Rethink call on traineeship rules

The leader of a group representing 27 large colleges has called on the government to loosen rules on who can run traineeships.

Skills Minister Matthew Hancock announced the traineeships framework this month — just weeks after youth unemployment figures nudged the one million mark — along with rules governing who can offer the scheme.

The scheme, first proposed by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg in June to help young people gain work-related skills and attitudes, is due to start next academic year.

We believe this approach will provide only a limited perspective as it does not reflect the full range and nuances of the varied grades, differences and aspects of college provision.”

It will include work placements of up to six months, flexible training to build character and to help young people get ready for work — such as job search and interview skills, time-keeping and team working — and will develop learners’ English and maths.
However, providers without an Ofsted grade one (outstanding) or two (good) will not be able to run the scheme in its first year.

Lynne Sedgmore (pictured), executive director of the 157 Group, which represents ‘27 large and successful colleges’, which includes a number at Ofsted grade three, said: “We are concerned at the proposal to use a college’s overall Ofsted grade as the only criteria, and to only allow those colleges with good or outstanding ratings to deliver traineeships.

“We believe this approach will provide only a limited perspective as it does not reflect the full range and nuances of the varied grades, differences and aspects of college provision.

“We also believe that it may carry unintended consequences for the availability of traineeships within certain geographical areas, which could be mitigated by broadening the range of criteria applied.”

She said that her group supported a broadening of the criteria to include evidenced quality, a strong track record and extensive experience of successful work-based learning, plus previous experience of delivering innovative programmes for NEETs and for the unemployed.

“We would also like to see evidence of powerful endorsement and high levels of confidence from employers taken into account, along with strong strategic partnerships with local employers and a strong track record of effective work experience,” she said.

Joy Mercer, director of policy at the Association of Colleges, said: “We’ve already raised this with the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and are pleased the eligibility criteria will be for this year in the first instance.

“An Ofsted judgment is a blunt instrument that can hide excellent provision for this targeted group of students and nationally renowned provision with employers.”

The government’s traineeship framework document said that if there was no eligible provider in a location, it would support efforts to “ensure that outstanding and good provision becomes available in that area”.

The government has also said that only 16 to 19-year-olds could take traineeships.

Mrs Sedgmore added that the 157 Group was “fully supportive” of the new framework and its “many positive elements”, including content flexibility, partnerships with employers and meaningful work experience.

But it was keen to see the scheme extended to 19 to 24-year-old and “fully accepted” the need for quality criteria and clarity for existing providers and new entrants. “We firmly believe that FE colleges will be critical to the successful delivery of traineeships,” she said.

A government spokesperson said: “We are announcing the 16 to 19 framework so that delivery of traineeships for this age group will be possible from the start of the 2013/14 academic year.

“We are looking to extend the traineeships programme to young people up to 24.”

Tristram Hunt, shadow junior education minister

A rich vein of history runs through Tristram Hunt, rising to the surface and touching everything he talks about.

The 38-year-old history graduate’s love for the Industrial Revolution, which spawned times of “great equality” across the UK because of the industrial power yielded by cities other than London, has informed his pro-manufacturing views.

He’s penned history books and broadcast history-based television programmes. And his main contact with the FE sector is when he teaches students in his Stoke-on-Trent constituency.

But it was the poverty that the Shadow junior education minister saw in Chicago during an exchange fellowship that fired his ambition to work with the Labour party.

“I went to Chicago for a year. The university is on the south side, which, when I was there, was a very hairy place,” he says.

“The levels of poverty and dysfunction were stark for a nice boy bought up in Cambridge.

“It was a bit of a political awakening. I came back and got involved.”

This was in 1997. He was 22 and volunteered during that year’s election campaign. He says that he liked the shape of the party under Tony Blair who he describes as an “attractive and modern, European figure”.

“Blair was great and inspirational when I was a young man,” says the MP who, as a student at the University of Cambridge, rubbed shoulders with stars such Sacha Baron Cohen and became friends with comedy writers David Mitchell and Rob Webb, fellow members of university drama group, Footlights.

Hunt says present Labour leader Ed Miliband has “a very real passion for youth services and young people. It’s good to be working for him”.

But the father-of-three says more could be made of FE colleges.

“There’s a big resource that isn’t being utilised effectively — either locally or within broader skills strategy. Libraries are under great threat in many local authorities; you’ve got all these colleges with resources. Should we think about co-location for those kind of services?” he asks.

At elections you’re the candidate and you’ve got the machinery.  If you lose, well you’ve lost, but in selections you’re in a struggle with your own side and it’s more edgy”

“The heart of it is in skills. What do local employers and businesses need in terms of skills provision? We know our skills capacity is poor at the moment. The good thing about FE colleges is they’re hooked in locally.

“There needs to be more in terms of their relationship with employers, businesses and industry but you want them as local drivers of skills.”

He says that localising budgets for skills and training through local enterprise partnerships, is “not a bad policy” but FE colleges need to “step up to that”.

“They’ve got to get the basics right,” says Hunt who lives between Stoke-on-Trent and North London with his textile designer wife, Juliet.

“We’re not where we need to be on English and maths. Forty per cent of kids don’t get level two at 16 in English and maths and only 20 per cent of that is achieved at 18. That 16 to 18 gap in terms of achievement is really worrying.

“Is the teaching capacity there? And is the focus there? There should greater focus on functional skills teaching. It’s increasingly important with the raising of the participation age . . .  and it’s what employers want,” he says.

Hunt, who has two sisters, went to his local Cambridge primary until the family moved to North London, where his lecturer father took a job as a meteorologist. While his mother started work as a landscape architect, he moved on to University College School, an independent school, where teachers fostered his love of history.

“History is really important,” he says. “It’s one of the few academic syllabuses that everyone has a view on; it goes beyond its own perimeters because it’s about citizenship, national identity, understanding — it affects everyone. It’s even more important in a multi-ethnic age when you don’t have those traditional levers of understanding outside the classroom.”

He adds: “It’s also fun. Learning of human failures, achievements and weaknesses give a greater understanding of ourselves.”

He says that although he was politically aware as a youngster – his father Julian was a leader of the Labour group on Cambridge City Council and was made a lifelong peer in 2000 — he was not politically active through school or university. That came after his year in Chicago.

After completing a doctorate in civic thought, he returned on and off to the party in between presenting programmes on the English Civil War, the theories of Isaac Newton, and the rise of the middle class. He also appeared regularly on BBC Radio 4.

Yet despite all this, the former lecturer in modern history at Queen Mary, University of London, writer for the Observer and Guardian and, most recently, biographer of Friedrich Engels, says the “most stressful thing” he’s done is candidate selection.

“At elections you’re the candidate and you’ve got the machinery.  If you lose, well you’ve lost, but in selections you’re in a struggle with your own side and it’s more edgy,” he says.

In 2007 and 2009 he failed to be selected for safe seats in Liverpool and Leyton and Wanstead. When he was finally selected for Stoke-on-Trent in 2010, there was controversy over him being “parachuted in” at the last minute. He won by 5,566 votes.

“The consolations of history are rather good because you look back at all sorts of people who’ve been through similar processes and it’s a truism that you have to go through various elections and selections before you’re successful. It’s the battle and grind of it,” he says.

“I was delighted with the end result; it’s great to be representing Stoke.”

He has argued that the Staffordshire city should make the most of its famous but dwindling pottery industries and has criticised the local council’s decision to “try to obliterate the past, and sort of ‘cleanse’, removing the old bottle ovens and other relics”.

He says that his favourite era is 1750 to 1850 when the Industrial Revolution gave rise to great urban civilisations in Manchester, Liverpool and Stoke-on-Trent, creating with it a “British identity”.

“We have wonderful facilities in Stoke but they really need more money and support and talent drawn to them because everything is sucked into London,” he explains.

“A rebalancing of economic and cultural capacity across Britain is a strong priority for me, which is why the 19th century is so wonderful — there was a period of great equality across the country because of the industrial power that places such as Manchester and Birmingham had. They were places you really had to reckon with.”

He says that production of Spode [an English brand of pottery] is coming back to Stoke from China, but that skills shortages are a problem.

“You go into a pot bank and there’s no one there under 50. Thankfully all the local pottery firms are joining with the British Ceramic Confederation to work out a skills framework. Wedgwood has a good apprenticeship programme — we’re trying to push for that,” he says.

He says Stoke-on-Trent is a city where you can see “capacity and potential not being delivered”, because the right educational and skills results are not being achieved.

“That’s a real social justice issue and that is where governments can and should help,” he says.

“It’s where we can make a difference — that goes right through to children’s special educational needs, children in care. It’s fundamental to what being in Labour should be about.”

It’s a personal thing

What’s your favourite book? 

Middlemarch by George Eliot

What did you want to be when you were younger?

Zookeeper

What do you do to switch off from work?

Planting bulbs that rarely flower, with
my children

If you could invite anyone to a dinner party, living or dead, who would it be?

Oliver Cromwell

What would your super power be? 

Flying.  Of course

Principal leaves after Ofsted blow

The principal of City College Coventry is to leave his job after the Skills Funding Agency demanded “fundamental changes” following a disastrous Ofsted inspection report.

After 16 years in post and two previous poor inspections, Paul Taylor (pictured) was hit with grade four (inadequate) results across each inspection headline field last month.

We have made it clear through the issue of a notice of concern, that an improvement plan that does not include fundamental changes to leadership and governance will not be acceptable,”

He is to be replaced as soon as an interim principal can be found.

It was unclear whether he has decided to leave or was asked to go, but the agency said it had called for change at the top of the 8,000-learner college.

“We have made it clear through the issue of a notice of concern, that an improvement plan that does not include fundamental changes to leadership and governance will not be acceptable,” said an agency spokesperson.
“We will consider and discuss next steps with the college.”

The statement leaves a questionmark hanging over the college’s board of governors, including its chair since 2001, Warwick Hall.

However, a college spokesperson said she was “unaware of any changes planned for the board of governors”.

Coventry’s Ofsted report, published on April 23 following inspection in March, also gave grade fours throughout the main findings board, including apprenticeships and 19+ learning programmes.

Its highest mark was a single grade two for teaching, learning and assessment on independent living and life skills.

Mr Taylor had wanted to stay on despite the blow, saying: “If I walk away I’ll regret it forever.”

But a statement from the college read: “The decision has been taken that Paul Taylor is to leave his position as principal of City College Coventry.

“The board of governors led by the chair and with the support of the Skills Funding Agency and the Association of Colleges is seeking an interim principal. The aim is for the interim principal to be in post by July.”

Meanwhile, Walsall College, among the first to be described as outstanding under Ofsted’s new common inspection framework, and Yorkshire’s Kirklees College, which got a good grading from Ofsted last year just 18 months after it too had been labelled inadequate, are to be involved in the bid to improve the Coventry college.

Mr Hall said: “There is much we can learn from the experience and performance of these two colleges.

“A year after its poor Ofsted report, Kirklees achieved a rating of good across every element of its operations, except leadership and management where it was rated outstanding. This is an achievement I want City College to emulate.”
The Coventry college statement added that a performance improvement action plan was being implemented.

“We are also building a relationship with Walsall College, which has been rated as outstanding, through which it will benchmark its performance and improvement,” it said.

Commissioner specification ‘prejudices’ FE hopefuls

College leaders hoping to play a part in the FE Commissioner hit squad have been put “at a disadvantage” by the job’s specifications.

The deadline for applications to the post, along with its seven advisory posts, ended last week.

But the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) and its leadership arm, the Association of Managers in Education, questioned the requirements of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and the Department for Education.

This means college leaders will be at a disadvantage, compared with the many national leaders of education, etc, who are already registered and ready to respond to the request to quote.”

The departments wanted candidates registered on the National College for Teaching and Leadership’s operational associate framework so they could issue a request for quotation.

But an ATL spokesperson said this could stifle applications from FE staff.

“The invitation to bid through a request for quotation and the requirement to be registered on the framework will prejudice applications from anyone in FE who hasn’t already set up a limited company — which is ridiculous, given the nature of the role,” they said.

They said the framework was established to save money and to ensure that consultants were not working regularly enough for the taxman to consider them full-time employees.

The spokesperson added: “Even if FE staff have formed a limited company, it will still take a few days to fast-track their application to join the framework.

“This means college leaders will be at a disadvantage, compared with the many national leaders of education, etc, who are already registered and ready to respond to the request to quote.”

But a BIS spokesperson said individuals were not required to be set up as a limited company.

They could register against a company, school, college or university, said the spokesperson, adding that if an organisation was not already included on the framework, potential applicants could register their organisation’s profile on the system.

Skills Minister Matthew Hancock announced the FE Commissioner plans last month as part of the government’s Rigour and Responsiveness in Skills strategy.

The strategy said a commissioner would be sent into colleges graded inadequate by Ofsted; in financial trouble; or failing to hit learner success targets. They could call for institutions to be given administered college status, thereby losing powers such as staff changes and expenditure, and could recommend governors be kicked out. Ultimately, they could call for a college to be dissolved.

Lynne Sedgmore, 157 Group executive director, said a team of eight seemed “reasonable”, but she, along with the ATL, questioned the departments’ call for candidates to be registered against broker and practitioner skills frameworks.

“The detail of what the skills frameworks actually entail is slightly elusive,” she said.

“We wonder whether there is anything more specific about social impact and responsibility?”

A BIS spokesperson said: “The FE Commissioner’s appointment and that of the advisers is being managed through the National College for Teaching and Leadership’s e-procurement system.

“We alerted representative bodies and those who had expressed a direct interest to the process and included an article in the FE and skills newsletter, giving interested individuals more than a week to register on the operational framework.”

NUS gets some learner satisfaction

The lack of learner presence within a new FE body that will set professional standards across the sector has now been taken “seriously”, the National Union for Students’ president-elect has told FE Week.

Toni Pearce spoke out after a union-led discussion on learner engagement at the most recent steering group meeting for the FE Guild. She has now been invited to present a paper to the guild’s board.

It is heartening that the guild has been willing both to hear our arguments and to take them seriously,”

Last month FE Week reported how Ms Pearce called the new organisation’s plan not to include learners on its board as “a bad April fool”. Seats were set aside for the Association of Colleges, the Association of Employment and Learning Providers and the Association of Adult Education and Training Organisations (AAETO), which operates under the name HOLEX.

But Ms Pearce said it was “heartening” that dialogue had now begun between the union and the guild, which is due to launch in August.

“It is heartening that the guild has been willing both to hear our arguments and to take them seriously,” she said.

“We’re optimistic of further progress to ensure the learner voice is heard.”

David Hughes, chief executive of the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE) and chair of the guild steering group, said its commitment to ensuring learners had a strong voice was “clear”.

“We have agreed that we will develop a joint paper that will ensure the learner voice is heard at the highest levels in the new guild, and this will be presented to the new board when it meets,” he said.

“I look forward to continuing to work with the union.”

Ms Pearce, currently NUS vice-president, and Gemma Painter, NUS head of further education, delivered their paper, FE Guild Governance Arrangements: Involvement of Learners, to the steering group on May 7.

A guild spokesperson said Ms Pearce was also a “key figure” at a recent meeting at Windsor Castle where 27 delegates discussed how the guild would progress.

FE Week reported last month that the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills had confirmed funding, excluding VAT, of £18.8m for August to April next year, and the same figure again for 2014-15, to run the guild.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Editorial

It comes as welcome news that the FE Guild has revisited the issue of learner representation, and now could end up with a seat on its board for the voice of students.

Learner representation is critical to the credibility of the new body, and should also add value to its decisions.

After all, learners are the recipients of the FE service and so should have a central role in shaping proposals for improvement.

So I congratulate the NUS and representatives of the guild for being reasonable and putting their heads together for a rethink.

The result must be one in which the learner plays a role within the guild, with a voice that is listened to AND taken seriously.

Nick Linford, editor

College wins Morrisons’ contract

The contract to deliver the country’s biggest apprenticeship programme has been won by NCG (formerly Newcastle College Group).

The Academy Apprenticeship and qualifications programme of supermarket giant Morrisons will change hands from current provider Elmfield to NCG from August.

The contract will be managed by the college’s Intraining division, which works with more than 20,000 businesses and trains 54,000 learners every year, including up to 20,000 apprentices.

NCG is committed to developing high quality training and we intend to add to the Morrisons Academy to train the managers of the future so they can go from the shop floor to the ‘top floor’.

It will deliver fully accredited and recognised apprenticeships in subjects such as business and administration; retail; warehousing and storage; and customer service.

Dame Jackie Fisher, NCG chief executive, said: “Developing people through learning is at the heart of everything we do. We are delighted to have the opportunity to work with Morrisons on such an innovative learning programme.

“We will use our expertise of working each year with 20,000 young people aged 18 or less to ensure young employees are quickly engaged and inspired to take part in learning.

“NCG is committed to developing high quality training and we intend to add to the Morrisons Academy to train the managers of the future so they can go from the shop floor to the ‘top floor’.

“As a not-for-profit organisation we understand the importance of making every penny count and have created a model that ensures funding will be reinvested into learners.”

Morrisons is expected to train around 10,000 apprentices each year through its academy, on courses that will take between one and two years to complete, with more than half focused on 16 to 24-year-olds.

Mickey Greenhalgh, Morrisons’ head of craft and functional skills, said: “We completed a tender of our Academy Apprenticeship programme, to ensure it continues to best support the development of our colleagues.

“I’m delighted that we’ll be working with NCG over the coming years to equip our people with the skills they need to deliver great service to our customers.

“The programme’s ambition is to develop our internal talent and will equip many of our shopfloor colleagues for a move into management and beyond.”

NCG is one of the largest education and training providers working with 100,000 learners every year at 45 locations nationwide. It was graded as good by Ofsted last summer and had an overall apprenticeship success rate for 2011/12 of 77.5 per cent with 5,910 leavers.

Intraining managing director Phil Bonell said: “We deliver tailored on-the-job learning that evolves with employer and market needs. We have developed industry leading capabilities to deliver the highest quality learning, using the latest technology.

“We have systems in place to develop content in house and our dedicated e-Learning team has a proven track record of delivering high quality innovative outputs to ensure learners successfully achieve their goals.”

David Way, executive director of the National Apprenticeship Service, said: “I am very pleased that Morrisons is ready to continue its investment in apprenticeships and is giving opportunities to many young people to begin their careers in retail.

“This commitment from Morrisons shows the importance that leading employers are placing on apprenticeships to drive their businesses forward.”

Morrisons announced in February that its three-year contract with Elmfield, which had an overall success rate of 58.5 per cent last year from 22,290 apprenticeship leavers, would end this year.

Adult Learners’ Week 2013 Supplement

Download your free copy of the FE Week 16 page special Adult Learners’ Week 2013 supplement, sponsored by apt awards.

Click here to download (17mb)

Introduction

Adults return to education for a variety of reasons.

Some want to change career and some want to progress in the one they’ve got.

Some are looking for a way out of unemployment or a chance to put right what went wrong at school, while some just want to explore different sides of their personalities and broaden their horizons.

Adult Learners’ Week is a chance to honour and showcase the achievements of these learners.

This supplement, produced by FE Week, is a celebration of all of those achievements and opportunities, but, amid the celebrations, it is also a good time to reflect on what the future of adult education might look like.

David Hughes, chief executive of the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE) applauds the way adult education “helps people transform their lives”, but admits he feels some “trepidation” looking ahead to the cuts expected in the looming spending review (page 3).

But it’s not just learners whose achievements should be recognised, as Christine Bullock, chief executive of awarding body apt awards, points out (page 3), tutors are often “performing miracles” to help their students.

The issue of investment in adult education is picked up by Skills Minister Matthew Hancock (page 4), who highlights research showing that “every pound invested in apprenticeship provision returns at least £18 of value to the apprentice, their employers and the wider economy,” and pledges the government will “go further” to improve the UK’s skills competitiveness.

Adult Learners’ Week is the catalyst to bring policy, action and real outcomes together”

Meanwhile, Shadow Skills Minister Gordon Marsden warns many older learners will be deterred by the 24+ adult learning loans, and points to the less obvious benefits of adult education such as better health, social cohesion and lower offending rates (page 4).

He calls on policy-makers to consider the impact of learning on government departments other than the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills — a thought echoed by Ruth Spellman, chief executive of the Workers’ Educational Association (page 5), who says “policy makers need to take a holistic view of how adult education impacts the economy”.

For NIACE president Nick Stuart (page 5), the answers to some of these conundrums might be found in Adult Learners’ Week itself, and he is chairing a review into what the festival does well, and what it needs to improve to allow tomorrow’s adult learners the same opportunities, second chances and experiences that all of this year’s winners have encountered on their journey.

Adult Learners’ Week is, he says, “the catalyst to bring policy, action and real outcomes together,” a chance to inform and sway policy-makers at the same time as celebrating achievements.

A total of 87 national and regional awards have been given out to individuals and training schemes this year from 1,412 nominations — and we’ve got some of the inspiring stories of how winners past and present have used education to completely change their lives (see pages 6 and 7).

The week is also an opportunity to encourage more adults to get involved, with over 1,400 events and taster sessions from Indian head massage to plumbing, taking place at colleges, libraries and other venues up and down the country (see pages 10 and 11 for just a handful of these).

The results of the NIACE Adult Participation Survey, revealing who is currently involved in learning and who is not, as well as comment from the survey report’s author Fiona Aldridge can be found on pages 12 and 13.

Coverage of the City Lit Adult Award ceremony and a preview of a special celebration event the week, honouring tutors’ contribution to adult education are on pages 14 and 15.

So, make sure you stay up to date with everything that’s going on this week by following the hashtag #ALW13 or @FEWeek on Twitter.

[download#109]

Business advice from BBC Apprentice star

A former winner of BBC hit The Apprentice gave students his own hints and tips on how to get on in the workplace.

Lee McQueen, who got the nod from Lord Sugar in 2008, was at Loughborough College’s Employability Week.

He spent a day motivating students to stand out from the crowd in the world of work and passed on his career success do’s as well as the definite don’ts.

“To set out your goals and achieve them is incredibly rewarding. Today my passion is about helping others to realise their potential and provide them with a platform to go on and achieve,” said Mr McQueen.

Tina Smith, lecturer and foundation degree course manager at Loughborough College, said: “Every single student at Mr McQueen’s lectures and workshops went away inspired and buzzing with ideas on how to go about building their career or business.”

Featured image caption: From left: Loughborough College tourism management BA students Jack Clements, 21, and Wjeddha Walton, 20, with 2008 Apprentice winner Lee McQueen