“This is something I’ve always wanted to do, and I’m really enjoying the course.”
The chancellor’s visit followed his announcement, in last week’s budget, that a scheme providing employers with grants of up to £1,500 for each apprentice they train had been extended to 2016.
The apprenticeship grants for employers (AGE) scheme, which will be funded with £85m in both 2014/15 and 2015/16, had originally been due to end in December.
Cap: George Osborne lifting a breeze block and apprentice Tom Fyfe
A South Cheshire College student has proved she has a way with words after seeing her work appear in two poetry anthologies.
Lydia Eccleston entered a competition, along with thousands of other budding poets from across the country, to get her work printed by United Press.
The 17-year-old English literature, English language and philosophy A-level student was one of 200 poets chosen by the publisher for anthology Between the Lines, which featured her poem, called Blood Black and Truth Blue.
United Press then decided to use another of her poems, called Beautiful Addiction, in its National Poetry Anthology for 2014.
First year dance students have also choreographed a routine to a recording of her reading Beautiful Addiction. Lecturers are planning to use more of her poems for routines in future.
Lydia said: “I write at least one poem a day in my spare time and decided to start sending some of my work to national publications and entering competitions to see whether it would capture the imagination.
“I was thrilled to have my poem published in the National Poetry Anthology which felt like a real achievement.”
Dance lecturer Kema Ekpei said: “When we became aware of Lydia’s poetry talent, we had some of her poems professionally recorded and they are being used as backing tracks for student dance routines.” She is a very talented individual.”
Talented students from 20 sixth form colleges had their artwork displayed at the House of Commons.
The exhibition, which displayed 21 works of art by 21 students including still life, portraits and landscape scenes, was organised by the Association of Colleges (AoC) and attended by Education Secretary Michael Gove.
One of the chosen artists Frances Reynold, aged 17, an art and design A-level student from Sir John Deane’s College, in Cheshire, exhibited an image created with a combination of charcoal and paint of St Paul’s Cathedral, in London.
She said: “I’d been on a tour of St Paul’s and we went into the viewing gallery.
“When we came down I got a good perspective and then started drawing from that. It’s really humbling to have been chosen for this exhibition because it’s such a prestigious event.”
Alice Smith, 17, who is studying A-level fine art at Cardinal Newman College, in Lancashire, exhibited a watercolour painting of a cabbage.
She said: “I have always loved watercolours and doing realist paintings, which is why I chose to paint the cabbage. It is part of a wider set of work including a courgette and a mushroom, which uses a range of colour palettes.”
Cap: Frances Reynold shows her picture to Martin Doel, chief executive of the Association of Colleges
Television and film students found themselves in the frame for high praise after filming and editing a video to boost confidence in local policing.
Five level two students at Darlington College worked on the video, which features officers giving out crime reduction advice and helping reduce antisocial behaviour through high-visibility street patrols.
Senior officers were so impressed with the results that the students received a superintendent’s commendation — an accolade normally reserved for non-police officers who show outstanding bravery to prevent crime or protect others.
Durham Chief Superintendent Graham Hall said: “We have been trying to engage with the public to get our messages over and we are delighted with the work the students have done to achieve this.”
Course tutor Mike Chapman said: “There is no substitute for working to real-life pressures, having a client to please — so this has been an incredible learning experience for them.”
Visit www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0oLK_3XGyI to view the video.
Cap: Students Reece Nash, Aidan Fisher, both aged 19, Aaron Ball, Danielle Jameson, both 18, and James Liddell, 19, with Darlington neighbourhood inspector Mick Button (left) and Chief Superintendent Graham Hall
Local enterprise partnerships seemed to be the next big thing for FE and skills in late 2012 when Lord Heseltine called for a single funding pot that included the adult skills budget.
Fears emerged that a lack of FE and skills representation among Lep boards might see sector cash used elsewhere, on infrastructure projects, for instance.
But with Chancellor George Osborne having announced his own take on Lord Heseltine’s proposals, with a smaller amount of sector cash up for grabs,
FE Week reporter Paul Offord looks at whether fears should remain about who fights the FE and skill corner at Leps.
Lord Heseltine called for a single funding pot for Leps that would have included the entire adult skills budget
There were raised eyebrows when Tory grandee Lord Heseltine called for control of the entire skills budget to be passed from the Skills Funding Agency to local enterprise partnerships (Leps).
The former deputy prime minister’s report of late 2012, No stone unturned in pursuit of growth, suggested that £17bn of skills cash over four years from 2015 should go directly to Leps.
The concern was that skills cash, without the protection of ring-fencing could go, for instance, towards infrastructure projects instead.
The only protection for the skills agenda, it seemed, was a strong sector proponent on the Lep board, but an Ofsted survey and report in March last year warned: “FE remains under-represented at the highest strategic level on Lep boards.”
It added: “The majority of Leps were not sufficiently well informed about learning and skills provision in their area.”
But when Chancellor George Osborne said he would be implementing Lord Heseltine’s idea, what emerged was an annual Single Local Growth Fund of just £2bn.
Handing over the entire skills budget had been rejected in Mr Osborne’s 2015/16 spending review, although included in the new fund would be almost all cash available to FE providers for capital spending projects (around £330m a-year).
It will mean, for example, that colleges will have to apply to their Lep, instead of the agency, for money to build most new training facilities.
The agency confirmed it would still distribute a “small” additional capital spending budget to providers — but declined to comment on how much money would be involved.
Meanwhile, control over the spending of £5.3bn up to 2020 from the European Union structural and investment funds will also be handed over to Leps.
The funding has to be spent on business, transport, environmental, or education and training projects that help drive regional development and FE providers can apply for a share.
So, while the Leps project isn’t on the scale imagined by Lord Heseltine, they will nevertheless have control over FE and skills pursestrings.
With that in mind, research carried out by FE Week has shown that many Lep boards have little or no representation from the sector.
Just 28 (5 per cent) of the 611 members of all Lep boards were currently involved with FE, while another 10 (2 per cent) had past experience of the sector.
It compares to 54 board members with present or past higher education experience and 14 with current or previous links to primary and secondary schools.
And we found that 14 Lep governing boards had no FE representation at all.
From left: Ann Limb, David Hughes and Christine Double day
The findings follow a call by Oftsed (in its 2012/13 annual report on FE and skills) for “more support” to be shown to FE by Leps.
Dr Ann Limb OBE, chair of the South East Midlands Lep, was principal of Milton Keynes College from 1986 to 1996 and Cambridge Regional College from 1996 to 2001, before moving to the charitable and private sector.
She said: “It is definitely a very good idea to have FE fully engaged with Leps. There are a number of ways they can do this — and one of those is through participating in board meetings.
“Another way of improving FE influence on Leps can be through some kind of skills and employment committee, which we and many other Leps already have.
“We have representatives on ours from all nine FE colleges in our area and one sixth form college. They all work well together through the committee which helps with strategic planning.
“They all did a brilliant job of drawing up our skills plan for the next three to five years and the main Lep board approved it.”
Dr Limb explained the committee elects one of its members to represent it on the board.
She said: “It happens to be someone from higher education at the moment [vice chancellor of the University of Northampton Nick Petford] but it could just as easily be someone from FE.
“There might be some scope for reserving a place [on the main LEP board] for someone from FE, as well as someone from higher education, but there is the danger of the board becoming too big and meetings too long and inefficient — which board members from the private sector in particular would not approve of.”
Skills Minister Matthew Hancock had also said in December 2012 that Leps would be given “sign-off” on granting colleges and training providers Chartered Status.
But the quality mark has still not been introduced and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) said there were now no plans to ask Leps to approve applications.
A BIS spokesperson further confirmed it was encouraging all Leps to have college representatives on their boards.
But he added the final decision on board membership would remain with individual Leps and minimum quotas would not be introduced.
He said: “The government gave Leps a new role setting local skills strategies. To that end, each Lep will be encouraged to have a seat on FE colleges’ governing bodies with colleges also represented on Lep boards.
“Leps are business-led partnerships whose activities are driven by local economic circumstances and priorities. They themselves are best placed to identify the most appropriate representatives to sit on their boards.”
David Hughes, chief executive of the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education, said he had seen a “good appetite” from Leps across the country for “supporting” the sector.
But, he said: “The lack of FE representation on Lep boards in some areas is of concern.
“However, strong partnerships between FE colleges, local authorities and local employers predate Leps in many areas of the country and will continue to be the foundation of strong local learning and skills strategies.
“What’s important is focusing on strengthening these partnerships given Leps’ new responsibilities for learning and skills.”
Christine Doubleday, deputy executive director of the 157 Group, said: “We are, of course, concerned about the lack of interplay between Leps and FE.
“Leps have, on their doorstep, a public asset which offers them access to thousands of employer relationships and to the future talent of this country.
“An alliance between Lep chairs, FE corporation chairs and principals would be a mighty powerful force to be reckoned with.”
Lindsay McCurdy, from Apprenticeships4England, thought there should be a minimum of one FE representative on each Lep board.
She said: “FE has to be represented on them all — it’s no good someone from higher education trying to represent us. These Leps are going to be so influential on our sector and it’s important they understand how we work.”
A spokesperson for the Association of Employment and Learning Providers said: “FE and skills representation on the boards would obviously be desirable, but we know that providers are getting engaged at committee level and we would encourage more to do so.”
But business leaders were reluctant say whether or not there should be more FE representation on Lep boards.
The Confederation of British Industry (CBI), Federation of Small Businesses, and Forum of Private Businesses (FPB) all declined to comment on the issue.
The next few weeks will be vital if LEPs are to strike growth deals with government that empowers colleges and other providers to play a full and imaginative part in driving local economic growth.
It’s clear that the skills and employment plans for growth, submitted by Leps before Christmas, are a mixed bag.
Several of them would have benefitted from more expert guidance from FE representatives at Lep board level — as well as at skills and employment task group level.
Where things work well, colleges have been prepared to think collectively and imaginatively about supporting the plans.
For example, London colleges and Association of Colleges London region have agreed the secondment of a college director to work with the London Lep on its growth deal.
But where there has been poor engagement, the plans submitted are likely to lack rationale or supporting evidence and be confused about funding, programmes and what, if any, flexibility is required.
If we get this right, there will be opportunities to make a huge difference, but the challenges are big and the timescales short.
Leps often have laudable ambitions for skills — some plans will for example incentivise local careers guidance partnerships and FE/higher education collaboration, which opens routes for young people with local employers into higher skills roles in key industrial sectors.
But Leps need FE and skills expertise in order to draw up properly evidenced, realistic and imaginative plans.
It’s not easy when a university vice chancellor is asked to represent higher education, FE, skills and apprenticeships on a Lep board — or when representatives from local authority economic development teams struggle towards a skills and employment plan without expert engagement from colleges and providers.
Those Leps who already get it should secure skills deals that bring benefit. Let’s see quick action elsewhere to inject FE and skills expertise to achieve deals that can stick.
Teresa Frith, senior skills policy manager, Association of Colleges
The 39 Leps are currently immersed in the process of producing and getting their strategic economic plans signed off by central government.
From what I have seen skills and employability are central to every plan.
If the upturn in the economy is to be cemented, then gaps in skill provision will need to be filled and training providers will have to find effective ways of working with business.
Leps will be absolutely central to this process, acting as an intermediary.
The question is how should FE best play into the regeneration of local economies?
Is it by trying to get a seat on the Lep board, or by showing their capability to engage, work and deliver for business and for local people? I would say the answer is the latter.
I recently met with senior staff at Burton and South Derbyshire College and was hugely impressed with their clear focus on understanding what business needed from them.
From that they continue to deliver the programmes that really benefit the community. Interestingly the conversation was not about structures, but about delivery.
The frustration that a number of the Leps feel over the current system of delivery is evident from the economic strategies.
They make the point that companies are prepared for training as long as it is the right training
The problem is that in too many cases the right training is not available or business does not know how to access it. If they cannot find it they will turn to other forms of provision, which will be increasingly through e-learning platforms.
So colleges that can gain labour market intelligence and work with employers to develop the courses they need will be well placed to prove themselves as an essential component of local economic growth.
I would argue that this is best done through a strong relationship on the ground with employers, and not by thinking that this can be achieved through simply being on the board of a Lep.
Among the areas of Ofsted praise heaped upon North Somerset’s outstanding Weston College earlier this year Foundation English. Dave Trounce explains how the college putting core skills at the centre of the whole college curriculum.
The flurry of excitement which greeted the post-Christmas announcement that our Foundation English programme at Weston College was deemed by Ofsted to be outstanding almost — but not quite — caused us to miss the fine details of the inspection report.
In particular, one word jumped out at — “remarkable”.
“The team has had a significant and remarkable impact on improving vocational teachers’ confidence,” it said.
The team it was talking about had only been in existence for a few months, and the inspectors were praising them like veterans of a hard-won and lengthy campaign. The truth is we’re only at the start of the journey. Even so, there is no doubt that already we are making a remarkable impact right across our college.
It seems to be a tradition among colleges that the specialist teaching of English — and maths — is hived off to individual faculties to deliver. Our ambition was different; we wanted to bring it front and centre and make it a core priority for all aspects of college provision.
Of course, there are government expectations too. It would like all school-leavers who do not have a GCSE grade C in maths or English to work towards this during post-16 studies, and from September this year it will be a condition of funding for all colleges.
Our emphasis is not just on encouraging students through qualifications, it is about supporting the curriculum areas to better enable the teaching of English and maths
A recent number-crunching exercise revealed that around 40 per cent of our students do not have A to C in English, with a slightly higher percentage failing to get the same grades in maths. This is broadly in line with the national average, but it does mean we have some real work to do.
However, ambition is one thing; getting the right teachers trained to the highest standards is another.
Our emphasis is not just on encouraging students through qualifications, it is about supporting the curriculum areas to better enable the teaching of English and maths, and about upskilling staff to really deliver these subjects.
We cannot and will not just ask anyone to deliver; it has to be a high-performing team that can work within a campus-common timetable model to contextualise English and maths for each curriculum area.
We have not been afraid to innovate and experiment. For example, learners in our creative art and design faculty have been given an ‘English diary’ which allows the student, their vocational tutor and the specialist English tutor to implement a seamless approach to English development — including a standardised marking system we feel sets a benchmark for other colleges — that is integral to their understanding of the subject.
We have also looked at collaborative models, including an embedded specialist English teacher working alongside vocational tutors in our hairdressing and beauty therapy department that has made a significant impact on learners’ progress.
Where next? Well, we’re great believers in growing our own staff and from April 30 we will be delivering an English and maths advancement programme for teachers, trainers, support workers and assessors. This will deliver levels three and five in both subjects. Also, we’re keen to implement English and maths hubs in each of our three campuses and we hope to set up such zones in the next academic year.
Ultimately, we would like to see our specialist teachers deliver GCSEs and also at level three for students who already have A to C, as part of the Technical Baccalaureate. This would stretch and challenge students who will benefit from higher level qualifications. By then, we would hope our vocational teachers are sufficiently skilled to teach English and maths at Functional Skills level.
The world of publicly-financed FE is a diminishing one. Andy Gannon makes the case for defending the sector from further government cuts with a new, morality-based dialogue.
So, perhaps unsurprisingly, the adult skills budget faces a cut of around 15 per cent.
It goes without saying that this is regrettable — we all know that adult skills is a key area of work for FE, and of vital importance if we are to get more people in work and productive in their lives.
In an excellent article in the New Statesman recently, John Elledge bemoaned the lack of public outcry at this decision, but this is not news to those of us working in the sector.
Perhaps more cuttingly, he criticised sector leaders for not shouting more loudly, adopting, as many have done, the ‘it could have been worse’ line.
What such criticism fails to acknowledge is that we face a stark choice as a result of this and other recent funding decisions about the kind of sector we want to be part of in the future.
It is true that, in the past, we have perhaps tugged our forelocks a little too quickly and bemoaned being done unto, but I wonder if our current situation signals a desire that we can be at the forefront of new developments.
There have been plenty of voices recently urging the sector to be less reliant on public finance. From Vince Cable to David Russell, the message is becoming ever clearer — don’t dwell on where your money came from in the past, just go out and find some new money.
Whether it be from muscling in on apprenticeship trailblazers, embracing employer ownership pilots or actively supporting new types of school, FE leaders with a bit of nous are already ahead of the game.
The era of ‘survival of the fittest’ both financially and in terms of quality is clearly upon us
Whatever your personal view of its rights and wrongs, the era of ‘survival of the fittest’ both financially and in terms of quality is clearly upon us.
And I am sure that the entrepreneurial spirit of many FE leaders will ensure that a great many are not only very fit, but also survive into longevity.
There is, however, another side to all this. A criticism that, some would say, could more fairly be levelled at FE sector leaders is that they are obsessed with the detail of policy change.
If schools or universities were targeted, their leaders would talk as loudly about the impact on education as they would about the impact on institutions. They would not hesitate to take a moral stance on the very purpose of education itself.
It seems to me that FE talks rather more often about what we do than about why we do it — and therein lies a big difference.
I know that we have teachers and leaders who care passionately about why they go to work every day, but that part of our voice is not very loud.
I am, as yet, unsure whether that leads to, or results from, the apparent belief of policymakers that the way to improve things in FE is to constantly tinker with minutiae, rather than revisit the very purpose of the whole enterprise. Either way, it’s not healthy.
So, where adult funding is concerned, let us quietly get on with the business of making our institutions survive financially — yes. But let us also engage in some loud discussion about moral principles.
It is surely wrong for adults to have to pay for a basic level of education — let’s say up to level two — when the main reason for their not having it is failings in the school system. There is a case we can argue with conviction, not because it protects FE, but because it is morally right.
It would, at least, give us a starting point for an adult discussion that we, with justification, should be leading rather than falling victim to.
Andy Gannon, director of policy, PR and research, 157 Group
