The Skills Funding Agency is poised to investigate as it awaits the results of a Newham College investigation into claims it awarded qualifications to students who never took courses.
The agency said it “reserved the right” to probe further if it was not satisfied with the college investigation into allegations that passes had been awarded to students who did not attend any lectures, or had attendance rates of 40 per cent or less — which former lecturers allegedly said should be “impossible”.
It is understood the college, which received an Ofsted rating of good in March this year, was investigating the claims, but had not seen the evidence on which a BBC report, in which the claims were made, was based.
An agency spokesperson told FE Week: “The college governing body has informed us of the steps it is taking to investigate these matters. We expect to receive the findings from this investigation shortly.
“We reserve the right to require or carry out further investigation if we are dissatisfied with the robustness of the college’s own investigations.”
Agency funding for most college courses is dependent on the number of students who achieve a pass.
A college spokesperson said: “As a high-performing and well-regarded college, we take any allegation of malpractice very seriously, and we are keen to investigate any issues raised with us.”
The allegations follow the posting of a video on YouTube on November 17, which featured dance and drama head Dr Mark Walcott seeming to make vile claims about gay teachers during a staff meeting early last year.
Principal Denise Brown-Sackey announced she was taking leave having consulted with governors about the video.
It is understood that an eight-month internal investigation had already taken place into Dr Walcott, but no action was taken until the clip went online.
The college confimed he has now been suspended while an “independent” investigation is carried out into his behavior. Nevertheless, the latest allegations have seen the storm surrounding the college continue.
A Newham Council spokesperson said: “In light of the new allegations, it is important that all details are passed to the agency so it can hold a full investigation.
“We are concerned not only that public money is spent appropriately, but also that anyone studying hard knows their efforts are worthwhile and that their qualifications are seen as credible by employers, colleges, universities and by the students themselves.”
How do you take industry expertise into the learning environment while retaining that practical, everyday sector knowledge? It’s an issue that has been looked at recently and Jenny Williams wants to hear from FE and skills providers where such issues have been overcome.
There has been much discussion in the last few weeks about ‘line of sight to work’ and ‘the two-way street’ — two of the key characteristics for excellent vocational teaching and learning identified earlier this year by the Commission on Adult Vocational Teaching and Learning (CAVTL) in its report, It’s about work.
The first National Vocational Education and Training Conference, also called It’s about work, which was held as part of the Skills Show in November, heard from Sir Charlie Mayfield, chairman of the John Lewis Partnership and the UK Commission for Employment and Skills, just how important vocational education and training (VET) will be “if we are to secure a structural economic recovery, rather than a cyclical rebound”.
We want to translate knowledge of existing effective practices and development work into shareable expertise
The language is resonating, and in so doing, creating a platform on which to raise the status, and further improve the quality and impact of VET.
Meanwhile, the Education and Training Foundation has been making a start on taking forward CAVTL’s recommendations. An early priority is Teach Too.
The idea of Teach Too is to encourage experts from industry to spend some time teaching their occupational expertise to others and to contribute to vocational curriculum development, while continuing to work.
In the other direction of the two-way street, it is also about enabling teachers and trainers to draw on up-to-date industry experience and in so doing to add value to employers’ businesses.
We know we are not starting from scratch, and that a number of Teach Too style arrangements already exist.
Our starting point, therefore, has been to call for the engagement of the education and training sector to identify and report on a good range of existing effective practices as a basis for further development work.
We want to translate knowledge of existing effective practices and development work into shareable expertise in transferring on-the-job learning to an off-the-job learning context and vice versa.
We have also launched an invitation to tender for a delivery partner to work with us on this and, working from practice to principles to help us design a national framework for Teach Too next year.
Teach Too is an early priority for the foundation’s vocational education and training strategy, together with programmes to support the introduction of traineeships, the implementation of reforms to apprenticeships, and professional development support to embed skills competitions practice.
Further programmes taking forward CAVTL’s recommendations on the two-way street, improving the distinctive practices of vocational teaching and learning, support for occupational updating and the use of learning technologies will follow early in 2014.
We will also be consulting on the longer term development of a national VET Centre which could act as a focal point for excellence and innovation in vocational teaching and learning.
As the author of the CAVTL report, it has been pleasing to hear its language being adopted. Our priority now at the foundation is to build on the interest in the CAVTL’s findings as a platform for action and innovation to support the further professional development of the vocational education and training workforce. As Frank McLoughlin has said, CAVTL saw “genuinely world-class provision in a whole range of settings”.
What was clear was that “the best vocational teaching and learning is a sophisticated process; it demands ‘dual professionals’ — teachers and trainers with occupational expertise and experience, who can combine this with excellent teaching and learning practice”.
The foundation’s task is to build on the expertise that already exists, to make it more visible and replicate it more widely for the benefit of learners and employers.
Jenny Williams, director of vocational education and training, Education and Training Foundation
Visit www.et-foundation.co.uk/our-priorities/vocational-education.html to find opportunities to work with the foundation on Teach Too. Short expressions of interest are invited by January 17. To bid for the opportunity to be the foundation’s delivery partner for Teach Too, visit the procurement page of the foundation website
A former Welsh international footballer is one of four men to have been disqualified from being company directors after their sports apprenticeship firm submitted invalid funding claims.
Mark Aizlewood (pictured), aged 54, who played for Wales 39 times between 1986 and 1994, was barred from directorships for six years for failing to comply with apprenticeship rules with his training provider, Luis Michael Training Limited (LMT).
The Newport-based firm enrolled, assessed and verified apprenticeships for young people at football clubs such as Leeds, Millwall and Nottingham Forest. It worked as a subcontractor for eight FE colleges including Sparsholt College and South Thames College.
Aizlewood’s co-directors Paul Sugrue, 53, also a former professional footballer, 41-year-old Keith Anthony Williams and 49-year-old Christopher Paul Martin were also disqualified from directorships — for six, six-and-a-half and eight years, respectively.
The disqualifications follow an investigation by the Insolvency Service that established the men failed to ensure the company — which is currently under investigation by the Serious Fraud Office —complied with funding guidance and failed to ensure that adequate documentation was maintained and/or supplied to colleges to support the funding claims they made, placing the company at risk of being held liable to repay funding totalling at least £3,442,809.
Ken Beasley, Insolvency Service official receiver of Public Interest Unit (Manchester), said: “This company received millions of pounds in government funding, but failed to provide sufficient evidence to support claims for funding or to demonstrate that the company had complied with funding guidance which was readily available to them.
“The various failures of the four directors constitute behaviour that falls far below that expected of responsible directors of a limited company.”
The Insolvency Service found that in late 2010, one of the colleges LMT dealt with cancelled its contract citing funding anomalies at the subcontractor. An audit by the college’s external auditors identified ineligible claims made by LMT.
The audit, plus telephone audits undertaken by colleges to whom LMT provided services, found, among other things, that LMT had submitted ineligible claims for Welsh learners, who have their own funding body; and failed to ensure that all learners were in employment.
It also submitted claims for learners who did not participate in or had withdrawn from the programme; submitted claims for learners who had undertaken prior learning or who were otherwise undertaking additional learning; and submitted claims for learners outside of the stipulated geographical area specified in contracts.
In light of the problems, the agency required the college to repay funding and the college subsequently sought to reclaim the funds paid to LMT. As LMT was not able to repay the amount, a winding up petition for £2,573,994 was presented by the college and the company was wound up by the court on September 26, 2011.
“The Insolvency Service has strong enforcement powers and will not hesitate to use them to remove directors who have failed to honour their obligations from the business environment,” said Mr Beasley.
The Serious Fraud Office (SFO), in conjunction with Gwent Police, is currently investigating the dealings of LMT. The case was accepted in September 2011 following a referral by Gwent Police.
An SFO spokesperson said: “It is suspected that LMT produced false documentation, including registration papers, progress reviews and coaching examination certificates to falsely show to FE colleges and examining boards that training and apprenticeship placements had been successfully achieved and completed.”
He added: “The period being investigated spans 2009 to 2011. It is provisionally estimated that the total suspected fraudulent claims made by LMT to a number of colleges is in excess of £1.6m.”
Picture: Mark Aizlewood in footballing action for Wales in December 1994. Copyright:PA
The Education and Training Foundation will be celebrating its first Christmas in the coming weeks. Rebecca Cooney looks back at an event five months since its “official launch” — and even further back to the early discussions about a new sector organisation.
The concept of the Education and Training Foundation, the sector self-improvement body, was first given life in August 2012.
The group has been through consultations, a name change, a shock resignation and is now up and running, so FE Week took a look back over the foundation’s eventful first 18 months.
In October 2012, Skills Minister Matthew Hancock announced the Association of Colleges (AoC) and Association for Employment and Learning Providers (AELP), along with HOLEX, would be steering the proposed group, then known as the FE Guild.
The guild, said Mr Hancock, would “support and enhance the professional standing of those who teach in further education”.
The group was renamed the Education and Training Foundation after a consultation deemed the name guild “old-fashioned”.
Panel debate at the AoC annual conferenc e in November. Pictured, from left: Paul Mullins, Education and Training Foundation chair, David Hughes, Niace chief executive and ex foundation interim chair, Peter Davies, interim foundation chief executive, and conference presenter Emily Maitlis. Picture by Andy Whitehead
In April, an implementation plan was released detailing £18.8m funding to be provided by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) for the first two years of the foundation, which would then move towards being self-funded.
It also revealed the foundation would operate by commissioning other bodies to carry out its research and development work.
Many questioned the need for a new sector body, suggesting the Learning and Skills Improvement Service, which was no longer funded after the foundation began, could have been modified to suit the same purpose.
But AELP chief executive Stewart Segal told delegates at the AELP conference in June “the Education and Training Foundation has not replaced LSIS — it is a new and different organisation”.
Peter Davies, then leading the guild steering group, said: “The fundamental premise is that we are about having a professional, relevant, highly, dually skilled and motivated work force.”
The Education and Training Foundation was officially launched on August 1.
But just two weeks in, the foundation attracted criticism for failing to properly advertise senior roles and just a fortnight after that, the interim chief executive Sir Geoff Hall resigned.
September saw the appointments of the permanent chief executive, David Russell (pictured centre left), who is yet to take up post, and permanent chair Peter Mullins (pictured centre right), as well as a commitment from BIS to provide an extra £10m funding in 2015-16.
The government has tasked the foundation with research and development around fulfilling the recommendations of Frank McLoughlin’s Commission on Adult Vocational Teaching and Learning (CAVTL) which published its report It’s About Work in March.
The foundation’s panel at the conference on the report, held at the Skills Show in November, raised as many questions around how CAVTL’s aims could be achieved as it answered.
Confederation of British Industry director for employment and skills Neil Carberry said: “The challenge is to build confidence in young people, their parents and the education system that vocational education choices have validity.”
Mr Davies reminded delegates that the foundation’s core aim is to be responsive to the sector’s needs.
“We want to hear what you think… Make sure you tell us what we need to do to support you,” he said.
And questions were a big theme for new chair Mr Mullins at the AoC conference the following week.
“We’re up, we’re now running, we’re underway,” he said.
“But the big question everyone wants to get a much clearer view on from us is, what does that really look like in practice?
“We’ve got a big programme of tenders out, of work underway, but more importantly we’re starting to engage with the sector much more about what they think comes next for us.”
He re-affirmed the importance of the foundation being sector-led.
“Over the next 12 months that’s what we’ve got to get everybody in the sector convinced that we are really doing, that we are helping them synthesise their views and articulate them in a useful way for a wider audience,” said Mr Mullins.
After a shaky start, with tenders submitted in a non-competitive process binned in October for the introduction of a competitive system, the foundation now has a range of invitations to tender out. They include a set of consultations on English, maths and STEM, graduate recruitment, leadership and governance and vocational education and training.
There is also a tender to be the foundation’s delivery partner for Teach Too, a key part of the CAVTL report which said all lecturers should also be practising professionals in their field.
At the AoC conference, Mr Mullins summed up the foundation’s own hopes for its future.
“Absolutely key for us is ‘is it going to result in a specific, measurable difference?’” he said.
“That’s what we’re aiming to achieve and I’m pretty confident we’re going to be successful.”
From left: Lynsi Hayward-Smith, head of adult learning and skills Cambridgeshire County Council, Don Hayes MBE, chief executive of ENABLE, Asha Khemka OBE, principal and chief executive of West Nottinghamshire College Group, David Hughes, chief executive of Niace and former interim chair of foundation board, Stewart Segal, chief executive of AELP, Peter McCann, principal and chief executive of Kirklees College, Martin Doel, chief executive of AoC, John Hyde, executive chair of HIT Training Ltd, Christine Jeffry, strategy and policy adviser for General Physics (UK) Ltd, Skills Training Academy, and Mark White, head of the vice-chancellor’s office at Teesside University. Picture by Nick Linford
Six of the country’s biggest awarding bodies have withdrawn from the Federation of Awarding Bodies (FAB).
City & Guilds, Pearson and AQA were among those to leave FAB in a move that will mean they are now solely represented collectively by the Joint Qualification Council (JCQ).
The JCQ is made up of seven awarding bodies, of which just one — SQA — has decided to stay with FAB, which will continue to serve 120 smaller member organisations.
The remaining three to have left FAB were WJEC, CEA and OCR.
A letter, seen by FE Week, was sent to stakeholders in both groups announcing the change, which will be effective from January 1.
It said: “We have agreed that, in future, it would be preferable for JCQ to represent solely the collective views of its members.”
The move comes just weeks after the Whitehead Review of Vocational Qualifications recommended there should be a cull of qualifications to “de-clutter the market”.
Nigel Whitehead, BAE Systems group managing director, told FE Week at the time that his review could lead to 95 per cent of the 19,000-plus qualifications being cut and he accepted the move could also lead to smaller awarding bodies going under.
Nevertheless, the joint JCQ and FAB letter said the “new relationship” between the bodies would “bring greater clarity to our work and will strengthen our representation of awarding bodies at a time of considerable change and challenge” and that they would be “working more closely and pro-actively together”.
The letter added: “We believe this arrangement will ensure the diverse views and needs of the awarding body community are appropriately represented and communicated effectively to a wide range of stakeholders.”
Jill Lanning, FAB chief executive, said the decision was “absolutely not” connected to the findings of the Whitehead review.
A spokesperson for JCQ declined to comment further.
Paul Eeles, chief executive of FAB member ABC Awards said the move would “in no way, shape or form have a negative impact on our business” and would be “good for awarding organisations”.
Fellow FAB member NCFE and also supported the arrangement.
David Grailey, NCFE chief executive, said: “We… believe that the move will help us have a stronger collective voice in the sector.
“Overall, this as a positive way forward and the changes are in no way related to the Whitehead Review.”
SQA chief executive Janet Brown said the SQA would derive value from both memberships.
Four more people have been charged over fraud allegations at welfare-to-work provider A4e.
It brings the total number of accused to 13, including a former administrator and seven former recruiters who were employed across three A4E offices in South East England.
It is alleged that they forged documentation to support fraudulent claims to the Department for Work and Pensions for reward payments, under the Aspire to Inspire programme, which ended in July 2011.
The new charges relate to allegations against quality co-ordinator Sarah Hawkins, operations manager Serge Wyett, team leader Matthew Hannigan Train and recruiter Hayley Wilson.
They are each charged with one count of conspiracy to make false instruments contrary to section 1(1A) of the Criminal Law Act 1977.
Hawkins, aged 31, of Bagshot, Surrey; Wyett, 39, of Richmond, Surrey; Hannigan-Train, 29, of Bristol, Wilson, 25, of Springfield in Milton Keynes; are due before Slough Magistrates’ Court on January 6.
Former A4E contract manager Ines Cano-Uribe, 37, of Madrid, Spain, also faces the charge and is due at court.
She was one of nine already charged in September, accused of numerous offences, including conspiracy to defraud and forgery.
Cano-Uribe has been bailed in connection with the earlier charges — one of forgery and one of conspiracy to defraud — to appear at Reading Crown Court on February 3 along with former administrator Zabar Khalil, 34, of Dolphin Road, Slough, who was charged with five counts of forgery and one count of conspiracy to defraud.
The remaining seven defendants were due at Reading Crown Court on Friday (December 13).
Charles McDonald, recruiter, 43, of Derwent Road, Egham, has been charged with seven counts of forgery, one count of possessing an article for use in fraud and two counts of making articles for use in fraud.
Nikki Foster, recruiter, 30, of High Tree Drive, Reading, was charged with 10 counts of forgery.
Julie Grimes, recruiter, 50, of Monks Way, Staines, was charged with 10 counts of forgery.
Aditi Singh, recruiter, 30, of Elmshott Lane, Slough, was charged with three counts of forgery and one count of possession of an article for use in fraud.
Bindiya Dholiwar, recruiter, 27, of Reddington Drive, Slough, was charged with seven counts of forgery.
Dean Lloyd, recruiter, 36, of Rochfords, Coffee Hall, Milton Keynes, was charged with 13 counts of forgery.
Yasmin Ahmad, recruiter, 38, of Colchester Road, Southend on Sea, was charged with two counts of forgery.
Learners’ part-time paid jobs could be publicly-funded as part of the new study programmes for 16 to 19-year-olds, FE Week can reveal.
It had appeared the Department for Education (DfE) would only allow unpaid work experience organised through colleges or independent learning providers to form part of the programmes.
College principals had warned this would have been unfair on students who, for example, attended a course four days a-week and did a part-time job on their day off to help pay their way through education.
Such youngsters would have been forced to give up their paid employment to leave enough time to complete the required amount of unpaid work experience.
But DfE has told FE Week of new guidance.
A spokesperson said: “Work experience and supported internships will be funded where the provider has planned, organised and supervised the placement and it forms a part of the student’s study programme.
“Work experience or part time work organised by a student independently to their course would not be funded.
“However, teaching time spent helping students ensure that the part-time work they are undertaking directly benefits their study goals could be.”
And Marina Gaze, Ofsted’s deputy director for FE and skills, told FE Week: “We are fully aware that some learners develop good employability skills while on paid employment they have arranged privately.
“Having discussed this with the DfE, we can confirm that this activity can be included as part of the 16 to 19 study programmes, but only if the provider is involved in the learner’s development.”
Andrew Patience, principal of new College Stamford, was one of those to previously raise the issue. He said: “I am delighted that reason has prevailed and DfE and Ofsted have obviously changed their views. It’s a good thing that valuable, paid work can now be taken into account.”
George Trow, principal of Doncaster College, agreed the concession was “entirely sensible”. He said: “Paid work experience already set up by our students is an important introduction for them to the world of employment. Many students need to work part-time and during their holidays to pay their way through college.”
Donald Taylor, chairman of the Learning and Performance Institute, which represents independent learning providers, said: “Learning at work is not a luxury, it’s a necessity. Whether you are fully-employed, work part-time or a student, what you learn is valuable and should be recognised as such.”
Vanessa Potter, from West Sussex-based independent learning provider Asphaleia, said: “The move will further reduce barriers to increased participation, thus supporting learners, education providers and employers to embrace statutory requirements.
“Study programmes are now a more viable and attractive option for many learners.”
The DfE spokesperson said: “Work experience or part-time work can be of real benefit to students in developing employability skills — particularly if this work is relevant to the course they are undertaking.
“This is something that the DfE and Ofsted would encourage.”
The Education Funding Agency also confirmed that, “only work experience with external employers should be counted towards and recorded as a work experience learning aim from 2014/15.
“Simulated work environments should be separately recorded as non-qualification activity.”
The troubled 24+ advanced learning loans system for apprenticeships could be axed after just 404 people applied for funding since April’s launch, FE Week can reveal.
The future of the system is, according to an FE Week source, being “considered” by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS).
Latest figures, released last month, showed that of the 52,468 FE loan applications up to October 31, less than 1 per cent were for apprenticeships.
The figure appeared well off target for the government forecasts of 25,000 applications for apprenticeship loans this academic year (by July 31, 2014).
A BIS spokesperson said: “Application numbers indicate that employers and learners are not engaging with loans in apprenticeships.
“We are keeping a close watch on the data and consider the implications for the apprenticeship programme but no decisions have been taken.”
Those who have already successfully applied for a loan, FE Week understands, could be in line for to get their money back if the system was abolished.
Shadow Skills Minister Liam Byrne said: “It’s about time we got to the bottom of why the government is missing its target for supporting adults who are trying to improve their lives, by an unbelievable 90 per cent.
“It’s crucial we back these learners and not leave them in the lurch. So let’s so have some answers fast.”
News of the possible rethink comes after repeated warnings from the likes of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) about the number of apprenticeship loan applications.
A spokesperson for AELP said: “This is very welcome news for the apprenticeship programme.
“Ministers have long said that they want to see more progression within apprenticeships from level two to higher levels and the problem is that loans are acting as a barrier to adults who want to move on to an advanced or high apprenticeship.
The National Union of Students (NUS) has also been a long-standing critic of the system, including through its No to FE fees campaign.
The NUS claimed the system risked putting people off studying and had grave impacts for those aged 24 above who undertake a higher level apprenticeship taking out a loan of up to several thousand pounds so they could essentially pay to work.
Toni Pearce, NUS president, said: “This review is certainly welcome news. We have been committed to campaigning against the introduction of HE-styled loans for students in FE aged 24 and over studying at level three and above ever since this entirely wrong-headed proposal was first put forward.”
She added: “We would urge that this policy is scrapped in its totality as a matter of priority, and call on government to invest in the highly-skilled workforce we need.”
Chris Jones, chief executive of City & Guilds, said: “There were always concerns around 24+ loans, even before they were introduced.
“As we said in our response to the Autumn Statement, too much bureaucracy can be detrimental to the education system, and particularly where apprenticeships are concerned. This is just another example of where bureaucracy has had a negative impact on the system as a whole.
“What we need to see is stability. There have been so many changes and developments in policy of late. All this flip-flopping about with policies is damaging to our education system as a whole and, most importantly, damaging to our learners.”
The Pheasant Inn, in Chippenham, has a lot to answer for in Christine Bullock’s life.
It was where she was once persuaded to take part in a pub crawl around the Wiltshire market town dressed as a ‘push-me-pull-you’ — a double headed pantomime horse — and where she met late husband Bob.
It was also where she had a conversation that would lead her from account management into education — something she said she’d never do.
“I just didn’t see myself as a teacher. I didn’t think I had the right skills,” she says.
Bullock was out for a meal with her then-boss at RHM Bakeries in 1979 when she met Mike Smith, a lecturer in business and economics at Chippenham College and mentioned that she’d done a degree in business studies.
“And he said: ‘We need someone like you at Chippenham College’,” explains Bullock, aged 60.
Inset: Christine Bullock with a fellow charity fundraiser and needlework and fashion lecturer Heather Akers (right), wearing a Push-Me-Pull-You costume in the Pheasant Inn in the early 1980s
“When I asked my boss what he thought he said: ‘Well there are lots of changes coming and I can’t guarantee a job for you in a couple of years’ time’.
“And RHM Bakeries, which was a very big company, disappeared two years later, so he was quite right.”
So Bullock applied for the college role having worked at RHM Bakeries for two and half years after graduating from Leicester University.
“A few years later Mike told me he’d have asked anybody who was anywhere near good because he was so desperate at the time,” she says.
Bullock was born in Great Malvern, Worcestershire.
“But saying I come from Malvern is quite misleading,” she says.
“My father was Serbian, he was a prisoner of war caught by the Germans in the Second World War, and came over here in 1948 as a displaced person.”
I never felt restricted because staying at the college — at the time felt like the right thing to do and I was happy there
Bullock’s father, Zivadin Batachanin, was liberated by American forces, who, unwilling to send him back to newly-communist Serbia, gave him a choice between going to England or Venezuela.
“As he got older he spoke a bit more about the war, but not very often,” she says.
“He was lucky — he was on a farm Stalag so it meant it wasn’t as bad as some.
“In a soft moment he would tell us he would become friends with the German guards, but at times it was quite difficult — I think the food was limited sometimes.
“He did tell us the first night he was captured… they were sat in a field, and if they fell over they were shot, so they held each other up. It’s difficult to imagine it.”
Bullock’s mother, Freda, left home in Nottinghamshire at 16 and joined the Land Army, where she met Zivadin.
“I think that’s why I’ve always been so resilient,” says Bullock.
“I’ve not been through what he’s been through. And my mother is adopted, and I’ve not been through what she’s been through.
“They both did two jobs to make sure we had a nice home.”
Zivadin had just four years of education and taught himself to read and write in English. Bullock says this could be why FE appeals to her.
“Even though my mother had an English education and always worked hard, my father couldn’t help with my homework so I had to do it myself, so I have great empathy with people who come from backgrounds where they have got no help at home,” she says.
After making the leap into FE, Bullock stayed at Chippenham College of Technology for 19 years, apart from a brief stint at Salisbury College.
She describes herself as “ambitious” and was promoted quickly, changing jobs every few years.
“I got to head of department level quite quickly, met Bob and he already had two children so moving from Chippenham was out of the question and the only way to get further in education was to move around, so I stayed in middle management level,” she says.
“I never felt restricted because staying at the college — at the time felt like the right thing to do and I was happy there.”
Eventually, an opportunity came up at Edexcel, which Bullock says was “fantastic”.
She spent the next 15 years zig-zagging between colleges and awarding bodies, taking on vice-principal roles.
However, in 2005, while Bullock was vice principal at City of Bristol College, Bob was diagnosed with lung cancer. He died two years later, six months before his 60th birthday.
“Bob was bedridden for a while,” says Bullock.
“He went a lot sooner than we expected and my principal encouraged me to come back to work as soon as possible which was really good for me, it’s different for everyone but it was good for me and I’ll always appreciate it.”
She adds: “His parents had died at 59 and 58 and he always wanted to make it to 60.
“And Bob had a twin brother, and I wanted him and their parents to be able to celebrate what would have been Bob’s birthday.”
Bullock left City of Bristol College the following August to take up the post of principal at South Leicestershire College.
“Bob had always wanted me to be a principal and I thought I’d carry on to what I was going to do anyway and I think it was good to move on from Bristol then, as a change of scenery,” she says.
Now chief executive of apt awards, Bullock is still ambitious.
“When I first started at Chippenham, a lot of the secretarial lecturers were in their 40s and complaining about getting old, and I thought: ‘I’ll never be like that’,” she says.
“I was 60 two weeks ago, and I am pleased to say that I’m not like they were.
“I have embraced change and I’m trying to hold on, because how you choose to act your age depends on you as a person.
“So yes, I am ambitious. I’m ambitious for wherever I work, I want them to do well — I do things to help learners achieve and to help learners progress.”
This desire to help people learn, she says, is “innate”.
“My father had it, my late husband was like that — looking after people — and my new partner, Rob, is like that too,” she explains.
“You can be ambitious for money and although we all know money’s nice, there are ambitions for your principles and your beliefs as well, and that’s quite important.”
———————————————————————————————–
It’s a personal thing
What’s your favourite book?
Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald
What did you want to be when you grew up?
I kept changing my mind. First of all it was a solicitor and then it was a market researcher. The last thing I wanted to do was go into education
If you could have anyone to a dinner party, living or dead, who would it be?
Nelson Mandela. I’d have said that before he died as well. I’d probably invite some great sportsmen — David Beckham, Glenn Hoddle, tennis player Ilie Năstase, cricket player Basil D’Oliveira — and then William Shakespeare, Robbie Williams and Paul Newman, because he was lovely. And of course, my partner and family
What’s your pet hate?
Discrimination, bullying and arrogance
What do you do to switch off from work?
We laugh a lot at work — that’s quite important. At home, watching sport, walking, holidays, going to pubs and listening to music
