Royal seal of approval for Skills Show

The Skills Show will be given the royal seal of approval by Princess Anne through her role as president and patron of the awarding organisation City & Guilds.

The Princess Royal, a member of Great Britain’s 1976 Equestrian team, will attend the event at the NEC Birmingham on November 15, midway through the three-day event which closes the following day.

Skills Minister Matthew Hancock, who last year won a charity horse race at Newmarket, was due to attend on day one.

Up to 75,000 people, including primary and secondary school children, FE students and adult learners, are expected to attend the Skills Show, which will cover an area equivalent to the size of seven football pitches.

Chris Jones, City & Guilds director-general, said: “We believe the Princess Royal’s attendance will inspire young people about all of the options out there and go some way towards overcoming the false perception of academia as the only pathway to success.

“She shares our commitment to helping young people fulfil their potential.”

The centrepiece of the show will be 70 WorldSkills UK national competition finals, in disciplines including welding, bricklaying, industrial electronics, game design, web design and hairdressing.

More than 650 competitors will take part.

They qualified ahead of 5,000 people who took part in 500 heats across the UK, during the spring and summer.

The finalists will battle it out over three days of tough competition, with the aim of winning gold and being named the best in their skill.

Keith Smith, the UK’s official delegate for WorldSkills and Skills Funding Agency executive director, said: “I wish every competitor the best of luck.

“It takes hard work, determination and a high level of skill to compete against the UK’s most talented apprentices and learners.”

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Editorial: The Skills Show is our best kept secret, unfortunately

More than 650 of our most talented and skilled young people will be in Birmingham over the coming days.

Not too many people outside of FE may know it, but they will competing to be crowned our best young craftsmen and women.

The competitions take place at the UK’s largest skills and careers event, spanning an area equivalent to seven football pitches.

Yes, it’s time for the Skills Show 2013.

HRH the Princess Royal will pay a visit, but more importantly, will you and your students?

The sector speaks of raising participation, standards and aspirations — the Skills Show is an opportunity for exactly that.

We don’t need the implementation of a pass, merit or distinction system to inspire young people to be the best.

Look at what’s achieved at the competition finals next week for yourself, along with your learners.

Experiencing these skills competitions and the Skills Show will raise aspirations.

The Skills Show is far too important be the UK’s best kept secret.

Nick Linford, editor

 

Elmfield probe ‘ongoing’ despite pre-pack sale

An investigation into Elmfield Training will continue despite part of the company having been sold to a nursing homes training provider, FE Week can reveal.

Elmfield, which was slapped with a notice of concern in June following a grade four Ofsted inspection result, contacted staff more than two weeks ago to say it was taking steps to put the company into administration.

Last week it announced that it had appointed Deloitte as administrators and the majority of the company would be sold to EQL, a subsidiary of CareTech.

The move followed allegations against Elmfield of malpractice, in relation to its apprenticeship contract with supermarket giant Morrisons, that featured in a BBC investigation.

It was alleged that Elmfield signed Morrisons staff up to apprenticeship programmes they had declined, enabling the provider to claim public funding for training.

A separate probe into such allegations was launched by the Skills Funding Agency which, it said, was continuing despite the sale of Elmfield’s non-Morrisons business.

An agency spokesperson said: “Our investigation into the allegations we have received concerning Elmfield is ongoing and we are currently reviewing additional evidence which has been supplied to us.”

A Deloitte spokesperson said the sale had secured more than 300 jobs and would ensure that around 5,700 learners on former Elmfield programmes would have continuity.

A CareTech spokesperson said the acquisition has been completed as part of a pre-pack insolvency of Elmfield for a total “cash consideration” of £1.5m. The on-going working capital costs of the business would be funded from CareTech’s cash, they said.

Farouq Sheikh, CareTech’s executive chairman, said: “CareTech is a principled provider of social care with a strong public service ethos.

“Our support services for young people in transition to adult life are well known for their outstanding results and for some time we have felt that a new division focusing on apprenticeships would enhance and support many aspects of our outcomes-based approach.”

Meanwhile, all new Morrisons apprenticeships are provided by NCG (formerly Newcastle College Group), but Elmfield still has responsibility for the learners it started.

But with Elmfield’s contract to provide training to staff at supermarket giant Morrisons not included in the sale, a number of staff working on the contract now face redundancy if no buyer can be found.

However, Elmfield staff working on the Morrisons contract were told by administrators, in an email seen by FE Week, that: “We are in advanced discussions with another provider with a view to transferring this contract to that provider. We hope to complete this transfer in the next few days.”

At the time of going to press, no buyer for Elmfield’s Morrisons contract had been found. There is no suggestion of wrong doing on the part of Morrisons, EQL or Care Tech.

Intervention inquiry welcomes FE Commissioner but calls for ‘better early warning signals’

A six-month inquiry into FE intervention has welcomed the government’s plan for an FE Commissioner, but called for “better early warning signals…to allow early and pre-emptive interventions”.

The Skills Commission was funded by the Learning and Skills Improvement Service (LSIS) to look at “examples of intervention best practice across the wider public sector to highlight shortcomings in the current FE governance architecture”.

The commission, chaired by Dame Ruth Silver, who remains LSIS chair while it is in the process of ceasing operations, and Barry Sheerman MP, appointed City of Bath College principal Matt Atkinson to chair the inquiry group.

The duo’s foreword in the report said the commission had been “concerned by the increased instances of provider failure in 2012,”  but said the group welcomed the new FE Commissioner an, “effective failure regime” for the sector.

The report, called Move to Improve: an analysis of intervention in Further Education and skills and the wider public sector, was due to be officially launched at the House of Commons tomorrow.

Mr Atkinson, a former LSIS trustee, wrote in the report: “We hoped that by looking to the police, healthcare, higher education, and schools, and by checking that our own house was in order, the FE and skills world would learn valuable lessons, and could make changes where necessary to ensure top quality provision across colleges and training providers.”

The report went on to make 10 recommendations, including: “College corporations should adopt better scrutiny procedures, become more self-critical in assessing how they perform their role, and ensure they are giving adequate attention to the quality of their provision as well as their finances.”

A further recommendation was that: “Better early warning signals need to be developed and shared across the system to allow early and pre-emptive interventions to take place.”

The report also said: “Ofsted, in consultation with the Association of Colleges and the 157 Group, should examine the CQC and the QAA model of inspection, with a view to including greater stakeholder engagement in the assessment of learning and skills providers.”

Mr Atkinson told FE Week ahead of the report launch: “The FE sector is too important to the success of the UK economy for us within the sector to allow institutional underperformance or failure.

“This inquiry has shown that in many instances, the FE sector intervenes effectively, ensures quality consistently and, in doing so, outperforms other public service sectors.

“But our report also demonstrates that further reform is still needed. As we move forward in this new landscape, we must keep our eyes fixed firmly upon ensuring quality of provision and preventing failure.

“We need to start a debate — underpinned by a new, genuine culture of collaboration between providers, regulators and government — about how we do this.

“This report has laid out clear recommendations to get this process firmly underway.”

The report, along with tomorrow’s expected launch, will be covered further by FE Week.

Now that’s what I call a cabinet! – Triumphant Team UK in exclusive Whitehall reception

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg clearly appreciated this piece of fine furniture by award-winning young craftsman George Callow.

The 21-year-old cabinet maker, from East Wittering, West Sussex, gave Mr Clegg the wooden bureau that earned him gold at WorldSkills Leipzig 2013, in July.

It will be on display at Whitehall’s Dover House, where it was handed over as part of a reception for Team UK, who won a further gold medal, one silver, three bronze and 17 Medallions for Excellence.

George, who works for Cimitree Furniture, said: “It is a great honour to have my work displayed at Dover House.”

Mr Clegg said: “I want to congratulate Team UK’s outstanding success at this year’s competition for
showcasing the best of British talent.”

Top picture caption: “Team UK cabinet maker George Callow, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, National Apprenticeship Service (NAS) PR adviser Tom York, NAS director Jaine Bolton and Team UK carpenter Philip Glasgow”

Elmfield Training purchased in pre-pack after going into administration

The majority of Elmfield Training’s business and assets has been sold to EQL Solutions Limited, which is one hundred per cent owned by CareTech Holdings plc.

The sale, which excludes the Morrisons contract, came shortly after Deloitte, the business advisory firm, were appointed Joint Administrators of Elmfield.

FE Week understands the acquisition has been completed as part of a pre-pack insolvency for a cash payment of £1.5m.

The statement yesterday from Deloitte reads: “The sale secured over 300 jobs and maintained continuity of service for around 5,700 people currently enrolled on Elmfield’s training programmes. The Morrisons contract is likely to be taken over by another provider, along with approximately 50 additional staff associated with this contract.”

In an email seen by FE Week, staff working on the Morrisons contract have been told by the administrators: “There is no guarantee that we will be successful in completing a transfer, and as such we cannot confirm that you will be paid the wages that are owed to you up to today, or that you will not be made redundant. Unless a transfer is made, you will not be paid for any wages or expenses incurred from the date of administration.”

Farouq Sheikh, CareTech’s Executive Chairman, said in a statement: “CareTech is a principled provider of social care with a strong public service ethos. Our support services for young people in transition to adult life are well known for their outstanding results and for some time we have felt that a new division focusing on apprenticeships would enhance and support many aspects of our outcomes based approach.

“The acquisition of Elmfield provides an opportunity to draw the professionalism of their staff into a new and forward-looking partnership with a national social care provider.

“We are grateful for the support and assistance of the Skills Funding Agency in enabling this transaction to be successfully concluded in a timely manner.”

Read more in the next edition of FE Week 

Learners are going to need techno-maths skills to cope in the modern workplace

Steve McCormack concedes teachers haven’t always succeeded in demonstrating how maths skills will be relevant to students after they leave education. Yet numeracy skills are needed more than ever when dealing with fast developing technology at work.

Go on, admit it! You’ve taken a peek at Channel 4’s Educating Yorkshire on Thursday nights. And whatever you think about the kids, the teachers, the school, or the girls’ hairdos, you can’t deny it’s engaging, thought-provoking television.

For me, one particular thought crystallised after the recent episode in which the saintly maths teacher Mr Steer sweated blood and tears to get his — er, I think the word is challenging — year 11s through their GCSE with a Grade C.

The thought in question was prompted by the girl who, in tones every maths teacher in the land has heard a million times, said: “I don’t need maths, sir, cos I’m going to do hairdressing at college.”

We all know that 16-year-olds who waltz off to college under the impression that they have left numbers behind will soon experience a rude awakening, when their hairdressing tutor starts talking about angles of cut, or precision-mixing amounts required for tints and dyes.

We should admit we haven’t been smart enough in shaping maths lessons.”

The same scenario is played out, of course, on college building and catering courses, perhaps too when students studying graphic design and hospitality get their first assignments back.

You can’t leave maths behind the morning after the year 11 prom.

But, if we’re honest, we can see where those Yorkshire year 11 girls were coming from.

We should admit we haven’t been smart enough in shaping maths lessons, and the qualifications they lead to, so the relevance to the world of work is obvious.

Part of the problem is people argue it’s a rare workplace where the boss greets you in the morning with a request to solve a couple of quadratic equations.

Our task, as advocates for maths-education, is to demonstrate the ubiquitous demand for the application of the generic, transferable skills learned in maths lessons.

To be really convincing, we have to go further than point out that bricklayers and chefs need to be good at measuring and most people in administrative roles need to be able work out percentages.

This is not a straightforward task, because in our 21st century industrial landscape, the application of mathematical reasoning is usually far from explicit.

However, a book published a few years ago — called Improving Mathematics at Work: The need for techno-mathematical literacies — by academics at the Institute of Education in London addressed this challenge. Drawing on extensive workplace-based research, the team identified a crucial attribute — which they called techno-mathematical literacy — the best and most effective employees exhibit.

This attribute manifests itself, for example, in the ability to interpret graphs and charts accurately, identify the key variables in any system, and see how they relate to each other.

People with techno-mathematical literacy don’t slavishly gaze at their lap-top screens and report that “computer says no”.

They think about the software underneath the bonnet and try to understand what it shows and its limitations. All of these skills can best be nurtured among students with a solid maths education, who have developed mental disciplines such as precision, estimation, experimentation, and the ability to present logical arguments, with one step flowing from another.

Maths is the only subject that pulls all these skills together, and, for the sake of future generations, we’ll continue to bang on about it.

Steve McCormack, communications manager for the National Centre for Excellence in the Training of Mathematics