College lays foundations for the future

Builder Tommy Walsh, star of TV’s Ground Force, has opened a £3m construction workshop at Cambridge Regional College.

John Malone, college head of construction and engineering faculty, said: “Tommy talked to the students about the opportunities available when they’ve
trained to the high standards that we
help them to achieve.

“He told them they would always have a trade no matter where their lives took them.”

The new centre has nearly 1,000 square metres of workshop space, classrooms and a dedicated plastering area, and will allow the college to increase its number of trowel trade courses.

Featured image caption: Cambridge Regional College students with Tommy Walsh (far left)

Students stick to their briefs

Around 560 students from 17 FE colleges up and down the country showed off their pants at London’s Old Spitalfields Market for an entrepreneurial Fairtrade challenge.

They marketed, promoted and sold ethically sourced designer pants as part of a four-month real-life business challenge organised by the Gazelle Colleges Group and Fairtrade underwear brand, Pants to Poverty.

Middlesbrough College’s team, Fairwear,
was crowned winners after wowing the judges with its business plan and selling out of stock.

Team members will now visit the cotton farmers in India who supply Pants to Poverty, to help them to understand the Fairtrade process.

“People have said that India is going to be hard,” said Matthew Griffiths from Fairwear. “But I know that I am going to love every minute of it.”

Featured image caption: Terri Jo Gilbert, 17, Habib Mohammed, 16, Harriet Wimbush, 17 and Christopher Wilde,19, from Oxford & Cherwell College

Brushing up on their decorating skills

Painting and decorating students from London have helped to brighten up a day centre for disabled adults.

Barking & Dagenham College preparation for employment students Paul Bryant, Mark Fortune, Stephen Jeakins, Sean Taylor, all 17, and Charlie Ross and Ben Hopkins, both 16, painted the Maples Centre’s multipurpose room yellow, to match its overall colour scheme.

The work was commissioned by Barking and Dagenham council, which runs the centre.

“The students were very professional,” said Anne Leach, the council’s community project leader for adult and community services.

“It would be a pleasure to offer them more work in the future.”

Featured image caption: Barking & Dagenham College students in their overalls, from left: Paul Bryant, Stephen Jeakins, Ben Hopkins, Mark Fortune and Charlie Ross with some of the day residents and staff at The Maples day care centre

Egged on by annual show’s theme

Young chefs ruffled some feathers at the South of England Show when they created chicken and egg meals for the hungry crowds.

The theme of this year’s show was poultry, and the level one and two professional cookery diploma students from Central Sussex College used local ingredients to rustle up dishes such as Mexican huevos rancheros, pasta, pasties, and the tricky perfect poached eggs.

Level one student Ellen Bonner said: “It’s been a brilliant couple of days — it’s been so good to be able to chat to the visitors as we’re cooking and see them enjoying what we’ve made.”

The students were invited to the show by the National Farmers’ Union.

Featured image caption: From left: Dam Thomsett, 17, Doug Kennedy, 18, Liam Boniface, 21 and Ellen Bonner, 17

Lorin’s Titanic struggle pays off

A Weston College student’s scale model of the Titanic was too big for the bus so he pushed it 15 mile on a converted go-kart to his college.

Level two art and design student Lorin Robinson, 17, created the model at his home in Clevedon, but as he doesn’t drive decided to push it on a trolley — with help from his friend Alex Price, 16 — made from a go-kart.

“We set off about 12:50am because we thought the roads would be quieter,” said Lorin.

“We didn’t realise how many street lights are turned off at night, so it was much darker than we thought. We only had a single torch and some lights on the model.”

The boys negotiated blind corners, trucks thundering past and dark cycle paths,  to arrive just as the sun came up.

Art and design curriculum manager Neale Jordan Mellersh found them asleep outside the classroom at 7:30am.

He said: “Lorin’s dedication . . . is symptomatic of the attitudes of all of the students within the faculty of art.”

Featured image caption: Lorin Robinson with his scale model of the Titanic

Curtains up on theatrical careers

Two Leeds apprentices have landed jobs at Leeds Grand Theatre.

Grace Dean, 21, and Bethany Beal, 20, both completed cultural heritage operations apprenticeships through Leeds City College, developing and delivering education programmes, tours and events, before working part-time at the theatre until full-time recruitment started.

Bethany is now a finance assistant at the theatre, while Grace’s role at The Grand’s sister venue, the City Varieties Music Hall, will allow her will continue the work she did on her apprenticeship.

Grace said: “I am thrilled to have the opportunity to remain within the company in a role that I am highly passionate about.”

Featured image caption: Former apprentices Bethany Beal and Grace Dean

Bright spark powers to electrician prize

A Telford College learner has won an electrician’s toolbelt  for his outstanding achievement as an electrical student.

Adam Hyett, 19, from Wolverhampton, was chosen by Telford’s lecturing staff after BG Electrical, which manufactures electrical wiring accessories in Shropshire, offered to sponsor an award for a student who had made an exceptional impact in academic and practical studies.

“Adam is an excellent student who is fully committed to his studies,” said his course tutor, Ian Millington.

“He takes great pride in his work, which is always completed quickly, safely and efficiently to very high standards.”

Featured image caption: Adam Hyett receiving his award from Mike Laycock, UK sales director of BG Electrical

Solving the merger mystery

A proposed college merger in the Midlands made the FE Week news pages earlier this year after the intervention of Skills Minister Matthew Hancock. Chris Henwood looks at the national picture of mergers over the past few years

When Skills Minister Matthew Hancock sent a letter to every college chair and principal in England reminding them of the rules about merging, there will have been few, if any, who failed to sit up and take notice.

Accountability, consultation and competition were key to his advice, four months ago, that came not long after his officials at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) looked at plans for two colleges in the Midlands to become one.

The proposals for Stourbridge College and Birmingham Metropolitan College came under the spotlight to “establish if appropriate processes have been followed”.

The principal of a local college claimed he had found out about the proposals on Twitter, while another questioned whether there was any need for the merger, which has since gone through — with Mr Hancock’s blessing.

David Nolan, chair of Stourbridge College Corporation, said: “The board of governors at Stourbridge College unanimously voted in favour of merger after considering the wide range of benefits this would create for our learners, including greater choice of courses, improved facilities and enhanced connections to employers and the jobs market.”

A BIS spokesperson said: “Stourbridge Corporation has responded constructively to our concerns by demonstrating why it considers the merger to be the best option for learners, local employers and the community.

“The corporation has now gone through the proper process and undertaken a college structure and prospects appraisal as set out in New Challenges, New Chances.”

But just how common are mergers?

Six took place last academic year, according to information to supplied to FE Week by BIS, and eight the year before that, but in the year starting September 2009 there wasn’t one — although Bicton and Exeter Colleges thought about it.

Meanwhile, the Stourbridge and Birmingham proposal is one of just two in the current academic year to the end of April.

The second is between Ludlow Sixth Form College and Herefordshire College of Technology, and both involve one of the colleges dissolving before its assets shift to the other (Stourbridge dissolved on May 31 and Ludlow is due to do the same at the end of next month).

Such dissolution is the norm, but Norfolk’s Easton College and Suffolk’s Otley College were both dissolved in August last year followed by the incorporation of Easton and Otley College, despite a 47-mile trip between the two. Filton College and Stroud College took the same path earlier in the year, resulting in the South Gloucestershire and Stroud College.

However, mergers aren’t always a done deal. Newcastle College and Northumberland College,  and City of Westminster College and College of North West London (CNWL) also looked at merging, but all decided against it in the end.

If that sounds like there may be growing caution over mergers, possibly since the minister’s intervention in the Midlands, it shouldn’t.  Some are under consideration now, including North East Worcestershire (New) College with Worcester College of Technology.

A joint statement by the New and Worcester colleges said: “A Joint Options Group will lead an accountable and open process . . . Any proposals resulting from these discussions must bring clear benefits to students, the local communities and employers.”

Meanwhile, “collaboration” is up for discussion between Middlesbrough College and Gateshead College.

In a joint statement, the chairs of Middlesbrough and Gateshead, Bob Brady and Robin Mackie, said: “We would be delighted if we can bring the collective strengths of our colleges together.

“This would give us the opportunity to take a more regional perspective working with our funding bodies, local authorities, local enterprise partnerships and others for the benefit of students, staff, employers and both local communities.”

The federation model

Kingston College and Carshalton College considered merging in early 2010, but opted instead for a federation model the following year. They formed the Kingston and Sutton Educational Partnership, sharing central services but maintaining individual identities.

Peter Mayhew-Smith, partnership principal, said: “We looked at different approaches from other sectors and saw that schools and universities had made good use of more flexible structures, creating partnerships without any loss of identity or service to the local community.

“I was also worried that a merger could slow our rate of improvement. We felt this would be best for both our colleges, and constructed a relationship with a shared services company and a leadership team spanning both colleges.

“In setting this up, we saved around £1.2m — against our combined turnover of £45m — from our management costs.

“It was challenging, though, as we had to ask our excellent staff to take a leap of faith with us and enter into new ways of working, while the different cultures and practices of the two colleges don’t always sit comfortably alongside each other.”

But, he added: “I’m very proud of the effort and imagination colleagues in our federation have brought to bear on these challenges, making it successful so far, although there’s still plenty to do.”

And just over five years ago, Dick Palmer (pictured) foresaw sector change from his principal’s office at City College Norwich, prompting the formation of the Ten (Transforming Education in Norfolk) Group of educational institutions, including City College Norwich, City Academy Norwich, Wayland Academy and Norfolk University Technical College.

Mr Palmer, who moved from college principal to group chief executive last summer, recognised the growth in the number of 14 to 16-year-olds going to college — “so we started thinking about how we could manage the relationships with schools that much better,” he said.

“We also saw the potential growth of academies and how that could be quite competitive with us as a college, and we saw a real political move towards public services becoming shared.”

He added: “I would advise any principal thinking about merger or any similar move to start your conversations with your staff, other organisation and other stakeholders really, really early.

“Be clear about what your vision is and what the outcomes are and why you’re doing it — is it for student outcomes and success rates or is it for financial reasons — and don’t spin it. Be frank, open and ambitious.”

 

‘It makes life easier, but not always better’

K College was created from a merger of South Kent College and West Kent College. It is now being broken up and sold off. Interim principal Phil Frier explains why two shouldn’t always become one

I have never been keen on mergers. I have been involved with two and on the edge of another, and they don’t seem to deliver the solution that many hope for.

The problem lies in the assumption that a change in structure and an increase in size will lead not only to more sustainable and financially viable colleges, but also to higher quality teaching and learning, and improved student success rates.

Don’t get me wrong, there is evidence that some merged colleges have done better than their antecedents, but only where there has been an understanding of the need to ensure the ‘human-sized’ elements and underlying educational focus remain.

Mergers have often been the result of the egocentric ambitions of Skills Council chief executives, and, more latterly, principals and chairs of governors, often driven by financial rather than educational motives.

Mergers don’t always bring financial efficiencies — in fact, many have increased costs without improving teaching and learning, as managers are distracted by setting up cross-college systems.

While there is nothing wrong with establishing common core values, standards and expectations, the drive to create the merged college often ignores the difference in local cultures and the need for college campuses to be rooted in their communities.

The need for local leadership is often ignored too, as the commitment to control from the centre takes hold.

Mergers are not the sole choice for failing colleges — new management models should lead to more imaginative solutions. We are a creative sector. Do we really need to fall back on to ageing corporate business models to solve our problems?

Even the word ‘merger’ is not helpful since it implies that the character and personality of the existing colleges will be merged to form a more androgynous corporate body.

The language of ‘merger’ in FE has also been devoid of creativity with its references to ‘type A or type B’ unions.

Come on guys, many of us are supposed to be a reasonably capable, intelligent group of baby boomers. For the sake of the current and, perhaps more importantly, future students, let’s try to find some solutions that are more educationally orientated, and more in harmony with people and with the local communities that colleges serve.

The strength of FE colleges has always been that we are in tune with the heartbeat of our towns and cities. Most technical colleges were developed by the local borough or town councils to serve local industry, facilitate local employment, and to provide opportunities for young people and older generations to discover the life-changing wonder of education and qualifications.

Isn’t it time we developed more innovative federal models of organisation that allow us to keep local contacts while still providing financial capacity, high quality facilities and a learner-centred focus.

In some ways, college merger is a bit like the old adage about money; it makes your life easier, but doesn’t necessarily make it better. An educational organisation should always focus on providing the best learning environment; for me that means learning in a well-resourced, supportive place with good teachers within a human-scale management structure, where locally based managers have the autonomy to make local decisions.

Some of the best organisations in the world recognise that they can be big enough to be financially viable, but small and human enough at the point of contact for the client. I am rather hoping that the dinosaur age of the one-dimensional merger debate is over.

Phil Frier, interim principal at K College, Kent

Want to read more? Chris Henwood looks at the broader picture on college mergers here