Winstanley College students who dream of becoming doctors spent three weeks volunteering in Uganda working with Aids and cancer patients.
Catherine Merriman and Hannah Rodrigues, both 18, who are both currently studying maths, biology and chemistry A-levels at the Wigan-based sixth form college, organised the trip themselves.
They were also joined by Catherine’s sister, Hannah, 23, who used to attend the same college.
Hannah said: “Shadowing nurses and witnessing the administration of morphine for those with HIV, Aids and terminal cancers had a profound impact on me.”
Catherine said: “It was extremely challenging and I quickly became aware of the influence of poverty and culture on the accessibility and delivery of health care.
“It was also a great opportunity to practice my French while interacting with Congolese patients at a local hospital.”
Cap: Catherine Merriman (back left) and Hannah Rodrigues (back row, second from right) at the day care centre with Catherine’s sister Hannah (centre front), another young volunteer from England and children suffering from cancer, HIV/Aids and other illnesses
A winning rendition of Lady Gaga’s hit song Speechless left the audience at the MidKent College talent final lost for words.
Georgia Murray, aged 18, received a standing ovation following her performance, which saw her beat 16 other MidKent’s Got Talent finalists to win the annual competition.
Street dancer Harry Rowe, 18, from Maidstone, and dance collective Urban Vibe clinched second and third place, respectively.
Other acts included a circus skills performer, a gymnast, several singers, a live band and another dancer.
Students Union president Matt Stanley, who was a member of the judging panel, said: “It was difficult to pick a winner from so many talented students, but I think Georgia deservedly came out on top.
“She has an amazing voice and makes singing seem so effortless.”
The Education and Training Foundation (ETF) has a tough job ahead of it.
Not only does it need to spread the word about its existence, it needs to convince sceptics of its necessity in an industry which knows what it wants.
With this supplement, we hope to aid the ETF in that first task.
Although the organisation officially started its life August last year, our focus is on its direction under the stewardship of new chief executive David Russell, who is profiled in the pages which follow.
We also hope to spell out the ETF’s approach with its expert panels, and will introduce you to its board and tell you a bit of the backstory.
As part of our work to introduce you to the ETF, we carried out a survey of members of the sector, the results of which have revealed some interesting things about how the fledgling organisation is perceived and the areas of the industry which seem most engaged with it so far.
The responses may have come from a variety of people in different areas of the sector, but one thing is very clear from their answers — the word hasn’t spread as far as it needs to just yet.
Of 234 people questioned on the progress of the ETF so far, 41 per cent said they did not know how the organisation was progressing, while 13 per cent said they did not even know what the ETF was.
Another point made crystal clear by those who responded to the survey was that ETF’s engagement needs to be thorough and wide-ranging.
Of 234 respondents to a question about who the organisation should be working most closely with, 55 per cent said people in all roles should be involved.
And 69 per cent of respondents said the ETF should be using social media, newsletters by post or email and its website to reach people across the sector.
Of the 192 survey respondents who told us what their job role was, 33 per cent said they were heads of departments, 20 per cent were directors, 15 per cent were curriculum managers and just over 10 per cent were managing directors. The rest were tutors, lecturers and principals.
Most responses came from FE colleges (49 per cent) and independent learning providers (34 per cent).
The results tell us a lot of things, but mostly affirm a view across the sector that the ETF, like any organisation, must prove itself, and that Mr Russell has got a bigger job ahead of him than simply finding the paper clips.
Greater Manchester independent learning provider has appointed a new chief executive.
Julie Robinson has taken the helm at Bolton-based Alliance Learning having risen through the ranks from sales and marketing manager 20 years ago.
She started her career at Gullick Dobson as an office junior before joining Alliance Learning in 1994 as a sales and marketing officer.
Julie Robinson
Wigan born Ms Robinson graduated through the management structure, reaching the post of deputy chief executive in 2006.
She saw Alliance achieve a satisfactory, or grade three (renamed requires improvement), Ofsted rating in 2010 under the leadership of Steve Whitehead.
“Throughout my 20 years at Alliance Learning I have gained extensive knowledge of the organisation and its business,” she said.
“The staff at Alliance Learning are truly outstanding in terms of commitment to their learners and to our organisation and this has recently reflected in our outstanding success rates of over 90 per cent and being graded as a good provider in all areas of curriculum by the education watchdog in July 2013.
“Alliance Learning has already devised the blueprint which will ensure outstanding inspection results at the next inspection.”
Ms Robinson takes over from previous Alliance chief Mr Whitehead, who left after seven years to become head of education and skills at Blackburn-based Training 2000.
Steve Whitehead
Before that, he spent almost 15 years with Accrington-based North Lancs Training Group.
Steve Gray, chief executive at Training 2000, said: “Our company is on a journey of continuous improvement and Steve’s new appointment will allow the company to look into ways to develop our provision, ensuring that we can continue to invest in staff and facilities.
“As an ex-apprentice, Steve will be a great ambassador for young people and will play a key role in promoting the value of apprenticeships to employers.”
If you want to let us know of any new faces at the top of your college or training provider, please let us know by emailing news@feweek.co.uk
With the government having announced plans for secure colleges for young offenders, Paul Phillips uses his experience of delivering adult prison education to outline the issues that will need consideration.
The whole world of offender learning has faced massive change over the last 18 months with the introduction of the OLASS (Offender Learning and Skills Service) 4 approach.
Essentially, that has enabled a much greater focus to be given to the skills agenda and to ensure that prisoners are equipped with the latest skills and expertise to enable progression to secure work when their sentence is completed.
The transition process has not been easy but the approach taken by the government has been highly necessary.
Most recently, the government announced plans for ‘secure colleges’.
At Weston College, we are the offender learning provider for a large number of prisons across the South West and the concept of secure colleges is one that is interesting, but one that also will need great planning for such a model to become successful.
From my perspective as principal, we need to take the lessons from OLASS 4 and look at what has been happening in terms of youth custody, which is currently generally outside our remit.
The key messages from my perspective are that education has got to be the priority and the qualifications on offer must be those that can lead to sustainable employment or progression to higher levels of study.
Are the entrepreneurs of the future out there who can create these secure colleges?
It is also imperative that we recognise that many offenders will either have learning disabilities, special educational needs or mental health needs.
Therefore the funding that follows the prisoners must ensure that they have the additional support for success.
Currently, under OLASS 4 methodologies, albeit for older prisoners, the levels of additional learning support available are significantly below that required.
As the concept paper from government suggests, the secure college must achieve the very best educational provision combined with rigorous security.
If these two parameters can be achieved then there is a real change of taking the free school/academy model and creating an enviable resource for the future.
There is also the need to consider the whole environment that will be needed to impact upon such change.
So are the entrepreneurs of the future out there who can create these secure colleges?
I believe that there is a key solution which must combine the very best of OLASS 4 methodologies with experts in security.
Both these parameters must have equal priority in planning for the future, but equally the whole concept of youth custody needs re-examination.
If the government is serious about these proposals, then it will need to engage with outstanding learning providers with real expertise in the skills agenda.
Similarly, these providers will need to work with organisations who have proven expertise in security.
This is certainly not an easy proposition, but I believe these providers exist.
The paper from the government, entitled transforming youth custody — putting education at the heart of detention, may be the catalyst that we need in this country.
It clearly needs to be thought out in great detail and then of course there is the cost benefit analysis that will be crucial.
The concept will not be cheap, but, as the green paper states, with average cost per place running from £65,000 to £212,000 per annum and with reoffending rates of at least 70 per cent, change is necessary.
The strategies announced are feasible and to be applauded. I do have a caveat however and that is use the experts from the world of FE and others to influence and support these changes.
Dr Paul Phillips OBE, principal, Weston College, Somerset
Former House of Commons Education Select Committee specialist Ben Nicholls is head of policy and communications at London’s Newham College. He writes exclusively for FE Week every month.
FE colleagues probably have little time to watch TV and, if they do, they may reasonably avoid anything to do with education.
I’m glad, though, that I’ve found time to watch the start of Tough Young Teachers, a new BBC3 series following six Teach First participants in three of London’s more challenging schools.
I’m glad for lots of reasons, not least because it increases my ever-growing respect for what teaching colleagues across the country do every day. There can’t be a more valuable or under-valued job.
I’m glad, also, because it confirms both my fears about, and delight in, education on TV.
Professor Mary Beard, talking about her experiences on Jamie’s Dream School in 2012, argued that while the series was “useful”, we “have to be very clear that we were dealing with a group of kids and teachers who, in some ways, were fighting for the attention of the TV cameras”.
So, while TV education can be highly entertaining, and can both shape and stimulate important debate (as well as raise teachers’ status), it cannot ever be the full picture, and we should never pretend it is.
Finally, though, I’m glad because the programme helped me crystallise some of my own puzzled thoughts about teacher training.
Previously, I’ve felt — and written here — that the profession needs to attract people from all walks of life, with all sorts of skills and backgrounds. But Tough Young Teachers has really brought home that teachers need just as robust training as doctors, firefighters, soldiers, or any other professionals.
I know teachers who found their training pretty useless. I know teachers, too, who refer back to it every day.
These are issues of quality, which arguably need addressing — but neither scenario negates the importance of training itself.
That importance is summarised by the tough young teacher who declares, after her second lesson: “I don’t know what I’m doing.”
Learning on the job is important, but it can’t be the whole package. Criticising Teach First isn’t my purpose here. The scheme has perhaps done more than anything else to encourage people towards teaching who would never have considered it before.
It just needs to give those people some more training — and I can fairly safely say that most Teach First participants, in my experience, agree. Tough Young Teachers comes at a time when the National Union of Students is running its own campaign to ensure that FE teachers still need to qualify — against a government which disagrees, and which already allows the unqualified to teach in Free Schools.
My own college is clear that teachers need to be qualified, and we’re glad that our Student Union agrees with the importance of this.
It’s a question, though, which is particularly apt in vocational subjects where practical experience is critical for teachers, and highly valued by students.
Proposals being developed by thinktanks and others to facilitate professional secondments into FE will need to consider this question very carefully.
To return to Dream School, I can do no better than quote student Nana Kwame.
When asked whether subject knowledge or ability to communicate mattered more in a teacher, he responded: “You can’t pick between the two — you need someone in the middle, who knows what they’re talking about [but] can get along with you”.
The House of Commons Education Select Committee robustly defended this position, stating in 2012: “There is no clear formula for an ‘outstanding’ teacher… although good subject knowledge, overall academic ability and a range of personal and inter-personal skills are vital”.
But the committee also argued forcefully that “school-based training is vital in preparing a teacher for their future career”.
Six weeks in the summer before Lesson One cannot, with respect to Teach First, ever be enough — and Tough Young Teachers supports that position.
There’s no question that the six participants are pretty tough, not to mention a plethora of other superlatives — they just need to be trained as well.
With Skills Minister Matthew Hancock having announced plans for a nuclear college, Mike Robbins looks at whether he should just have been grateful for the existing FE offer and used it as an industry model.
he government has announced proposals to build new specialist colleges to support the skills training required for HS2 and the nuclear industry, but we have seen how an established training institution can evolve, adapt and innovate to deliver the new and bespoke skills required for a major civil engineering project.
The nuclear new build at Hinkley Point C represents a highly-ambitious project of international significance; the proposed construction of two new nuclear reactors will necessitate a workforce of 25,000 across the ten years of the build, and clearly there is insufficient existing capacity within the whole of the South West, let alone Somerset itself.
A major programme of community engagement, skills development and training is clearly required, and with associated infrastructure works that include highways improvements, campus accommodation, park and rides and wharf and jetty improvements, the question is — why build a brand new, purpose-built college as well?
To do so would be to ignore the wealth of experience and expertise already available in the FE sector, particularly when it comes to science, technology, engineering and
maths disciplines.
Partnership can lead to significant private investment in facilities within colleges to deliver skills development and training on a huge scale
While close collaboration between industry and the education sector on a project of this magnitude has simply not happened before, the Tier 1 contractors connected with Hinkley C are wholeheartedly embracing the fact that colleges already have the mechanisms in place to respond quickly and flexibly to industry.
This type of partnership can lead to significant private investment in facilities within colleges to deliver skills development and training on a huge scale, and enabling them to continue with their core offer to young people even in the light of reduced government funding.
The impact on the local communities that colleges serve can be substantial — in the case of Hinkley C, for example, one third of the jobs are intended for people within a 90-minute commute, and the involvement of a coalition of South West colleges has led to aspirations being universally raised.
New ways of working often require new delivery and assessment methods, and the private investment afforded by industry partnerships enables colleges to look far beyond the reaches of traditional classroom delivery.
Realistic working environments for specific construction skills — such as formwork, plant operations, excavating, scaffolding and concrete pouring — can be created using industry-standard plant and equipment, on a scale that simply would not be possible if colleges were wholly reliant traditional funding streams.
And colleges can work together to pool expertise, share facilities and franchise programmes, creating a UK-wide skills base that will serve industry for decades to come.
An early alliance with major civil engineering projects is not without risk for colleges, particularly in terms of up-front investment, but it can prove to be a very sound strategy. The benefits to colleges and the communities they serve are clear; but the benefits for the projects themselves cannot be underestimated either.
The vast array of skills training required is being placed firmly where it belongs — in the hands of proven experts who have often been recruited from the industries themselves — and early engagement means that the preparatory work has already been completed in readiness for the green light.
It is debateable whether a new college could overcome teething problems and hit the ground running, even assuming practical considerations such as location, planning, recruitment and marketing could be overcome.
It is also worth noting that the eventual employers on major infrastructure schemes come from far and wide, and to focus on a single training provider in a single location would seem inappropriate and inefficient — a widening of opportunity to optimal numbers of people is absolutely key to future success.
We would like to see government maximising the potential of the many excellent colleges that lie along the route from London to Leeds or near the areas where nuclear new build and operations exist.
Nearly a quarter of vacancies in the UK have gone unfilled because of a shortage of much-needed skills, a survey of 91,000 UK employers has revealed.
The Employer Skills Survey, by the UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES), found that 22 per cent of the 655,000 vacancies in the UK remained untaken because employers could not find workers with the right skills.
Within England, the number of skill-shortage vacancies has nearly doubled since 2009, increasing from 63,100 to 124,800.
The survey, made up of 87,572 interviews, taking in 91,000 separate businesses across all UK sectors, found that jobs in skilled trades, management, professional roles, caring, leisure and machine operating were most affected.
Among the skills needed were “oral and written communication, literacy and numeracy skills” — something which seems to have worsened since the last survey in 2011.
Skills Minister Matthew Hancock said: “Employers in some sectors report persistent skills shortages which is why I have been working hard to design a skills system that is rigorous in the training it provides and responsive to the needs of employers.
“With a record number of people in jobs as our economy continues to grow we must have a skilled workforce equipped to work in a modern economy and compete effectively in the global race.”
The 200-page report, published on Thursday, January 30, also revealed that employers found 17 and 18-year-olds recruited from college were more ready for work than those of the same age recruited from school — 66 per cent of employers said school-leavers were well or very well prepared, while almost three quarters (74 per cent) said the same of college leavers.
Policy director Andy Gannon of the 157 Group, said: “The survey results are encouraging, but they demonstrate that all concerned can do more to boost training and skills levels.
“It is good that the report recognises the increased employability of college leavers, and we know that FE colleges stand ready to work… with employers and their representatives to ensure economic growth through an increasingly skilled workforce.
“In many areas, these relationships are already bearing fruit, and demonstrating the critical importance of colleges in delivering prosperity for all.”
Association of Colleges president Michele Sutton said: “The fact that employers are more positive about colleges leavers than school-leavers demonstrates clearly that gaining the high-quality qualifications colleges offer is the key to making young people more employable.
“The information that employers are reporting an increase in vacancies due to skills shortages is a real concern.
“It is proof that more vocational education is needed — whether alone or alongside academic qualifications — in order to bridge the gap.”
She added: “Colleges already play a key role in working closely with employers in their area to make sure they are providing young people with the right skills for the local jobs market, often through apprenticeships.”
The UKCES report also showed that total employer investment in training staff had fallen by 5 per cent between 2011 and 2013 (from £45.3bn to £42.9bn).
David Hughes, chief executive of the National Institute for Continuing Adult Learning, said: “This survey reinforces our concerns about handing over the ownership of the entire skills system to employers.
“To have a vibrant and effective skills system that meets the needs of business and wider society, it has to be led by a partnership of employers, learners and Government and must balance their interests.”
“If you step back from this survey and look at other evidence, including our own annual participation survey, this points to the need to stimulate informed demand for learning from young people, adults and employers. The only way you can achieve that kind of informed demand and ensure that there are enough people with the right level of skills for a successful economy and an inclusive society is through a partnership of employers, learners, Government and colleges and training providers working together.”
University and College Union general secretary Sally Hunt, of the, said: “More than 60 per cent of the skills shortages identified by employers were ‘technical, practical or job specific’.
“It is often not that people aren’t skilled enough… but that skills need to be applied more effectively.
“It’s vital employers commit to providing necessary training for their existing employees… employers need to invest more, not less, if they want to effectively address their skills deficits.”
Neil Carberry, Confederation of British Industry director for employment and skills, said: “The flip side of faster growth is an escalating skills crisis.
“While this isn’t surprising, it makes it all the more urgent to close the skills gaps in science, technology, engineering and maths to support the recovery.”
He added that a “sea-change quality of careers advice” would make young people “more aware of the opportunities and rewards of working in key sectors which face skills shortages.”
The report also found that nearly half of employers across the UK (48%) admit they recruit people with higher levels of skills and knowledge than are required for the job.
Jan Hodges, chief executive of the Edge Foundation, said the high level of skills shortages combined with issue of some workers being over-qualified for their jobs showed “young people need much better information, advice and guidance, and high quality work experience.”
“They need to know which qualifications and pathways lead to the best prospects,” she said.
Early airing for employer findings at Skills Summit
Around 150 delegates at the Skills Summit in central London got a preview of the Employer Skills Survey.
Michael Davis, UK Commission for Employment and Skills chief executive, said the survey presented “a mixed picture [with] positive trends, but also significant challenges”.
“All of these challenges need to be better understood and tackled if the UK is to have the skills needed for sustainable recovery,” he said at the event on Tuesday, January 28.
Skills Minister Matthew Hancock was also at the conference, where he announced plans to build a new nuclear specialist college, while Skills Funding Agency executive director of provider management Marinos Paphitis said staff cuts at his organisation would not affect performance.
From left: Marinos Paphitis, David Hughes and Matthew Hancock
The agency announced a restructure late last year, leaving more than 1,000 staff uncertain of their futures
“There will be less of us… We’re going to be smarter, we’re going to do more things centrally, but we are going to have the relationships as well,” said Mr Paphitis.
“What we’re not going to stop doing is intervening where bad things happen. We have now got a systematic approach and we’re not tolerating failure.”
The Employer Skills Survey has thrown up some interesting statistics about the state of the UK economy and its hunger for trained workers. Michael Davis looks at the survey in more depth and asks what the findings mean for UK plc.
There’s no questioning the robustness of a survey that interviews more than 90,000 respondents. But like all statistics, the story isn’t so much in what we know; it’s what we think we can surmise.
So what do we think this report tells us about the opportunities and threats facing FE?
Recruitment is increasing. Given recent news about the growth of the economy, it’s
no surprise that employment opportunities are up.
This will obviously provide employers with recruitment challenges. But more interesting will be the shift in mindset employers will need to make — from one which has (understandably) focused on survival to one more which looks to growth, and retaining and attracting talent as part of that.
We know that training is a key component of the workplace offer, demonstrating the value and ambition of the business, and enabling businesses to differentiate themselves to potential employees.
We also know that what young people want from a job is changing, and working for an ethical, responsible employer which contributes to society is becoming increasingly important.
Colleges have a great opportunity to develop new and lasting relationships with business, helping them build their reputation as a good place to work by supporting them to make training a core component of their workforce offer.
But skills shortages are also increasing — fast.
The FE sector has a way to go before it can claim to be cutting-edge, so there’s a clear opportunity here
The growth in vacancies that can’t be filled because people do not have the required skills has risen twice as quickly as the growth in overall vacancies.
More than one-in-five vacancies is proving difficult to fill for skills reasons, up from one-in-six in 2011.
Colleges (and awarding bodies) that can harness labour market intelligence and work with employers to develop credible courses and curricula will be well placed to develop their offer and fill these skill shortage vacancies.
Workplace training is up — and down. Encouragingly, the proportion of employers providing training (65 per cent) has remained constant over the last two years, despite the recession.
However, the economic downturn has bought about changes in the nature of investment.
While the proportion of people receiving training has increased over the past two years, the total amount employers invest in training has fallen by £2.5bn.
Employers are becoming more thrifty, often turning to alternative providers
and choosing cheaper delivery methods, such as in-house and technology-based training.
The debate about learning technology in FE is well underway and there are pockets of good practice. But in honesty, the FE sector has a way to go before it can claim to be cutting-edge, so there’s a clear opportunity here.
The value of training is understood. The majority of employers (71 per cent) say they will need to upgrade the skills or knowledge of their staff in the next 12 months.
Despite this (and by their own admission) employers are not meeting their own investment appetite.
A sizeable minority of them (42 per cent) want to provide more training. Getting the offer right and taking the complexity out of the system for employers may enable colleges to unlock this latent demand.
Over the coming weeks and months the UK Commission for Employment and Skills will be releasing of a series of “evidence toolkits” providing detailed data for individual nations of the UK, as well as for local enterprise partnerships and local authorities.
We will also be doing further analysis of the findings and identifying a series of topics for more in-depth analysis.
But like all research, the value lies not in the numbers, but in what you make of them.
By interrogating this data and mashing it with other research, we can expect to gain further insights.
We are committed to making the datasets from this and other research freely accessible via our “LMI for All” tool later this spring. Visit our website — www.ukces.org.uk — for more information on this, or any other aspect of our work.
Michael Davis, chief executive, UK Commission for Employment and Skills
