Protecting the good name of the FE teaching profession

The case of Newham College’s dance and drama head Dr Mark Walcott is a difficult one for the FE sector. He was suspended after an apparently homophobic and racist rant. The situation also led to principal Denise Brown-Sackey taking a leave of absence. Dr Jean Kelly looks at the lessons to be learned.

Many have expressed their shock that a lecturer in one of London’s leading colleges is no longer in post after allegedly expressing views that, in the college’s own words, do not reflect the values of the institution.

Though fortunately rare, situations such as this do though prompt some uncomfortable considerations for the teaching profession and indeed the wider sector.

As the sector’s professional body, the Institute for Learning (IfL) is charged, by members, with upholding and promoting the values of a highly regarded and respected teaching and training profession.

Our members sign up to a code of professional practice as a way of demonstrating their commitment to professional integrity, respect for learners and colleagues, and adherence to a professional standard of behaviour.

Teachers and trainers live out this commitment in their everyday practice with learners, as a condition of employment and through codes of conduct set out by subject and vocational professional associations.

In these kinds of discussion, it is helpful to draw parallels with other professions.

In nursing, for example, serious allegations made against an individual would trigger a process that might involve being summoned to a professional conduct hearing by the professional body.

If found to be in breach, the individual could face a penalty, perhaps even being struck off the professional register, in which case it would be impossible for them to continue practising as a nurse.

This kind of process is commonplace in many professions, to instil trust and provide a contract of sorts to guarantee consistent high standards for the public.

Schoolteachers are held to account in a similar way by the National College for Teaching and Leadership, which has powers to prohibit an individual proven to have committed serious misconduct from teaching in schools.

Early years practitioners are now also accountable against professional standards.

Such a system existed in our sector for five years after the government introduced regulations requiring teachers and trainers to register with the IfL.

Lord Lingfield’s first review indicated that government should take responsibility for such extreme cases, but his second concluded that, “establishing special national arrangements to disbar FE lecturers would be disproportionate”

Subsequent revocation of the regulations means that should the individual in this South London college be dismissed, following a new inquiry, they can readily apply for and take up a teaching role elsewhere.

It will be up to them whether or not they disclose particular aspects of their employment history in their application.

We consider that it is in the public interest as well as in the interest of the teaching profession to have accessible and robust arrangements whereby learners, staff and members of the public can report concerns about unprofessional conduct, in the knowledge that their concerns will be treated with the utmost confidentiality, sensitivity and urgency.

Potential breaches must be investigated independently and if a person is found to be seriously in breach, it must be possible to prevent them from teaching again.

At a time when part-time and sessional employment is becoming more commonplace in teaching and training in our sector, colleges and training providers have a fundamental duty to their learners to ensure that the staff they recruit have undergone a rigorous and proper recruitment process for all provision.

The IfL has every confidence that colleges and training providers take this duty incredibly seriously.

This does not, however, offer any national protection for the sector’s employers or for its young, and adult learners, many of whom are vulnerable. Doctors, social workers, schoolteachers and those in other highly respected professions are bound by professional codes, but not teachers in FE.

We regret the government’s decision to remove regulations and fear that a laissez-faire approach for FE brings unacceptable risks for reputation, for learners and employers, for colleges and providers, and for the public.

Dr Jean Kelly, director of professional development, Institute for Learning

 

Confirmed — employers will take ownership of apprenticeships in a new HMRC funding system

Apprenticeship funding will be redirected from providers to employers — but they will have to make a “significant” cash contribution towards training costs for the first time.

Chancellor George Osborne announced in his Autumn Statement a new funding model would use Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) systems to route funding directly to employers.

The Treasury subsequently announced it would launch a consultation on the technical details of the system early next year.

A compulsory employer cash contribution for a significant proportion of apprentices’ external training costs, excluding English and maths, will also be introduced.

Mr Osborne told the House of Commons: “The government will put business at the centre of the apprenticeship system by enabling employers to receive funding for the training costs of apprentices directly through an HMRC-led system and ensuring that employers contribute.”

A Department for Business, Innovation and Skills spokesperson confirmed taxation was one of the HMRC systems being considered to route apprenticeship funding directly to employers.

The government will also be looking at the option of an “alternative funding route for the smallest businesses”.

The Autumn Statement also talked of an “additional contribution” to the costs of training for 16 to 17-year-olds and consider the approach for 18-year-olds, but did not commit to fully-funding them as now.

The Treasury further announced it would make £40m of new funding available to help deliver an additional 20,000 higher apprenticeships starts in the 2013/14 and 2014/15 academic years.

Phil Orford, chief executive of The Forum of Private Business, welcomed the changes which he said would make providers “deliver the skills employers require”.

However, the announcements drew a strong warning from the chief executive of City & Guilds, Chris Jones, told FE Week: “Although it isn’t the intention, the Autumn Statement puts the apprenticeship system at risk.

“All employers, regardless of size, will feel the effects. The reforms will require additional resource. There will be even more hoops to jump through to establish an apprenticeship. Where is the incentive there?”

Stewart Segal, chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, said: “Mandatory contributions will be a barrier to the growth of the programme for those aged over 19, especially young people who are unemployed.”

See Mick Fletcher expert piece

Andrew Jones, apprenticeship ambassador to Parliament

Andrew Jones MP is a little uncertain about being profiled when we meet in the glass-roofed atrium of Portcullis House, across the road from the Houses of Parliament.

“I don’t normally do this sort of thing. I normally talk about policies, not personalities,” he says.

Andrew-Jones
Inset: Andrew Jones learning about wildlife in his
constituency from Yorkshire Wildlife Trust photographer Carl Watts

But he is happy to talk about his passion for cricket, which he says he has loved “from the very beginning”.

“Never any good at playing it, mind you, but I do occasionally play and occasionally umpire, but I’m a very enthusiastic spectator,” he says.

“I’ve travelled to lots of places, I should think 60 countries … a bit of a theme has been to go and watch England play cricket.”

But his traveling hasn’t always been connected to cricket.

At 19, Jones drove from coast to coast across America, “zig-zagging” his way from north east to south west on his own.

“It was great fun. I just set off, by myself, thinking: ‘Let’s see what happens’,” he says with a grin.

The standout moment of the trip he says, was his first glimpse of the Pacific Ocean in San Diego-California — a long way from his birthplace in Ilkley, near Bradford in Yorkshire.

I wanted to be in business, I wanted to be in the cut and thrust of that

“I travelled all the way from Ilkley to Leeds for university, which is a whole 15 miles and suddenly I’d embarked on a 4,000-mile journey,” the committed “Yorkie” says, still wide-eyed at the memory.

Jones worked in a seafood restaurant in Boston, Massachusetts, during his university summer holidays.

“It was fun, there was a buzz about it — I’d never been anywhere near America before and I thought: ‘Right, I’m enjoying this…I’ll go and see more of this place’. So I did. I saw lots and it was stunning.”

The 50-year-old is less clear about the moment he decided he wanted to be an MP.

“There was no ‘road to Damascus’ conversion,” he says.

“Certainly, after 1997, and the defeat of the Conservative Party, I thought: ‘Right, this is not acceptable – I’m going try to get more involved in stuff,’ but at no point up until that time had I thought about representative politics at all.

“So at some stage between 1997 and 1999 was the tipping point where interest became picking up the phone and trying to do something about it.”

Politics certainly wasn’t his first ambition.

“Some people do wake up at the age of 15 and think they want to be MPs, fair enough,” he says.

“I wanted to be in business, I wanted to be in the cut and thrust of that.

He says he was attracted to the “fast-moving” nature of business.

“Also, if you were brought up in my time, it was at a time of relentless commercial bad headlines, of Britain on the slide, Britain not recoverable, strikes, three-day weeks, petrol rationing…,” he says.

“I can remember power cuts and job losses… So there was a little bit of a feeling that: ‘Business needs to perform better, I like business, that’s what I’m going to do’.”

Jones’ father, Richard, worked in marketing for the textile company Lister, whose mill towered over Bradford.

“It was quite fun, going in to see the business,” says Jones.

“You would see things like looms, weaving … it’s quite exciting to see if you’re going in as a small boy.”

Jones says the upbringing he looks back on was “a happy childhood where opportunities are open to you”.

His mother, Jean, worked in a bookshop, in between caring for Jones and his brother,  , who also went into business.

“It’s inevitable that your upbringing has an impact on you,” he says.

“My father worked in marketing, but I didn’t set off into marketing thinking: ‘I’ll do what my father did’, but I did.

“So if there was an impact, then it wasn’t a conscious one.”

Jones enjoyed school, and went on to study A-levels and English literature at Leeds University (where he got a “very sociable” third class degree) before going on to work for in marketing for B&Q.

“I really enjoyed it and it was a fantastic learning experience for me because it was a time of huge expansion of the business, it was very entrepreneurial, very successful,” he says.

Jones worked in a range of marketing roles for different companies, until, while working for Leeds-based retail consultancy The Marketing Store, he found himself redundant.

“It’s not a particularly pleasant experience, but it was an interesting time because I went to work with some friends starting a business called Savvy Marketing, which is still going strong,” he says, cheerfully.

“It’s a bit of a shock when these things happen, but it’s something which happens a lot and can happen more than once in a career. So the question is how you respond to it really.”

After 1997, he was drawn into grassroots and community politics and eventually to the idea of standing for election.

He was elected as a councillor for High Harrogate in 2003, and became Cabinet Member for Finance and Resources.

But Parliament still beckoned, and in 2010 he was elected MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough.

“It’s quite a shock actually, if we’re being honest about it,” he says of his election victory, where he overturned a 10,500 Liberal Democrat majority.

“I actually did go home and write a losing speech before writing a winning speech after polling day, because I thought it was going to be close but I wasn’t quite sure.

“I had been very focused on the finish line of election day itself, rather than what happened next.

“When you are standing on the platform and the results are announced, it feels slightly surreal, but as you get off the platform the returning officer gives you an envelope, which is an envelope they will give to each winning MP, and it’s basically, ‘Dear member of Parliament’ — it’s the first time I had ever been called that — ‘here are your joining instructions, please report to Portcullis House on Monday, for the start of your induction course’.

Although he can see connections between his career in business, and his new one in politics, Jones admits he’s slightly surprised by the way life turned out.

“If you’d gone to Andrew Jones in 1985 as a marketing employee at B&Q and said: ‘You’ll be a Member of Parliament in 25 years’ time’ I’d have thought you’d got the wrong Andrew Jones,” he says.

But it was his love of the business world, he says, which has brought him into the role of apprenticeship ambassador.

“Skills are a huge part of turning our economy around … and apprenticeships are very much a part of that,” explains Jones.

“I think this is something which has got broad support across the political divide… colleagues love hearing about apprenticeships and meeting apprentices in their area, and quite frankly who, as a Member of Parliament, wouldn’t want to go out and visit successful businesses and meet people learning for the future, investing in skills — who wouldn’t get behind that?”

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It’s a personal thing

What’s your favourite book?

Wisden Cricketers’ Almanac — if I was stranded on a desert island I would want it sent in every year

 

What do you do to switch off from work?

You’re never quite off-duty as an MP, but one of the real benefits of being a Yorkie, particularly where I’m from, is that we have fantastic scenery. I go for walks on the Dales or on the moors

 

　

What’s your pet hate?

Cynicism about community work or about public service

 

What did you want to be when you
grew up?

Not an MP — I wanted to be in business

 

If you could invite anyone to a dinner party, living or dead, who would it be?

Winston Churchill, Benjamin Franklin, 19th Century cricket player WG Grace and Elizabeth I

Exempted — trainees freed from Job Seeker’s Allowance 16-hour rule

Traineeships are to be exempted from a benefits rule that was “compromising” the programme.

The Department for Work and Pensions’ (DWP) 16-hour rule, which limits the amount of time Job Seeker’s Allowance (JSA) claimants can train every week, will no longer apply to traineeships — the government’s flagship youth unemployment policy.

The move came as part of the Autumn Statement, which read: “The government will ensure that the benefit rules do not impede the take-up and effectiveness of traineeships by exempting those undertaking a traineeship from the rule which prevents JSA claimants from doing more than 16 hours of study per week.”

However, it remained unclear when the exemption would come into force with, FE Week understands, the DWP and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) still locked in talks about the move.

It follows concerns (as reported in the last edition of FE Week) from Skills Funding Agency boss Keith Smith and Ofsted FE and skills director Matthew Coffey about the popularity of traineeships.

It also follows criticism in August from the Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) that the 16-hour rule could adversely affect traineeships.

An AELP spokesperson said: “Now the announcement has been made, we would expect to see early implementation and will be urging that to happen.

“We will want to explore with the government whether the rule changes affect work experience as well, but there is no doubt this announcement is a major step forward.”

Association of Colleges chief executive Martin Doel said: “This change will enable colleges to more effectively meet the needs of young people at a time of stubbornly high youth unemployment.”

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Editorial – A step in the right direction

Traineeships are part of the ‘apprenticeship family’, overseen by the National Apprenticeship Service, and considered by many to be a pre-apprenticeship programme in all but name.

Their exemption from the DWP’s 16-hour rule will come as a welcome surprise. Albeit a long overdue one.

However, it is worth noting that questions remain about when it will actually come into effect and whether other types of work experience programs will also be exempt.

Once in place, it should make the scheme significantly more attractive and affordable to many young people, so hopefully more will benefit.

This will increase participation, but is that enough for traineeships to be successful?

Without successful progression into meaningful paid employment we will have failed, like many of the youth employment programmes long since consigned to the history books.

So, as I’ve highlighted in this column before, the next logical step should be a financial incentive for a positive outcome.

If providers continue to be simply paid based on the duration of the traineeship then won’t some keep them out of paid work and on JSA for as long as possible?

With youth unemployment so high, now is not the time to be introducing perverse incentives.

Nick Linford, editor

Stress rockets as SFA software fails

Further education data staff have spoken out about the stress and extra work caused by continued problems with Skills Funding Agency (SFA) software.

Management information system (MIS) officers responding to an FE Week survey hit out at the SFA over the strain and financial burden of preparing the fourth month funding data return (known as R04).

The survey was posted on the information authority Feconnect forum and the CMIS-Network, a Jiscmail email discussion group, on Wednesday, December 4 — the day before the R04 deadline.

Less than 10 per cent of the 153 respondents (9.2 per cent) believed they had a reliable funding report from the new funding information system (Fis) and almost a quarter (23.5 per cent) said they had been unable to successfully install the latest version.

The SFA came under fire last month after delays in releasing Fis, and the learning aims reference system (Lars) — an online tool enabling providers to look up qualification funding values — has still not been released in full, although a “Lars lite” version is available.

In response to the question “Is there anything you would like to say to the SFA about the impact on your organisation?”, a third of the 106 who answered mentioned the additional stress and workload.

The deputy college information systems manager of a large FE college said the process had caused “stress and worry in unnecessary amounts as a result of the software fiasco” and branded it “an appalling waste of time and money”.

The MIS manager of a local authority said: “The amount of staff hours spent on the Fis and invalid records is causing us financial problems.”

Another respondent, the deputy director for finance and funding at a large FE college, said: “We have exhausted staff, unreliable data and have had little or no support from the SFA, IA [Information Authority] or DS [Data Service].”

Concern over lack of support was also expressed by the MI manager of a small FE college, who said: “I have had emails into the Data Service for over two weeks and they have just replied this morning with answers that are completely irrelevant to the question.”

Many data staff also called on the SFA to take responsibility for the situation, which was dubbed a “shambles”.

The director of MIS at a large FE college said: “Every apology is limited (‘we apologise to anyone who might have been affected’) with spin saying actually it is not that bad after all — it is that bad.”

The director of a small independent training provider said: “If a provider had delivered performance at this level they would have lost their contract … Parity with sanctions please — if providers are penalised for poor performance, I suggest the same must be true for the SFA.”

The R04 will be used to calculate the statistical first release, due out in January, but the SFA was unavailable for comment as to whether large amounts of inaccurate or incomplete data would prevent publication.

When asked by FE Week about the stress caused by R04, Association of Colleges (AoC) assistant chief executive Julian Gravatt said: “We’re confident that colleges will manage stress issues among their staff and there’s AoC advice available to help them.

“Hopefully this week’s R04 return will be a success and we’ll both build on this next year while ensuring that everyone learns the right lessons from the project.”

See Ian Pryce’s expert piece

All-age apprenticeships in first full-year drop since 2005

The number of apprenticeship starts in England has fallen for the first time in seven years, according to new figures published by the government.

The final (rather than provisional) figures in latest statistical first release show that in the 2012/13 academic year, there were 10,400 fewer apprenticeship starts than in 2011/12 — a fall of 2 per cent.

The drop, to 510,200, was the first fall in all-age apprenticeships since 2005/06 when the figure of 175,000 was down 7.5 per cent from the previous year.

The fall in the number of 16 to 18-year-olds starting an apprenticeship last year was behind the all-age drop, with starts among the 19 to 24s and 25+ age groups both rising on the previous year.

And it was the second consecutive fall in the number of under-19 apprenticeship starts with 114,500 last year, 129,900 the year before and 131,700 in 2010/11, versus the figure of 116,800 for 2009/10.

A spokesperson for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) said: “For the first time, all apprenticeships now involve a job and as such some low quality provision was ended. This particularly affected the 16 to 18 apprenticeships, as programme-led apprenticeships were concentrated in that age range.”

According to the Office for National Statistics, 1.07 million young people in the UK were not in education, employment or training between July and September, down 28,000 (1.6 per cent) from the same time last year.

Nevertheless, the figures also showed that a record 868,700 people were in apprenticeships last year — up 77 per cent on 2009/10.

“All apprenticeships now routinely last a minimum of a year. That means that while more people than ever are in apprenticeships, the number of starts has not grown. However, removing very short six-month apprenticeships is a vital part of driving up quality,” said the BIS spokesperson.

Teresa Frith, senior skills Policy Manager for the Association of Colleges, said there could be many factors contributing to the decline and warned against “unsupported speculation” over the cause.

She added: “We are concerned about the decline in 16 to 19-year-olds doing apprenticeships and this is why our Careers Advice: Guaranteed campaign is so important because we need to make sure young people are aware of all their options post-16.”

Stewart Segal, Association of Employment and Learning Providers chief executive, agreed the minimum duration could have had an impact on 16 to 18 starts, but also pointed out that many young people lacked employability skills, and so were not securing places on apprenticeship programmes.

“The traineeship programme, which is taking longer to get established than we had hoped, should in time help support the apprenticeship programme for young people as well as provide an entry point for other jobs with training,” he said.

“The introduction of traineeships as a stepping stone should make a positive difference in halting the decline for the younger age group, while we hope possible changes to the loans scheme will help to sustain demand for adult apprenticeships.

“It is important to maintain the momentum of the all age all levels apprenticeship programme.”

Warning of more strikes over pay

More pay strikes could be set to hit colleges following industrial action on Tuesday (December 3), the University and Colleges Union (UCU) has warned.

It said further industrial action could “not be ruled out” having overseen national demonstrations after rejecting the Association of Colleges’ (AoC) 0.7 per cent pay rise offer.

According to UCU, around 270 colleges in England were affected by the strike, with 30,000 members of staff taking part in the walkout.

It is understood that Lesoco (formerly Lewisham College and Southwark College), Blackburn College, Hull College, Redcar and Cleveland College and City of Liverpool College were among the colleges affected.

A spokesperson for UCU said: “We will review the impact, consult branches and decide what next in our campaign for fair pay. Further industrial action cannot be ruled out.”

The strikes were called after eleventh-hour talks with employers’ representative, the AoC, failed to result in an agreement.

The union claims “a series of below-inflation pay offers from the association since 2009 mean FE lecturers have seen their pay cut by more than 15 per cent in real terms”.

The union has been seeking a 5 per cent pay deal, and ballot its members after an offer of 0.7 per cent was made.

More than two thirds of those who voted (71 per cent) backed strike action.

It came despite the AoC having reached agreement with Unison, AMiE, ATL, UNITE and GMB through the National Joint Forum.

Emma Mason, AoC director of employment policy and services, said there had been no reports of strikes disrupting college business.

“UCU’s industrial action risks damaging the education and training of students, undermines the reputation of colleges both locally and nationally and places an undue burden on non-teaching staff and non-union members to take measures to minimise disruption to the student experience,” she said.

She added “The pay recommendation for 2013/14 is for a 0.7 per cent increase and £282 for staff earning £14,052 or less and increases the recommended minimum hourly rate to £7.45.

“This reflects the very real financial constraints our member colleges are facing. Since 2010 government funding to colleges has reduced by 25 per cent with a cut of £250m in this year alone.”

Pictured: Lesoco (formerly Lewisham College and Southwark College) staff take part in national demonstrations over pay. Picture by Nick Linford

Osborne looks to tax credits and mandatory employer cash contributions for apprenticeships

Chancellor George Osborne confirmed the government will introduce an HMRC-based funding system alongside a mandatory employer cash contribution for apprenticeships through his Autumn Statement.

He said the government will develop a model which uses HMRC systems to route apprenticeship funding direct to employers.

The Treasury subsequently announced it will launch a consultation on the technical details of the system in early 2014. It is unclear whether the PAYE tax system will be used, as suggested in the government consultation.

The government will also be looking at the option of an “alternative funding route for the smallest businesses”.

A compulsory employer cash contribution for a significant proportion of the external training costs of an apprentice (excluding English and maths) will also be introduced.

During his speech in the House of Commons, Mr Osborne said: “The government will put business at the centre of the apprenticeship system by enabling employers to receive funding for the training costs of apprentices directly through an HMRC-led system and ensuring that employers contribute.”

The Treasury also confirmed it will provide £40m to deliver an additional 20,000 higher apprenticeships starts in the 2013/14 and 2014/15 academic years.

It will provide an extra contribution to the costs of training for 16 to 17-year-olds and consider the approach for 18-year-olds.

Several caps will be introduced on the maximum government contribution per apprentice.

A proportion of apprenticeship funding will be withheld for a “payment by results” approach.

Read more about the Autumn Statement in the next edition of FE Week.

Wheels come off Kwik Fit traineeships

Kwik Fit has stopped running its controversial traineeship programme after Ofsted inspectors said it was no longer an outstanding employer provider.

Only providers rated as outstanding or good (grade one or two, respectively) can run traineeships — the government’s flagship youth unemployment policy, which launched in August for 16 to 23-year-olds.

And inspectors gave Kwik Fit, which had not enrolled any trainees, grade three results in each of the headline fields, just under six years after it was last graded.

The Ofsted report said: “Since the last inspection, standards and performance have declined. Managers’ use of data is underdeveloped to secure improvement in the quality of provision.”

The 579-learner employer provider came under fire just over two months ago when an FE Week investigation, which led to a BBC Newsnight probe, found it was looking to take on trainees, unpaid, for up to 936 hours across five months.

The offer was branded “unacceptable” at the time by National Union of Students vice president for FE Joe Vinson, although a Kwik Fit spokesperson said learners would spend their “entire period training and never work unsupervised”.

“We hope that people will actually complete their training modules more quickly than the maximum period allocated,” he said.

Rules state that providers who fall below grade two must stop taking on new trainees as soon as the Ofsted report is published, but they can let existing learners finish their programmes.

Technically, grade three providers can run traineeships, but only via a subcontracting agreement in which they are not the lead.

Nevertheless, Kwik Fit’s latest Ofsted report said: “Too few apprentices complete their qualifications within the expected timescale and success rates on classroom-based programmes are low.”

It further said that, “managers have identified and discontinued two poorly performing adult apprenticeship programmes that significantly impacted upon success rates”.

A Kwik Fit spokesperson said: “As the Ofsted report makes clear, our grading has been significantly affected by the results of two poorly performing programmes which have already been discontinued.

“We are pleased that the report reflects that we have a clear vision, and that a high proportion of apprentices progress into long term employment with us.

“We are currently implementing a strategic plan to make our core apprenticeship scheme stronger, the impact of which will see a return to the high grades we have previously achieved.

“We look forward to working with a dedicated Her Majesty’s Inspector on this and demonstrating the results in an inspection in the near future. In the meantime, we will not be continuing with a traineeship programme.”

Kwik Fit’s traineeship blow comes after Skills Funding Agency boss Keith Smith and Ofsted FE and skills director Matthew Coffey indicated a slow start for the programme.

Despite there being no official figures yet, Mr Coffey told delegates at last month’s
Association of Colleges conference the traineeship uptake had been “disappointing”.

An agency spokesperson said: “Kwik Fit has made the decision to defer its traineeship programme while it focusses on strengthening its core apprenticeship programme.

“We are committed to ensuring that traineeships are a high quality route for young people into apprenticeships and employment.”