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Young voters hear from Euro MPs and vote to stay in the EU

Students from Walsall College voted overwhelmingly in favour of the UK staying in the European Union (EU) after debating the issue with three West Midlands Euro MPs.

The college held a Europe day, where it invited Anthea McIntyre (Conservative), Phil Bennion (Liberal Democrats) and Nikki Sinclaire (Independent) to debate the advantages and disadvantages of EU membership with around 100 learners.

Students were then asked to vote using electronic keypads whether Britain should be “in” or “out” of Europe — with 66 per cent opting to stay in.

They also took part in activities challenging them to consider the effects of EU human rights legislation.

June Morrow, Walsall College’s director of student services, said: “This was great way to help young people see the relevance of the European issue.

“By the end of the day, only a handful of students felt they wouldn’t be bothered to vote (7 per cent) which indicates that Europe day did a lot to challenge political apathy among our young people.”

Pictured from left: West Midlands Euro MPs Phil Bennion, Nikki Sinclaire and Anthea McIntyre (far right) at Walsall College with students who took part in the debate

Students’ union ‘needs more ambition’ in putting FE funding case

The National Union of Students’ National Conference took place in Liverpool this month and resulted in re-elections and new campaigning vigour, writes Freddie Whittaker.

The National Union of Students (NUS) needs to be “more ambitious” in talking about FE funding, newly re-elected president Toni Pearce has told FE Week.

The former Cornwall College Student Union president was last week elected for a second term, and with a general election looming, she will be a key ally for a sector plagued by funding cuts.

Ms Pearce made history last year when she became the first NUS president to have never studied at university. She had previously been the union’s vice-president for FE — a post now assumed by her successor at Cornwall Joe Vinson.

And, speaking to FE Week shortly after her re-election, Ms Pearce said the union had to look to the future in its fight for FE.

“We need to be more ambitious about how we talk about how FE is funded,” she said.

“At the moment we are saying ‘please don’t cut’, and that is an important message, but we also need to talk about what we do want to see and what we stand for.

“For me, I don’t think our aims have changed. What we have been talking about for the last year is about what education looks like for every student and what system we want to see in place. We want to make sure we are delivering for all students.”

She said the NUS would be working more closely with the Trades Union Congress (TUC) on improving employment prospects across the board, and aiming to play a bigger part in the communities of the UK.

She said: “For a long time we have isolated ourselves in the student movement, away from our communities, but we don’t just exist in a vacuum — we are not just students, we are citizens as well.”

And she is keen to get out of a similar “vacuum” when it comes to talking about FE and its funding, claiming their argument needed to be more about what they want than what they don’t want.

She said: “I think it is about saying we shouldn’t just be talking about FE funding in isolation, and whether we should be making the case for a properly-funded single system of tertiary education and funding students properly through the whole of their educational journey.”

She said NUS campaigning against funding cuts would remain strong, but that the conversation would shift towards “what the future could look like”.

Careers advice is also high up on Ms Pearce’s priority list, and she says she plans to continue the fight she started when she first campaigned for re-election.

She said: “Careers advice is one of the things I talked about a lot last year, because there is an embedded bias against FE in careers advice and guidance.

“But you can hardly blame the schools in certain circumstances. I know it is wrong, but there is a perverse incentive there.

“It’s difficult because for a long time people have been told that the only way to be successful is to go to university, and for someone like me this is quite a personal issue, and we have to talk about it.

“We have to be living in the 21st Century. We don’t just leave school and get a job for life anymore. At the moment, the message is ‘make a decision at 14 or 16 and that’s it’, there is no chance to change your mind.”

FE motions passed at conference included a response to proposed changes due to be made to GCSEs and A-levels from next year.

Conference resolved to conduct research into the state of level two and three vocational qualifications, which it said were being “marginalised” by the government.

Delegates also resolved to continue to campaign for the improvement of independent advice and guidance in schools and ensure the National Careers Service meets students’ needs.

There was also an emphasis on an improved learner voice, with the existing participation often “seen as a box-ticking exercise”. Delegates called for “well-funded, adequately-resourced and student-led unions”, which they said remained the “exception to the rule in FE”.

Proposals by Belfast Met Students Union for a “mass campaign to defend FE” failed to make it as an amendment to another motion. The proposed amendment had sought to launch a “defend FE” campaign and hold mass meetings in colleges to oppose cuts.

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Pearce and Vinson claim landslide victories in re-elections

Team FE is back at the helm of the National Union of Students for another year after a landslide victory for Toni Pearce and Joe Vinson (pictured) at the union’s annual conference in Liverpool.

Both former Cornwall College Students’ Union presidents were re-elected with large majorities, but for Ms Pearce, conference this year was a very different affair than in 2013.

“It was quite bizarre being national president at national conference,” she told FE Week, “especially because I remember when I first came to conference and hearing the president speak, and I never thought I would be up there doing that.

“When I ran last year that was what I was concentrating on, but there was a lot more about making sure conference ran smoothly this time.

“I suppose once you have been doing it for a year the prospect of doing the job itself is less terrifying, but the election itself is still terrifying, and that’s why I think everyone else who stood in that election deserves congratulations. I am delighted that people have put their faith in me again.”

Mr Vinson said: “I’m honoured that I’ll be continuing as vice president [further education] for another year. With a general election on the horizon, there is a lot to do to ensure further education isn’t forgotten by all political parties, and I hope we can secure some real wins for students.”

NUS president election results:

Toni Pearce – 454 votes

Aaron Kiely – 150

Daniel Cooper – 90

Jack Duffin – 18

Re-open nominations – 16

NUS vice-president (FE) election results:

Joe Vinson – 149

Jesse Dodkins – 19

Re-open nominations – 24

How Uncle Sam is pioneering apprenticeships

The UK often looks to Europe for inspiration on apprenticeships. Tom Bewick suggests a glance across the pond instead.

American apprenticeships are perhaps an unlikely example of a world-class system in the making.

Yet, in his state of the union address in January, President Barack Obama said he wanted, “more on-the-job training, and more apprenticeships that set a young worker on an upward trajectory for life.”

To back up the Obama Administration’s aim to double the number of apprenticeships by 2017, Congress has been asked to approve an additional $2bn (£1.2bn) of spending on ‘modern apprenticeships’.

While the US Department of Labor focuses on central coordination — including providing better information for apprentices and employers through a new website — the individual states are left largely to get on and innovate with new types of apprenticeship design and delivery.

And much of what is being implemented is similar in tone, if not in detail, to what Doug Richard has been calling for here.

Trailblazer states like South Carolina are providing a positive feedback loop to the federal government on what works (and what doesn’t) in driving high quality apprenticeships.

Brad Neese, executive director of the publicly funded body Apprenticeships Carolina — a brand name the state government has trademark protected — puts his organisation’s stellar performance down to three main things.

Technical colleges have a lot of individual freedom and the kind of industry-education links that would leave most FE colleges in the UK standing

First, South Carolina has increased the number of apprentices by just over 600 per cent in seven years, he says, because of “where the skills and workforce development piece sits in the state’s overall economic development agenda”.

Designing apprenticeships that work is not some technocratic backwater, as it can be in England, but integral to the state government’s foreign direct investment and wider jobs strategy.

To put that in perspective, South Carolina — about the same size as Wales — attracted more that $5bn (£3.2bn) in foreign investment capital in 2013, creating more than 15,000 new jobs.

European companies like BMW are flocking to the area, while American companies such as Boeing and Continental Tyres are expanding operations along with their supply chains.

All this adds up to a new manufacturing hub, where 85 per cent of new jobs created have been in advanced manufacturing. With less unionisation than states in the mid-West, like Michigan, South Carolina is perceived as a much more business friendly destination.

The second reason is the inspiring performance of the state’s 16 technical colleges.

Founded more than 50 years ago after the collapse of the traditional textiles mills, the system prides itself on its “lack of specificity” and the absence of “excessive rules and formalities that suck the life out of people”.

Technical colleges have a lot of individual freedom and the kind of industry-education links that would leave most FE colleges in the UK standing.

Indeed, the new chief executive of the system office coordinating all 16 technical colleges, Dr Jimmie Williamson, sums up the interchange between the public and corporate sector quite well.

Dr Williamson was himself a principal of two technical colleges in the state before being poached by a private healthcare provider where he introduced America’s first nursing apprenticeships.

Returning to the public sector, he has negotiated a continued role with the State education board and his ex-private sector employer, allowing him to continue in a consulting role because “the tech system has always been responsive to the market”, he says.

Underwriting that responsiveness is one of the flagship policies of the South Carolina model: the $1,000 tax credit per apprentice, per year, for up to four years.

Both Dr Williamson and Mr Neese see this as just one of the “important tools in the box”, because it has helped open up the conversation with some firms that have traditionally been suspicious of government initiatives.

Indeed, to the outside observer, you would be forgiven for thinking that apprenticeships in South Carolina had anything to do with government at all, since everything about how the model operates is far removed from Leviathan or a bureaucracy.

Tom Bewick, director and chief economist, International Skills Standards Organisation (INSSO

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INSSO, in partnership with FE Week, is organising a study tour to Canada and the USA on June 8 to 14. Visit www.insso.org/studytour for details.

The ‘tantalising’ potential of FE loans

As college bosses look on nervously while government funding cuts take hold, they must also think of ever more innovative ways to make ends meet. Verity Hancock suggests a review of how the FE loans pot can be used.
Back in 2012 the Skills Funding Agency (SFA) confirmed that Leicester College was in the top five colleges that would be most affected by the new 24+ advanced learning loans system.

Usually being in a list of top five is excellent news, but in this case somewhere considerably further down the list would have been preferable.

Nevertheless, recognising that loans were going to have a major impact, the college planned for their introduction with reviews of its offer, detailed communication plans, staff training, leaflets to over 100,000 homes and other marketing activities to potential learners and employers.

As a result, we have managed to secure loans for 250 learners totalling half of our facility — 46 per cent are taking level three diplomas, 42 per cent are taking access courses, with the remainder on A-levels and level four diplomas.

Operationally, the introduction of loans has been smooth — the Department for Business, Innovation and Skill, the Student Loans Company and the SFA have focussed on ensuring that the process works.

Restricting our access to funding on top of cuts to the main allocation limits our ability to innovate

While we entirely understand the rationale for seeking increased individual and employer investment, transferring more of the adult budget into a loans facility and separating that from the main allocation represents another hit on college finances.

Some colleges have been very successful in promoting the take-up of loans, but we have yet to convince enough people that taking out a loan that you only pay back when you can afford it, is a sensible proposition.

Leicester is primarily a low wage economy, so asking people to sign up to a system based on credit when all the national economic messages are about the perils of borrowing too much is bound to make them sceptical.

When we look at our funding statement, we can see the tantalising figure of our loans facility, next year’s figure even larger than this, but we know it is highly unlikely that we will be able to use it all.

Clearly any reduction in funding is difficult, but restricting our access to funding on top of cuts to the main allocation limits our ability to innovate and to develop and market the kinds of products for which people might be willing to take out loans.

The financing of education and training is different and so the products we offer must also look different.

Ultimately, it is our learners and the economy that stand to lose out.

If colleges cannot invest in future development, the stock of this country’s vocational education provision will be reduced.

Many colleges have commissioned analysis which demonstrates the substantial contributions they make to local economies.

While we may not be the ‘makers’ Chancellor George Osborne mentioned in his Budget speech, we do generate significant economic value — and failure to acknowledge this is a huge oversight.

All governments are very keen to promote the knowledge economy.

It would be a clever move to support this section of the economy by unlocking access to the funding set aside for loans so that we can get as many people into high quality training as possible.

This could be by ring-fencing some loan funds for design, development and marketing, or allowing 19 to 23-year-olds, who are currently disadvantaged in this respect, to access loans.

Whatever is decided, our experience is that a different approach is going to be critical in enabling us to maximise the potential that loans offer.

Verity Hancock, principal, Leicester College

Embracing Ofsted as a ‘fresh pair of eyes’

Ofsted and data can both hold fear for principals, but Chris Thomson says embracing both can provide a path to success.

With a fear of being shunned by my peers, I actually view Ofsted as a free consulting service, which all colleges should embrace.

I’ve been principal at Brighton Hove & Sussex Sixth Form College (BHASVIC) for 15 years.

We’ve progressed up the ranks from satisfactory to being judged as outstanding in our latest inspection.

In that time I have learned a lot and one of the main lessons is to embrace Ofsted.

Most people in the education sector worry about an inspection, but here at BHASVIC, we’ve always seen it as an opportunity for a fresh pair of eyes to tell us where we can improve.

I despair of colleges that think you can prepare and achieve outstanding in the run-up to an anticipated inspection. You can’t pull the wool over the eyes of an Ofsted team.

The blossom on the tree isn’t there because it’s stuck on, it’s because the roots of the tree are healthy.

The essence of the whole operation at our college is that we are there to serve our students and we do this from a healthy foundation built over time, not in a few weeks before an Ofsted visit.

One of the backbones to this approach is our use of data, as it gives us that same view that Ofsted provides — a snapshot of what is truly happening in the college not swayed by preconceptions.

I despair of colleges that think you can prepare and achieve outstanding in the run-up to an anticipated inspection

There is no doubt that a teacher’s judgement about a student in their class and how they are progressing will be affected by the relationship they have with the student and vice versa.

By providing the right data we help teachers see the real picture of progress for each and every student, without any external influences.

We use the data to examine the value we are adding as an organisation.

We look at the GCSE grades students achieved before joining the college and by comparing these to national results, we can then predict what they should achieve at A-level.

If a student is predicted Bs and they achieve As, we can see this is the added value BHASVIC has provided over what the student may have achieved if they had attended another college.

This has helped turn teachers’ attitude to data on its head. They now regard it as a tool to see where improvements can be made and it is raising expectations of the college as a whole. It makes us all want to achieve more for our students.

By using the data on a regular basis, teachers start to trust that data is not going to be used as a stick to beat them, it’s actually been the key to unlocking the process of quality improvement at our college.

For us, the data and Ofsted serve as an external pair of eyes, helping us to measure student performance against the national data set. We can see what we are doing well and what we need to do better.

I always think of it in the scenario of Michelangelo painting the Sistine Chapel — he’s only 45 cm from the ceiling, yet Ofsted and the data serve as the man on the ground who can see the big picture, saying you missed a bit.

Our journey to outstanding has taken 15 years and four inspections, which we’ve embraced along the way. We’ve been told what needs improving then gone away and done it. The beauty of having this data to hand is that when Ofsted does visit, teachers can easily answer any questions.

Do I fear Ofsted? No, they are there to ensure that students get the best education, which is also our college’s mission. We are heading in the same direction.

Chris Thomson, principal, Brighton,
Hove & Sussex Sixth Form College (BHASVIC)

Privacy warning over biometric data collection

The boss of a Leicester-based national subcontractor where learners have their finger measurements scanned to get into classrooms has defended his firm’s collection of biometric data.

Ronan Smith, founder of Edudo, a Skills Funding Agency subcontractor with a £563,835 contract from Bedford College, said the system was “entirely voluntary” in response to a warning from a privacy group about the collection of such data.

Edudo gathers biometric data to confirm students’ identity when they attended classes, access buildings and sit exams.

“All learners are able to opt-out of biometric identification if they wish and do so,” said Mr Smith, who added that palm-print recognition and retina scans could also be used.

He added: “The response among students has been really warm, and many students have signed up to biometric enrolment, although of course some did have problems with it and did not opt in, and that’s absolutely fine.”

Mr Smith said Edudo did not collect or store students’ fingerprints but instead took a series of measurements to allow the scanner to guess whether the finger being scanned was similar enough to the measurements on file for it to be likely to be the right person, rather than a definitive identification produced by a fingerprint.

But privacy body Big Brother Watch has called for caution and transparency over the collection and use of the data.

Big Brother Watch director Nick Pickles said: “Individuals should have all the facts about what information is being collected, how it is used and who can access it.”

He also called for legal safeguards to be put in place to ensure that such technology was always used by choice.

Mr Pickles said: “This sort of technology should only ever be voluntary, as it offers a means of tracking and monitoring individuals across multiple systems.

“As with many new systems, they start being used for one relatively innocuous task and then quickly expand to cover a range of increasingly private activities.”

Edudo introduced the technology, produced by the provider’s sister company Edududes, also founded by Mr Smith, late last year and is now used by around 800 of its 5,000 students.

“We have the sense that we’re leading the field in developing this technology for use in work-based learning,” said Mr Smith.

“It reduces paperwork and just makes so much more sense to confirm the attendance register through scanning in.”

Although the use of such technology is only just emerging in the FE sector, biometric data use in schools has led the government to introduce guidance banning schools from using face-recognition software or fingerprints without permission from parents.

The guidance is being consulted on, but if implemented would come into effect from September 2013.

Mr Pickles said: “There is clearly a trend towards a greater use of biometrics, which is why it was absolutely right for the government to legislate that these systems must never be compulsory in education institutions.

“The question now is whether the pace of uptake warrants further legislation to give people greater protection.”

And Mr Smith said Edudo was fully compliant with the Data Protection Act.

“Biometric data is stored internally on Edudo systems and is not shared with any third party organisation, including government departments,” he said.

“Once a learner has completed their education journey with Edudo, the biometric data is destroyed.”

A learner who returned to the provider after a break would have to give their information a second time to re-enrol on the system, he said.

Top college earner figures ‘not showing full picture’

Calls for college chief executive and principal pay levels to be published have emerged amid concerns the growth of group management structures could mean taxpayers are not getting the full picture of top college earners.

College accounts for the 2012/13 academic year, published this week by the Skills Funding Agency (SFA), only include pay and pension information relating to an organisation’s highest-paid employee — usually the principal or chief executive.

But questions have been asked about whether the data shows the full picture with colleges increasingly forming groups that employ separate principals and chief executives and only declaring the pay of one.

Calls for a change to the system have been led by University and College Union general secretary Sally Hunt, but the SFA has argued that colleges are already required to publish their accounts.

Sir-Peter_quote

Ms Hunt said: “These latest accounts show that, as college staff were being offered a measly pay rise of 0.7 per cent in 2012/13, some of the top earning college leaders were enjoying pay rises of more than 30 per cent.

“It’s absolutely unacceptable for those at the top to net huge pay increases while the staff who are working hard to teach and support students on the ground are having their pay held down.

“We’re also concerned that these figures only show part of the picture.

“The highest earning person at each college is recorded in the data, but the move by many colleges towards group structures means that there are often several people in well paid leadership and oversight roles, and these figures aren’t being published in the same way.

“We would like to see the SFA include the salaries for all senior leadership roles in their data reporting to provide greater clarity around how colleges are being managed, and so that all those in charge of FE institutions can be properly held to account.”

An investigation by FE Week has revealed that in many cases, figures listed under “principal’s salary” for large college groups actually refers to the chief executive’s pay.

It means the pay of principals working under a chief executive is not published by the SFA.

An SFA spokesperson said: “The data collection process is part of a joint college reporting project led by the Association of Colleges (AoC) and includes the SFA, Education Funding Agency and sector representation.

Submission of this data does not remove the obligation on colleges to prepare a full set of accounts and an annual report on their activities.

“Colleges are required to make their accounts and annual report available to the public. In accordance with Charity Commission guidance, colleges are expected to make their annual reports and accounts promptly available on their websites.

“The accounts direction published by the Agency requires that colleges disclose details of emoluments of the principal, and of higher paid staff and senior post-holders in their annual accounts.”

Newcastle College Group (NCG) has defended the salary paid to its former chief executive Jackie Fisher, who earned £215k in 2011/12 and £225k in 2012/13 — putting the college second in the list of highest paying colleges.

A spokesperson said: “The salary figures quoted by the SFA are for the chief executive of NCG, who for the 12/13 accounts was for the previous post holder, Jackie Fisher.

“NCG is not a single further education college, but a national training organisation with an annual turnover at the time of £179m from a variety of public sector bodies and commercial income.

“The chief executive heads a large, complex organisation with more than 3,500 employees in three colleges and two training organisations which work across the UK at more than 70 locations.

“This is not a traditional FE college principal’s role, and comparable organisations in the private sector which we often compete against for many of our contracts, would pay considerably more.”

He said Carole Kitching, the current principal of Newcastle College, earned between £100k and £110k a-year.

For some organisations, like Derby College, the data shows a saving, with previous principal and chief executive David Croll having earned £212k in 2011/12, and existing chief Mandie Stravino earning £168k in 2012/13. A spokesperson said they did not want to comment further.

In the case of The Manchester College, the figure of £187k shown in the data is also the salary of the chief executive, although not the one currently serving.

A spokesperson said: “The Manchester College is the largest FE college in Europe. As it currently stands our chief executive’s salary is £180k and principal’s is £130k. The £187k [in the accounts] was the previous chief executive’s salary.”

But in some cases, the salaries reported were not those of the highest-paid employee.

City College Norwich reported a top salary of £163k in 2011/12, which fell to £110,000 in 2012/13. The college has confirmed that the higher figure relates to Dick Palmer, who was principal and chief executive at the time but now heads up the overarching Ten (Transforming Education in Norfolk) Group, and the lower figure was for current principal Corrienne Peasgood.

The most recent record of Mr Palmer’s salary as chief executive of the Ten Group is recorded as between £170k and £180k.

Top 10 college boss earners take home nearly £2m

England’s ten highest-paid college bosses earned almost £2m in the last academic year, figures released by the government have revealed.

The Skills Funding Agency’s annual college accounts for 2012/13 show that the 10 top earners in FE colleges and sixth form colleges earned salaries totalling £1,992,000 in that period.

Principal_table

The total amount of money paid in salaries to college principals has declined in recent years as colleges merge and form groups, the figures show.

The data shows that the total amount paid out in salaries to bosses at 338 colleges in 2012/13 was £40.636m, a 1 per cent decline on the previous year. This does not include pension contributions or other benefits.

The decline in overall payouts follows a decline in the number of colleges actually reporting to the SFA for their annual data release. In 2010/11, the number of colleges to report data was 348. This fell to 344 in 2011/12.

The data also shows the number of principals paid more than £200,000 a-year fell from eight in 2010/11 to six in 2011/12 and again to four in 2012/13.

According to the figures, the highest-paid college leader in the 2012/13 year was the chief executive of Barnfield College, a post which for part of that period was held by Sir Peter Birkett, who went on to become director general of the Barnfield Federation.

But Sir Peter said the figures were misleading and said he didn’t recognise that amount as his salary while he was in the post.

Infograpfics

He said: “I ran a group that comprised of a college and six schools as director general of the federation — given size and complexity it is unrealistic to make direct comparisons with standalone FE college principals salaries. In addition I do not fully recognise the figure stated as the amount I was paid.

“Another point to note is that my salary was not paid solely by the college, it was paid through contributions of all the members of the federation – so the figure in the accounts is not the cost to the college – sharing costs provides better value for all.

“The role of the FE principal today is more complex and diverse than ever and if we are to truly have transparency (which you should have) in their remuneration packages then we need more information than simply an annual salary statement in the form of a league table.”

Colleges themselves have also defended the salaries they pay to principals and chief executives, as has the Association of Colleges (AoC).

Martin Doel, chief executive of the AoC, said: “It is important to remember that college principals are chief executives of multi-million pound organisations, with a responsibility for thousands of staff and students. It is for college governing bodies to set their principal’s salary based on individual circumstances.”

It comes after higher education institutions across the country were criticised for failing to publish information about the amount paid to vice-chancellors. They came under fire from the University and College Union (UCU), which said the pay rises enjoyed by senior staff were an insult to other workers who had been forced to take a real-terms pay cut in recent years.

The union said vice-chancellors’ salaries and benefits rose by an average of 5.5 per cent between 2011-12 and 2012-13.

The UCU has also been fighting for pay rises for staff working in the further education sector, after claiming in February that lecturers in FE colleges had seen their pay lose 16 per cent of its value since 2009.

red-sfa-boxout

New careers guidance rules ‘don’t go far enough’

New rules which mean schools will be forced to tell their pupils about FE and apprenticeships “don’t go far enough”, the Association of Colleges (AoC) has warned.

The Department for Education (DfE) published new statutory guidance on careers advice this month, which for the first time explicitly requires schools to promote vocational courses — using the word “must” to indicate it is a legal requirement.

It comes after the provision of independent advice and guidance (IAG) became the responsibility of schools in 2012, but was widely criticised for not being explicit enough about FE.

But while some sector organisations have welcomed the report, AoC director of policy Joy Mercer (pictured) said that although it took “a few tentative steps in the right direction”, it didn’t “go far enough”.

She said: “Providing high quality, impartial advice and guidance is no easy task. While we appreciate schools are receiving no extra funding to support this statutory obligation, while competing in an increasingly competitive market to enrol young people, we wanted to see the legal duties more clearly defined.

“We believe more work needs to be done, especially regarding the steps that will be taken to ensure that schools comply.”

Stewart Segal, chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, said: “The new document is a significant step forward although there is much of the guidance that is left to the judgement of the schools. We agree with that principle providing the outputs of the school are monitored and the schools operate in a transparent and open environment.

“In particular we welcome the fact that schools are now expected to welcome employers and training providers on to their premises to allow pupils to hear about options such as apprenticeships and traineeships and of course any other work- based options.”

And 157 Group chief executive Lynne Sedgmore said: “We wholeheartedly agree with the assertion that pupils in schools will be inspired by the presence of employers and other role models in this work, and this guidance offers schools some helpful ideas about how best to achieve this.

“Recent research from City & Guilds showed that an overwhelming majority of school pupils were clamouring for more contact with the world of employment. I know that schools will want to work ever more closely with their local FE colleges who have a proven track record in employer relations.”

Announcing the guidance in the House of Commons, Skills Minister Matthew Hancock said it would “drive links between schools and colleges and employers” to “inspire and mentor”.

He added: “There will be no excuse for schools and colleges not opening their doors to employers and no excuse for employers not to engage with schools and colleges.”

A good practice brief on careers advice has also been published by the Association for School and College Leaders (ASCL), Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL), the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) and the 157 Group.

The document calls for a culture change led by senior leaders in schools and colleges, and “widespread agreement on the principles of effective careers education”. It also calls for extensive collaboration that always puts the interests of the young person first.

Richard Atkins, president-elect, Association of Colleges

Harrods provides the unexpected setting for the early career of Association of Colleges (AoC) president-elect Richard Atkins.

He admits it was a stint at the world famous London department store that gave him his first opportunity to grow as a person and pave his way to greater things.

It followed his adoption as a baby by Jim and Betty Atkins, with whom he enjoyed a “stable, happy family upbringing”.

A “typical boy” at school, he blames an obsession with sport and not taking his studies seriously enough for the fact he left Belmont School, in Hereford, in 1971 with two “very ordinary A-levels”.

“I had moved to London and was living in Hammersmith, and there was a temporary job over the summer to work as what they [Harrods] called the mobile,” says Atkins, the 60-year-old principal of Exeter College.

“They would ring up each day and say they were short in this department or that department and needed an extra pair of hands. I did my first day in the floristry.

“I stayed for three years and got direct entry onto their management programme. There was the interview progress for graduates, but every year they took so many from within the business. And then we did day-release, block-release and all of the rest. Then I became a manager at the warehousing and distribution place in Barnes.

“I suppose I gained a whole range of business and employability skills which I like to think have stood me in good stead for the rest of my life.”

Following his stint in retail, Atkins did teacher training at Bulmershe College, in Reading, between 1976 and 1979. He then taught business studies and history at Bishop Reindorp School in Guildford while studying at the University of Surrey for a Master’s degree. During his studies, colleagues pointed him in the direction of FE — a path he had not considered before.

He says: “I was at the local university doing a MSc in education management. Most of the people there were in FE, and talking to them, they asked why I hadn’t gone into FE. I said, like a million other people, I didn’t really know about it.”

His first job in the sector was at Chichester College in the early 1980s as a student liaison officer and lecturer, again in business studies and history. He then taught at Guildford College before joining the senior management team at York.

He then moved his family to Somerset and himself to Yeovil College as assistant principal, before being promoted to the top job within 10 months.

He says: “The year was 1994. It was immediately after incorporation — it was a very interesting time of change and we had a high average level of funding. My predecessor decided to retire, and I was principal there for seven years.”

His move back to the West Country — having been born in Bristol in 1953 — brought about a change in family circumstances, as Atkins found himself living near his mother and sister Celia for the first time since he was 18.

The government is very concerned about skills, and so am I, but my college is about so much more than
just skills

They followed him and his wife, Vicky, to the village of South Petherton, Somerset, where they have now lived for more than 20 years and raised two children: Sarah, 25, and Beth, 22.

He says: “I had lived quite a long way from my parents and my sister until I was in my 40s when they moved to be in the same village as us.

“My father had died, my sister was a single parent at the time, and we all ended up living in the same village. We all had to get to know each other again in a different way really.

“By then I had been married for 10 years or more, we had two young children, and I had got used to the idea that I always lived a long way from my parents.

“For my children, growing up in the same village as their grandmother has been a very good thing, and something I didn’t envisage at all in the years beforehand.”

Atkins has run Exeter College since 2002 which, with 1,800 A-level students studying alongside 1,500 apprentices and 1,200 learners expected to move on to university this year, is unusual in its own right.

He says Exeter, like York and many other cathedral cities, has a “wide social spectrum in a fairly small geographical area”, but that is not what makes his college stand out from the crowd.

“In Exeter there are still no school sixth forms in the city,” says Atkins.

Richard Atkins with daughter Beth at Wembley Stadium watching his beloved Yeovil Town Football Club

“The instant reaction of people is that it must make life easy, but my experience has been that you have to work extremely hard on the relationships with those schools because it’s an undercurrent the whole time of ‘shall we have a sixth form?’, particularly with successive governments saying sixth forms are the answer.

“Whenever anybody arrives from away they scratch their heads and ask how we’re doing all of this.

“Our answer is that we’ve been doing it the same way for 43 years and it’s not gone too badly so far.

“One of the things we pride ourselves on is our sense of inclusiveness. I have in my college very middle class children, but I also have large numbers who come from a background of free school meals.”

As he prepares for his year as president of the AoC, which will begin in August, Atkins makes it clear he will be not go easy on this government.

He makes no secret of his disdain for the “outrageous” cut in funding for 18-year-old learners, and the government’s “salami-slicing” approach to funding cuts in general.

He adds: “The government is very concerned about skills, and so am I, but my college is about so much more than just skills. It is a significant asset for Exeter. I find the government takes a telescopic view of what we do.”

He says he often has to deal with a Department for Education which “does not have a deep interest in FE or colleges”, but also speaks with pride of his work over the last seven years on the AoC board.

He says: “I have really enjoyed working with other principals to develop the AoC and I think it is in good shape.

“It is more influential than it was. I believe the AoC is doing better, but as always a lot more could be done, and this sector does occupy the shadows a bit.

“I thought the response to the 18+ cut was fantastic, and it is so important at the moment that we act together and make a lot of noise.”

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It’s a personal thing

What is your favourite book?

The Diary of a Nobody, by George and Weedon Grossmith

What do you do to unwind after work?

I spend time with family, watch and read ‘Nordic Noir’ films and books, and I follow Yeovil Town FC

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

Abraham Lincoln, RA Butler, Ella Fitzgerald, Sofie Gråbøl [Danish actress and star of TV series The Killing], Gary Johnson [Yeovil Town manager] to be held at Gidleigh Park, Devon

What is your pet hate?

Lack of mutual respect

What did you want to be when you were growing up?

A police officer