College principal appointed as AoC deputy chief executive

A new deputy chief executive has been appointed to the Association of Colleges (AoC).

Gill Clipson, principal of Amersham and Wycombe College, will replace Lesley Davies who left the AoC to become Director of Quality and Standards at Pearson.

The announcement follows an unsettled time for the AoC, which has been making voluntary and compulsory redundancies as part of a cost saving and restructuring process, as reported in FE Week in May.

Gill held a number of senior management positions before joining Amersham and Wycombe, one of the largest educational institutions in Buckinghamshire, made up of over 2,000 full-time and over 5,000 part-time students. The college which specialises in the arts was ranked as satisfactory — a grade three, by Ofsted who last inspected the institution in 2011.

Gill has worked nationally on the quality and improvement agenda and has also worked as an inspector. She is a trustee on the Board of Creative and Cultural Skills and has worked with the Peter Jones Enterprise Academy since its inception. She was a board member of the Buckinghamshire Economic and Learning Partnership as well as a principal on the Gazelle Colleges Group which aims to “transform colleges through entrepreneurship”.

The AoC employs over 100 members of staff, as well more than 30 staff at three sister organisations located in separate regions.

An AoC spokesperson said: “The AoC can confirm that Gill Clipson, currently principal at Amersham and Wycombe College, is being appointed as our deputy chief executive, subject to the usual negotiations around a start date.”

At the time of going to press Gill Clipson was unavailable for comment.

 

Skills Commission search for a ‘Google College’ future

A group of cross-party MPs and leading figures from the further education sector have called on multinational companies and colleges to join forces  to help “awaken” the “sleeping giant” of FE.

The report, published today by the Skills Commission, urges companies to buy stakes in FE providers – creating new branded colleges, such as a ‘Google College’ or ‘Dyson College’.

Co-chaired by former Education Select Committee chair, Barry Sheerman MP, and chair of the Learning and Skills Improvement Service, Dame Ruth Silver, the Commission’s report follows a six-month inquiry and urges colleges to do more to adapt to local businesses’ needs and encourage investment.

Mr Sheerman said there was a “vast untapped pool of talent” in colleges that, with high quality leadership and management, could transform communities.

“The FE Sector is described by some as a sleeping giant,” said Mr Sheerman.

“Let us work together and awaken its full potential. We believe FE colleges could play a much bigger role in driving local and regional economic growth, skills and employment.

To do this colleges needed to become known as providers of “first class specialist training that fully understand the needs of their local businesses and clients”, he said.

The report sets out ten key recommendations calling for The UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES) to investigate what incentives could best encourage large firms to invest in FE.

It said vocational courses could be adapted to meet the specific needs of businesses local to colleges and urges the government to create a publicly backed loan scheme which could ensure colleges had the most up-to-date facilities.

Building on Lord Heseltine’s growth review, the report also called for the creation of a network of ‘McKinsey Colleges’  — named after a leading global consultancy firm — to provide business development services to small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

“We want employers to think of colleges as ‘first choice specialists, not as second best generalists’,” Mr Sheerman said.

The report’s ten recommendations:

  1. Ofsted should review technical and vocational provision across FE.
  2. The Institute for Learning and LSIS should examine professional development in FE.
  3. The UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES) should consider the role of specialisation in the next phase of the Employer Ownership Pilots.
  4. UKCES should consider how large firms can be encouraged to invest in FE.
  5. UKCES should undertake an audit of specialist infrastructure, facilities and equipment across the FE sector.
  6. The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) should look into a government backed loan scheme to support the specialist infrastructure, facilities and equipment within FE.
  7. The Technology Strategy Board should review the take up of Knowledge Transfer Partnerships and consider how providers can be encouraged to take up more of these.
  8. The Association of Colleges (AoC) and Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) should review the number of providers that offer business development services and the funding gained from these.
  9. AoC and AELP should develop a set of best practice guidelines for business development services offered by FE providers.
  10. The BIS Select Committee should consider the role of specialist providers in regional and local economic development.

Signs of survival for the Skills Funding Agency

Business Secretary Vince Cable has rejected proposals that would call time on the Skills Funding Agency (SFA).

This comes despite the former Tory deputy Prime Minister, Lord Heseltine, recommending the agencies responsibilities should be devolved to regions through local enterprise partnerships.

In a question and answer session at the Association of Colleges (AoC) annual conference Dr Cable said he was happy with current funding arrangements for colleges and that some of Lord Heseltine’s proposals would lead to unnecessary complications.

“What we don’t want to do in a sector, where there’s sensible college funding, is to create another tier of bureaucracy. To create a model for transferring money en masse is simply not going to happen,” Dr Cable said.

A spokesperson for the Department of Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) said it was still looking at Lord Heseltine’s evidence and would respond shortly. “There are a number of far-reaching recommendations regarding the UK’s ability to compete in Lord Heseltine’s independent report,” a spokesperson said.

“These are Lord Heseltine’s views, and the government now needs time to consider these recommendations and hear the views of business and other stakeholders.”

BIS decline to comment on the future of the SFA.

We’ve already had to adapt so many times and it creates a phenomenal amount of extra work.”

Julian Gravatt, the AoC’s assistant chief executive, said it was good to see ministerial support for the SFA funding model.

“A shift to funding through local authorities, or LEPs, as set out by Lord Heseltine, would add extra complication to an already intricate funding system,” he said.

“We are not convinced that LEPs would be capable of taking on an enhanced role, which if instigated, would no doubt require a costly re-organisation at a time when budgets for further education and skills are already being cut.”

Eileen Cavalier, an associate member of the parliamentary group for skills and employment, and chief executive of the London College of Beauty Therapy, said the SFA should remain and branded Lord Heseltine’s proposals “totally impractical”.

“In theory Lord Heseltine’s recommendations sound good, but in practice they wouldn’t work. I don’t see how local enterprise partnerships would be able to cope with the volume of that administration, with the wide range of providers involved,” she said.

“It would massively complicate things for the provider. We deliver nationally on some programmes, if funding was split up regionally, how would it work from a provider’s point of view?

“In my time, we’ve gone from the Further Education Funding Council, replaced by the Learning and Skills Council in 2001, which became the Young People’s Learning Agency, and now it’s the Education Funding Agency and SFA. We’ve already had to adapt so many times and it creates a phenomenal amount of extra work.”

More light may be shed on the future of the agency next Wednesday when Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, sets out the government’s budget plans in his autumn statement.

Hampshire students trek out of their comfort zones

Trekking in the Himalayas, riding on elephants and visiting Buddhist temples were all part of an adventure of a lifetime for a group of Hampshire students.

Alton College students spent a year working and fundraising to save £2,000 each for a 10-day trip to Nepal in October.

Among the 31 students who flew to Asia was Daisy Van der Lande, 17, from Selborne.

“I had such an amazing time,” she said. “Going to Nepal taught me that it’s really important to get stuck in and learn about another culture. There are so many different ways of life out there, and sometimes it takes being somewhere completely different that takes you out of your comfort zone to make you stop and appreciate what’s around you. I never did that before at home.”

The adventure has given Daisy a thirst for travel and after finishing her A-levels she plans to take a gap year to explore South America, before studying English literature and history of art at university.

The trip was organised with travel company True Adventure, but the students planned what they were going to do, and booked transport and accommodation.

Daisy’s favourite part of the trip was trekking in the Himalayas. “The scenery is incredible — television doesn’t do it justice at all,” she said. “You feel so small in comparison to these mountains, they’re ridiculously big, there’s no feeling like it. You’ll be looking at one that’s the other side of the valley and you’ll be thinking, oh, that’s a tiny little hill, but actually it’s 5km above you. It’s quite humbling.

“We stayed in tea houses, which are like B&Bs, just four walls and a tin roof. They’re run by families, and we got to know the owners and played with the children. It was very one-to-one and personal, which was lovely.”

One of the hardest parts of the trek said Daisy was when two students became very ill with food poisoning.

“That hit us on the evening of the second day of the trek,” she said.

“The next day we had a really hard day, and half way through the whole team got together and worked out how we could get these people up the mountain. We carried their bags, and each of them had someone stood behind pushing them up, and another person in front pulling them forward. We got them to the top and it was freezing. That evening over dinner we had a heart to heart and everyone just broke down.”

“Then we had to decide whether to go on to Poon Hill. The leaders had decided the two people were too ill to go on, so we had to decide whether to carry on without them, or cut the trek short and miss the sunset on Poon Hill, which apparently is one of the most amazing sun sets you can ever see in the world.

“It was possibly the hardest decision that any of us had ever had to make, because you have to decide whether you want to stay as a team, or see this incredible sight. We decided to go down. It was definitely the right decision.”

Art and design lecturer Ivan Bicknell joined the students on the trip. “Out of everything I do at the college, it’s the thing where I see the learning taking place more than anywhere else,” he said.

“The life skills they learn goes way beyond what you can ever do in a classroom. It’s fantastic; they grow so much and change a lot. It teaches them about taking on responsibility, leadership, working as a team and supporting each other.

“It gives them a lot of confidence. They will reap the rewards.”

Having a laugh raising money for charity

Staff and students at West Nottinghamshire College dug deep in their pockets for Children in Need.

Top of the bill was comedy improvisation from performing arts students in the 150-seat Create Theatre at the Derby Road campus. The theatre was sold out for two nights as the students raised a laugh — and some cash (the students’ union was determined to raise more than £2,000, beating last year’s total of £1,655).

Student Daniel Salmon said: “To put a skill we learn in college into something fantastic like raising money for Children in Need is terrific. It makes you feel amazing.”

Molly Murdoch said: “It wasn’t easy — it was quite tricky to get it all prepared in time and get everyone together, but I think we pulled it out of the bag.”

Tutor Andy Dobb said: “The students really impressed us with how quickly and creatively they responded to the union request to put on a comedy show for this good cause. They should be very proud.”

Other activities to bring in the pennies included visits to other college campuses by Pudsey Bear, Children in Need’s mascot, and the college’s Butterflies day nursery staff donning their pyjamas. Students also sold Pudsey merchandise and cakes and organised a quiz, as well as a prize tombola and bingo game.

BBC Dragon’s Den star inspires students

Staff and students at Warwickshire College had a hectic “entrepreneurial week”.

It all kicked off when Julie Meyer, the founder of Ariadne Capital and a Dragon in the BBC’s online Dragons’ Den, visited the college’s Rugby centre. She talked to students before receiving business pitches from two groups from the college’s Peter Jones Enterprise Academy.

In her speech she stressed that the new world of venture capitalism was not about who had the money, but about entrepreneurs and ideas.

Student Lucy Ward, 17, said: “I thought it was really inspirational. I learned about how she planned as she went along and not be in the mindset of making money, just to do everything step-by-step.”

Other areas of the college also took on the enterprise spirit with great enthusiasm.

Construction students won a bid to refurbish old sash windows at Moreton Morrell, m otor maintenance students offered winter car checks and valeting services, and art students raised nearly £1,000 at an arts bazaar.

There was also the opportunity for students to get information on business start-up loans, get involved in workshops on setting up businesses, and take part in networking events.

Footballers tackle men’s health issues

November becomes Movember for many men as they valiantly grow moustaches to raise money for charity. Staff at Middlesbrough College got in on the action — with support from two Middlesbrough Football Club players who helped to raise awareness of men’s health, including prostate and testicular cancers.

No subject was too tough to tackle for players Rhys Williams and Curtis Main.

Changing room banter, team talks, the size of the crowd and away fans’ chants were just some of the subjects covered during a question and answer session.

“I’ve known a few Aussie footballers who’ve had scares relating to testicular cancer, and I’d tell anyone to get themselves to the doctor when they first suspect something might be wrong,” said Rhys, 24.

Middlesbrough College FC coach and former Boro player Neil Maddison also pitched in at the event, with comedian John Ryan.

The get-together featured moustaches of every shape and size, including impressive facial adornments sported by Tom Metcalfe, college project manager, Alister Wrigley, commercial catering manager, and Steve Ankers, deputy director of construction — all members of the college’s “Mo Bros”, a group who started November clean-shaven but who have groomed their facial hair for the past month.

Sports hall renamed to honour Olympian

A sports hall at Chesterfield College has been renamed to honour Olympic gold medallist Jessica Ennis. The heptathlete, who visited the college for the first time this month to open its new “heart space”, library, and guidance centre, said that she felt “very special”.

The college’s performing arts students gave a concert before Jessica took part in a question and answer session. She then toured the new building that will provide students with a space to study, eat, socialise and receive advice on their studies and career path.

Then it was a case of seeing double at the renamed sports hall when former art student Pete Barber of Urban Canvas presented his mural of Jessica for the hall corridor (see picture).

She ended her visit with sports staff and students who were holding athletics sessions with local primary pupils. Jessica said she was impressed by the new building — “it looks really bright and modern. It’s nice to see what they’ve done, it looks amazing.”

Principal Trevor Clay said students would now have a bright, modern, informal space in which they could study and socialise. “It feels like the heart of the college, hence its name ‘heart space’. Everyone is delighted that Jessica was able to launch the facility for us.”