Nine make it through in sale of troubled K College

Nine organisations have been asked to develop their bids to take over provision at the troubled K College, FE Week can reveal.

They have been whittled down from 30 organisations, including colleges and private firms, who sent the Skills Funding Agency a total of 87 expressions of interest (EIs).

They want to take on elements of the Kent-based college (pictured above, with former principal Bill Fearon), which is being broken up following a failed merger, from August next year.

An agency spokesperson told FE Week: “Working with the Education Funding Agency and the Higher Education Funding Council for England, we have now reviewed the EIs submitted for the education and skills provision in South and West Kent, currently delivered by K College, the first stage in the competition process.

“We now move to the second stage of the competition process and have invited nine organisations to prepare and submit full tenders to us, to demonstrate how they will fully meet the needs of the area and deliver high quality provision from August 1, 2014, while maintaining continuity for existing learners.”

The college was formed following a merger between West Kent College and South Kent College in 2010, but ran up at least £15m in debt to the agency, which has issued it with a notice of concern.

Phil Frier, who became interim principal of the college in January following the resignation of former principal Mr Fearon, has conceded the merger failed.

But the college now looks likely to be broken up, depending on the nature of the winning bid or bids.

Seven parts of the college’s provision are on offer, including 16 to 19 provision in Dover, Folkestone or Ashford, Tonbridge and Tunbridge Wells grouped together and 19+ provision in these three areas.
Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) directly-funded provision at Ashford and Tonbridge is also up for grabs.

The first, EI, stage of the tendering process was initially supposed to have been completed in August.

But it was delayed by the agency “in order to allow organisations to better prepare their tenders” as many organisations would be closed over the summer, according to an email sent to interested bodies.

That resulted in the second stage of the process, where invitations to tender (ITT) were due to be sent out by the agency between July and September, being pushed back to this month.

However, the delay should not prevent contracts from being awarded on time, an agency spokesperson told FE Week in July. They said: “Contracts will continue to be awarded in line with the indicative timetable we have set out.”

The nine short-listed organisations, who have made through to the ITT stage, are due give presentations and attend interviews on their bids later this month, with contracts being awarded the following two months.

The agency spokesperson said: “K College will continue to deliver provision to new and existing learners throughout this process.”

The agency is refusing to disclose any details with regard to applications while the procurement is running. It has also declined to say whether college debts would be transferred to the winning bidder.

However, K College revealed that the nine parties which had been given invitations to tender included a range of colleges, private and not-for-profit providers.

The names announced by the college were:

  • Canterbury College
  • East Kent College
  • Hadlow College
  • Highbury College
  • Mid Kent College
  • Newcastle College Group
  • SEETEC Business Technology Centre Ltd
  • Ixion Group Contracts Ltd

FE Week believes the ninth organisation invited to tender has pulled out.

Bravo principal in 120 breathtaking kickboxing bouts for charity

The principal of Basingstoke College of Technology (BCoT) today took part in 120 two minute kickboxing fights to raise funds for the The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity.

Anthony Bravo is 6 foot 5 inches tall and was National Association of Kickboxing Champion in 1995, 1996 and 1997 (each year winner of two out of the three categories: Points, Light Continuous and Full Contact) as well as national karate champion in 1996 (doing kickboxing).

The tournament today took place at the Croydon Phoenix School of Martial Arts in London, where this year they have raised over £30,000 for The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity, making the total in excess of £200,000.

Mr Bravo was appointed as principal at BCoT in 2009, and before that was the principal of the new Crossways Sixth Form Academy in Lewisham, London. In July the further education college improved from an Ofsted ‘satisfactory’ to an overall ‘good’ grade.

Mr Bravo is also a regular tweeter, so to keep up to speed with all his moves follow @anthonybravo 

Below are pictures by Nick Linford, FE Week editor, of Mr Bravo in action today, the first of which is with Master Instructor Stephen Brooks, 7th Dan Karate, and head of Phoenix Martial Arts in Croydon.

To make a donation visit Mr Bravo’s webpage here.

Major challenges ahead to make Labours plans into reality

Steve Besley offers a Policy Watch perspective on Labour’s proposals on apprenticeships.

We’ve had world class qualifications for the academic system, now we have a call for “a universal gold standard for apprenticeships”.

This would be based on a level three threshold with minimum durations, dedicated time for off the job training and greater employer control over funding and standards.

Details can be found in Labour’s independent skills taskforce’s first report on apprenticeships, published at the start of this year’s party conference.

The Taskforce’s two other reports, due in the autumn, will cover school-work transition and vocational learning in FE, but for the moment the emphasis is on apprenticeships.

Renaming level two training would require considerable work to ensure such a credible route can be put together”

This report supports the growing trend towards direct funding for employers, calling for a large chunk of the current £1.5billion apprenticeship budget to be handed over, but with two conditions.

These are firstly that the funding should be used to develop sector-led workforce development strategies, with apprenticeship targets thrown in for good measure, and secondly, that employers should work with local bodies.

The local join aspect needs a bit more working up and there’s no mention of how 16 to 18 year old provision would fit in, but the message is clear and reinforced in the report’s title – “A something-for-something deal with employers”.

In the long-term, the report’s sympathies lie with the use of tax incentives.

National Insurance relief for small employers, many would argue, would be a better bet than the current youth contract approach.

The report is also keen on employers and employees, rather than ministers, leading on training policy.

This is a tricky area, as it needs some structures for this to happen and the skills system is not short of structural change.

The report’s answer is to give the UK Commission for Employment and Skills a leading role in making the current system work better, rather than attempt to create anything particularly new.

As the architects of the current Employer Ownership Pilots, there is an obvious logic here although the commission may need support.

The model proposed is a hub and spoke one where the UK Commission for Employment and Skills builds the capacity of sector bodies, which in turn work to improve training at a local level.

The third core proposal is the development of a universal gold standard to help re-define just what an apprenticeship is.

There’s been lots of concern recently about the apprenticeship brand and whether it has been tarnished by being allowed to drift into other forms of training.

The report’s answer is to pull in the esteemed Rhineland model of a high-quality, employer-defined, level three qualification and use that as the model to aim for.

Given that so many apprenticeships here at the moment are at level two, this raises the question “what should happen to such training?”

The report states level two training should be renamed as a traineeship or similar and re-designed to ensure all young people who want to progress to higher level training are able to do so.

This may happen in due course, but it would require considerable work to ensure such a credible route can be put together.  The government is already circling this area, partly through its work on 16 to 19 accountability and partly through its review of adult vocational qualifications. However, it remains the next big challenge for policy makers.

Steve Besley, head of policy at Pearson and author of Policy Watch

 

Hancock tries out the apprentice high life

Skills Minister Matthew Hancock exchanged his suit for overalls to find out what life was like for an apprentice engineer as part of a job swap scheme.

Mr Hancock switched places with City & Guilds apprenticeship champion of the year Jenny Westworth, aged 23, who works at BAE Systems.

He said: “It was fantastic to swap jobs with Jenny and understand first-hand what it is like to be an apprentice.”

Earlier in the year Jenny visited Westminster to experience being a minister.

She said: “It was a real honour to have an opportunity to be a minister for the day but I was also proud to show the Minister what I’ve achieved as a result of my apprenticeship at BAE Systems.”

Design student through to junior awards

A design student showed off her talent at London Fashion Week as part of a charity project to help young people into the fashion industry.

Barking & Dagenham College student Olivia Till, aged 17, took part in a workshop organised by the charity Fashion Awareness Direct (FAD) and was handpicked by an industry panel to go forward to the 2013 FAD Junior Awards.

Olivia said: “To be able to have my work in a catwalk show at London Fashion Week is a dream come true.”

Olivia’s designs were inspired by colours she’d seen in recycled packaging.

She added: “I didn’t even show my garments to any of my family and friends before the night — I wanted it to be surprise.”

Dragon artwork inspires rugby victory

The Newport Gwent Dragons rugby team roared to a 23-16 victory against South Wales rivals the Scarlets with the help of some college-created artwork.

The team was presented with a metalwork sculpture of a dragon created by fabrication and welding and vehicle body repair students from Coleg Gwent at half-time.

They constructed the decorative beast from stainless steel, copper and brass and finished it in bright red. Fabrication and welding lecturer Darren Brooks said: “The finished sculpture was a credit to students’ hard work and dedication.”

The dragon was commissioned by the Dragons outfit after a club member saw students’ work on a visit to the campus. It took 12 weeks to complete.

Naval cup win for rugged students

South West students showed they were ship-shaped when they battled eight other colleges win the Naval Careers Service Challenge cup.

The 15 Royal Marine-sponsored Weston College public service students took on an assault course, tug-of-war and deck hockey on a naval ship.

They also tackled navigation, cross-country and mock grenade throwing over two days at the HMS Raleigh Piers Cellars Training Centre in Cornwall.

Senior public services lecturer Dave Beresford said: “The level two and three students were all under the age of 18 and really pulled together as a team.”

He added: “Weston College achieved fantastic results against well-motivated adversaries to win the competition out right. They did brilliantly.”

Guli has recipe for television success

A former Manchester TV and radio production student cooked up a storm on his first job for a new ITV cooking show.

Guglielmo ‘Guli’ Soreca, aged 29, who is originally from Italy but studied at Hopwood Hall College, spent five weeks filming Gino’s Italian Escape with celebrity chef Gino D’Acampo.

Guli, who went on to Leeds University, said: “I learned so much at college and really appreciate my tutors and the opportunities the course gave me.

“When I arrived at university I had a real advantage over many of my peers in terms of both practical skills and organising a production.”

Sarah gets a taste for Eel Pie Island magic

A long-lost mural from a legendary 1960s rhythm and blues venue has been brought back to life by a London art and design student.

The painting of a jazz band was once part of Twickenham’s Eel Pie Island Hotel, which hosted music icons like The Rolling Stones, Rod Stewart and Eric Clapton.

The hotel burned down in 1971, but Richmond upon Thames College student Sarah Blackwell, aged 18, recreated the mural using a black and white photo of the original for an exhibition on the island’s history.

Sarah said: “I’m really pleased with the end result and will be forever grateful that I’ve had my own personal taste of the magic of Eel Pie Island.”