Our annual FE Week and Me photography competition is back and once again FE Week has teamed up with NCFE and the Royal Photographic Society to hunt for stunning pictures that depict student life in the FE and skills sector, through the eyes of students.
In 2014, after over 500 submissions, FE Week and competition sponsors NCFE and supporters Royal Photographic Society, whittled down the photography students’ entries to the competition down to 20 finalists. Following a national vote, Hassan Chowdhury of Newham Adult Learning Service was crowned the 2013 winner.
Entrants will be in with a chance of winning some stunning prizes and the chance to shadow a high-profile professional photographer.
This year there are two categories of entry: photography student and non-photography student. Each year the competition has been flooded with a real mixture of photographs. Previously, many entrants have not been photography students and it therefore seemed fair to to have two categories going forward.
This years prizes will consist of:
Category – Photography student – Nikon D5100 Camera Kit and work shadowing placement with a professional photographer.
Category – Non-photography student – Samsung Galaxy Camera 2
Free promotional posters are available by clicking here.
You can view last year’s finalists by downloading our finalists PDF – click here
How to enter…
Brief: entrant’s photos need to depict student life in the FE and Skill sector. Photos can be taken on any type of digital photography kit. It is as simple as that!
To enter the competition students need to email their entry along with no more than a 100 word description of their photo and why they’ve chosen this shot to feweekandme@feweek.co.uk no later than October 20, 2014. Entries received later than this date will not be reviewed or considered for short listing.
Entrants need to provide the following information when submitting their photo. Any entries with missing details will not be considered.
Name
Category entering: photography student or non-photography student
Course studying
College or Learning provider
Email address
Mobile telephone number
Photo description (100 words max.)
Shortlisted entries will be announced in early November.
The winner will be announced at the end of November.
There’s a choice of comfy little red sofa with two small armchairs either side, or a cold but smart table and chairs next to the window.
My bag is plonked, hopefully, by the welcoming sofa and I hover nearby before Matthew Coffey, Ofsted’s director of further education and skills, walks in.
He stands next to the table, places a pile of paperwork down and pulls out a chair — and with it, my hopes for a chatty one-to-one seem dashed.
We’re in a corporate-feeling, air-conditioned room right next door to his eighth floor office at the education watchdog’s Aviation House HQ in London.
But within the hour I emerge from said room with the knowledge that the man responsible for inspections of England’s FE providers is a Playstation-loving wannabe helicopter pilot (among other things), “kept sane” by his two beloved spaniels, Lola and Seth. He’s also a 46-year-old devoted dad to Anna, aged 25, and Rosie, 19, as well as a recently-converted Londoner.
Snapped: Matthew Coffey on a 2008 holiday in Florida’s Everglades
“London has been my office for four years, but for two-and-half of them I’d been commuting from Lincoln, which is one heck of a journey,” says Coffey.
“So my life has changed for the better by moving to London and my whole family is here. I’ve gained four hours a day of my life back and I benefit from it. To have time back and my family around me is brilliant.
“And I’m really enjoying exploring London and making the most of my travel card every weekend.
“My family and I really like the London Bridge, Borough Market, Southbank areas — we’re having a real cultural revolution.”
But it wasn’t his first big move away from Lincoln.
Aged 16, Coffey left the East Midlands cathedral city for Exeter. It came just at the right time for a teenager looking to step out of the shadow of sister Nicola, three years his elder and now a nurse practitioner in Bakewell.
My background has been absolutely vocational and my career has developed as a result of interventions from lots of people.”
“I didn’t enjoy school,” says Coffey, whose 48-year-old wife, Louise, is a former primary school teaching assistant.
“I was always known as my sister’s brother. She was the academic genius and I bumped along. Being told consistently that I was not as academic as my sister drove me to be ambitious and to succeed.
“That was the source of my determination — if you tell me I can’t do something, then I’ll do it. Unfortunately I had a very nasty accident and injured my leg and that put me in plaster for a couple of years from the age of 16.
“I was working in a restaurant in Lincoln and my leg was trapped in one of their big mixing machines and it smashed it in several places, so I’ve got lots of pins and plates in my leg.
“I’d wanted to be a policeman and got the bare minimum to get in, but of course the injury blew a hole in my dreams so I really had to rethink what I was going to do.
“Then we moved down to Devon I went to Exeter College and chose catering and hospitality. I really got on the right tracks there and was supported very much by a teacher who recognised that I could achieve and led me to believe I could achieve whatever I wanted.”
The college came before an impressive stint running the kitchens and 40-seater restaurant of Tiverton’s since-demolished Boars Head. Employing up to 30 staff, he also serviced the pub’s attached 26-bedroom hotel — all around the age of 18.
“It was an incredible university of life experience,” says Coffey.
“And I kept a relationship with the college I’d just left and took on lots of summer students and gave them work experience There was such an opportunity for others to come and see what we were doing.”
He adds: “My background has been absolutely vocational and my career has developed as a result of interventions from lots of people and not necessarily on the academic side of things.
“But my journey has eventually taken in the academic route — I did my undergraduate and masters degrees later in life [criminology and social policy at the University of Lincoln, graduating in 2003].
“That’s led me to want to promote the vocational route and it should be seen as a first choice route for young people at school.”
But after three years at the Boars Head, Coffey moved to a national training provider in the catering and hospitality sector where he became a teacher, before moving to an awarding body and getting involved in developing NVQ frameworks as a national quality manager.
“It was around that time the government started to talk about the need for an independent inspectorate of government-funded training,” he explains.
“I became one of the Training Standards Council’s senior inspectors and I led particularly on developing a relationship with the Chief Inspector of Prisons to inspect for the first time training and education in prisons.
“And introducing the common inspection framework into the prison world, around 2005, was a real highlight. It put prison education on the map and lifted the lid, but it took an awful lot of work. I visited and met representatives of all the prisons in the country and made sure they all understood what was happening and what we were going to do.”
Coffey later became an inspection manager at the Adult Learning Inspectorate before it merged with Ofsted in 2007.
I really genuinely believe that what we do makes a difference and that makes me want to turn up to work every day.”
Starting as an assistant divisional manager for the Midlands, he moved through the ranks and in January last year was given the title national director of learning and skills. In March he was also assigned the post of regional director for the South East.
“I absolutely enjoy going out on inspections and go out on them frequently, but I don’t lead them these days, I quality assure inspections,” says Coffey.
“But I don’t just cover the learning and skills sector because I’ve got a dual role as regional director responsible for all our inspections in the region.
“The last inspection that I went to was a children’s home inspection, and before that — a couple of months ago — I went to a school. I’d really love to lead FE and skills inspections, but it’s not just about going out on the actual visit; it’s also the planning beforehand and the writing of the report and they can be very time-consuming. So inspections for me would be a real challenge.
“It’s always the dilemma when you get promoted in an organisation such as this that you move further away from the coalface of what it is that you’re doing.”
He adds: “I really genuinely believe that what we do makes a difference and that makes me want to turn up to work every day.
“It can be a difficult job. It can be tiring. You’re never the most popular person in the world, but I think if we do reflect a mirror back up to ourselves and if we do want to improve, that means having difficult discussions in every walk of life.”
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It’s a personal thing
What’s your favourite book? Swords, Sorcerers and Superheroes, by Tony Bradman — because it’s dedicated to me as ‘Inspector Coffey’. He’s my brother-in-law and he dedicated the sequel to me, too
What did you want to be when you were younger? A policeman
What do you do to switch off from work? My two dogs are mad, but they keep me sane. I’m also a wannabe helicopter pilot — it’s my dream. I’ve done about nine hours of my private pilot’s licence. I asked my wife what she thought and she said: ‘You play your Playstation.’ Ten minutes of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is my little escape and I really enjoy it
If you could invite anyone to a dinner party, living or dead, who would it be? Neil Armstrong — I would love to understand more about the journey he took as a pioneer. That’s a phenomenal conversation to be had, and David Bowie because he’s a hero of mine. I’d love to talk to him about his life and what inspired him to be so off-the-wall
What are your pet hates? Poor customer service makes me really cross
It seems like just yesterday the FE sector was gearing up for bloodshed under a new Ofsted common inspection framework (CIF).
Ominously, a toughened-up regime was promised with the hallmark of, among others, a notice period slashed from 10 working days to just two (albeit that notice effectively being four days coming as it would on a Thursday for inspection the following Monday).
And who could forget the annual report in November that pulled no punches in its assessment of the sector, pointing out how 13 colleges were graded as inadequate in 2011/12, compared to four the previous year.
It further pointed out how, for the second year running, Ofsted claimed they had not judged a single college to be outstanding for teaching and learning.
“The learning and skills sector needs re-orientating towards a moral determination to provide high quality and relevant provision, which should include reputable apprenticeship opportunities for young people,” it said.
But we have in fact had a year under the new CIF and this supplement offers a reflective look at what’s happened. Will Ofsted be able to draw upon more inspection results with which to hammer the sector in the next annual report?
Ofsted’s own gradings, ratings and classifications have been adopted, but they’ve been pulled together here by the FE Week team.
As such, we’d like to think we’ve got all our numbers right and included all the relevant inspection reports, but if we haven’t please do let us know.
Nevertheless, we begin on the page opposite with a broader look at some of Ofsted’s appearances in FE Week last year.
And it’s important to note that with this supplement’s aim to reflect on the sector’s inspection results, there is also an intention to provide critical reflection on the CIF as well, posing difficult questions for Ofsted itself.
The new CIF is more closely examined therefore on page 4, where Denise Bown-Sackey, principal at London’s Newham College of Further Education, asks whether it, and Ofsted, is fit for purpose.
And while many might label Ofsted boss Sir Michael Wilshaw a ‘schools man’ as a former secondary head teacher, the same claim cannot be levelled against his national director of FE and skills, Matthew Coffey, whose vocational learning story is told on page 5.
It’s finally onto the matter of inspection report stats on page 6 with a focus on general FE and tertiary colleges. Joy Mercer, Association of Colleges policy director, and Lynne Sedgmore, executive director at the 157 Group, give their views on the past year on page 7.
Three members of the Policy Consortium then look even more closely at Ofsted and its inspection results across pages 8 and 9.
The independent training provider sector is next to have its inspection performances come under review, on pages 10 and 11, with subsequent commentary from Stewart Segal, chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers.
Sixth form college inspection results are examined on page 12, where James Kewin, deputy chief executive of the Sixth Form Colleges’ Association, evaluates 2012/13.
Ofsted inspector Alex Falconer outlines one of the biggest challenges facing FE
and skills providers in the year ahead
on page 13.
A quick-fire Q&A with Mr Coffey on the CIF takes this supplement up to page 15, where there is a piece by Dr Fiona McMillan on where the Education and Training Foundation fits in the Ofsted equation.
Note: We have adopted the Ofsted provider classifications, and in the 2013/14 edition of this supplement we hope to include results for community learning and skills providers, dance and drama colleges, higher education institutions, independent specialist colleges and the independent learning provider – employer.
Ofsted’s criticism of the college sector last year was a bitter pill to swallow and the toughened up common inspection framework offered little hope for sector praise. However, it hasn’t quite worked out like that says Joy Mercer.
It this time last year, colleges felt they had not weathered an Ofsted storm but were beached, and stranded on unfamiliar territory.
The inspection results for general FE and sixth form colleges were forbidding. Of the 60 inspected, 22 per cent were judged inadequate and only 40 per cent graded good or better.
There were no colleges graded outstanding for teaching, learning and assessment. A new common inspection framework was due, with only two working days’ notice of inspection and a central focus on teaching, learning and assessment.
The quality in the classroom would influence all other grades. Satisfactory became Requires Improvement, with a senior inspector allocated to a college with this grade and re-inspection within 12 to 15 months.
Governors who felt confident in their role in ensuring financial health and probity now had a clearer strategic responsibility for what happened in the classroom.
This came against a political drive to encourage choice and competition for 16-year-olds created through new school sixth forms, the growth of university technical colleges and free schools, and employers being paid directly to deliver apprenticeships.
One year on, the story is different.
Last year’s Ofsted annual report said that 64 per cent of colleges were good or better. This year we believe it is 74 per cent.”
Ofsted trebled its number of inspectors and our figures show that 61 per cent of colleges were judged good or better and only five were graded as inadequate.
Given that Ofsted inspects colleges on risk, it is important not to forget the ‘state of the nation’.
Last year’s Ofsted annual report said that 64 per cent of colleges were good or better. This year we believe it is 74 per cent.
However, there is no room for complacency — just over a third were judged to Require Improvement.
Ofsted has indicated that the long love affair with success rates is over.
This year, they have focused on student progression to employment or further study.
Themes that run through inspection judgements of good or better colleges include strong student tracking; high levels of attendance; teaching that focuses on employment opportunities and enterprise; using every opportunity to develop students English and maths skills; teaching that challenges students; good quality work experience; and, governors who understand the quality of teaching and learning, with strategies to ensure teachers improve.
Ofsted introduced Learner View last September. Whether colleges have used this student satisfaction method or their own, students’ opinions of the quality of their experience at the college is paramount.
So what of next year? Students without the gold standard of A* to C at GCSE in English and maths will be expected to gain the qualification by the age of 18.
This is likely to be measured in the new 16 to 18 performance tables as well as Ofsted inspections.
We are hopeful that after Ofsted’s own report on careers guidance in schools, due soon, there will be a much stronger focus on guidance in school inspections.
This may be the year when success rates take a back seat to outcomes into jobs and HE.
Ofsted will be reporting on study programmes and 14-year-olds studying full time in colleges. With intense competition, these have to tell a good story.
Joy Mercer, policy director, Association of Colleges
Plans for a Skills Funding Agency-led panel to investigate potential conflicts of interest where awarding organisations also deliver education have been shelved, FE Week can reveal.
The government said in January that a task-and-finish group was being “convened” following an 11-month review by the Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) Select Committee.
But it has now emerged that the group, which would also have had representatives from Ofqual, the National Apprenticeship Service (NAS) and BIS, never formed.
A spokesperson from the agency, which is responsible for NAS, said: “The agency and Ofqual have a close working relationship and meet on a regular basis, therefore it was decided that this process which already exists across the two organisations would be sufficient.”
A BIS spokesperson said the government was content the work needed was being done in existing groups, but a separate group could yet be launched.
However, BIS Select Committee chair Adrian Bailey, said: “The government made a specific commitment to set up this task-and-finish group to examine the issue [of conflicts of interest].
“I will be making enquiries to find out why it has not materialised and will put any response and the evidence acquired by FE Week to the select committee with a view to taking further action on it.”
Mr Bailey’s committee had said in November that it was not “desirable for training providers and awarding bodies to be owned by the same group or individuals”.
Three months later, the government announced the task-and-finish group, saying: “The work will start with a review of those awarding organisations, predominantly, where there are instances of vertical integration with a training arm.”
Jon Richards, UNISON national secretary for education and children’s services, said the union was “very surprised” the government had not set the group up.
“History is littered with examples of organisations that failed to separate similar conflicts of interests between provider and producer,” he said.
“It’s always the consumer — in this case the learner — who loses out, as the organisation prioritises its own interests.”
An Ofqual spokesperson said: “We have worked with the agency to understand the risks associated with potential conflicts of interests … and the controls that are in place to manage such circumstances. We continue to work closely with them and other agencies.”
Meanwhile, Ofqual’s 18-month investigation into Pearson, which produces learning materials and hands out awards as Edexcel, concluded last month.
The report found new measures introduced by Pearson were “sufficient” to “mitigate the risks… to an acceptable level”.
A Pearson spokesperson said the changes the company had made “give further reassurance that we operate fairly and appropriately.”
The new FE Commissioner post is due be re-advertised next week with an appointment expected before the first Ofsted inspections reports in October, FE Week can reveal.
The role was advertised in May, but no-one was appointed despite a number of interviews.
A spokesperson for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) confirmed new candidates would be sought.
The commissioner would have the power to issue notices of concern to underperforming colleges, and to close colleges that did not improve.
Skills Minister Matthew Hancock has said the commissioner would have a fortnight to decide if the current leadership and governance could improve a struggling college.
If the commissioner decides they can’t, the college would be placed in ‘administered college status’, surrendering control of its finances and assets.
The commissioner would then complete a structure and prospects appraisal of the provider’s delivery model “within three months of the college or institution being placed in administered college or administered institution status,” said Mr Hancock.
BIS confirmed that at present no colleges are in administered college status.
Colleges and training providers who “rigidly” demand higher grade GCSEs for the most basic of apprenticeships have come in for criticism from government vocational training adviser Professor Alison Wolf.
An apparently growing number of adverts for intermediate apprenticeships are asking for maths and English GCSEs of at least grade C or D, FE Week research has found.
The restrictions would have closed the door on career opportunities for the 40 per cent (249,164) of 2011/12’s GCSE cohort who failed to achieve A*-C in English and maths.
Professor Wolf, author of a landmark independent government review of 14 to 19 vocational education in 2011, called on providers to take a broader view of applicants’ abilities.
The King’s College London academic told FE Week: “Maths and English are enormously important to people’s lives and prospects, but of course are not the only things that matter. In selecting young people for increasingly popular apprenticeship places, it is surely crucial to look at all the relevant skills and experience each applicant can offer, not use just one or two criteria as a rigidly applied filter.”
Sector standards setting bodies and the Skills Funding Agency impose no such GCSE requirement for apprenticeships.
However, by law all intermediate apprenticeship frameworks require that learners without level one (equivalent to GCSE grade D to G) maths and English pass them during the course, typically as functional skills qualifications.
Roger Francis, business development director at functional skills specialist Creative Learning Partners Ltd, said he was “very concerned about what appears to be a growing trend”.
“Young people who desperately need this type of opportunity are being excluded,” he said.
“For a qualification designed to encourage diversity and inclusivity, this is very disturbing.”
He added: “I can’t help but feel some providers may be going down this path to avoid delivering functional skills which they find challenging and financially unrewarding.
“It would be tragic if learners were missing out on the opportunity to raise their skill levels… simply because a number of providers were unable to find a successful delivery model.”
Former Dragons’ Den investor Doug Richard proposed an A*-C grade GCSE requirement (or equivalent level two), in his independent review of apprenticeships last year, but said it should be needed in order to pass the apprenticeship. However, he also warned there was a risk “some employers or providers will ‘cherry pick’ those learners who already have level two”.
He added: “We must make sure that training in maths and English continue to be free and easily available.”
Westminster Kingsway College and Intraining, owned by NCG (formerly Newcastle College Group), have several roles with the A*-C GCSE requirement on the National Apprenticeship Vacancy Matching Service, but said this was due to employer expectations.
However, FE Week has found several examples where it appears the requirement came from the provider.
Sheffield College and College of North West London require grade D maths and English within their published progression policy for apprenticeships.
Sheffield College described its entry requirements as “a general guide”.
The College of North West London said: “We do not generally enrol people onto apprenticeships without at least a GCSE grade D in maths and English… as our experience shows [these] apprentices are far less likely to succeed.”
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Editorial: Questionable barriers
It did not take long searching the government’s apprenticeship vacancy website before I found numerous adverts for level two frameworks with A* to C GCSE English and maths requirements.
The adverts range from a high street bank and supermarket to local cafes and even colleges employing their own apprentices.
In fact, at the time of checking there were 64 level two retail apprenticeship adverts with this criteria alone.
I was both surprised and shocked.
Some colleges have defended the practice, saying ultimately they will support all young people in need.
But with these barriers, and therefore no application possible, who would they have to support?
And worst case scenario, the young person is left believing this is a national requirement so does not look for an alternative provider.
Just yesterday one young person tweeted: “I want an apprenticeship but you need English and maths so slight problem.”
This tweet brings home the fact there are young people being excluded from gaining work and training, for being underqualified.
Imagine yourself as a young person in that trap.
You can’t get onto an apprenticeship to learn and gain qualifications without already having achieved them.
Before this becomes an even bigger problem perhaps the sector standards setting bodies need to determine not only the framework contents, but also restrict the use of inappropriate pre-entry requirements?
Nick Linford, editor of FE Week
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Listen to the recording of Nick Linford and Doug Richard being interview on BBC Radio 4 Today programme at 6:50am on September 6, 2013
A York college that will be running traineeships for 19 to 24-year-olds has said no to putting the programme on for 16 to 18-year-olds because of a lack of government funding, FE Week can reveal.
The 2,000-student Askham Bryan College was rated as good by Ofsted early last year and so can run the government’s flagship youth unemployment scheme.
But bosses at the specialist land-based college told the Skills Funding Agency (SFA) that while it would offer the programme for the 19 to 24 age group, it would be turning away 16 to 18-year-olds because it did “not have the funds”.
It comes after FE Week reported in June how most colleges were missing out on the little extra government cash being dished out for traineeships.
The Department for Education (DfE) transferred £12m to the SFA to pay specific providers, through their 16 to 18 apprenticeship contracts, to run the programmes.
But the ring-fenced funding is available to providers who only hold contracts with the SFA and nothing with the Education Funding Agency.
The vast majority of those who can access the funding is therefore most likely to be independent training providers — and not colleges such as Askham Bryan.
Its principal, Liz Philip, said: “Askham Bryan College would be delighted to run 16 to 18 traineeships but we are heavily over-recruited in 13/14.
“Unfortunately, we therefore do not have the funds to offer these programmes for 12 months but anticipate doing so when the funding lag has caught up with growth in recruitment.
“We are offering traineeships to adults where the funding lag does not apply.”
Nobody from the DfE was available for comment.
However, Junior Shadow Education Minister Tristram Hunt accused the government of “not getting the sector ready” for the scheme.
“This is an extremely disappointing turn of events,” he said.
“This is supposed to be the government’s flagship scheme for getting young people ready for the high quality apprenticeships that we need in order to rebalance the economy and boost our competitiveness, but the government has simply not done enough to get the sector ready.”
The traineeship scheme, which started last month to help young people gain work-related skills and attitudes, can only be offered by providers with an Ofsted grade one or two inspection result.
An agency list of the 756 eligible providers revealed that four colleges turned down the 16 to 18 offer, but said yes to the older option.
However, Dan Shelley, vice principal for enterprise, employment and skills at Sussex Coast College Hastings, said there “should be room” in all eligible providers’ budgets for the programme.
His college has an Ofsted grade three inspection result and so cannot run
traineeships despite the education watchdog giving it a grade two for apprenticeship provision.
He said: “I would urge all colleagues in the sector that are eligible to deliver traineeships to do so, and show how we can expertly implement these exciting bridging opportunities between education and the world of work.
“There should be room in all eligible providers’ budgets for this provision and it would be a real shame if providers did turn down any opportunity to deliver traineeships.”
Nearly two out of every three colleges have teachers on controversial zero-hour contracts, research from the University and College Union (UCU) has suggested.
It asked 275 colleges about the contracts and said that around 61 per cent of the 200 who answered employed teaching staff on contracts that offered no guarantee of work.
The government is currently investigating use of the contracts amid criticism they create uncertainty in the workforce, leaving staff without sick or holiday pay, and for making it difficult to get tenancy agreements, credit cards or loans because it is impossible to show a regular income.
But proponents of the contracts argue they allow for flexible working patterns and mean employers can take on more staff.
However, Simon Renton, UCU president, said: “Our findings shine a light on the murky world of casualisation in FE.
“The extent of the use of zero-hour contracts is difficult to pin down, as various groups have found, but their prevalence in our colleges leads to all sorts of uncertainty for staff.
“Without a guaranteed income, workers on zero-hour contracts are unable to make financial or employment plans on a year-to-year, or even month-to-month basis.
“Employers cannot hide behind the excuse of flexibility — this flexibility is not a two-way street and, for far too many people, it is simply a case of exploitation.
“Their [zero-hour contracts’] widespread use is the unacceptable underbelly of our colleges.”
The contracts have already come under fire from Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg.
He said in July: “Families have to plan to pay bills – everyone has to plan for what their income is and what they are going to pay out. That can cause very intense insecurity and anxiety indeed.”
The Association of Colleges (AoC), which drew up legal advice to help colleges respond to UCU questioning on zero-hour contracts, defended the agreements saying they benefited colleges and staff.
Emma Mason, association director of employment policy and services, said: “We know zero-hour contracts suit some staff, for example professionals who wish to teach for a small number of flexible days every term but do not want to be full-time teachers or exam invigilators whose work is of a seasonal nature.
“Colleges do not restrict people on zero-hour contracts from working elsewhere. In fact, colleges benefit from engaging industry professionals who can ensure training reflects current occupational standards.”
Nevertheless, the UCU’s research – which used the Freedom of Information Act to approach FE colleges in England, Wales and Northern Ireland – comes ahead of the results of an investigation into zero-hour contracts by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS).
“We are encouraged that both the government and the opposition have said they will be looking at zero-hour contracts, but neither side has yet said anything that will give the thousands of people subjected to these conditions much hope,” said Mr Renton.
However, the UCU’s research came in for criticism from the association, a month after it sought positive examples of colleges’ zero-hour contracts following talks with BIS about its investigation.
“The UCU data does not cover all FE staff — it analyses the proportion of teaching staff employed on zero-hour contracts across the colleges that responded to the FOI request,” said Ms Mason.
“The figures do not cover all colleges and include estimations of headcount, so do not represent a true picture.”
She added: “While the UCU data gives an indication of the use of zero-hour contracts for teaching staff, it does not provide evidence of poor employment practice.”
The UCU is due to lead a debate on the zero-hour contracts at the TUC Congress in Bournemouth on Sunday.
