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Radiating enthusiasm after nuclear centre trip
A group of students from Central Sussex College visited the swiss HQ of the European Organisation for Nuclear Research — home of the Large Hadron Collider.
BTec science, geography, biology, chemistry, physics and maths students learned about particle physics and electromagnetism at the centre, in Geneva, which is often referred to as the “largest physics lab in the world”.
Student Alice Sayers, aged 19, said: “We were impressed by the Universe of Particles — an exhibition [at the site] within a spherical building, built from recycled materials. Everything inside was spherical, and the pod-like chairs had speakers inside that explained particle physics.”
The learners also visited the nearby United Nations offices and took a boat trip on Lake Geneva.
Cap: Central Sussex College students outside the Universe of Particles exhibition centre. Inset left: Students and college staff inside the European Organisation for Nuclear Research
TV appearance plants seed of hope for shrubs
A college lecturer has ‘shrubbed off’ the competition to land a role as one of the presenters of a television show which aims to inspire viewers to save Britain’s garden heritage.
Matt James, from Cornwall’s Duchy College Rosewarne, is the shrub specialist on BBC Two show the Great British Garden Revival.
The series will feature episodes on cottage gardens, wildflowers, fruit trees, roof gardens, and water features.
Matt was featured in an episode screened earlier this month, speaking about the history of shrubs and reasons for their decline in popularity.
He said: “Shrubs are vital to our gardens, yet in recent years their popularity has declined in-part due to the trend for naturalistic meadow-inspired planting. I hope this programme will highlight their importance.”
Cap: Matt James presenting The Great British Garden Revival Pic: BBC/Outline Productions
Labour’s jobseeker training proposal welcomed — but where’s the money for it, ask FE leaders
Proposals to make jobseekers take part in English, maths and IT training to qualify for benefits have been welcomed by FE sector leaders — but there were questions about how the training would be funded.
The idea was announced by Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Rachel Reeves (pictured) during a speech to the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) thinktank in London on Monday (January 20).
She said she was unveiling plans for, “a new requirement for jobseekers to take training if they do not meet basic standards of maths, English and IT — training they will be required to take up alongside their job search, or lose their benefits.”
Ms Reeves said basic skills were “essential in today’s job market”, but that “shocking levels of English and maths among too many jobseekers” were “holding them back from getting work and trapping them in a vicious cycle between low paid work and benefits”.
“Research shows that nearly one in five of those who have made multiple claims for unemployment benefits have problems with reading or numeracy,” she said, adding that schools had a “critical role to play”, but that FE was also important for those lacking basic skills.
Her emphasis on FE was welcomed by the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) and the Association of Colleges (AoC), but concerns have been raised about an apparent lack of detail on funding.
Dr Mary Bousted, ATL general secretary, said: “It is good to hear that the Labour Party is making a commitment to provide jobseekers with training in English, maths and IT.
“However, where will the funding come from to deliver the training and to develop and run the tests to ascertain who needs training? And where will the training take place following the recent cuts in funding for FE colleges which may mean that, by the time this policy is implemented, there aren’t enough college places or FE colleges to provide the training?”
She added: “We would like to see a greater commitment from companies to training their staff at the beginning and throughout their career.”
Michele Sutton, AoC president, said: “Colleges already have an excellent track record of working well with Jobcentre Plus and they are experts at getting people into employment. Our members currently work with 230,000 unemployed people a year and 97 per cent of colleges work with Jobcentre Plus.”
She added: “The work colleges already do with the unemployed is succeeding, but they are working with more people than they are funded for. If Labour wants colleges to work with more benefit claimants, they will need to ensure sufficient funding is available to make it a reality.”
Ms Reeves’ comments came two months after IPPR report No More Neets, the last of its three reports late last year, called for a ‘youth allowance’ to replace existing out of work benefits for 18 to 24-year-olds.
The report also called for a ‘youth guarantee’ to be established, offering access to FE or vocational training plus intensive support to find work. For those not learning or earning after six months, mandatory paid work experience and traineeships should be provided, it said.
Rachel Reeves pic courtesy of IPPR
Cable to face MPs’ questions over failed apprentice loans policy
Business Secretary Vince Cable is this week expected to be grilled by MPs about the failed apprenticeship FE loans system.
Adrian Bailey, chair of the Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) Select Committee, said he planned to question Dr Cable on 24+ advanced learning loans during a session starting around 10.15am on Wednesday. The session is to focus more widely on the BIS annual report.
Mr Bailey told FE Week that he also planned to ask Dr Cable about government figures, published in December, that showed in the 2012/13 academic year there were 10,400 fewer apprenticeship starts than in 2011/12 — a fall of 2 per cent.
Mr Bailey said: “I can’t go into detail about the exact nature of my questions ahead of the session, but Dr Cable will be questioned about his department’s annual report and one of the things we will be asking him is about the problems with FE loans. We will certainly be looking at the decision to cancel 24+ apprenticeship loans.
“I am also concerned about the fall in apprenticeship starts and the effect that could have on social mobility and will question him about that.”
It comes after Dr Cable exclusively confirmed to FE Week before Christmas that the government was “dropping” the troubled 24+ advanced learning loans system for apprenticeships.
With just 404 applications in around seven months up to December, he “accepted” the system had failed, but said non-apprentice FE loans would remain.
FE WEEK #90 – 21/01/2014
Sector leaders turn up heat on Skills Minister Matthew Hancock over controversial funding cut
An official impact assessment on the government’s controversial education funding rate cut for 18-year-olds has come under fire from sector leaders in a joint letter to Skills Minister Matthew Hancock.
Martin Doel, Association of Colleges chief executive, and David Igoe, Sixth Form Colleges Association chief executive, were two of the four to put their name to the hard-hitting correspondence.
Along with 157 Group chief executive Lynne Sedgmore and Principals’ Professional Council chair Mike Hopkins they told the minister the assessment confirmed fears about the policy “far from allaying” them.
They said the assessment showed how the policy, that will see 18-year-olds’ full-time education funded at a rate 17.5 per cent lower than learners aged 16 and 17 from next year, was “based on inadequate analysis and insufficient evidence”.
It shows that FE colleges will be among the worst-hit of all institutions — with an average reduction in funding of 3 per cent.
For land-based colleges it’s 2.5 per cent, for commercial and charitable providers it’s 1.5 per cent, and for sixth form colleges it’s 1.2 per cent.
But for school sixth forms it’s just 0.4 per cent. However, the report does not say how much cash the funding rate cut, due next academic year, is expected to save.
Mrs Sedgmore told FE Week: “The long-awaited impact assessment does not allay the many fears that this policy will disproportionately affect the most disadvantaged students, many of whom are served by large, urban further education colleges.
“The impact on colleges is more than seven times greater than the impact on school sixth forms. At a time when we should be promoting vocational routes to give our young people the skills they will need to contribute to economic growth, this disparity seems ill-advised.
“The data presented in the impact assessment is open to differing interpretations, and we believe this policy has been ill thought-through. It risks undermining the real progress that has been recently made in evening out the playing field between different providers of post-16 education.”
They also called for talks on “mitigation measures” with Education Secretary Michael Gove having said he would consider limiting the initial effect of the cut, although the impact assessment said such a move could not be decided upon until the end of next month at the earliest.
The new rate for 16 and 17-year-olds is expected to be announced in March, but at the current rate 18-year-olds would be funded at £3,300.
The cut has been the subject of widespread criticism and prompted the creation of an online petition against the move that could force a debate on the issue in the House of Commons if it is signed by at least 100,000 people. It has already been singed by nearly 2,500 people.
Nevertheless, the sector leaders’ letter further raised concerns about the fact the cut would be retrospectively applied to learners halfway through a course, meaning providers would be left with a funding shortfall.
“We remain especially concerned that the cut might apply to students who are part-way through a course they have begun legitimately believing they would be fully-funded until the end. Colleges will have to work hard to mitigate this unfair, and possibly unintended, consequence,” said Mrs Sedgmore.
The Education Funding Agency announced the funding rate cut on December 10 and said the Spending Review for 2015-16 meant that savings were required from the 16 to 19 participation budget that year.
It said those who were 18 at the start of the academic year “will already have benefited from two years of post-16 education and will not therefore need as much non-qualification provision within their study programmes as 16 and 17-year-olds”.
Mr Gove told the Education Select Committee last month: “It is a painful cut forced on us by, A, difficult economic circumstances and, B, the fact that there are some parts of the education budget that are protected and some parts that are not.
“We conducted an impact assessment which we can share with the committee. In short, of all the ways we looked at to reduce expenditure in the 16 to 18 area, this is the one we felt was the least worst. But I won’t say that it’s a good thing to reduce spending in this area. It’s a difficult decision.”
The Department for Education is yet to respond to the letter to Mr Hancock.
Keeping the apprenticeship wage up to date in the workplace — and online
It took the National Apprenticeship Service, and the overarching Skills Funding Agency, three months to act over a 3p rise to £2.68 on the apprentice minimum wage. The rise happened in October, but it took until mid-December before the official online advertising system for apprenticeships was amended so as to only accept adverts at the higher wage. Stephen Gardner discusses the importance of keeping all things apprentice as clear as possible.
Given that apprenticeships should be about learning in the workplace rather than simply earning it is appropriate that there is a rate set for an apprenticeship minimum wage that is below the National Minimum Wage (NMW).
However, it also seems to me that this should be rigorously enforced by the government or those mandated to distribute funding, thereby ensuring that young apprentices are treated fairly by all employers.
Simply saying that the minimum wage should be paid is not enough — it seems the probability of an individual employer receiving a visit from a NMW officer is too low to prove a deterrent.
Apprentices in employment are not in a strong position to complain to their employers, even with the help of their training provider and it would seem appropriate that there should be a means whereby apprentices, or those who know that wages lower than NMW are being paid, can notify the National Apprenticeship Service in confidence.
Once notified, there should be a duty on NAS to investigate and take appropriate action. This should involve liaison with Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs and, where substantiated, prosecution and remedial action in the form of back payment.
Training providers should also be required to do more to ensure that the employers they contract with do pay the correct amount for all the hours worked.
Technically, only an apprentice paid the NMW is legitimately an apprentice, so the Skills Funding Agency could, in theory, recover any funding paid to a provider for an “apprentice” not in receipt of the NMW.
The first requirement is for the NMW to be widely publicised so that all school leavers and their parents or guardians know what apprentices should be paid.
Simply saying that the minimum wage should be paid is not enough
Careers advisers should be the first source of information — but this assumes that the current arrangement for providing careers advice tells the young people and their parents or guardians about apprenticeships at all.
The recent ruckus about the apprenticeships vacancy area of the NAS website is embarrassing for NAS and damaging to apprenticeships.
It should be a simple matter to ensure that the current NMW is automatically displayed on every appropriate page of the apprenticeship vacancy website, removing the opportunity for anyone to advertise a lower wage and I hope that this is something that NAS is now implementing in light of the recent adverse publicity.
Apprenticeships need to be clearly seen as a three-way investment in skills.
Government invests funding, employers (with the help of training providers) should invest in high class training, and young people invest their time and dedication to learning.
A fair financial contribution to help the apprentice with their living and travel costs during the apprenticeship is essential.
Stephen Gardner, chief executive of
Fair Train
Ameen Hussain, manager, Greenwich Asian Resource Centre
It has been a long journey for Ameen Hussain from the Indian Pearl City of Hyderabad to collecting an MBE for services to adult education and his local community in South London.
Hussain, aged 71, may have been “amazed, flabbergasted and humbled” to be recognised in the New Year honours list, but it was just reward for his dedication over more than two decades to broadening people’s horizons through the open-to-all Asian Resource Centre, in Abbey Wood.
His education of others started in 1970 for Hussain, with a maths teaching job at Sedgehill School, in Lewisham, South London.
“I wrote to my father saying ‘I think I will be out by Christmas, teaching probably isn’t for me’. It turned out I was wrong, as I stayed at Sedgehill for 32 years,” he said.
Hussain had moved to London three years earlier. His first job in England was working as a quality control inspector at Teddington Auto Controls, which made thermostats, and Landis and Gyr, in Acton, which made household electricity meters.
But he was destined to return to maths and the classroom having studied at two secondary schools in India before completing a degree in maths, physics and chemistry, along with a masters degree in maths at Osmania University, Hyderabad.
He was born in 1942 in Hyderabad, a city within a state bearing the same name.
I wrote to my father saying ‘I think I will be out by Christmas, teaching probably isn’t for me’. It turned out I was wrong, as I stayed at Sedgehill for 32 years
“I originally came over here because I wanted to continue my studies in the UK, but that turned out to be too expensive,” explained Hussain.
Hussain’s father Muhammed Khasim, who died in 1985 aged 77, was an excise inspector for Hyderabad’s civil service.
He moved around a lot because of the job and would take wife Kulsum, who died aged 76 in 1995, daughter Jameela, who died in December aged 73, and the young Ameen with him.
“My dad’s job took us all over Hyderabad, which meant I attended a lot of different primary schools in regions where people spoke different languages,” said Hussain.
“I started-off in the Kannadi-speaking region, then moved to a school in the Telegu-speaking area, before going to another school where they spoke the Marahati language.
“Luckily, they all had Urdu as the main language of education, which was my mother tongue.”
Hussain, of Welling, in Kent, is a devoted husband of Nafees, 61, and father of daughters Yasmin, 35, and Sameena, 31, and son Abid, 30.
He also dotes on his grandchildren Amanah, four, Yusuf, one, and Musab, who is four months old.
He said: “I am most proud of my family but of course have taken huge pride in the MBE, which I dedicate to my tutors, students and all the other people who have helped me along the way.”
It was while working at the Sedgehill that Hussain started teaching part-time at what was then called the Greenwich Asian Resource Centre from 1990.
He said: “The biggest influence on my community work was my dear friend and mentor Sadhu Sing Biring, who introduced me to the centre and was a great campaigner for the local Asian community.
“He sadly passed away [aged 69] in May 2012 and I wish he had been here see me get the MBE.
“I taught at the centre in the evenings after school and on Saturdays until the council decided it wanted to withdraw funding in 1996 and the main centre closed temporarily.
“However, our languages school was still running and the tutors weren’t paid for six months, because there was no-one left to do the paperwork.
“The management committee asked if I could sort this problem out. I did the paperwork and sorted out the payments, then the main centre re-opened and I became more and more involved with things like helping people with passports and housing problems.”
Hussain took over as the centre’s manager after taking early retirement from his school in 2002, a year after its name was shortened to the Asian Resource Centre.
He said: “We dropped Greenwich from the name because we used to get phone calls asking if it was just for people from Greenwich, which it wasn’t.
“It became the Asian Resource Centre, but then we were getting non-Asian people asking if it was just for Asians and we welcome everyone, so these days we just call it ARC.”
Hussain is most proud of access to teaching courses for Asian women run by the centre from 2003 to 2005.
“I knew there was a lot of untapped talent among educated Asian women,” he said.
“Many of them had degrees, but they were not getting out of the house after marrying and having a family, because of the pressures of raising children and the stigma against them returning to work or education.
“We started running access to teaching courses, in partnership with the University of Greenwich, and ended up helping dozens of women on their way to better things.”
The centre has run a huge variety of classes during Hussain’s time in charge, including English for speakers of foreign languages, maths, science, dance and clothing repair classes for adults, and family learning sessions on computers, history and food from around the world.
The centre is still thriving today and Hussain has no intention of winding things down.
“We cater for everyone really. There’s one group called the Thamesmead Surfers for older people interested in learning about computers,” explained Hussain.
“The average age of people involved is 76 and they range from 69 to 84. We teach them about the internet, e-mail, digital cameras, and they used our computers at the centre to set up their own website.
“One of my favourite members, David Kelly, arrived at our door with a laptop in 2008 when he was 89 and asked if we could show him how to use it. He was one of our best students right up until he passed away two years ago.
“My great passion is for adult training and he was living proof of my firm belief that you can learn at any age.”
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It’s a personal thing
What’s your favourite book?
Gone With The Wind, by Margaret Mitchell
What did you want to be when you grew up?
A top civil servant in India, like my father
What’s your pet hate?
I don’t hate anything
What do you do to switch off from work?
I like listening to music and reading about Hollywood and Bollywood films
If you could invite anyone to a dinner party, living or dead, who would it be?
My grandchildren mean so much to me and I would enjoy having my party with them more than anyone else