Science students scoop up awards

Young biology and chemistry boffins from Stockton Riverside College (SRC) Bede Sixth Form in County Durham collected gold, silver and bronze medals in the British Biology and Chemistry Olympiads.

The national competitions, run by the Society of Biology and the Royal Society of Chemistry, are open to students studying post-16 sciences

James Fryatt won gold in biology and silver in chemistry; Ben Ryan won silver for chemistry and was commended for biology; Jessica Holmes got bronze for chemistry; Helen Robertson got bronze for biology and Hannah Holmes was highly commended for biology.

Dr Richard Spencer, head of biology at SRC Bede Sixth Form, said: “We’ve known for a long time that our science students are up there with the best in the UK. Now we’ve proved it.”

Featured image caption: The science of winning: Ben Ryan, Helen Robertson, both 17, James Fryatt, Hannah Holmes and Jessica Holmes, all 18

Hitting the high notes in Wiltshire

Students from the South West helped their lecturer to strike a chord in an innovative musical video project.

Wiltshire College lecturer Patrick Williams was one of 20 people from around the world to sing in a virtual choir via Skype.

Their performance of Eric Whitacre’s Seal Lullaby was produced and edited by creative digital media students Shannon Mayo, Matt Gray, Henry Ahtom and Charlotte Hide, all aged 20.

Charlotte said: “It has been so interesting connecting people across the world through music and has expanded our knowledge and skills.”

The choir was formed by Eric Whitacre, a Grammy-winning composer, to sing live via Skype with an on-stage choir at the Technology, Education and Design (TED) conference in March.

The choir member were inspired to form their own group, Cantores Connexi.

Patrick said: “The whole experience has been wonderful.”

Featured image caption: Wiltshire College lecturer Patrick Williams (bottom right corner) in the video with the other members of the Cantores Connexi online choir

Sports student in a league of his own

A Rochdale sports student is in rugby heaven after signing a professional contract with St Helen’s Rugby League Football Club — nicknamed the Saints.

Jack Ashworth, 17, is in his second year of a BTec diploma in sport, at Hopwood Hall’s rugby academy, which allows him to split his time between training and studying.

Jack said: “I have really enjoyed my time at Hopwood Hall …  It has been hard work but I knew it would be worth it in the end.

“Now that I have earned my first pro contract, my next goal is to get a super league squad number with the first team.”

Jack’s college tutor, Matt Calland, recommended him to the Saints’ development staff.

He said: “If Jack keeps up the hard work I think he could develop into a full-time Super League player.”

Featured image caption: Jack Ashworth has been signed to Rugby Super League outfit St Helen’s

Boxing champ steps into the ring

Former world champion boxer Barry McGuigan has opened a new £5m college sports centre in Berkshire.

The boxing legend joined East Berkshire College principal Katie Webb and chair of governors Tony Dixon at the opening ceremony, and later made time to sign autographs, answer questions and give advice to young boxers.

He said: “The college is doing some great work here and the new facilities will enable more young people in this area to get involved in sports like boxing.”

Visitors to the opening had the chance to watch and to take part in a variety of activities that showcased the centre’s facilities, including five-a-side football, a street-dance class and a series of boxing demonstrations.

Sports students on the college’s coaching course also ran a football skills session for schoolchildren.

Featured image caption: From left: boxing coach Ian Bailey, students Shahid Hussain, Muzammil Adam, both 16, Karol Zielinski, 19, and Ihsan Kahn, 16, with boxing legend Barry McGuigan at the new £5m Sports Centre at East Berkshire College

An ace for Birmingham’s bull

Young designers from Birmingham gave the city centre’s iconic bull statue a tennis makeover in time for the Aegon Classic women’s tennis tournament due to be held in the city just before Wimbledon.

South and City College Birmingham HND fashion students Leigh-Anne Rogers, 25, Natalie Segelov, 18, and Minna Watson, 22, spent three weeks creating an outfit of t-shirt, shorts, sweatband and tennis racket.

Eileen Simons, assistant director of fashion at South & City College Birmingham, said: “The project has been a tremendous challenge for our students and is a great achievement, broadening and diversifying their skills and knowledge of the eclectic nature of the industry; one day a catwalk and the next day a bull.”

All the fabric for the project was sourced from Birmingham’s Rag Market.

Tim Walley, general manager at the Bullring shopping centre, said: “I’ve no doubt that this new outfit is sure to be a hit with our customers.”

Featured image caption: From left: Leigh-Anne Rogers, fashion tutors Jessica Lench and Eileen Simons, Natalie Segelov and Minna Watson

Giving every woman the chance to reach her potential

Women dominate the FE workforce, but only 41 per cent of principals are women – and even fewer chair governing bodies. The Women’s Leadership Network is determined this will change, as Eleanor Radford reports

How more women can make it to the top in FE topped the agenda at a recent Women’s Leadership Network (WLN) conference in London.

Navy commander Polly Hatchard, entrepreneur Julie Meyer, and East Berkshire College principal Kate Webb told the more than 100 delegates the stories of their careers, while encouraging women to break through the glass ceiling in a profession in which they outnumber their male counterparts – except as principals and chairs.

A WLN report, Narrowing the Gap, was also launched at the Hallam Conference Centre event.

Skills Minister Matthew Hancock welcomed the research, which maps the steady increase of women principals over the past five years.

“FE has something to teach the rest of the economy,” he said.

“In FE there is a workforce that’s predominantly female – around two thirds – but just 41 per cent of college principals are women, and female chairs are less than a quarter. The system has a lot of advantages over the rest of the economy, but still has some way to go.”

He said the “best” boards and groups of problem-solvers were “normally the most diverse”.

“Evidence shows that diversity adds value to decisions. There is no greater determinant to the way we behave as individuals as our genders, but we too realise that there are fewer women in ministerial positions than there ought to be.”

From left: Entrepreneur Juli Meyer, Naval commander Polly Hatchard and Network Chair Sally Dicketts

He said flexible parental leave shared by men and women needed to become the “cultural norm” as it had less impact on a woman’s career.

“If it becomes normal that both take time off, that will go some way to changing the culture.”

He said the government would add the network’s research to the ongoing Review of Governance in FE, due next month. This would help “make sure the award for opportunity was equal” and that “progression for all” was available.

“As a result of this we will make sure we have more women in senior posts in FE. I’m committed to your goals, giving every woman the chance to reach her potential,” he added.

“Together, we can get there.”

Sally Dicketts, the network’s chair and principal of Oxford and Cherwell Valley College, announced that Marie-Thérèse McGivern, principal of Belfast Metropolitan College, as the winner of this year’s Inspiring Leader Award. She was presented a glass trophy by Professor Daniel Khan, chief executive of OCN London, which sponsored the award.

Mrs Dicketts said: “Since her appointment . . . Marie-Thérèse has provided inspirational leadership, steering the college through a turbulent period, leading significant change and successfully implementing a three-year improvement plan that involved major organisational restructuring, extensive change and progress in the college’s performance.

“Those who work with Marie-Thérèse say that her ability to galvanise support . . . has been critical. I believe she is an authentic leader and a very deserving winner of this year’s award.”

Ms McGivern said: “I have always been passionate about gender equality, and have benefited from positive role models and mentors over the course of my career.  Awards such as this from the WLN raise awareness of the need to encourage more women into leadership roles and, once there, the need to inspire and motivate other women to join them.”

Professor Daniel Khan presents Marie-Thérèse McGivern with her award

Featured image caption: Skills Minister Matthew Hancock addresses delegates

 

Ceremony marks the ‘wonderful things’ that tutors do

Adult Learners’ Week winners recently got together in London to thank their tutors. Rebecca Cooney was there

The dedication of FE tutors was honoured as part of Adult Learners’ Week (ALW) with a special celebration ceremony in central London.

David Hughes, the chief executive of the National Institute for Adult Continuing Education, said the event on May 20 – the first of its kind –  had been prompted by ALW award winners.

Every one had talked about their tutors, he said. “That sense that someone has actually invested in you and believes in you, which gives you the confidence to go on . . . it comes through time and time again.

“So I think it’s really fitting that we’re here to do something slightly different to traditional Adult Learners’ Week . . . to celebrate and recognise [tutors].”

ALW winners from previous years told the audience at the event, organised by NIACE and the Institute for Learning (IfL), how their tutors had inspired them.

Cheryl Powell, a former drug addict who won 2012 outstanding learner for the South West, praised her tutor Steve Murphy, who fought to secure her funding on The Prince’s Trust team skills course.

“Steve took the time to listen to me and understand what I needed, and he did all of this without even knowing he could get me on the course,” she said.

“For him to do that, and to believe in me, was a wonderful feeling and made me want to push more.”

Cheryl now works alongside Steve as a manager and trainer at the trust.

Steve said: “I saw Cheryl and thought, if we don’t intervene, who else is going to do it? I knew we could really make a difference.”

Lorraine Pearson, the 2011 London outstanding learner award winner, said that Sally Burridge and Daphne Carnegy, her tutors at City and Islington College,  had made a difference in the early stages of her return to learning as an adult.

“I felt I didn’t belong there until Sally made me feel that I did,” she said.

Lorraine initially enrolled on a forensics course, followed by a psychology and social anthropology course, before taking up ceramics as a way of relaxing.

Inspired by her tutors, she has bought a kiln to set up a social enterprise.

“I want to do work in the community, encouraging people who are like I was to… follow in my footsteps,” Lorraine said.

Army chef Herbert Goredema, who won the foundation degree award in 2010, also plans to start up a business after studying long distance with Westminster Kingsway College.

He is now facing redundancy and hopes to use his pay-off to start a contract catering business.

“My tutor Clare Mannall and her team spent a long time building up my confidence, from the foundation degree right up to my masters,” he said.

Baroness Helena Kennedy                     Army Chief Herbert Goredema talks to David Hughes

Outstanding learner of the year 2009, Frank Harris, who began training as a counsellor after spending years moving between prison, homelessness and addiction, struggled to find the right words to express his gratitude to his tutor Lucy Robson.

“I’ve never had a chance to thank Lucy for seeing a little bit of a light in me and encouraging me,” he said.

“My life’s been transformed because of Lucy. I can be a proper grandfather and a father and a brother now — Lucy, I’m really honoured to know you.”

Lucy echoed the humility of many of the tutors at the event.  “We just met Frank at the right moment,” she said.

“I think teachers are modest because it’s so enjoyable. We don’t want to take credit for such a nice job where you get to meet such great people.”

In her inaugural speech as patron of the IfL, Baroness Helena Kennedy told the ceremony: “What [tutors] are all doing is transforming lives, and it’s truly inspirational.

“Teachers are really doing wonderful things across our society, giving people second chances, helping them to develop themselves.”

Featured image caption: Steve Murphy and Cheryl Powell with Niace chief executive David Hughes

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.