Students from Mid Cheshire College will be able to host shows for a community radio station that has moved to the campus.
Mid Cheshire Radio transferred its broadcasting equipment into two spare rooms at the college’s Creative Arts and Sports Centre, after it was forced to move out of the Verdin Centre, in Cheshire, because Chesire West and Chester Council closed the building.
Students will now be able to help present shows and work behind the scenes with production.
Karen Burns, from Mid Cheshire Radio, said: “This will provide the perfect environment for us to launch ourselves deeper into the community and give students an opportunity to learn and express themselves in a creative environment.”
Cap: Mid Cheshire Radio presenter Jim Burns with students Louis Blair, aged 17, Emily Wilding, 16, Tyler Burrus, 17, and Kieran Jefferson, 18
Business Secretary Vince Cable saw how building work was progressing on Fareham College’s new £12m centre for excellence in engineering, manufacturing and advanced skills training.
The centre, near Portsmouth, will contain seven workshops and 12 classrooms for 450 learners studying a variety of technical subjects, including mechanical, aerospace, manufacturing, electrical and marine engineering.
Building work started in September last year on the single-storey building, which will have a 4,000 sq m footprint, and is set to finish over the summer.
Dr Cable unveiled a plaque during the topping-out ceremony, which marked the half-way stage for construction work, and met college apprentices who are working with major firms including BAE Systems, GE Aviation and Jenson Motorsport.
He said: “What’s really good is that there will be a lot of apprentices trained here, which will directly support small and medium sized enterprises. This site is also key to the regeneration of the area. I’d like to thank you for inviting me today.”
The centre will be situated four miles from the main college campus on the site of the former Daedalus Royal Navy airfield, in Fareham, which has been out of use since 1996.
Cap: Vince Cable shaking hands with college principal Nigel Duncan
Birmingham toddlers are getting outstanding care at a college nursery has been recognised with a grade one rating by Ofsted.
The nursery was rated by Ofsted inspectors, who praised the “interesting learning activities” for children and a good relationship between parents and staff.
As well as providing care for learners’ and members of staff’s children, childcare students also gain hands-on experience through working at the nursery.
Mike Hopkins, principal of the college, said: “We are extremely proud that Ofsted has recognised South & City College Nursery as an outstanding setting for children. The staff are dedicated to providing the best environment and experience they can, and this report recognises their hard work and achievements.
“Not only does being graded outstanding positively affect the children here, but it also has an excellent impact on our childcare students who undertake placements in the nursery as part of their courses.”
From left: Rocco Beard, aged three, with level three childcare student Henna Hussain , 21. Inset: Staff from the nursery
Students from South Leicestershire College have transformed many dilapidated rooms and community facilities since they launched a DIY SOS scheme three years ago. But the current team was presented with one of its biggest challenges yet when asked to repaint an entire house for twins whose mother died of cancer five months ago, writes Paul Offord.
Finding valuable work experience for students can be a challenge for providers, but South Leicestershire College is managing to find jobs that are both challenging and worthwhile.
Duncan MacColl, construction project manager at the college, launched a DIY SOS scheme three years ago where the college advertises for worthy causes in need of a helping hand.
His learners do all the painting or construction work for free, gaining in return realistic and invaluable work experience.
The latest project was one of their biggest challenges yet and involved 14 students spending three days re-decorating every room in a two-bedroom house.
It belongs to 24-year-old Ionuts Langham, who came to the UK 20 years ago along with twin brother Dumitru.
Suffering learning difficulties and cleft lips and palates, they were adopted from a Romanian orphanage by children’s homes fundraiser Ruth Langham, who helped Ionuts buy the house three years ago.
The house, in Coalville, Leicestershire, had been rented out since it was purchased while Ionuts and Dumitru continued living with Ruth, who died of cancer in October last year, aged 42.
Andy Sarson, a family friend and former painting and decorating lecturer at Leicester College, contacted Mr MacColl to ask if his students could help re-decorate Ionuts’s house, which had suffered at the hands of uncaring tenants.
The students filled and rubbed down all the walls and ceilings, applied wallpaper to the lounge and one large wall in a bedroom, and painted all the other ceilings and walls.
Ionuts (left) and Dumitru Langham
They also applied undercoat and gloss to all the doors and skirting.
Mr Sarson said: “I promised Ruth before she died that if there was any decorating to be done, I would organise it and the college thankfully stepped in.
“Now the lads are very settled in and their [adoptive] grandparents live just around the corner. It’s wonderful.”
The twins’ grandfather, John, said: “The students have done a fantastic job and it was nice to hear them say how much they enjoyed these projects.”
The work of the students means a place to call home for Ionuts, a cleaner at East Midlands Airport, and Dumitru, who works as a technician at Melton College having recently completed a media studies degree there.
Painting and decorating student Jordan Buckley, 17, said: “It was really nice to be able to use my painting skills to help people as deserving as the twins.”
Mr MacColl said: “The look on the twins’ faces when they saw all that the students had done was really special.”
Around 100 construction, carpentry, brick-laying, and painting and decorating students have worked on a variety of the college’s DIY SOS projects.
These have ranged from building a disabled access ramp for Kirby Muxloe Cricket Club, in Leicestershire, and re-painting a bar in Saffron Lane Working Man’s Club, in Leicester, to decorating a room which was home to an 80-year-old woman in a care home in Wigston, Leicestershire.
Mr MacColl said: “I thought there are a lot of people out there who need jobs done but can’t afford it.
“The work experience also counts towards the students’ end-mark for their NVQ or diploma qualifications, so it works well both ways.”
Cap for main image: From left: Painting and decorating tutor Kevin Croft and family friend Andy Sarson (kneeling down) with students at Ionuts Langham’s house
Students from Chesterfield College were challenged to create works of art inspired by men’s and women’s battles with breast cancer.
The Hello Beautiful Foundation, a charity which supports women suffering with the disease, asked 30 art and design level three and four learners to contribute to an exhibition at the college.
Their work was also judged by representatives from the charity, who chose a striking painting by Laura Hodkin, aged 18, called Strong Lady as the winner.
Shannon Poole, 19, came second for her painting on the themes of endurance and survival.
Both images will be displayed at an art exhibition set to be organised by the charity in London later this year.
Laura said: “I went away and researched the subject of breast cancer, from which I learned a lot.
“One word which I kept coming back to was strength, so I decided to use this as the focus of my project.”
Richard Huish College student Harry Trump has snapped up a job with a photography agency.
Devon-based firm Pinnacle Photography hired Harry, aged 18, part-time after being impressed with photos he took last season of county matches at Somerset Cricket Club, in Taunton. His snaps were published in The Times, The Telegraph, The Sun and The Daily Mail.
He also went to the T20 Cricket final at Edgbaston, in Birmingham, where he photographed Northamptonshire players celebrating after winning the competition.
Harry will continue to study towards A-levels in photography, media and business studies at the college, while working part-time at the agency, until he takes his final exams in June and goes full-time afterwards.
Saffron Lee, photography teacher at the Somerset-based college, said: “Harry is a brilliant sports photographer, and being employed straight out of college is pretty amazing.”
Former Truro and Penwith College student Jack Nowell passed the international rugby union test by helping England beat Scotland to win the Calcutta Cup.
The 20-year-old made his Six Nations debut in the heart-breaking 26-24 defeat to France at the Stade de France two weeks ago.
He was then chosen to play against Scotland at Murrayfield on Saturday, in a match England won 20-0 where he set up England’s second try scored by Mike Brown to put the game out of reach.
Jack was a regular member of the college rugby academy’s first team from September 2009 to June 2011, while studying for a BTec in sport performance and excellence.
Julie Penprase, the academy’s co-ordinator, said: “Jack is an inspirational role model for current students and those wishing to pursue a career in rugby. He has shown that Cornish talent can be recognised and that has had a huge impact on the determination of current rugby players looking to emulate his success.”
Cap: Jack Nowell holding the Calcutta Cup after England beat Scotland
Catering students from Gloucestershire College showed their sweet side by baking 25 cakes for a charity to sell.
The students responded to an appeal from Vance Hopkins, general manager of the James Hopkins Trust, for supporters to bake 100 cakes.
The charity, which supports severely disabled and ill children, had been invited raise funds through selling slices of cake and refreshments to visitors during an open weekend at Colesbourne Gardens, in the Cotswolds.
The students provided a variety of tasty treats — including Victoria, chocolate and coffee sponges, fruit cakes and lemon cakes.
Mr Hopkins said: “We are extremely grateful to all the catering students for taking the time to support us by making a wonderful number of cakes.”
The charity raised more than £1,000 through selling the cakes and refreshments.
Cap: Tony Awino, catering and hospitality lecturer, student James Ho, aged 17, Jo Lawrence, a James Hopkins Trust volunteer who collected the cakes, and students Felicity Keegan, 20, and Scott Oldham, 18
Plans to cut almost a fifth of the Adult Skills Budget have been savaged by organisations across the FE sector, with one leader saying the cut “flies in the face of economic good sense”.
The proposal to cut the budget by 19 per cent from around £2.4bn to £2bn was unveiled in the Skills Funding Statement (SFS), which came out yesterday — more than two months after Chancellor George Osborne’s Autumn Statement.
Serious concerns have been raised across the sector about the cut and the impact it will have on colleges and independent learning providers, although some elements of the SFS have been welcomed.
Stephan Jungnitz, ASCL
Stephan Jungnitz, colleges specialist at the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said: “Report after report has highlighted the economic benefits of FE both to individuals and society as a whole.
“Cutting the Adult Skills Budget flies in the face of economic good sense. With unemployment among 19 to 24-year-olds stubbornly high and the economy just teetering towards growth, we need to invest in skills. The recently-announced swingeing reductions in the budget can only bring a short-lived cash bonus.”
University and Colleges Union (UCU) general secretary Sally Hunt said: “We welcome the government’s continued recognition of the importance of FE in meeting the nation’s skills needs, but are deeply concerned by the downward funding trend outlined in the SFS.
“The government’s intention to expand apprenticeships is commendable, but the Adult Skills Budget is reducing dramatically while ostensibly providing support for more learners.
Sally Hunt, UCU
“By narrowing the focus onto apprenticeships and traineeships, support for other vital skills provision will come under increasing pressure. The government needs to devise a long-term strategy for funding skills provision which won’t compromise on the quality of learning opportunities.”
Institute for Learning chief executive Toni Fazaeli said: “We know from research recently published by the UK Commission for Employment and Skills [UKCES] that a sharp rise in skills shortages could be holding back the UK’s economic recovery, so a significant a reduction in the Adult Skills Budget makes little sense.
“And when teachers and trainers in FE and skills are rightly being called upon to upskill and be at the top of their game, to deliver what the economy needs, how can the reductions UKCES found in the investment in their training help? Government schemes to support maths and English professional development programmes and bursaries are welcome, of course, but do not go far enough.
“We are also concerned about the potential far-reaching impact of the budget cuts on the range and quality of teaching and on the sector’s ability to attract the best from business and industry to teach and train in the sector.
“On top of the funding cuts for 18-year-olds, the net reductions in the Adult Skills Budget, after taking into account income from loans, are set to have unfair and undesirable consequences for a substantial group of adults and young people.”
Other organisations said they were in two minds about the statement’s contents.
David Hughes, Niace
David Hughes, chief executive of the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (Niace), said: “I am pleased that they have paid heed to our desire for a complete system and offer from the very lowest levels right up to higher education.
“Across HEFCE and the SFS they want to maintain a system in which adults progress to higher levels of education.
“The difficulty is that they are asking for cuts and reductions to be applied at institution level, so colleges are going to have to make very difficult decisions about which learners to fund.”
And Association of Employment and Learning Providers chief executive Stewart Segal said: “These budget reductions mean that providers have to focus on delivering high quality programmes that deliver the most benefit for employers, learners and the local economies.
“The cuts come after a number of years of overall budget reductions and real term rate cuts. Providers have responded positively and continue to deliver higher quality provision.”
But he also raised concerns about the future funding of apprenticeships.
“The statement confirms that the government will launch another funding consultation in the spring although we have yet to see the results of the previous consultation,” said Mr Segal.
“We have expressed concern over some of these proposals in relation to compulsory contributions and employers managing the funding. This will have a significant impact on small and medium-sized enterprise employers taking on apprentices.
“Many of these employers only have one or two apprentices so these employers will not want to manage the funding directly.
“We have always believed in giving employers the choice of funding route and most would prefer to work through an experienced training provider although clearly the choice as it is now is with the employer.”
Association of Colleges (AoC) chief executive Martin Doel said: “We are pleased that the government has taken the decision after prolonged discussions at Cabinet level not to reduce the skills budget beyond the cuts announced in the comprehensive spending review last year.
Martin Doel, AoC
“The pre-existing planned cuts will leave colleges with a sizeable reduction in the 2014/15 academic year and the level of funding will not fully be known until next month. A 20 per cent cut in the Adult Skills Budget comes at a time when colleges are coping with increasing numbers of apprentices, adult learners and unemployed in training.
“We called for an increase in the 2014-15 capital spending budget in autumn 2013 and it is good news that government has listened and added £58m to the total available which will allow more colleges to make much needed improvements to their buildings and respond to employer demand.
“The statement provides clarity in some areas but we are still waiting for clearer information on the new HMRC-led apprenticeship funding model and the LEP-led capital funding system. Uncertainty is a disincentive to investment.”
