Carers’ helping hands get a manicure

Young beauticians in London got to share their caring side when they offered free treatments to a group of carers.

The level two and three beauty students from the College of North West London invited the carers, who look after ill, elderly or disabled relatives or friends, into the campus salon.

Maggie Barth, head of faculty for arts, community and leisure studies, said: “This kind of activity is extremely beneficial to the students.

“It gives them hands on experience as well as the opportunity to work on their social skills too — a big part of being in the service industry.”

The carers, who all use the support group Elders Voice, were treated to full body massages as well as hand and nail treatments.

Elaine Fletcher, health development worker at Elders Voice, said: “All of the carers are most grateful for the wonderful treatments and they didn’t want it to come to an end. Some commented it helped take their mind off their caring role and it was a great treat.”

Young athletes in the media spotlight

It was lights, camera, action in Hampshire when media students had the chance to put apprentice footballers on the spot as part of a joint training exercise.

Media students studying a BTec level three diplomas at Farnborough College of Technology filmed 17 Aldershot Football Club apprentices being interviewed on a range of issues including racism, homosexuality, infidelity, crowd violence, alcoholism and misuse of social media.

Leah Deacon, 17, played the role of interviewer, and footballers were able to watch the recording to see how they performed under questioning.

Trainee footballer Reece Beckles-Richards, 17, said: “This session certainly opened my eyes to how the media could play a part in my career.”

The footballers, who are doing sports performance as part of their two year scholarship with Aldershot, took part to support their athletes’ lifestyle module which aims to help them gain an understanding of life as a professional footballer.

Funding reform tops agenda

More than 150 representatives from colleges, training providers and government agencies came together for Lsect’s winter Data and Funding Conference.

The conference, held at London’s Morley College, had a packed agenda, ensuring delegates left the event armed with hot-off-the-press funding updates and expert advice on the efficient use of data to raise standards in education.

Attendees had the opportunity to network over lunch, and share experiences with staff in other colleges facing similar challenges within their own organisations.

Key speakers at the February 5 event included managing director of Lsect (and FE Week editor) Nick Linford, who was joined by lead auditor at RSM Tenon Karl Bentley and learning and skills consultant Mike Davis, formerly of Ofsted.

Nick kicked off proceedings by commenting on the pace of change for 16 to 19 funding as colleges find themselves faced with the implications of a new per student funding methodology.

Funding will no longer be linked to whether a learner achieves”

“With the raising of the participation age comes a whole new way of funding 16-18 year-old learners,” he said.

“Clearly the most significant reform is the transition from funding per qualification to funding per student, which includes a move away from standard learner number rates on the learning aim reference application.

“Also, funding will no longer be linked to whether a learner achieves the qualification, but simply whether they finish the course.”

Mr Linford also spoke about the government’s policy to introduce study programmes to include English, maths and work experience.

He reiterated the importance from 2013/14 of recording all eligible qualification and non-qualification activities in a student’s learning plan to showing how the institution incurred a recognisable cost in delivering activity.

“When putting together your programme, you need to take into account your learners’ needs as well as which activities fit into the programme and the funding requirements for that,” said Mr Linford.

“The Education Funding Agency is expecting full-time learners to do on average 600 hours per year over the course of two years, although to be counted and funded as a full time learner their study programme must have at least 540 hours.

“My advice is to avoid curriculum planning right on the threshold of 540 hours. It’s much better to plan around 600 hours so you have around 60 hours as a buffer rather than cutting right to the bone for efficiency savings.”

Funding auditor Mr Bentley followed onto the platform with a look at audits past, present and future.

“Although colleges and other providers are now focusing on planning the academic year 2013/14, there are big changes afoot in 2012/13 from an audit point of view,” he said.

“For example, the new single audit approach for this year will audit all elements of adult skills budget, so no separate visits for classroom and workplace provision. Everything will be under scrutiny at one time.

“It’s also predicted that the final individualised learning record return deadline will take place around a month earlier than usual, meaning audits might cut into summer holidays and busy periods of enrolment — I realise this can cause concern both for colleges and auditors.”

In terms of 2013/14, Mr Bentley said he could only speculate on what the future would hold for auditing purposes. However, it was likely that subcontracting will be continue to be a hot topic, along with verifying the minimum 540 hours for full time 16 to 18-year-olds, he said.

It’s imperative that colleges and training providers take note of the new rules”

Mr Davis, fresh from departing Ofsted this month, offered colleges some independent advice on how they should prepare for the new short notice inspections from the point of view of performance data.

He said: “You need to have what the inspectors are looking for at your fingertips — it’s important to plan thoroughly and to have a regularly maintained data pack available including all the key information.”

Mr Davis also warned colleges they needed to be able to prove more than just success rates.

“There are several measures required to be able to judge learners’ outcomes fully – Ofsted want to see the speed at which learners are moving forward into meaningful employment,” he said.

“Data is therefore expected for relevant learners’ progression and destination.”

Mr Linford concluded the conference by giving an insight into the Skills Funding Agency’s new funding methodology for 2013/14.

Delegates were guided through the new qualification and curriculum framework funding rate banding matrix for 2013/14.

Mr Linford also took a closer look at the introduction of 24-plus advanced learning loans, in terms of provider funding from the Student Loans Company, learner eligibility (assessed by the loans company) and supporting students in their application as well as the bursary fund.

The presentation ended with a look at the new Skills Funding Agency funding rules for 2013/14 on subcontracting.

“It’s imperative that colleges and training providers take note of the new rules and ensure they publish correct data on the actual level of funding paid and retained for each subcontractor in 2013/14,” said Mr Linford.

To round off the day, all delegates were invited to the pub for a post-conference drink courtesy of Lsect to wind down with some informal chat.

Hats off to green thinking college students

Students in the South West have been putting their thinking caps on in record numbers to raise awareness of the environment and sustainability.

More than 1,500 students and staff from across Wiltshire College’s 10 campuses donned specially made paper hats in an attempt to break the Guinness World Record for the most people wearing recyclable hats simultaneously across multiple locations.

Students produced a range of creative designs including berets, top hats, crowns, bonnets and a pharaoh’s headdress.

Principal Di Dale wore a lily pad hat made for her by level three art and design students Cheralynne Rendell and Emma Downs, both from Chippenham.

She said: “I was delighted with my hat and feel the students have all been absolutely brilliant during the whole record attempt.”

She added: “Today was without any doubt a true college-wide team effort of which we can be proud.”

It will be up to six weeks before the college finds out if it has broken the world record, which currently stands at 972.

A capital in crisis?

Tumbling inspection grades over the last two years have begged the question ‘is London learning?’ Chris Henwood looks at what’s happening to the capital’s big colleges.

Are London colleges failing city learners? It’s a simple, but critical question based on a “worrying” trend in Ofsted judgements over the last two years.

Of the nine inspections that have taken place at the capital’s 14 biggest colleges, six have resulted in downgradings — and a couple of these were down two whole grades.

As far as these colleges inspected since 2011 go, the city has been left with an inadequate establishment, five that require improvement (or were rated as grade 3 and therefore satisfactory before September), and just three good ones.

Or, more importantly, nearly 50,000 learners are at colleges that Ofsted said were heading in the wrong direction.

The picture was so different before 2011 when, of the big colleges re-inspected since 2011, the capital boasted an outstanding college along with eight good ones – not a single grade 3, let alone any inadequate ones .

The situation, predictably, is a cause for concern.

Sean Harford, Ofsted director of the college watchdog’s newly-formed London regional office, said: “We are concerned about the performance of colleges in London. Specific issues come down to the college level, but it can’t be right that the capital has more grade 3 and 4 colleges as a proportion compared with the rest of the country. That’s what we’re concerned about at the moment.”

Just three months ago the government was urged to “shine a spotlight” on England’s FE sector with a damning annual report from Ofsted boss Sir Michael Wilshaw.

He pointed to a boom in the number of colleges branded inadequate last year — up to 13 compared to four the previous year.

But, in fairness, there do appear to be positives in the capital.

Barnet and Southgate College, for example, is rated by Ofsted as good, and in Newham College, Uxbridge College and also City and Islington College London has three outstanding establishments.

But not one of these has been inspected in the last two years.

And then again Kingston College, last inspected in October 2010, was a grade 3.

That’s not to say grades will slide further at next inspection, but there have been college grumbles over Ofsted’s new Common Inspection Framework (CIF) and the number of downgradings since it was introduced in September.

Crucially though, five of the aforementioned six downgradings took place before the new CIF.

Toni Pearce, NUS deputy president, said: “These figures start to show a concerning crash in performance from London colleges, and if that trend is mirrored nationally then ministers need to urgently investigate the reasons why.

“Ofsted has been changing their inspection framework and we know that colleges were giving their attention to areas that are no longer a priority for inspectors.

We are concerned about the performance of colleges in London”

“Regardless of whether this is a national or London only issue it is still very worrying and it’s important that Ofsted and ministers urgently investigate its cause.”

Stephen Twigg, Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary told FE Week: “There are real challenges in the quality of learning in some colleges, as highlighted by these figures.

“Principals need to address this challenge with focussed support from government. We need the same focus and rigour for colleges that Labour applied in government to improve London schools.

“Labour would work with businesses to accredit vocational courses, and raise the number of high quality apprenticeships.

“And we would give young people a clear path to progress, to a gold standard Technical Baccalaureate at age 18.”

FE Minister Matthew Hancock said: “The majority of further education colleges have a high standard of provision, with 66 per cent of colleges across the country rated as good or better.

“But we know more needs to be done, which is why we have set up the Independent Commission on Adult Vocational Teaching and Learning, are introducing the FE Guild and we are setting minimum standards that measure performance consistently across all 16-18 institutions.

“Where there are cases of a decline in performance but no swift action to improve, the Government will intervene.”

So action is needed, but is London a special case with specific problems to address?

The Association of Colleges’ (AoC) London region director, Caroline Neville, talks of having to educate “some of the most disadvantaged students in the country, as well as some of the most demographically diverse,” while Munira Mirza, London’s deputy Mayor for education and culture, mentions the city’s “difficult circumstances”.

“There is work to be done to ensure that all London colleges are the best, particularly as they deliver to some of the most disadvantaged students in the country, as well as some of the most demographically diverse,” said Ms Neville.

She added: “Ofsted’s How Colleges Improve report last year showed that funding challenges can all make improvement more difficult for a college, as can last minute changes to fee support for students and taking on a merger to support another college in difficulty.

“To support improvement, we are taking a lead in London on a good practice project in partnership with Ofsted. This will document what great teaching and learning look like in urban areas, including some of the outstanding practice that we have in colleges in the capital. This will be shared with all.”

Ms Mirza said: “A recent mayoral inquiry showed how critical high-quality education is, and the need to raise standards that equip young Londoners with the skills they need to compete on a global stage.

“Many London colleges are rated good or outstanding and they work in particularly difficult circumstances, but there is no room for complacency.

“It is good that Ofsted and others continue to challenge colleges to do better for students in London.”

She added: “We are pleased that the AoC and colleges are also working with Ofsted to make improvements across the board and will offer support through our own education and apprenticeships work as appropriate.”

So it seems the final piece of the jigsaw is to ask ‘what is being done’ about the aforementioned colleges — who qualified as the capital’s ‘biggest’ with individual total incomes for 2010/11, as declared to the Skills Funding Agency, of more than £30m.

As Ofsted’s Mr Harford pointed out: “We know there are issues, so what are we doing about it?

“We’ve got a programme of seminars and workshops aimed at getting colleges graded as satisfactory under our old framework, and requires improvement under the new one, to good.

“We’re also doing work with colleges on how to observe teaching and learning in lessons.”

He added: “Of course there are challenges for urban colleges, but a good college is a good college no matter where it is.

It is good that Ofsted and others continue to challenge colleges to do better for students in London”

“We have many, many examples of where colleges succeed in difficult circumstances so we want to spread that best practice. We’re trying to be part of the solution to improve things.”

And the Learning and Skills Improvement Service has also put forward its services. Abi Lammas, regional development manager for Greater London, said: “We offer a range of interventions to enable providers to improve. Although most of the colleges identified attained a previous grade of at least two and therefore were not eligible for the improvement and development service, they could have accessed our portfolio of other improvement services.

“However, colleges must approach improvement as something that is sustained in order to gain the desired result. Short, sharp bits and pieces of engagement in standalone — often individual — improvement do not make the necessary impact.

“Colleges that do not access holistic improvement approaches, or wait to do so until the last minute, are more likely to be downgraded at inspection.”

Click here to see the colleges’ comments. (PDF – 2mb)

Priestley College cricket star to play for England

A young cricketer from Cheshire will be stepping up to the crease to play for England this month in a series of matches in South Africa.

Rob Jones, 17 and from Stockton Heath, is studying BTec sports performance and excellence at Priestley College and is one of 18 boys chosen from the England Development U17s to compete against eight South African teams.

Rob said: “I always played just because I love the game, but I never thought I’d be where I am today, playing for England.”

This will be Rob’s second foreign tour having played in India last year.

“India was a fantastic experience and I would go back again tomorrow,” he said.

“We worked with 50 kids from the slums giving them a cricket day with a packed lunch and t-shirts.

“They absolutely loved it and it was one of the most rewarding days of my life.”

Rob hopes to repeat this experience and has enlisted more than a dozen classmates to help raise money to buy pencils and notebooks for South African children to help with their schooling.

Getting up to date with exams modernisation

The cost of exams is a major entry in the expenditure column of a college’s balance sheet, but, as Rob Elliott explains, moves to simplify the current FE exams process could lessen their financial impact.

Different awarding bodies in the FE world currently require candidate data to be sent in a multitude of different formats from good old-fashioned paper, to spread sheets or via online portals and independently-developed electronic data interchange (EDI) systems.

Add to the mix that a general FE college can deal with up to 50 of the 100-plus existing awarding bodies and it is little wonder we have an exams system that many find confusing and ultimately costly to operate.

But, after a number of attempts to rationalise the existing exams system, change is finally on the horizon.

A big sector push was crystallised by a non-partisan paper, written by Capita, that gained support from more than 100 colleges as well as other MIS suppliers.

It called for a new industry standard of electronic data transfer, open to all awarding bodies to adopt, and emphasised the desire to see full and transparent fee information in the transactions.

Concurrently, there was a meeting between the major awarding bodies who form the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ) — AQA, Edexcel, OCR, WJEC, CCEA and City & Guilds — where they realised that their existing EDI systems needed to be replaced with new electronic formats to cope with future exams and assessments.

They decided to work co-operatively to design a new system, available for all awarding organisations to adopt.

Led by JCQ, the A2C Data Exchange Project (Awarding Organisations-to-Centres), a full-scale restructuring initiative, is now underway.

Although the new system will be initially for these key awarding bodies, the hope is that others will follow suit — indeed many are already showing an interest.

Better quality data will reduce late entry fees”

Overall, the new system will lead to greater clarity during planning and accountability in the reconciliation process.

Certainly a reduction in interfaces will make the process more streamlined, requiring less effort to run a more efficient system.

Each awarding body will provide their own product catalogue, containing all the normal, late and very late fees. In effect, colleges will have a cash register of entries, allowing them to manage invoices from different examining bodies more efficiently.

An increased transparency in the cost of exams might lead to a more competitive market, and may well see colleges making different choices as to which exam board they use.

Having integrated student records and exams systems that share common data also improves the quality of exam entry data, helping colleges keep a tighter rein on expenditure.

For example, Edinburgh’s Telford College recently adopted a fully integrated student and exams system and dropped their error rate from 20 per cent of data entries being rejected by the Scottish Qualification Authority (SQA) to 0.1 per cent. Non-certification of students also dropped significantly from 15per cent to less than 0.1 per cent, giving a saving of around £60,000 in the first year.

Better quality data will reduce late entry fees — an avoidable expense — and ensure no student who has changed or withdrawn from the course is entered for an exam.

When you consider that the second largest expenditure for colleges after staffing costs are exams fees — which can be more than £1m — this could add up to substantial savings.

Michael Turner, director of JCQ, sums it up when he says that the A2C is an excellent example of how awarding organisations, in cooperation with MIS providers, are working together to improve data sharing.

“Although the programme won’t be finished completely until 2014, the benefits are already being realised,” he said.

“We will see improvements in what data is shared so that there is a harmonised system across general and vocational qualifications, and a reduction in the bureaucracy of administrating examinations. It really is a system for the 21st century.”

Rob Elliott, product manager at Capita Further and Higher Education

Work hard, play harder

The Industry Apprentice Council with FE Minister Matthew Hancock.  From left: Louis Chinea, 24, Jonathan Sixsmith, 22, Drew Reidy, 20, Sam Dutton, 19, Matthew Hancock MP, David Ferguson, 21, Jordan Philips, 18, Sam Ball, 20, Jack Stearn, 19, Natalie Harris, 18, Elizabeth Moffatt, 19, James Turner, 24, John O’Driscoll and Hal Willis, both 20

Thirteen apprentices have come together with a mission to raise the profile of apprenticeships throughout the country.

The group, selected from companies such as BAE systems and Vauxhall and with ages ranging from 18 to 24, has formed to become the first Industry Apprenticeship Council (IAC) and met with FE Minister Matthew Hancock at the House of Commons to canvas him for support.

The IAC joined an All Parliamentary Party Apprentices Group meeting to discuss the government’s apprenticeship strategy following the publication of the Richard Review and raised issues such as schools not pushing apprenticeships and encouraging a perception that vocational routes were secondary to the academic pathway.

The group aired solutions they had come up with such as starting a national advertising campaign to promote the more affluent lifestyle apprentices, they said, could lead compared to their peers and asked Mr Hancock if he would meet with them to take on the proposal.

“How could I say no?” he replied.

Electronic engineer at MBDA Sam Ball said: “We want to start a campaign to show the great experiences we have had like owning a house, speaking in the House of Commons and going on TV. Some of my apprentice friends have driven £120,000 cars.”

The 20-year-old from Bolton added: “We want to encourage the strapline ‘work hard, play harder’.”

Business administration apprentice at Vauxhall Lizzie Moffatt, 19 and from Luton, said: “We want to tell the stories of people from the inside, such as managing directors who started out as apprentices, looking at where they are now.

“We want to show that higher education can be achieved through apprenticeships too.”

Drew Reiddy, an engineering manufacture apprentice at BAE, said the profile of apprenticeships needed to be raised throughout companies themselves with more of a chance for children to go into work places to show them where they could be in a few years’ time.

Sam Dutton, a 19-year-old manufacturing engineering apprentice for KMF, said the value of apprenticeships needed to be promoted to parents as “they were the ones helping to make the important decisions”.

“This could be achieved by going down a commercial route having adverts on websites such as car manufacturers so when a parent was looking at buying a new car they could see a banner pop up promoting apprenticeships,” he said.

Miss Ball added: “It’s important teachers understand the benefits. When I was at school I was told I would waste my abilities doing an apprenticeship.”

From left: Sam Ball, electronic engineering apprentice at MBDA and Drew Reidy, engineering manufacture apprentice at BAE | Photos by Nick Linford

Of the 13 group members just one said they were encouraged to take their chosen career path by their school.

Miss Ball said she only became aware of her chosen vocational route because of research she did herself.

“I went to a good college but they were only interested in the university route,” she said. “I didn’t really enjoy the classroom experience anymore so I started looking on websites like NotGoingtoUni.co.uk and found out about it myself.”

She said she liked knowing she made a “contribution” to her organisation and getting involved in groups such as IAC as well as having the chance to do charity work. She was also able to complete a first aid course.

I was told I would waste my abilities doing an apprenticeship”

Jordon Phillips, an 18-year-old mechanical and electrical engineering apprentice at Nestle, said: “I came across Nestle when looking for a two-week work experience placement. They told me about the apprenticeship scheme and I went straight from school to college for a year but through the scheme. It was really good knowing I had the security of a job at the end of it.”

Hal Willis, a 20-year-old aeronautical engineering apprentice for Airbus, told Mr Hancock he felt there was a “lack of information at schools about careers”.

Mr Hancock said: “The best experience people can have is by having information available to them but information is not enough. It is about the quality of that information and being able to navigate your way through the system.”

He spoke of the advantages of destination data, introduced by the government last year to track young people’s chosen paths, and the importance of apprenticeship graduation ceremonies to add value to the achievement and getting young people out into the workplace.

“Research shows that if you have had four interactions with employers, whether that is work or an interview, you are then half as likely to be unemployed as before,” he said.

He said in the future the duty would be on schools to provide careers advice and guidance.

“We will find out from Ofsted how much they are doing with their new duty,” he said.

Mr Hancock added that big companies such as Cadburys should “step up to the plate” and design apprenticeships and pass on the templates throughout the industry.

The IAC has been convened in partnership between EAL, the specialist awarding organisation for industry qualifications, and IMI, the leading awarding body for the retail motor industry.

Ann Watson, managing director of EAL, said: “The members of the council will also become ambassadors for apprenticeships in their sectors, raising their profile and promoting the opportunities to young people at school.

“The IAC members are enthusiastic,
highly skilled, determined and intelligent individuals – superb examples of the standard of industry apprentices.”

ADVERTORIAL: New app helps students to learn smarter

Learning Smarter is a revolutionary new web application using the latest mobile technology to improve learners’ experience in colleges, schools and training providers. Learners use technology already in their possession – their smartphone or tablet (or any device that can access the web) – to ask and answer questions, and also to evaluate and reflect on learning. This improves the quality of teaching, learning and assessment.

It has been developed as a joint venture between Smartphone Media and Protocol’s College Leadership Services (CLS), who work closely with colleges and other providers to help them improve their provision, particularly related to teaching, learning and assessment.

Deborah McVey, Head of Observe and Improve at Protocol, came up with the idea for the Learning Smarter app as a solution to the lack of evaluation and reflection on lessons and learning.

An ex-teacher and experienced inspector for Ofsted, Deborah has worked with Smartphone Media taking Learning Smarter from initial idea to finished product. Deborah states, “We wanted to create something simple to excite and engage learners and improve communication.

As a teacher with little ICT skills, I also understood the importance of making something that all teachers could have the confidence to use.

We know that one of the key ways to create enthusiastic, motivated and independent learners is by helping learners to assess and reflect on their learning. It is the immediacy of responses that encourages group discussion, allowing teachers to respond and change lessons instantly, according to the feedback they are getting.”

A three month pilot at City of Westminster College found that students using the app communicated better and more frequently. The app helped teachers get to know their students and better understand their needs. A high value was placed on the instant responses of every single learner in the room and knowing exactly who each response came from.

The app has five features, each offering different functions:

1. Open questions – teachers input their own questions, which learners respond to with text answers.

2. Closed questions – teachers input their own questions, which learners respond to with a set of fixed, closed answers.

3. Set question checkpoints – designed to encourage reflection, helping learners to consider not just what they are learning, but how they will use it.

4. Set evaluation questions – to check understanding at the beginning, middle and end of learning and gauge the extent to which the lesson was successful.

5. Ask a question – learners ask the teacher a question. The teacher can then put this question back out to the group for all learners to answer themselves.

A robust reporting system allows teachers and college management to analyse the results and identify trends, so teachers can reflect.

Colleges will be able to purchase an annual license for the Learning Smarter app with costs dependent on the size of the organisation.

For further information visit
www.learningsmarter.co.uk or contact Lakeisha Dawson, Learning Smarter Administrator on 0115 911 1111.