The government go-ahead for FE colleges to recruit 14-year-olds from school is to be applauded, says Mike Hopkins

The government’s decision to let FE colleges recruit 14-year-olds from schools is great news for students and FE.

A good number of students will benefit from high-quality vocational learning while continuing a broad education within the national curriculum. They will be able to pursue vocational options in colleges that have capital expenditure available, equipment and staff with great industry skills. This decision has really opened  up the system for those that realise that this is the best option for them.

I got involved with the proposal  after reading Alison Wolf’s review that recommended colleges recruit directly at 14 to improve the quality and status of vocational education in England.

The Department for Education asked the Association of Colleges to look at any barriers to such a change to see if they could be removed without primary legislation being altered – and I  ended up as co-chair of its college implementation group.

I think Alison Wolf is courageous and I respect her work. In my experience she’s prepared to say what she thinks, based on the evidence in front of her.

I feel really moved to have been involved with this and think it’s the single most important announcement and structural change FE has experienced. I can’t think of anything bigger.

This government sees competition as a driver for improvement”

After the Second World War the odd FE college started to recruit students for A levels. There were  few youngsters coming through to take an academic route;  now 43 per cent of full-time students aged 16 to 18 are college-based  with just 26 per cent schools-based.

I suspect that over the next decade or two there’ll be a similar shift, particularly if colleges deliver this change well, with quality and integrity.

This is a courageous decision and a real game changer.  I suspect ministerial frustration at how much money goes into the sector and the variability in performance that comes out helped it to be made.  This government sees competition as a driver for improvement. And while you can criticise competition, when FE was taken away from local authority control and pushed out into the big bad world to create partnerships and to compete where appropriate, the quality of services available to students and employers was driven up significantly.

Ministers have a right to put safeguards in place so I support the conditions imposed on colleges to be able to recruit. Only those  rated  by Ofsted as outstanding, good or satisfactory with improving results can do so. There also must be separate 14 to 16 leadership.

Ultimately it’s good for the sector to have individuals from school backgrounds with the temperament and approach to meld and blend with the FE environment.  These assets will add to the breadth of a college.

However, Shadow Education Minister Karen Buck’s comments that colleges are adult environments and children might not get enough pastoral care were disappointing.

In the past you could probably accuse colleges of this, but that disappeared 20 years ago and we now have a massive experience of pastoral care.

I’ll do everything I can to encourage the Labour party to come to this position.  This is a great opportunity for students but it’s absolutely vital the sector delivers it well.

Mike Hopkins is
principal of Middlesbrough College 

Colleges and partnerships need each other to make sure that local accountability improves rather than undermines the emphasis on employment skills, says Lynne Sedgmore

The Autumn Statement promises that the government will “seek to increase the proportion of spending that is awarded through the single funding pot for transport, housing, skills and getting people back to work…” The intention of this, of course, is a more localised planning agenda; the danger is that not everyone may prioritise skills.

Colleges are the natural place to start if you want a localised skills strategy. They have extensive experience of working with local employers, and the facilities and expertise to translate employer needs into a responsive curriculum. Employment outcomes for learners have long occupied the thinking and actions of good FE professionals, and an enhanced education and employment partnership to define and respond to such need has to be the most effective way forward.

So the recommendation that colleges be represented on LEP boards and LEPs on college boards is welcome. Our own research in 2011 suggests that this representation was at best patchy, and recent evidence suggests that things have not really improved. It is a missed opportunity, perhaps, that the recommendation was not stronger.

The real issue, though, is less about representation and more about the profile, influence and impact that the skills agenda has in LEP discussions and strategies. Key to that must be that the partnerships understand how effective colleges are and that colleges are seen as genuine strategic partners, not just delivery arms.

Where colleges have a strong voice, some LEPs are already making an impact with an effective skills group communicating with and influencing the board. The government is right, though, to identify that LEPs themselves need development if they are to contribute effectively to the skills agenda.

Colleges have gone out of their way to establish and make these relationships work. New College Nottingham engaged its LEP as one of the first partners in its “big conversation” to tackle the city’s skills development needs; and it was the college’s model of strategic engagement that was followed when the city growth plan was developed. Bristol and Leeds City Colleges chair their respective LEP skills boards and have a strong influence in skills policy.

And Leeds City College, whose chair of governors chairs the Leeds LEP, recently won an “outstanding partner” award from the city council, partly in recognition of its engagement with the LEP and local employers.

As we are encouraged to have a greater involvement in the work of LEPs, it is worth remembering that not everyone sees them as the solution to the skills “problem”. Recent reports suggest that some business leaders are dissatisfied with the work of their LEP, and some SMEs, in particular, have reported that there is not enough focus on their needs. But the college sector can work with all stakeholders to form effective alliances, we are good at partnership.

Finally, LEPs need to develop their influencing skills so that they can help to shape the contributions of all the parties that contribute to the overall supply of skills, including higher education, schools and private employers. Talk of getting control of the adult skills budget misses the point, as funding from the SFA  is dwarfed by both private funds and the rest of the education system.

Actively involving and drawing on the significant expertise and resource of colleges will help LEPs to prepare for the greater challenge of influencing schools, universities and employers to ensure truly effective skills in their localities.

Lynne Sedgmore is
executive director of the 157 Group

An award-winning programme to support race equality and career development should become part of the mainstream, not just an add-on, says Rajinder Mann

Whether you are a high-achieving lecturer with your sights set on being a college principal or a young offender with a determination to quit crime, you share a number of basic needs – as inquiry after inquiry into the shape and future of FE keeps reminding us.

The 2005 Foster review of FE said it, as did this year’s Lingfield review of professionalism in the sector. You need the self-esteem and self-confidence that raises aspiration and turns that desire into something concrete. Moreover, you need the support and mechanisms to sustain it – particularly if you are black, Asian or from a minority ethnic (BME) group.

This week, the Network for Black Professionals was thrilled to hear that our  Black Leadership Initiative® (BLI) – our training and development arm – has won The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Volunteering Award 2012. We won it for our national mentoring programme to support race equality and career development which, in ten years, has trained 600 mentors and 500 mentees and contributed to increasing the number of black college principals from four to 16.

The programme emerged from the Commission for Black Staff in Further Education to address the under-representation of BME staff in senior positions within colleges. Building on the success in FE, we developed the work shadowing programme in schools with Ofsted and the National College for School Leadership.

“Our toolkit for mentoring gives pointers to understanding different groups and cultural values”

Forty participants became heads and deputies, an increase of 13 per cent in those promoted. The National College sees it as a flagship programme.

We have extended our work in partnership with National Offender Management Service (NOMS) and raised awareness of the importance of mentoring to help young offenders turn their lives around and reduce recidivism. To spread the work wider we have produced a toolkit for mentoring, which gives pointers to understanding different groups and cultural values.

As our experience shows, such developments take time, whether for aspiring principals or young offenders. In his 2005 review, Sir Andrew Foster acknowledged this and said: “Workforce training, such as that developed through the Black Leadership Initiative needs to become more widespread.” Likewise, this year, Lord Lingfield stressed the importance of mentoring – which is at the heart of our operations – for newly qualified teachers and those coming in to teach from outside of FE.

We need more programmes for the future structured in this way and seen as a resource, not just as an add-on and not just for BME staff. It is about more than staff development, it is about engaging hearts and minds, with successful people willing to give something back – people such as the late Reg Chapman, former principal of Blackpool and The Fylde College.

Thanks to the efforts   of the likes of Reg – who volunteered and trained as a mentor in 2004  – more than 100 principals in England have joined the leadership mentoring programme.

Reg said: “The mentoring training was among the best training I have ever encountered in my career. It was fun, professionally organised, challenging and insightful. It gave me a range of mentoring skills and insights I have used over the years in working with many BME mentees.”

Mark Flynn, former principal of South Derbyshire College, said: “I have been on other race equality programmes and I have been made to feel part of the problem. On this programme, I feel empowered to be part of the solution.”

So join us in celebrating the Queen’s Award. It is an honour to receive it. It is a tribute to the dedicated and committed mentors who give their time so generously, the staff team who work tirelessly to deliver the programmes and our very supportive board members. But the greatest honour would be if this programme became mainstream across sectors.

Rajinder Kaur Mann, OBE is executive director of the Black Leadership Initiative 

The success of a college needs to be measured in broader terms than success rates alone, says Daniel Khan

When I was a principal of a large college of FE and HE, my managers, governors and I looked at the chief inspector’s annual report  to give us a qualitative position of the sector and one more source of information that we could benchmark our own performance against.

This year’s annual report indicates that nearly two thirds of colleges are good or outstanding.

This is a robust and sound result when the inspection framework is changing and more challenging, and  colleges are needing  to diversify and maximise their funding streams and re-examine, revisit and restate their missions.

The annual report no longer provides a view of the quality and health of provision in the sector since it is now driven by a risk-based approach; outcomes therefore are skewed towards the more challenged end of the spectrum, where work continues to be done.

The inspections also do not any longer reflect the whole of a college’s provision, which means that much positive and vibrant work may be missed.

The new Common Inspection Framework places a high priority on the quality of teaching and learning and the role that leadership and management has in raising standards.

No one can argue with this sentiment but there is little discussion and information on the methodology used to arrive at the inspectors’ judgments – and we all recognise that teaching and learning is, in part, an art and not a science!

Therefore I support and endorse the view that the success of a college needs to be measured in broader terms than by success rates on qualifications alone.

The report highlights the variability in the schools sector and some examples of strong improvement are highlighted, but some areas are still struggling.

Colleges need the flexibility to respond to what learners both need and want”

Many colleges are working with their school partners to share experiences and practices to ensure that students are ready for the new and modern economy. We understand to move forward we have to be true to ourselves.

Education Secretary Michael Gove continues to ignore FE; Labour, at its annual conference, called for a gold standard qualification for young people to aim for, the Technical Baccalaureate.

That means every young person studying English and maths until 18 alongside more rigorous vocational courses, higher apprenticeships and a quality work experience placement.

What about the deal for adult learners? Are there enough adults getting the quality provision that they deserve?

Colleges need the flexibility to respond to what learners both need and want; and the government must ensure that the right incentives and funding systems are in place to support good and outstanding learning.

NIACE agrees that judging providers on their success rates alone is poor proxy for the attainment of real skills that are valued by employers.

There is also an agreement that sustained employment is a key outcome – hopefully, recent announcements on the links between the employment and skills systems will support this.

Adult learning is important for communities, it improves health and civic engagement and job opportunities.

A mature sector recognises that all is not perfect and seeks partnerships to drive up standards.  But let us not forget that change continues at a staggering pace and we should not lose the significant gains made. The journey to excellence is endless…

Professor Daniel Khan is chief executive
of the Open College Network

Partnerships are the right groups to bind together local employers and FE, says David Frost

The Chancellor’s Autumn Statement makes it clear that local enterprise partnerships are being positioned as the body to drive forward local economic growth.

There is a growing understanding at the heart of government that while it has a responsibility to set a strategy for national economic growth, it should be left to local business and civic leaders to determine the obstacles that inhibit growth at a local level, and then work with local partners to remove those barriers.

LEPs understand the strengths and weaknesses of their economies and their local communities, which means that key policy decisions can be made locally.

The skills issue, particularly employability skills, is at the heart of their agenda and they will have a new and clear role in setting strategies for their area. Chartered status for FE colleges and providers will be dependent on having taken account of the skills priorities of LEPs.

In addition, the government will encourage LEPs to have a seat on colleges’ governing bodies, with colleges represented on LEP boards.

LEPs will also be able to determine how the EU Common Strategic Framework funds, including the European Social Fund, are used locally and, where appropriate, they will be able to bring bidders together to access the expanded £340m Employer Ownership Pilot.

The current structures are not delivering the skills that employers need”

Many LEPs are already working closely with their FE sector and local employment and skills boards, and work closely with providers and colleges to form strategies. This will ensure that local people have the skills they need to access local jobs . . . and local business have the local labour force to meet their future needs.

Many boards are currently undertaking a skills audit as any decisions must be based on evidence. It will also be important for them to be able to work in a way which has the most impact locally.

Again, I have been encouraged by innovation in FE. The new freedoms to recruit at 14 and to sponsor academies, studio schools and UTCs, have enabled the more forward thinking to position themselves at the heart of  local education. The Gazelle group is driving forward the entrepreneurship agenda.

In difficult economic times, we must ensure that we spend every pound wisely. That means that as much as possible hits the ground and is not soaked up in a bureaucracy that could all too easily swamp skills delivery.

This country has had a dysfunctional skills system for too long. Despite the billions that have been spent over the past decade, too many employers say that the current structures are not delivering the skills that they need.

And too many say that, even in a time of high unemployment, they have jobs that they cannot fill.

The recent announcements are a start in building a system that binds together local employers and wider FE for the benefit of local communities.

Importantly, there is a real urgency and desire to sort out the problem of skills, once and for all.

David Frost CBE is chair
of the LEP Network

To read Steve Sawbridge’s view on LEPs click here