Get past the rhetoric and down to business

Learning by doing should be valued equally with academic learning, says David Harbourne. But vocational education first must meet the highest possible standards

Education must provide a wide range of knowledge, skills and attributes that are best represented by a spread of qualifications of equal status and value. There are, after all, many paths to success.

Vocational qualifications (VQs) – a crucial offering in our education system – therefore must meet the highest possible standards. If not, we’ll never see any parity of esteem between vocational qualifications and more traditional, academic routes.

The Department for Education’s recent proposals to reform VQs for 16 to 19-year-olds highlights a process for deciding which qualifications should count in future performance tables, without any mention (quite rightly) of numbers or targets.

Unfortunately, the accompanying press release wasn’t quite so encouraging,  opting for the addition of some seemingly random statistics. This provided the media with an easy headline about the scrapping of ‘Mickey Mouse courses’, a line that they fell for, hook, line and sinker.

The press release talked about potentially culling thousands of level three qualifications from post-16 performance tables, giving the impression that the majority of current vocational courses are poor quality. This simply isn’t the case.

For one thing, the best current qualifications are taken by tens of thousands of young people every year with great success – albeit often without the recognition they so richly deserve.

These qualifications are more than likely to continue under the new rules subject, in some cases, to minor tweaks.

The opportunity to study technical subjects should be offered to all students, not just a few”

But other qualifications, taken by very few people, remain extremely valuable. For example, we train few farriers each year – only three colleges in England currently offer farriery – but there is no question of dropping such specialist courses or abandoning these specialist qualifications.

To add some meat to the press release, there was an additional announcement about the development of new engineering and construction qualifications to replace principal learning qualifications.

The development of high-quality qualifications is, of course, something that we fully endorse. But it was rather secondhand news, the announcement having been made by the Chancellor during a visit to Rolls-Royce a few weeks ago.

But as many a politician will tell you, if you’ve got good news it’s best to announce it as many times as you can.

The real story is the plan for clear and consistent standards for judging current and future qualifications.

We welcome this wholeheartedly it sends out a clear message that the government is willing to listen to views on how vocational learning can play an important role in education and how we can ensure young people leave school with the specific skills that employers need.

We are in the midst of a skills shortage in the UK with many employers saying that they struggle to fill positions.

As our Six Steps for Change policy document sets out (www.edge.co.uk/six-steps-for-change), we feel strongly that the opportunity to study technical subjects should be offered to all students, not just a few.

Learning by doing should be valued equally with academic learning, and all technical, practical and vocational education should be high quality and, of course, valued by employers.

Encouragingly, the Department for Education’s plans give us confidence that we can work together to establish a new qualification system that will last the test of time. All young people, whatever their abilities and interests, should leave the system with the ambition and necessary skills to succeed – as well as with the skills that the economy needs.

David Harbourne, director of policy and research at the Edge Foundation

An ‘end-to-end’ professional development

The Credit Services Association is determined that debt collection become an industry with real career prospects, writes Stephen Morley

Debt is set to top the agenda for some time to come. Therefore, it is paramount that talented youngsters are attracted into the credit services industry and that those involved in collecting debt are recognised as true professionals.

The Credit Services Association (CSA) is the only UK-wide association for businesses specialising in debt collection, tracing and related debt buying, and selling services. Members range from high street banks to credit reference agencies, debt buyers and funders, and own and/or collect around £60bn of consumer credit receivables.

Though it may have a large slice of the debt collection cake, the association is committed to enhancing the professional identity of the credit industry. So in partnership with the National Open College Network (NOCN), it plans to give the credit industry an ‘end-to-end’ professional development pathway that will reflect the financial sector’s diversity.

With that goal in mind, NOCN has already proved its worth. Its hugely successful level three diploma for the debt collection industry has led the CSA to develop level four and five qualifications this year.

But it all starts with the development of a level two apprenticeship, which will give CSA members the chance to recruit local talent and offer youngsters real job opportunities.

This first stage apprenticeship, aimed at encouraging youngsters to select the debt industry as a career choice, will soon become a reality as Ofqual has now approved our recently developed practical qualification for debt collection.

The essential ingredient to any successful learning and development strategy is the stakeholder”

Every qualification has a defined and definite purpose. The level two apprenticeship, for example, will be aimed at encouraging youngsters into the industry while providing our members with an affordable financial recruitment and training solution.

The level three diploma, our benchmark professional standard, will become more widely available as we look to finalise a new funding partnership in the coming months.

The level four qualification, meanwhile, will be aimed at developing the talent of the future, whereas  level five will focus on compliance and provide professional recognition for compliance officers and middle and senior managers.

We recognise that we still have some way to go. But our current level three diploma, coupled with our level two modern apprenticeship, and level four and five qualifications, means that the journey has begun. But it needs to be driven by the membership.

Hopefully as employees become more qualified, then individual organisations will be able to measure a tangible return on investment in having a more proficient, valued and potentially valuable workforce.

And let’s not forget that the essential ingredient to any successful learning and development strategy is the stakeholder. We therefore should not forget the importance of the student.

But equally important is our external partnerships with NOCN, our awarding organisation partner, and the Financial Skills Partnership, the sector skills council for the financial sector.

Stephen Morley, head of learning and development at the Credit Services Association

Out of the starting blocks

Bob Harrison reflects on the first meeting of the Further Education Technology Action Group 

Matthew Hancock’s inaugural gathering of some key people in the worlds of FE and technology was all about action.

More than 20 strong, the membership is an interesting mix of public and private sector providers as well as the usual representatives from colleges, agencies, examination bodies and membership organisations.

The FE minister has a personal interest, stemming partly from his family business interests, which are technology based, his own personal use of social media (he has more than 7,000 followers on Twitter) and his recent visit to India where he was investigating distance and open learning and the growth of MOOCs.

He has set the group the task of advising the government on the potential for emerging technologies to inspire innovations in learning.

He clearly is interested in how these can be harnessed to drive up the quality, efficiency, and accessibility of FE.

And he was in listening mode for the first meeting, willing to learn about best practice, and how the government could encourage and promote it.

One of the group’s key driving forces is co-chair Manoj Badale, the co-founder and managing partner of Blenheim Chalcot, an early stage investment group that manages a portfolio of fast growth ventures in technology, financial services or media.

He took over chairing the inaugural meeting when the minister had to leave to address a gathering of sixth-form college principals and made it clear that he wanted the group to produce outcomes and not just rehearse previous arguments.

Will the current analogue mindset and culture stifle the very impetus that Matthew Hancock is keen to create?”

The wide-ranging discussion covered all the new technologies relevant to teaching and learning, with an emerging consensus around some key barriers such as funding methodology, leadership and governance, workforce skills and Inspection.

Dick Palmer, chief executive of Norwich City College group and chair of the TEN group of colleges, was pleased with the first meeting. “There is a substantial appetite for the use of technology for learning in FE. Colleges are aware of the potential but there is confusion, anxiety and uncertainty around issues such as funding, assessment and qualifications,” he said.

Paul Rolfe, 157 group and Highbury College, was anxious to ensure the learner voice was heard. “There is a lot of expertise and skills within colleges in the student body and it is important that we tap into that,” he said.

The first challenge will be to see if there is the ministerial will to provide the “nudges” to the system that will encourage teachers to innovate and take risks using technology to improve learning. Or will the current analogue mindset and culture stifle the very impetus that Matthew Hancock is keen to create?

Time will tell.

Bob Harrison, education adviser for Toshiba Information Systems (UK) Ltd, consultant with National College for Leadership of Schools and Children’s Services
and chair of the Teaching Schools
Technology Advisory Board

Mike Hopkins, principal, Middlesbrough College

The smiling principal of Middlesbrough College seems like an unlikely sea captain. Just look at him in this week’s Campus Round-up where he’s showing off the soles of his feet painted blue and green.

But, last year, Mike Hopkins found himself in his element in a Force 8 gale when out sailing at night with two friends.

“We were sailing up from London to Hartlepool and suddenly got a gale warning,” he says.

“We were 30 miles out and I said ‘we’re staying out here now, guys — we’re going to ride this out’. My friends weren’t happy and asked why and I said ‘because we’re safer out here than we are near a coast, particularly a coast we don’t know and at night’.

“I knew it was right. But it was a big moment because at the back of my mind I was thinking that my life was one thing, but I also had other people’s lives in my hands.

“We had two or three minutes argument and then I said ‘stop now, that’s it. That’s what we’re doing.’

“I’ve always wondered about that moment because I didn’t have pips on my shoulder. I was just a guy with two mates. But looking back at it, I enjoyed it as well. I checked my books when I got back and I was right to stay out there, but it wasn’t an easy decision.”

“The mix of intellect and practical skills that sailing demands is something Hopkins seeks professionally, too.

“You’ve got to get it right if you’re out on the water,” he says.

“I like responsibility, I like making decisions and I like being accountable for them.  At sea you are.”

The 55-year-old admits that this kind of pressure is also what appeals to him about the choppy waters of FE. It’s why he left his role as deputy chief executive of the Welsh funding agency in 2012 to return to leadership.

The sense of making a real difference to people’s lives was something I picked up on, even as a young man”

“Although I was a senior civil servant, I wasn’t the head of the show. I loved being principal and I like taking responsibility. Even when it goes badly I like being the one who steps up and takes things on . . . and when it goes well, I love sharing it,” explains Hopkins.

“I never stopped missing the cut-and-thrust of FE life.”

He took up sailing to help him to recover after his mother, Kathleen, died five years ago.

“I was privileged to look after my mum for six months before she died, and oddly it was the best six months’ relationship I’d had with her. It was a profound and moving life experience. When she did die I was impacted by it in a way that I just would not have predicted,” he says.

Hopkins may not be an Army officer, but he acknowledges that the armed forces has, in many ways, helped to shape him. His father, David, served in the Royal Navy during the war, and was in the army throughout Hopkins’ childhood.

An only child, he was born in Newton Abbot, Devon, but the family moved frequently.

“I didn’t have time to foster friendships, so I learned to go up to different groups of people and ask to be involved,” he says.

“While it might seem a little sad for a child, it’s equipped me really well for adult life because I’m comfortable with different people in different settings. It’s also given me a restlessness. Part of me wishes I could feel settled, but that restlessness is also a drive to constantly want to improve, to help others, to change things.”

But life changed dramatically when his father was severely injured in a car accident. He lost one leg; the other was badly injured.

“He should have died, really,”  says Hopkins. “It changed my life, though, and it certainly changed his — one day I had a fit and healthy dad who loved sport, the next day he was, in an old-fashioned way of putting it, crippled. That was a big thing for all of us — me, my mum, and my dad.

“It changed him. He became a bit fierce at times, frustrated, and physically it was never easy for him.”

His father left the Army and became the manager of a Goodyear tyre factory in Bolton — and the young Hopkins became a Bolton Wanderers fan.

He says his parents were “quietly proud” when he got into Cardiff University. “I came from a very ordinary background and when my mum and dad saw me wearing a suit I’m sure that they must have thought occasionally ‘he’s getting above himself’,” says Hopkins.

“While my dad never got the opportunity, he had a strong sense for education… he was quietly political, not active, but I remember as a little boy he’d ask me questions every Sunday like who’s the Foreign Secretary and who’s the Prime Minister?”

It was at Cardiff that Hopkins met future wife Amanda, and discovered his other life-long love, FE.

“I met mature students from the mines and the steelworks who’d come through the FE route. They were into politics and had trade union backgrounds. That stayed with me all my life,” explains Hopkins.

His experiences at university inspired him to take up his first job as a general and communications studies teacher, helping a wide range of students to add to their vocational skills. He says he enjoyed allowing them to come into contact with politics, both the content and the process.

“FE colleges are transformational places of liberation, potentially,” says Hopkins.

“The sense of making a real difference to people’s lives was something I picked up on, even as a young man, and it’s something I believe in as a principal.”

This mission continued throughout his varied career in FE, as a teacher, as a principal, as a civil servant and into his current role.

“I’ve moved around and bobbed and weaved but I’m having the best time of my career now,” he says.

“The setting really drives me and there’s a real sense of moral purpose. The college has it too. Middlesbrough does have some areas of affluence, but there is too much poverty and the college has a major role to play in engaging with that and helping people move from that to living good, prosperous lives. That’s a real drive for me. I love it.”

It’s a personal thing

What’s your favourite book? 

Satish Kumar’s No Destination

What did you want to be when you were younger?

A doctor, but I failed my 11-plus. My dad had a serious car accident when I was young and I spent a lot of time seeing him in hospital . . . I guess I wanted to help him by being a doctor

What do you do to switch off from work?

Cycling, a bit of gardening, reading, sailing

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

Buddha, Harold Wilson — he’s something of a childhood hero — and Nelson Mandela

What would your super power be? 

To travel across time

It’s the quality that counts

Colleges and schools can work together to provide the impartial advice and guidance that young people need to decide their futures, says Dawn Ward

A damning Education Select Committee report on the quality of careers guidance in schools recently prompted FE Week editor Nick Linford to issue a rallying call for colleges to up their game in promoting FE.

David Walrond, the principal of Truro and Penwith College, who addressed the committee, responded, explaining why he thought the emphasis should remain on improving the advice given by schools.

However at Burton and South Derbyshire College we take a different view – colleges and schools can work together to provide quality careers advice and guidance.

Colleges can work collaboratively with local schools to ensure that young people have access to the impartial advice and guidance that they need to decide their next steps.

It’s all about working in partnership to do the right thing for our young people.

Burton and South Derbyshire College has successfully created a co-operative relationship with local schools, ensuring that they see the college as a significant part of the education system.

We have worked together on a countywide Information, Advice and Guidance (IAG) group, which includes organising careers events at external venues that allow school pupils to access advice and guidance from the college, sixth forms and a range of other organisations.

In addition to the countywide group, a member of the college’s senior leadership team chairs a South Derbyshire focused IAG group with secondary and private sector colleagues.

Burton and South Derbyshire College was also the first college in the UK to provide learners with Career Coach, a website that provides local employment information, advice and guidance, forming a link between college curriculum and occupational opportunities.

The tool has been developed in partnership with American-based Economic Modelling Specialists Inc to support local, regional and national economic development, ensuring that college learners are equipped with the vital skills that they need for today’s demanding workplace.

Career Coach ensures that learners are equipped with the vital skills that they need for today’s workplace”

Learners can use the system, which has received excellent feedback from IAG partners, throughout their college journey, from enquiry to exit interview

Career Coach allows young people to learn about the number of jobs available and salary ranges in their chosen industry, along with how their course relates to sectors and roles.

It also includes a CV builder, while a sector-based search function gives learners an insight into what employers are looking for.

The college is now rolling the system out to South Derbyshire schools to ensure that pupils aged under 16 can make informed decisions about their futures.

About half the schools have now taken up this offer.

I truly believe that schools and colleges can work together to create an open environment in which young people can access the full range of information available before they embark on their careers, choosing the route that is right for them.

At Burton and South Derbyshire College, we are achieving our vision of effective partnership in an IAG and are encouraging colleges to share best practice in providing innovative and effective careers advice alongside schools.

Dawn Ward OBE, chief executive and principal of Burton and South Derbyshire College

EXCLUSIVE: Leading college falls from outstanding to inadequate

One of England’s biggest colleges has fallen from outstanding to the lowest Ofsted grade of inadequate.

City of Liverpool College, which achieved the highest grade almost across the board at previous inspection in early 2009, has been hit with a grade four result.

It was revisited in early February and has been graded inadequate in every one of the headline Ofsted departments.

The report said the college, formerly Liverpool Community College, had too many students turning up late for lessons — if at all — and leave without achieving their qualifications.

“Too many lessons are not good enough as they do not engage students in relevant and interesting activities and there are insufficient checks on their learning,” said the report.

“The new curriculum leadership is not yet effective in bringing about sustained improvements across the college.”

It said there were improvements in leadership, but governors had “not monitored the significant deterioration in student performance.”

However, principal Elaine Bowker and her new senior team “share a clear view of the college’s current weak position and have communicated the urgent need for improvement,” added the report.

Mrs Bowker, who took up post mid-2011, said she accepted the result.

“We accept the report and are working hard to ensure that the areas highlighted as inadequate are improved,” she said.

“We have met with all of our internal teams, from governors to teaching staff, and we are certain that there is a strong commitment to tackle any weaknesses.”

The 17,000-learner college had a turnover of £47.5m for the year ending July 31, 2011, according to Skills Funding Agency figures.

The agency accounts listed the college as England’s 24th largest general further education or tertiary college out of 225, by total income.

The grading blow means it has becomes the biggest grade four college based on turnover.

It comes around seven months after it teamed up with Derbyshire-based provider 3AAA to save more than 500 jobs after First4Skills went into administration.

The joint venture agreement meant the college became responsible for the training of around 10,000 apprentices – becoming one of the country’s biggest providers of apprentice training.

At the same time, the college opened a new £35m Learning Exchange in the city centre to act as a hub for its five main centres.

And last month it announced talks to set up a new English language school in Libya — and possibly a fully-fledged further education college there within five years.

It was not clear whether the grade four inspection blow would hit college plans, but the report made no mention of expansion projects or overseas plans.

“All of our team is completely committed to improving every aspect of college life for our students and this includes improving our Ofsted rating,” said Mrs Bowker.

She added: “While the overall rating is disappointing to us, we would like to stress that there are numerous positive elements within it.

“The report highlights that the college is providing outstanding opportunities for students in other work-based learning which is a key part of the provision we provide.

“It also highlights how safe our college environment is for our students, and this is hugely important to us.”

Other than Liverpool Community College, the most recent grade one to grade four fall happened at Macclesfield College in February 2012.

Click here to download the Ofsted report.

AELP fears for skills funding

UPDATE: The government today left the door open for the introduction of a single funding pot, containing the adult skills budget, for local enterprise partnerships.

Its response to Lord Heseltine’s No Stone Unturned report, published here, pointed to Wednesday’s Budget on the devolution of skills funding (see page 60, point 81).

 

Government money for skills could be spent on “building bridges or community centres” if proposals for local enterprise partnerships are approved, the Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) has warned.

Lord Heseltine’s recommendation for partnerships to bid from a central pot of government cash, including the adult skills budget, came under fire ahead of an expected announcement on his plans in this week’s Budget.

The association has submitted its views to the all-party parliamentary group on local growth, local enterprise partnerships and enterprise zones.

“We believe partnerships have a role to play in skills, but this should be advisory only and not as part of the mechanism through which funding is routed,” the association told the group.

It added: “The proposal to move adult skills budgets under partnership control is . . . mistargeted.

Without ring-fencing there would be no guarantee that skills money would be spent on skills.”

“As the adult skills budget diminishes, the arrangements for deploying it need to be made simpler rather than more complicated so that the overhead cost as a proportion of the budget is reduced.

“If partnerships were given these budgets without ring-fencing there would be no guarantee that skills money would be spent on skills.

“It would be a backward step to move to a regime where 16 to 18-year-olds did not have apprenticeships as an option as a LEP had decided to invest the funding, for example, into building bridges or community centres.”

Lord Heseltine’s proposals, set out in his 228-page No Stone Unturned report launched last October, made the case for a major rebalancing of responsibilities for economic development between central and local government, and between government and the private sector.

The former Deputy Prime Minister told MPs on the Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) Select Committee last month that the government had already “accepted the principle” of his single pot.

His report was released just over a month after the Association of Colleges warned that partnerships were failing to take advantage of the “fantastic” education resources offered by colleges.

Its report said there was “patchy” engagement between the two, with a lack of college representation on partnership boards and a lack of understanding of the role that FE played in economic growth.

A spokesperson said its governors’ council was writing to chairs following talks with BIS officials to encourage governing bodies to drive closer engagement with partnerships.

But David Frost, chairman of the Local Enterprise Partnership National Network, said: “Unquestionably, the relationship with skills is right at the top of partnerships’ agenda. They understand the need to engage with FE and higher education — they are central to the work partnerships are doing.”

Richard’s tax proposals ‘fudged’

The government’s response to the Richard Review has been branded a “fudge” that fails to address the need for “reform of funding incentives”.

Shadow FE Minister Gordon Marsden spoke out as the government published its response to the review, The Future of Apprenticeships in England: Next Steps from the Richard Review.

The government’s response, which includes a 24-question consultation, comes four months after Doug Richard’s independent review of apprenticeships.

Business Secretary Vince Cable described the response and its plans to “empower employers”, as “radically changing” the way apprenticeships were delivered.

But Mr Marsden questioned ministerial commitment to employer ownership, saying: “Ministers appear to have comprehensively ducked Richard’s recommendations over ways of incentivising employers to take on apprentices via reforming funding schemes.”

Former Dragons’ Den investor Mr Richard, has insisted that tax incentives for employers through National Insurance or a tax credit system were central to his views on apprenticeship reform.

In November he told FE Week: “I feel strongly about this point and I think it’s the heart of the review.”

The Association of Employment and Learning Providers, which has rejected his tax breaks argument, said it was pleased the government had held back from “any firm commitment” to the idea. The group said it had “warned the government” that any adoption of Mr Richard’s tax credits proposal was “fraught with danger”.

But when pressed on the matter during a webinar hosted by FE Week, FE minister Matthew Hancock appeared not to have ruled out the idea.

“We are looking at all the options,” he said.

And the UK Commission for Employment and Skills, which championed tax incentives in its new report Employer Ownership of Skills Building the Momentum, further hinted the government was working towards the measure.

Michael Davis, chief executive of the commission, which has run employer ownership pilots for the government, said he didn’t believe ministers had “gone cold” on the proposal but that the tax incentives scheme required “a lot more work”.

“I see this as a work in progress,” he told FE Week.

“The minister has been very supportive . . . and the government has said as much on it at this point as it can.

“You have to take this forward in manageable pieces, and tax and direct payments take a lot of thinking. The commission’s view is that tax is a long-term proposition to hard wire vocational training into the labour market.

Maternity pay just happens in the labour market — and it works — but it took a lot of hard work first.”

He said the commission’s preferred way to fund apprenticeships would be to use National Insurance, a model that worked for all businesses, organisations and charities.

Mr Richard tweeted shortly after the response was published (see below) and told FE Week: “I continue to hope that the government will ensure that the reform takes into account the need for a change in the approach to funding. I am pleased to see that it continues to explore new approaches.”

The consultation ends on May 22.

 

 

 

 

 

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Editorial: Heart of the matter

In November last year, Doug Richard said he felt strongly about apprenticeship funding reform, and his preferred option was through the national insurance system or as a tax credit.

In fact he said it was “at the heart” of his “all-or-nothing” review.

Then, in December, the FE Minister Matthew Hancock announced he would be excluding apprenticeships from the Skills Funding Agency reform of adult funding for 2013/14, so he could consider Mr Richard’s proposals.

Fast-forward to March, and the government response contains neither a critique of funding apprenticeships this way, nor even any related questions in the consultation.

So an obvious question is, putting it anatomically, what’s happened to the heart?

The minister made it clear in an FE Week webinar that funding apprenticeships in the future via the tax system remained an option.

Yet, to repeat the point, the government consultation makes no proposals and asks no questions relating to the chapter on employer purchasing power.

Of course, the decision to reform apprenticeship funding in this way probably now rests with the Treasury, but would it not want to know if the sector, and more importantly employers, thought it would be a better system?

But there may be a work-around, so let me make a recommendation.

Use the ‘any further comments’ final consultation question — number 24 — to make your voice heard.

Nick Linford, FE Week editor

Top college grade expected

The first college to get a top grade from Ofsted under its new common inspection framework is expected to be revealed soon.

The news came out in the House of Lords, although the college — understood to have been inspected in the past six weeks — has not been identified and its Ofsted report is still not public.

During a short debate on vocational reform just over a fortnight ago, Conservative peer Lord Lucas said: “It has been widely acknowledged that we have a problem as a nation with the quality of the teaching of vocational subjects in further education.

“The most recent example and proof of that has been Ofsted’s refusal to grant outstanding status to any FE college, although I believe there is one going through the process now.”

The last outstanding result was achieved by Hampshire’s Eastleigh College last July, under the old framework.

The new framework, introduced from September, followed Ofsted’s Good Education For All consultation that ended in May.

It includes a reduced inspection notice period from three weeks to two days and a potential re-inspection of providers ‘requiring improvement’ within 12 to 18 months. Providers who get the grade twice in a row can be judged inadequate on their third inspection if they haven’t improved.

The first good grading under the new framework went to City College Plymouth after an inspection in October.

It followed chief inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw’s annual report in which he called on the government to “shine a spotlight” on the FE sector with 13 colleges having been graded as inadequate in 2011/12, compared with four the previous year.

However, FE leaders have defended the sector.

Lynne Sedgmore, 157 Group executive director, said: “Lord Lucas quoted the Ofsted annual report, adding again to the perception that all FE is of poor quality.

“The inspection framework takes something of a narrow view of a college’s work, but I am confident that, even under the current arrangements, there is much genuinely exceptional practice.

“We will all be able to celebrate that fact when a college is awarded an outstanding grade.”

Joy Mercer, Association of Colleges policy director, said: “Ofsted has said it is looking to raise the bar with the new inspection framework.

“We have expressed concerns that the particular strengths of vocational teaching across a wide range of subjects, qualifications and student starting points, was a complexity with which Ofsted struggled.

“However, we hope we are seeing a growing understanding of how colleges are preparing students for work in a very challenging economic climate, and are pleased that colleges have been recognised for their outstanding work.”

She said that “a significant number” had been rated as good in the past year, under a different framework.

“Our joint aim is to further improve the quality of vocational education in colleges that are working with the most demanding students,” added Ms Mercer.

“We have a sound basis for further work as 64 per cent of colleges are already deemed good or outstanding by Ofsted from last year’s inspections.”