Shine your light Sir Michael, we have nothing to hide

The chief inspector is right: success rates are not the best way to measure FE. So why doesn’t he come up with an alternative instead of beating the sector with the same old stick, says Jayne Stigger

Inspections under the new Common Inspection Framework (CIF) although rightly focused on teaching and learning, still quote success as the main judgment. Reading through Ofsted reports released this month, I found in 14 pages that they mention, on average, “success rates” 18 times, “retention” and “outcomes” both four times, and “achievement” six times.

If it is, as chief inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw said last week, “palpable nonsense” to measure FE by success rates, (and I don’t disagree) why does Ofsted continue to use it as its first judgment? Measures of education need to reflect more accurately the comprehensive mission of colleges and the diverse student population they serve.

So, what about retention? No, just keeping a learner isn’t a good enough measure of what we do. Instead of twiddling with data types, let’s make the system work.

The problem is with the system of measurement. We acknowledge that one size of education doesn’t suit all learners, so why should we expect one size of judgment to suit all colleges?

There are 219 general FE, 94 sixth-form, 15 landbased, three art and design and 10 specialist colleges in England, all with different learners, different objectives and different outcomes. Measure us differently. If we continue to judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, we are condemning excellent teaching and learning to years of failure.

FE colleges are run as a business, so why not measure them that way in a way that is relevant to their aims — customer satisfaction; growing customer base; stakeholder satisfaction; employee satisfaction; and, finances.

The problem is with the system of measurement”

Put this into the annual self-assessment report to Ofsted; coupled with external quality reviews by peer colleges on teaching and learning. The college grade would encompass both reports and would be timely, relevant and more reflective of the true state of FE.  Any reports ringing alarm bells could warrant a visit by the new FE commissioner and his team.

You cannot measure academic, vocational, enterprise, entrepreneurship, apprentices, training, adult and foundation learning with the same stick, something that the current CIF tries to do.

Why not a financial incentive for every positive destination? As Doug Richard reports: “This can be most elegantly ensured by making sure that the funding of the system focuses everyone in the correct direction. In that spirit, I also recommend a redirection of funding.”

Success rates, driven by funding incentives, have played a large part in the growth of the number of qualifications and increased course success rates, but FE now works in a complex financial landscape, forced to make choices that may adversely affect students. How does this serve the poor, disadvantaged learners? Good education deserves good funding.

Sir Michael talks of dismantling “too large” colleges; are they, rather than their success rates, the target? A number of large colleges have been downgraded yet the latest advert for an Ofsted inspector says: “You might be the vice-principal or member of the senior leadership team of a large college.” A large college? So, you can’t run a college but you can inspect them?

Size isn’t the issue, it is management
and governance. Some principals have hung on to their role for years, whilst failing to improve; did Ofsted recommend they were removed? No, they left them in post. If 67 per cent  are good or outstanding and 4 per cent are inadequate, then the commissioner will have to deal with fewer than two or three a year. Could Ofsted, with learners and stakeholders, make recommendations to be reviewed by an independent commissioner instead?

Large or small we are focused on our learners; no matter how it is measured.

We’ve played by the rules of the organisation that judges us. But before you berate FE colleges further, Sir Michael, raise your own game by looking at more varied and reliable evidence.

Jayne Stigger, excellence and innovations manager, Basingtoke College of Technology

Sandra Coats, catering assistant, Barking and Dagenham College

The first thing Sandra Coats tells me when we meet in the canteen at Barking and Dagenham College is that she’s “what you’d describe as ordinary”.

But at the end of last year something quite extraordinary happened to this catering assistant from Romford.

She received a letter from Buckingham Palace saying that she’d been nominated for a British Empire Medal in the New Year’s Honours list for her outstanding contribution at work.

“I thought someone was having a laugh,” says the 58-year-old.

“I opened the letter and flicked my eyes through and said to my husband that someone was having a joke. He looked at it and said it couldn’t be — it looked real. I was delighted, but I couldn’t tell anyone until it was all official.”

Sandra has worked the college’s Chef’s Hat canteen for six years.

But she stands out, according to college principal Cathy Walsh, who put her forward for the honour because of the long hours that she puts in and the patience and attention she shows all students, especially those with disabilities.

“My start time is 7am but I’m always here at 6.20,” says straight-talking Sandra, who’s married to Robert, a heavy goods vehicle driver.

“I was doing lots of late evenings, not finishing until 8 at night. The principal recognised I was always here,” she admits.

“Some of our students are in wheelchairs and can’t see over the counter, so I tell them what’s on there. Some are blind so I just help them out — carry their food. I always talk to them . . . even if I’m pushed for time. I’ll be doing the sandwiches sometimes and they’ll just come over and start chatting and I suppose I listen to them rather than pushing them away.

“If I finish work late that day because I’ve spoken to them, then I finish late. I like being involved with things, people.”

The mother of Stephen, 38, Trevor, 34, Matthew, 31, and Michelle, 28, had her efforts rewarded at a special ceremony at the Tower of London.

“I spent a fortune on that day but it was worth every penny,” says Essex-born Sandra, who had the help of a personal shopper to pick out an outfit for the event.

With husband, Michelle and her partner by her side, she says that it was a day that she will never forget.

“I didn’t like school, I was never very good at exams”

“The Queen’s lieutenant [Sir David Brewer, Lord-Lieutenant of Greater London] read a bit out about us all and we went up one-by-one to get our award,” says Sandra.

She admits that she was “a bit nervous” because she didn’t know what to expect.

“I’d never experienced anything like it. There were about 40 of us, all people who’d helped the community and those who helped with the Olympics, then we had a biscuit and a cup of tea. It was lovely,” explains Sandra.

The real highlight, though, was her brush with royalty at Buckingham Palace where she was invited for a garden party in May.

“We stood in rows and the Queen came down one side and Prince Philip the other. Princess Beatrice was there too,” says Sandra, who spent three hours walking around the palace gardens.

“The Queen then went off to the bottom of the garden into a tent for her and the higher people with their medals.

“There were juices on arrival, ice creams on little trays, a band, nice sandwiches cut into fingers, little cakes and a lovely cup of tea.

“You felt important, but you knew there
were more important people than you. It was all a bit of an experience. You didn’t feel out of place, they made you feel welcome and were very friendly.”

In fact the magic of the day rubbed off so much that Sandra says her dream job these days would be to work at the palace.

“I would love to work up there, it was all so nice,” says the grandmother-of-three.

“I saw an advert for a job there and you got all your accommodation paid for. I’m too old now, but it would be nice for a younger person.”

She says she likes the variety of her own job but admits there’s a lot of pressure.

“It’s a circle,” she says of her typical working day. It involves putting away deliveries, cooking breakfasts — eggs, bacon, sausages and burgers — helping out on the counter and taking packed lunches to rooms. And that’s before she starts on the jacket potatoes and chips for lunch, fish for the salad bar, as well as starting preparation for the next day.

“Sometimes I do four jobs rolled into one, but the principal did notice and got me in some extra help,” says Sandra.

“They’re not a bad crowd, the students.  You get the odd one come through, but if there are any dramas I just phone security. We have focus children — ones who’ve left school earlier than they should have done — they can cause a bit of a stir.

“They get loud and change their mind about what they want. I just ask them to move on. They’ll give you back chat but they go in the end. I don’t mind.”

Sandra says that she didn’t enjoy her own education. “I didn’t like school, I was never very good at exams,” she says.

“I did go to commercial college in Romford and trained to be a shorthand typist. That’s just what you did.”

She went on to work at an insurance company in Liverpool Street and then Lloyds Bank before leaving to have her children.

“When the children started at school I started as a school meals assistant part-time, then full-time at a nursery in the kitchen. But it was the same every day and I don’t like just standing about, so six years ago I came here,” she says.

Despite all the fuss that’s been made of her, she says she’s hasn’t changed “one bit”.

“I’m up-front and I say what I think. I’m friendly but I do speak my mind and don’t let people walk all over me,” explains Sandra.

She also concedes that cooking isn’t her forte. “I’ll be honest; I’m lazy when I get home,” she says. “My husband is late in too, so we normally eat takeaways or something quick.”

She doesn’t know why she’s so hard working, “it’s just how I’ve always been,” she says.

“My dad worked in a local brewery and my mum in the doctors’ surgery. They always worked and so have I — I just get on with it, plodding along day-by-day. I take whatever is thrown at me.

“There are hundreds of staff here and for me to get nominated was a shock. My friends kept asking, why me? I say I don’t really know, that they should ask Cathy.”

It’s a personal thing

What’s your favourite book? 

Fifty Shades of Grey by EL James

What did you want to be when you were younger?

A pilot

What do you do to switch off from work?

Spend time with my grandchildren and family

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

Diana, Princess of Wales — because she did so much for working class people and charities — George Best and Gilbert O’Sullivan

What would your super power be? 

To magic up lots of money so my husband and I could move to a British seaside resort in Norfolk or Cornwall

At last, a place at Oxford

A pilot programme provides a platform for outstanding career development that will help to address the current lack of university-led research that focuses on FE, says Jonathan Backhouse

Shortly after leaving school with two GCSEs (B and C grades), dyslexia was diagnosed. I wonder what my teachers would have thought if they had seen me at the University of Oxford in September last year, about to embark on a practitioner research programme.

These days, I work in the UK at Middlesbrough College and elsewhere, Africa and the United States as an occupational safety and health practitioner and teacher. I am a graduate of the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH), and fellow of the Institute for Learning (IfL), the professional body for teachers and trainers in FE and skills. I hold two occupation-related diplomas: health and safety, plus environmental management. I have also completed a Master’s and have published my first book, Essential Study Skills for Health and Safety.

As a dual professional — with a dual focus on teaching, training and learning as well as on safety and health — continuing professional development (CPD) ensures that I stay up to date in my vocational area, as well as with teaching and training methods.

IfL has empowered teachers in FE to develop their own research and publication skills; and equipped them to undertake more research ”

When I heard about the pilot fellowship research programme (FRP), run jointly by IfL and the research centre for Skills, Knowledge and Organisational Performance (Skope) based at the Universities of Oxford and Cardiff, I jumped at the chance.

The aims of the programme are to develop participants’ research and publication skills; provide opportunities for demonstrating significant contributions to FE; and, extend and enhance the professional status of experienced and qualified IfL fellows and members holding Qualified Teacher Learning and Skills (QTLS) status.

I joined about 70 IfL members at the first workshop, where academics from Skope introduced us to research techniques and offered ideas for potential research topics. We met again in November to learn about research techniques, preparing research for publication and ways of analysing our data. We were divided into groups of about half a dozen and a mentor was allocated to each. We embarked on our educational research.

Even though I had completed a master’s degree in 2010, I was not fully prepared for what was to come. My research and publication skills developed greatly, and although I struggled to focus on the research area, my mentor and the Skope team provided guidance and support.

My action research project looked at the evaluation of lifting techniques in the workplace from a teaching perspective. A significant number of health and safety trainers, professionals and students seem to be unaware of the good handling technique advocated in guidance that came from a commissioned study by the Institute of Occupational Medicine.

They mistakenly believe that keeping the back straight is ‘correct’. My paper addressed this perception and advocated possible solutions.

By creating an opportunity for members to embark on action research projects, IfL has provided a platform for outstanding CPD options; empowered teachers in FE and skills to develop their own research and publication skills; and equipped them to undertake more research. This will help to address the current lack of university-led research that focuses on FE, compared with schools and higher education.

The programme has helped me develop research and publication skills for future work, which, in turn, will improve my role as a health and safety practitioner and teacher. It has also helped me achieve something beyond my dreams — studying at the University of Oxford.

Jonathan Backhouse, occupational safety and health practitioner, qualified teacher and author

Yorkshire students cleared of sex charges

Three men have been cleared of sexually assaulting a Yorkshire college student.

They were acquitted at Hull Crown Court of attacking the 18-year-old woman last September at Bishop Burton College in East Riding.

Thomas Price, 21, of Rotherham, was accused of rape and assault by penetration, Stephen Johnson, 22, of Tickton, was accused of sexual assault and assault by penetration and William Robinson, 20, of Doncaster, was accused of assault by penetration.

All three, who had won scholarships at the college, insisted they had engaged in consensual sex.

They, along with the woman, had been suspended from the college after the allegations were made.

Judge David Tremberg told them: “That’s the end of the matter and you can leave this court without a stain on your character.”

College principal Jeanette Dawson said: “The care and welfare of our students is incredibly important. We have tried, throughout this process, to do the right thing based on the information at hand and have offered all possible support in a difficult period.

“The female student was suspended from the college while the investigation was conducted by the police, but was reinstated once this was concluded.”

Foundation appoints first board members

The Education and Training Foundation has named its first board members.

The seven men and women who will help to steer the organisation, formerly known as the FE Guild, to set professional standards across the sector, include Don Hayes MBE, chief executive of voluntary skills consortium Enable, Lynsi Hayward-Smith, head of adult learning and skills at Cambridge County Council, and John Hyde, co-founder and executive chairman of HIT (Hospitality Industry Training).

Joining them will be Chris Jeffrey, strategy and policy adviser for General Physics (UK) Ltd Skills Training Academy, Asha Khemka OBE, principal of West Nottinghamshire College, Peter McCann, principal of Kirklees College, and Mark White, vice-chair of Stockton Riverside College.

The appointments were put forward by foundation members the Association of Colleges, the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, the Third Sector National Learning Alliance, and the Association of Adult Education and Training Organisations (HOLEX).

The board will now appoint an independent chair and up to five more specialist directors “to encompass all the independent skills, competencies and diversity needed for the board to fulfil its role”, said a spokesperson for the foundation, due to launch in August.

She added that discussions around learner representation on the board were “currently being addressed in partnership with the National Union of Students,” after the union campaigned on the issue.

David Hughes, the independent chair of the foundation’s shadow board and chief executive of the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education, said: “We’re building a very strong team.

“The insight and experience brought forward by this group will be invaluable as we move forward to develop the foundation’s mission and vision, and to agree the priorities and business plan for year one of the new organisation.

“Wider sector involvement of course remains key, and we are committed to continuing to engage with and listen to sector colleagues when determining the foundation’s strategy and decisions.

“I am confident that the new board will continue to work well with other sector bodies and organisations.”

The foundation spokesperson said the panel of unpaid members would meet four times a year to take forward the body headed by interim chief executive Sir Geoff Hall. It has government funding of £18.8m for its first eight months.

She added: “To ensure a rotation of board members, nominated directors will serve for fixed terms and, after the first couple of years, a proportion of the nominated directors will stand down at each annual general meeting.”

£400,000 pay-off to bosses angers union

London college bosses have been accused of “double standards” amid claims that former senior managers got pay-offs totalling more than £400,000 while other staff had been denied a pay rise.

Barnet and Southgate College gave former principal Marilyn Hawkins £203,000 in severance and related payments following the merger with Southgate College in November 2011, the University College Union (UCU) has claimed.

She received just under half of the £409,000 pay-off pot shared by six departing senior managers, said the union, which claimed to have referred the payments to the Public Accounts Committee and the National Audit Office.

It is further claimed that the college had failed to honour a nationally-agreed pay rise for staff of 0.7 per cent — a total of £173,000, and less than Mrs Hawkins’s pay off.

Meanwhile, the union said the college’s chair of governors had ignored repeated written requests for an explanation of the senior management pay-offs following the merger.

Chris Powell, UCU London regional official, said: “While former bosses share thousands of pounds, staff are denied a measly pay rise that won’t even cover the increase in their pension contributions.

“Staff pay at the college has fallen by 20 per cent in real terms in recent years, despite workloads rocketing. We do not believe spending more than £400,000 to pay six people off is a good use of taxpayers’ money.

“Our members at the college are deeply angered by the double standards demonstrated by the college and its failure to respond to their valid concerns.

“We are not convinced this is an appropriate use of public money and are referring the matter to the Public Accounts Committee and the National Audit Office.”

The union said the principal pay-off came to light after it had submitted a Freedom of Information request.

A spokesperson for the college said: “Barnet and Southgate College has been in discussion with the recognised trade unions regarding a possible staff pay award and is in the process of implementing a pay award.

“Since our merger, we have concentrated on harmonising terms and conditions that have resulted in staff receiving a total over £350,000 this financial year alongside other non-financial improvements to terms and conditions.

“Our priority has always been safeguarding the college’s current financial status to ensure the successful future of the college.

“With regard to salaries and payments for ex-senior members of staff, we are unable to provide any further comment.”

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SFA parachutes £15m in to K College

A struggling Kent college that is being broken up following a “failed merger” owes the Skills Funding Agency at least £15m, FE Week can reveal.

K College had received £3.2m in agency advances by November last year, on top of £11.7m of Invest to Save funds.

The situation is revealed in confidential minutes from a college meeting in December where it says the funding gave “a total debt to the agency of £14.9m”.

Principal Phil Frier said the agency’s “financial support” had allowed the college, whose agency allocation for the current academic year stands at £11.9m, to keep going as rival providers bid to take on its business.

An agency spokesperson said: “It is our priority to ensure funds are available for learners, so that they remain protected and can continue their learning with no
disruptions while the competition process takes place.”

The break-up of provision comes after the college, which was formed after a merger between West Kent College and South Kent College in 2010, ran into debts of £6m and was issued with a notice of concern by the agency.

However, the agency declined to say whether the debts would be transferred to the winning bidder.

“The competition process will run in two stages. The first stage invited expressions of interest and the second stage will invite selected organisations to submit a full tender for the future provision delivery requirements,” said its spokesperson.

“The prospectus sets out the financial position in relation to the commercial liabilities attached to each of the assets.

“We are not able to share any further information at this stage as this could potentially compromise the tendering process.”

News of the money owed to the agency comes just weeks after chief executive Kim Thorneywork revealed in the annual accounts that its current academic year budget of £4bn had been managed to within 1 per cent.

Mr Frier, who became K College principal in January following the resignation of Bill Fearon, said: “Obviously, K College is in the middle of a difficult period, and we are grateful to the agency for its financial support enabling the college to continue to provide teaching and support to our 13,000 students.

“I am pleased to say that we have now stabilised the situation and the college will be operating a break-even budget in 2013-14.

“The agency continues to run the competition for the provision of skills in the areas that K College serves.

“We understand the expressions of interest will be assessed over the coming weeks and those providers selected will progress to the invitation to tender stage in July.”

Seven parts of the college are on offer: 16 to 19 provision in Dover or Folkestone, or Ashford, Tonbridge and Tunbridge Wells grouped together; apprenticeship and 19+ provision in the same three areas; or Higher Education Funding Council for England directly-funded provision at Ashford and Tonbridge.

Details of the sell-off were listed in a sales prospectus from the agency, Education Funding Agency and the Higher Education Funding Council for England.

It listed a fixed-rate loan of £10m with maturity in 2038 and a shorter-term loan of £2.9m at the college’s Tonbridge site; a fixed-rate loan of £1.8m at its Ashford site and a fixed-rate loan of £500,000, both maturing in 2024.

Fifty providers had signed up to attend open days on May 22 and 23 at two of the college’s five campuses.

While the procurement was running, the agency declined to comment on the interest it had received about taking on the college provision.

“We reserve the right to maintain this position throughout the process,” said the agency spokesperson.

EFA ‘loses’ £20m to private providers

Private training providers were overpaid around £20m last year by the Education Funding Agency (EFA),
FE Week can exclusively reveal.

Around 10 per cent of the EFA’s 2011/12 budget for private sector provision for 16 to 18-year-olds was not returned, even though it wasn’t delivered.

A further 15 per cent — around £25m — was handed back.

An EFA spokesperson said it allowed providers to keep a certain amount of funding for which no provision had been delivered.

But, she said, it was not true that it had paid £20m to independent training providers “for nothing”.

“In 2010/11 and 11/12 we applied a 10 per cent margin for some independent providers where they under-delivered to reflect changes to the funding system in those years. This has been reduced to 5 per cent in 2012/13,” she said.

However, Shadow junior education minister Tristram Hunt called on Education Secretary Michael Gove to account for the £20m overpayment.

It comes just weeks after FE Week reported how the Department for Education (DfE) had cut its projected budget for 16 to 18 apprenticeships by £166m, in part because of “competition” from older applicants — who are funded by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) rather than DfE.

“This is another worrying sign of incompetence at the DfE. In a tough economic environment we simply cannot afford to be losing money like this,” said Mr Hunt.

“Every wasted pound is a pound that could have been spent on improving educational attainment for our young people. Instead, we have £20m that appears to be sitting in the bank accounts of private providers.

“Meanwhile, the government has a £166m under-spend on the young apprenticeships we need to boost our competitiveness, rebalance the economy and provide a high quality vocational pathway for the forgotten 50 per cent.

“Michael Gove needs to explain where this £20m has gone and get a grip on the chaos overwhelming his department’s finances.”

Paul Warner, Association of Employment and Learning Providers director of employment and skills, said: “The period in question relates to a time when the DfE was making changes to Foundation Learning that had some acknowledged issues at the onset.

“Therefore, we were seeing in effect some transition funding to protect the provider infrastructure from a serious shock which might have left provision short for young people in some geographical areas. The margin has now been reduced.”

The overpayment figures are not in the public domain, but have been seen by FE Week.

They provide a stark contrast to private training provider funding for older learners, paid for by the Skills Funding Agency (SFA) and BIS.

The SFA makes the details of its overpayments public, but it pays private training providers strictly on delivery. Its overpayment of £91m last year therefore ended up largely in the coffers of colleges and local authorities, for example.

Kim Thorneywork, the SFA’s chief executive, said the overpayment — revealed in December — meant some providers’ allocations for 2012/13 would be reduced, and she expected “to deliver a balanced budget for the 2012/13 financial year”.

It is not known the extent to which the EFA overpaid non-private training providers, such as colleges and local authorities, for 16 to 18 provision.

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Editorial: Money for nothing?

The EFA did not need to pay private companies £20m more than the value of their 16 to 18 delivery

They refer to ‘changes to the funding system’ as the rationale.

Presumably this relates to ending the ‘entry to employment’ scheme of short employability courses, and replacing them with the larger and longer ‘foundation learning’ programmes that Ofsted recently criticised.

So private providers delivering part-time courses were given an allocation boost in advance of running longer and more expensive courses.

Should the fact that many of these more expensive courses never materialized justify overpayments?

To put it another way: how much of the £20m has left the sector in dividend payments to grateful company bosses?

As reported in FE Week the National Audit Office is conducting a review of the EFA, so the question should be asked.

Before then, the Public Accounts Committee and Education Select Committee might like to question Michael Gove.

Nick Linford, editor