Cracking the glass ceiling

FE can show the private sector a thing or two when it comes to the representation of women in top jobs, says Sally Dicketts

The media has been paying a lot of attention to the representation of women — or lack of it — in top roles in FTSE 100 and 250 companies. It’s not particularly good news.

Dame Marjorie Scardino, the former chief executive of Pearson, lamented the dearth of female chief executives in the FTSE 100, and when she and Kate Swann (WH Smith), resigned in 2012, it halved the number of women running such companies. The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) is taking the issue seriously, with Business Secretary Vince Cable recently acknowledging the “chronic shortage of women in top jobs”.

Not so in the FE and skills sector. At the Women’s Leadership Network’s (WLN) conference on May 22, Skills Minister Matthew Hancock paid tribute to the sector’s success in raising the number of female college principals and chief executives. Each year WLN collects data on all colleges — general FE, sixth-form colleges and specialist institutions — and with five years’ data, has enough evidence to talk about trends.

Since 2009, the proportion of women in the lead role has risen from 36 to 41 per cent, up from 130 to 139, despite a decline in the number of colleges.

It is hard to say exactly what is making a difference, but a possible factor is the small but important number of role models emerging of women working at senior levels in science and technology, for example, stimulates and inspires talent.

The government’s focus on women as leaders highlights the issue. While policy changes and targets are not necessarily the best ways to help crack the glass ceiling, demonstrating good practice and promoting women to influential roles in the corporate sector, on boards and in the government itself, would be inspiring and a powerful indicator of change.

Barriers are slowly disappearing and support for female leaders developing. We’re aware of more male principals — and females —  taking seriously the development of their talented female staff. Some, including Mike Hopkins at Middlesbrough College, Richard Atkins at Exeter College, Jat Sharma at Walsall College and Phil Davies at City College Plymouth, have pinned their colours firmly to the mast, and many others are overtly supporting women’s career development.

Sector institutions such as the Network for Black Professionals and the Learning and Skills Improvement Service have also had a significant influence on equality, clearing pathways for personal and career advancement.

I haven’t mentioned specific influential women, though they are legion, working in the background, spotting talent, finding development opportunities and encouraging women to take their futures into their own hands. WLN membership is up by a third since October 2011 and increasingly high attendances at network events, especially the annual conference, suggest that colleges are willing to invest in staff keen to benefit from these opportunities. There is a continuing demand for WLN’s  career and leadership development services, and the speed-coaching sessions at this year’s conference were, once again, oversubscribed.

There’s still a way to go to engage all elements of the sector and some work to do on the gender balance in governance. The BIS advisory group on governance has this issue in its sights and it would be good to see specific recommendations to improve the recruitment of female board members and chairs. There have always been huge numbers of talented women and at last they are pulling themselves through to the top jobs. FE can show the private sector a thing or two.

Sally Dicketts, chair of WLN and principal of Oxford and Cherwell Valley College

Time to climb aboard the internship

Former House of Commons Education Select Committee specialist Ben Nicholls is head of policy at London’s Newham College. He writes exclusively for FE Week, every month

One of my most enjoyable meetings of the last fortnight was with a Labour MP — a major champion of FE — and his research assistant, currently on placement from university. We met to discuss an internship for young people interested in policy, research and public affairs careers.

I’ve been thinking about such a scheme for some time. There’s a general view that policy is an odd field consisting entirely of hard-nosed wannabe-MPs and geeky ‘wonks’ with umpteen doctoral degrees. The truth, however, is that careers in policy and research (and those pursuing them) can be fascinating and exciting, offering a chance to facilitate change in organisations and the policy-making process. But few people know where to start.

Couple this lack of understanding with the well-rehearsed problems of internships — lack of pay, poor management, menial tasks — and the concept of a new scheme emerged. The Policy Internship Programme (alternative names welcome…) will offer young people the chance to experience policy work from three different angles — Parliament, the front line, and a representative body — during a trio of fortnightly placements. The scheme will promise proper management, follow-up mentoring and guidance, and demanding work. We’ll be advertising the first few placements soon.

So far, so good. But the meeting came during the same week that I was finishing, with colleagues at Newham, our response to the latest document in the Richard Review sequence. As a college, we support much of the proposed reform, although — doubtless like many across the FE sector — we have some concerns, particularly around how new standards are developed, and ensuring that English and maths requirements are met.

The real solution is for apprenticeships to be championed as much as universities”

But the juxtaposition of these two events offered scope for further reflection around careers guidance, and the ways into work on offer to young people.

Too often internships are about who you know, while apprenticeships are still seen by many as a lesser alternative to university, despite recent evidence suggesting that those with higher apprenticeships go on to earn considerably more. Furthermore, we all know what the reason for this is — decades of bias. Consider the headlines when  10 Mossbourne Community Academy students from East London got into Oxbridge. Would the same story have had such high billing if 10 students had won apprenticeships with international companies? I doubt it.

In rejecting the Education Select Committee’s recommendation that face-to-face guidance be guaranteed for all, the government has demonstrated a lack of seriousness in ensuring all young people follow the path best for them. Too many young people continue to see university as the only real path to the best careers, while too many others are put off university for all sorts of reasons when it is the right answer for them. The same is, of course, true for apprenticeships.

New internship schemes alone will not solve the problems of young people finding suitable jobs, though they could offer a great opportunity for a few. The real solution, surely, is for apprenticeships, and other pathways, to be championed as much as universities — and for some successful people who began their careers without university to take the lead. The Richard Review heads in the right direction, but we all know how much more needs to be done.

 

 

Why are so few applying for principalship?

Ofsted, funding cuts, policy changes . . . it’s no surprise that the number of prospective FE principals/chief executives is falling, says Mike Hopkins

A straw poll of principal and chief executive colleagues makes clear the reality of the decline in the number of prospective principals. Why has this happened?

Broadly speaking, issues include Ofsted and the price that has to be paid for failure; the resulting caution of vice-principals and other senior managers; the complexity of combining the senior academic role of principal and the business orientated one of chief executive.

Then there’s the loss of autonomy as a result of FE finding itself at the heart of education politics; caution about recruiting from outside the sector; and the pressures of dealing with reduced funding.

The respondents to my straw poll saw Ofsted as an ‘adversarial’ organisation. One described the principal as having the job security of a Premier League football manager without the rewards. Officially outstanding colleges could become officially failing ones at the change of a common inspection framework.

One respondent questioned why a person would apply to a college that ‘requires improvement’. Sustainable improvement could take two to three years with a reinspection in significantly less time than that.

Similarly, why would a person apply to an ‘outstanding’ college with the risk of an inferior grade  awarded at the next inspection (which could be triggered by his or her arrival) and the governors seeking an immediate scapegoat?

Many respondents referred to their perceived loss of autonomy as FE became one of the key battleground’s of education party politics.

Despite New Challenges, New Chances, many felt that the focus on data, year-on-year cuts in funding, and frequent and often contradictory shifts in policy had all impaired any autonomy to make decisions.

One respondent described the principal as having the job security of a Premier League football manager without the rewards”

Some lamented the absence of investment in a national training school and credible training for the principal/chief executive role. Others noted that most colleges still appointed from a field ‘limited’ to people who had risen to management via teaching.

The focus on ‘teaching’ could be overdone, they said, leading to a ‘bigotry’ around appointing from outside the sector.

Finally, it was also noted that senior leaders at vice-principal level were also focused on teaching and learning and therefore did not get the chance to develop the other skills required of the chief executive – for example, business acumen.

The role of principal had become far more complex since Incorporation. Having credibility in the teaching workforce combined with academic improvement, while also driving a multi-million business forward, required a broad set of skills.

When I began my career 32 years ago, my first principal would arrive into college at 8.45am precisely, with The Times folded neatly under his arm and sporting a yellow rose on his elegant Prince of Wales check suit. Generally, he wouldn’t be seen throughout the day until he left for home at 5pm.

A lot has changed since those long lost days and, despite all the pressures, much for the better.

It is tough, but it’s perhaps, in part, that toughness that makes the job such a delight and challenge.

But more than that, how many jobs can have such value-driven ethics at their heart?

Being an FE principal or chief executive is about being socially conscious, seeking economic and social equality and being at the heart of the skills chain.

It is at the heart of progressive politics, and I’d encourage anyone who is interested in that, to put themselves forward.

Mike Hopkins, chair of the Professional Principals’ Council and principal of Middlesbrough College

Chris Jones, CEO, City & Guilds

After an hour with Chris Jones it’s difficult to say I’ve discovered much that wasn’t already known.

What the City & Guilds chief executive did give away was an enjoyment of mowing the lawn at the home he shares with wife Judy in the Oxfordshire village of Bampton. Oh, and he enjoys watching a bit of sport.

The question remains as to whether the 47-year-old has simply risen up through a number of positions to lead a global organisation while spending his free time walking his two retrievers, Bailey and Murphy.

But he’s not being economical with the facts — he’s just not into detail it seems.

“I’m not someone who over-intellectualises things,” he says.

“I get up every day as if it was a new start. I come to work with as much enthusiasm today as I did when I first came to City & Guilds. I think I’ve been the same throughout my whole career.”

But I do discover that although he sits at the top table of one of the world’s largest awarding bodies, he’s twice dropped out of completing his own qualifications.

The father-of-two, who grew up in a farming family in Alton, Hampshire, had already dropped out of an HND in agricultural marketing and admin before starting a communications, advertising and marketing foundation course in London when he was 20.

But travelling home on the tube one day, he spotted a job advert for a sales executive at the farming titles of publisher Morgan Grampian and thought “I can do that”.

“I probably oversold myself in the interview,” he says, “but I dropped my exams, got the job and haven’t looked back since. Work presented me more interesting challenges than yet another exam.

“Life is quite simple for me. I wanted to go out and prove I could do well in the world of work — it’s why I dropped out of college.”

The business leader’s no-nonsense and impulsive approach has directed his pathway throughout his career. He remembers when, in his late thirties and by this point working as European managing director for global publishing business Lexus Nexus [incorporated from Reed Elsevier], he was offered a job, mid-flight to Ohio.

“The chief executive waited for the plane to take off and said they wanted me as their US product development head … and that they needed to know by the time the plane landed,” says Jones.

“It was a big deal because I had to think of my wife and two children. We’d all have to move to the States.”

But the businessman, who rose up the sales ranks at companies such as Midas Direct, Reed Business Publishing and Financial Times Electronic Publishing, seized the opportunity.

“I went for it,” he says. “It was a huge jump — the business in Europe was a £35m business with a couple of hundred staff, but when I moved to the States I had a budget responsibility of $100m and 1,000 staff.”

The four-year experience across the pond taught him not to “knock people down” if they’d succeeded, he says.

“I think sometimes in this country we’re too quick to do that. What we sensed most when we looked back at the UK was that it was inward looking, critical of itself, and people of each other. Hard work and dedication should be applauded and I think opportunities are there for everyone,” adds Jones.

“Being a good manager is about achieving with, and through, people — it’s about creating an environment where they feel they can succeed.”

“People need to feel challenged and rewarded, and that they’re going to be supported in trying to do new and different things.”

Jones worked in the States for two years “bringing the voice of the customer” to product designers at Lexus before asking to go back to running the business side of things, which he did for another two years, dealing with identity and credit authentication.

The educational part has been the most rewarding part of my career to date. It’s rewarding because of the opportunities you get to help people”

“Our business was in law enforcement and counter terrorism, using data to determine if people were who they said they were, for fraud purposes,” he says.

“We were there through the 9/11 attacks and worked trying to help the government understand people’s movements, which was fascinating.”

But in 2004, he and Judy decided to return home to be with their parents and to ensure that their children could start their secondary education in the UK.

It was at this point Jones took his first job in education, as chief executive of Harcourt Education, part of school textbook publisher, Heinemann. After a few years the company was broken up and Jones left, joining City & Guilds in 2008.

He says the firm was “very specific” that it wanted someone with a strong commercial background, but that he spends a lot of time talking to learners and visiting customers internationally.

“The educational part has been the most rewarding part of my career to date. It’s rewarding because of the opportunities you get to help people — whatever we do has a common thread, skilling people or skilling the workforce,” he says.

“There’s a space for the forward-looking FE colleges to fill the space left by polytechnics; to be incredibly employer responsive with vocationally-driven programmes for learning that support progression, and deliver to the workplace highly skilled and talented individuals.”

“I can see lots of opportunities to harness technology to support learning, whether that’s using technology better to lower the overall cost of delivery, or to provide new ways to inspire learners to achieve more.”

Vocational Moocs — massive online open courses — could be a part of that, he says, but they must deliver the high quality learning experience that industry will want from students.

Looking forward, he says that he’s interested to see what Nigel Whitehead’s review into adult vocational qualifications in England will unveil in September. The BAE Systems group managing director and member of the  UK Commission for Employment and Skills, was asked to investigate by Skills Minister Matthew Hancock. He began work on his report in March.

Jones says: “There’s a fundamental lack of structured work experience and work placement programmes built into the core school curriculum.

“I would want to see that happen more. I think that’s one of the reasons university technical colleges, and career colleges, will succeed.

“We have to get employers more actively engaged in shaping and driving the curriculum — there’s no point in an employer moaning about the output of the system if they’re not prepared to shape what the curriculum should look like. We need to look hard at what would give employers incentives to create work placements, work experience or new jobs for young people.”

He adds that City & Guilds is committed to supporting apprenticeships — evidenced by its Million Extra campaign, started three years ago “not only to promote City & Guilds programmes but also to support apprenticeships more generally”.

As the media has made much of parents’ negative perception of the vocational route, still preferring to push their offspring towards university, does he think an apprenticeship would be good enough for his own children? He says he hasn’t driven his children in one direction or the other.

“My daughter Becky is very bright and did exceptionally well in GCSEs and would have been a classic four A-level student but she did a BTec in equine studies. Then she went on to do a degree in bio-veterinary science and she’s decided that she wants to be a veterinary surgeon.

“The important thing for me was supporting them in the decisions they made,” he says.

It’s a personal thing

What’s your favourite book? 

Exodus by Leon Uris

What did you want to be when you were younger?

A professional footballer

What do you do to switch off from work?

Spend time with my wife, my kids and my dogs

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

Bruce Springsteen

What would your super power be? 

To find a cure for cancer after losing my
father to it

Strike threat looms as pay talks resume

The prospect of industrial action looms over FE after the University and Colleges Union (UCU) backed a call to ballot for a national strike.

At their national conference on Wednesday, union members agreed to the ballot if upcoming pay talks fell through.

The motion described college employers as “making a historic bid to drive down the value of our pay and erode our terms and conditions of service”.

It backed a strike ballot being held close to the beginning of October if pay talks scheduled for this month resulted in an unsatisfactory offer.

Talks ended in stalemate last month when the Association of Colleges (AoC), representing employers, withdrew an offer to support a 0.5 per cent pay rise after it was unanimously rejected by unions, who called for a 5 per cent increase.

The AoC said it would only return to the table if the unions, including the UCU as well as the Association of Managers in Education, the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, GMB, Unison and Unite, engaged in local discussions on conditions and pay.

Meanwhile, industrial action is already set for Thursday, June 6, after UCU members at Chesterfield College voted to strike over 70 proposed job cuts across management, teaching and support positions.

This follows the voluntary redundancies of more than 100 staff in the past two years.

UCU regional official Anne O’Sullivan said: “Bringing the axe down on another 70 jobs now is a very dangerous move.

“Staff have done brilliantly to cope with the departure of their colleagues in recent times and should not be rewarded with further cuts.

“Strike action is always a last resort, but the staff have simply had enough.”

She said that the union would not rule out further action unless the college removed the threat of compulsory redundancies.

Chesterfield principal Trevor Clay said: “The continuing decline in the number of
16 to 18 year olds within the county, the growth in the demand for apprenticeships, with reduced government funding, are fundamental factors reflecting the need for restructure.

“It is of course regrettable that unions are taking industrial action.

“In regard to our proposals, so far the only alternative that has been put forward by the teaching unions is to offer an increased redundancy package to those considering voluntary redundancy.”

He said this was “highly unlikely” to achieve the needed staff reductions and was a cost that the college would struggle to find.

“As such, this would leave us in the same position we are in now,” said Mr Clay.

“We remain open to all additional suggestions of how to address these changes to our funding.”

FE loans in first month ‘low’

The head of the Association of Colleges has expressed concern over “low levels” of applications for 24+ advanced learning loans.

Martin Doel, association chief executive, spoke out as the Student Loans Company (SLC) revealed 338 mature learners had applied for loans in the three weeks after the new payment’s launch on April 8.

Just 75 learners were now ‘ready for payment’ for courses starting in August, each being granted an average of £2,950, according to figures released to FE Week under a Freedom of Information request.

The Skills Funding Agency allocated £232m in loans facilities to nearly 800 training providers for the 2013/14 academic year. If learners were loaned an average of £3,000 each, according to FE Week calculations, the SLC could expect to fund just under 80,000 learners over a year.

But three weeks into the scheme just 68 men and 270 women had requested a loan.

Mr Doel said: “If low levels of applications become an ongoing trend, it may well reflect some of the significant challenges facing colleges in this first year of the new system.”

He said deterrents included “aversion to debt” among mature students, and the “absence of a national marketing drive” for the loans.

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) set up a £6.5m development fund to help providers with loans facilities to market the new loans.

But FE Week has learned that the association set up a survey on loan take-up and associated issues, such as bursary funds available under the scheme, after a number of principals contacted the group to “express concerns”.

The SLC information further revealed that 198 of the 338 initial applications had been processed. Of these, the lender was waiting for final signatures from 116 applicants, while seven were ineligible.

Applications yet to be processed included 91 that were awaiting further information from the learner while 49 were “in progress”.

It said 142 applicants were aged 24 to 30, 121 were aged 31 to 40, 55 were aged 41 to 50, while 13 were over 51. Seven did not declare their age.

Toni Pearce, president-elect of the National Union of Students, said: “The introduction of loans for learners looking for a second chance in education was damaging enough, but that it was done without proper consideration of the consequences or careful planning for its implementation is cause for real concern.

“There could be genuine reasons for the level of applications to be so low at this point, including students waiting for other exam results before applying.”

Gordon Marsden, Shadow Skills Minister, said: “Ministers must watch enrolments and take-up data carefully to ensure that we do not see a lost generation of adult learners.”

A spokesperson for the Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) said the group remained “concerned” about the impact of loans on apprenticeship starts.

It has sent its members a survey, commissioned by the Skills Funding Agency, to find out “how well prepared” the sector was for the introduction of loans.

A spokesperson for the agency said the results were not yet available.

A BIS spokesperson  said: “The system is up and running as planned, and as this . . . information shows, more than 50 per cent of submitted applications have already been processed.”

——————————————–

Editorial : Loan course data, please

Well done to the government and its partners for getting the FE loans application system up and running.

There has been much speculation about adults rushing to apply for the loans.

After all, the £280m funding pot for loans in 2013/14 is being dished out to applicants on a first-come first-served basis.

But it appears, thanks to our freedom of information (FoI) request, there has been no rush.

With about 800 providers with loan facilities, the 338 applications in the first 21 days since launch equates to an average of less than half an applicant each.

However, a slow start is perhaps not too alarming nor surprising given the lack of marketing and it being six months before relevant courses start.

What the sector should want to know in planning for 2013/14 is which courses are proving attractive to loan applicants.

Sadly, this information was not provided despite forming part of our FoI request. It was too personal, apparently.

All we can hope is that the Data Service will come to the rescue of course planners when it publishes more data, albeit seven months away, in January. Fingers crossed.

Nick Linford, editor

AELP calls for ‘rethink’ on Richard’s plans

The government has been urged to “rethink” any plans to overhaul the apprenticeship system in line with the recommendations of former Dragons’ Den investor Doug Richard.

The Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) warned against the introduction of plans outlined in The Future of Apprenticeships in England: Next Steps from the Richard Review, published in March.

The plans were described by Business Secretary Vince Cable as “radically changing” the way apprenticeships were delivered, putting employers in the “driving seat”.

More than 300 responses to the document had been received by officials at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) when consultation ended around two weeks ago.

AELP national policy manager Judy Brandon said in the association’s response to the consultation: “We are … so concerned by some of the suggestions outlined in this document that we feel compelled to urge the government to rethink before moving ahead.

“Having argued that apprenticeships are now hugely successful we are pleased that the government, in this latest consultation document, recognises that there is much to be proud of . . . it refers to ‘over 200,000 employer workplaces participated and over half a million new apprenticeships started’.

“That being the case, we really do not understand why it is now proposing to introduce what they themselves go on to describe as ‘a major programme of reform’.

“We believe that implementing all the proposals in this document would seriously threaten the continuing success of apprenticeships, which are rightly seen as the gold standard for work-based learning.”

The three-month consultation — which closed on Wednesday, May 22 — outlined Richard’s plans such as all apprenticeships targeted at skilled jobs, and new learning that would provide the foundations for a career and a springboard for progression.

It also suggested that training and accreditation of existing workers who were already fully competent should be delivered separately.

The consultation put forward 24 questions, including how to ensure that employers were better engaged with the development and oversight of the assessment in apprenticeships.

The consultation followed Mr Richard’s review of the apprenticeship system, published in November. Its 10 recommendations included a redefinition of apprenticeships and a focus on proficiency in English and maths.

However, he said that the “heart” of his proposals was a revamp of the way apprenticeships were paid for. Tax credits, or other forms of government incentives, should be dished out to employers as the government paid its part of apprentice training, he said.

Meanwhile, the Association of Colleges (AoC), in its response to the government consultation, proposed a “master” apprenticeship.

Skills policy manager Teresa Frith said: “All apprentices would ‘pass’ their apprenticeship and some may elect/be encouraged to take on an additional assignment that would seek to determine an element of ‘mastery’ over the ‘competence’ displayed within the apprenticeship.”

A BIS spokesperson said the department was “delighted” with the responses to the consultation, including contributions from employers “of all sizes”, private training providers, colleges, awarding organisations, professional and trade associations, and sector skills councils.

The government is due to publish its implementation plan for apprenticeships reform in the autumn.

Colleges ordered to improve

*Since publication of this story, the Department for Education has said that the figures indicating Kingston Maurward needed to improve were incorrect and apologised to the college.

Three colleges have been ordered to improve after falling below the Education Funding Agency’s new minimum standards for key stage five.

In the 2011/12 academic year, South Thames College, Wiltshire College and Kingston Maurward College all failed to get at least 40 per cent of students to achieve an average point score per entry higher than 194 for academic qualifications or 172 for vocational qualifications.

According to the data released in May, 28 academies and 41 community or voluntary schools also fell short of the required standard.

A Department for Education (DfE) spokesperson said: “We have written to South Thames, Wiltshire and Kingston Maurward to make clear that we expect them to address the weaknesses that this measure has highlighted.

“In the event that these colleges are still below the standard next year, further action may be considered.”

The DfE website indicates funding could be reduced or removed, new or alternative provision, such as academy conversion or open competition, considered – or possible closure.

The interim minimum standards were introduced in April to identify poor performance in all colleges and schools offering provision for 16 to 19-year-olds.

In the last academic year at South Thames College, 38 per cent of eligible students (39 out of 102) did not achieve the minimum standard for academic qualifications.

A college spokesperson said: “At South Thames College, we take a long-term view of results and performance indicators.

“[We] recognise that our position in this table does not reflect the many talented and determined students we have.

“We shall continue to review and monitor performance tables and results and use them to inform our long-term plans.”

She said these plans included the college continuing to make “significant investments” in its facilities, teaching and student welfare.

She also highlighted the college’s ‘good’ Ofsted grading, which it maintained after it was inspected in 2012. That year’s report included “positive remarks on the ongoing guidance and support of learners”.

Thirty-two per cent of Wiltshire College’s learners, seven out of 22, met the academic minimum standard while at Kingston Maurward, which failed to meet the vocational standard, 12 per cent of learners, 18 out of 153 of those eligible, achieved higher than the target figure.

No one from Wiltshire College or Kingston Maurward College was available for comment. The Education Funding Agency (EFA) said the interim standards were “the absolute minimum expected performance for all providers of 16 to 18 education or training”.

“By establishing separate measures for performance in academic and vocational qualifications, comparing like with like, we are able to build a clear picture of how institutions are performing in different areas of their level three provision,” it says on the EFA website.

The minimum average point scores are calculated by taking the average of the bottom 5 per cent of scores nationally or the fifth percentile.

Resignations ‘won’t hit’ council work

The resignations of two members of the National Careers Council amid accusations that it was watering down recommendations to appease the government have been described as “regrettable”.

Heather Jackson and Professor Tony Watts walked out around a month before its first report was due to be published.

However, council chair Dr Deirdre Hughes said their resignations would not hit the report’s release or investigations.

“The resignations are regrettable, but will not affect the council’s ongoing work and its report, which will be launched on June 5,” she told FE Week.

The duo’s damning resignation statement said the report — a draft of which was presented to Skills Minister Matthew Hancock this month — proposed a rebalancing of funding that allowed the Department for Education (DfE) “to escape its responsibilities”.

They claimed the report suggested adult funding from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), which they claim funded the National Careers Service (NCS) with £83m in contrast to £7m from the DfE, might be used to pay for young people’s careers guidance.

They also criticised the report for failing to reference an Education Select Committee report critical of careers guidance services, and for not containing any proposal to boost “very limited marketing” of the NCS.

Their statement said these and other issues were left out to appease the government.

“We ultimately view this as a craven argument for a purportedly independent council to adopt,” it said.

“We are also deeply concerned about the way in which the report has been produced.

“The ‘rebalancing’ proposal, for example, was never discussed in any meetings of the council, and only emerged in a draft circulated three days before it was due to be submitted to the minister.”

Their statement added: “We asked for a postponement of the meeting with the minister, to enable the council to discuss the proposal in a considered way: this was refused. In our view, this is a totally inappropriate way for an independent council to operate.”

The resignations were raised when Mr Hancock appeared before the Education Select Committee on May 16. Committee members questioned him about the duo’s NCS funding concerns.

“Will the minister reassure us that the DfE is committed to supporting the work of the NCS properly? Will the DfE realise the opportunity that the NCS provides to ensure that we have an all-ages, competent, re-professionalised careers service?” said committee member Graham Stuart, Tory MP for Beverley and Holderness.

Mr Hancock said: “The funding issue has been raised many times. Times are, of course, tight for funding, but the central point is that the legal duty to secure independent and impartial advice in schools needs to be delivered from the schools budget.

“Schools have a whole budget to deliver this, not just the £7m the DfE put into the NCS.”

The council was set up by former Skills Minister John Hayes around a year ago to review careers policy at the Skills Funding Agency; the UK Commission for Employment and Skills; BIS; DfE; and the Department for Work and Pensions.

Members have since been involved in a number of investigations, including the Richard Review of Apprenticeships and Lord Heseltine’s report on UK economic growth. They have also given evidence to the Education Select Committee.