The publication of the recent Local Government Association (LGA) report on a so-called “skills mismatch” in further education is deeply disappointing.
It represents a backward step to outdated and discredited approaches to labour market planning and threatens to undermine moves towards a more fruitful strategic co-operation between colleges and local authorities that we in the 157 Group have been seeking to encourage. If local authorities seriously think that it is practicable to manage the supply of courses on the basis of incomplete and imperfect statistics about jobs and vacancies they will find themselves seriously out of step with current thinking in vocational education.
The links between education and employment are complex and the public debate is not well served by oversimplifying them. In relation to jobs, for example, one needs to take into account opportunities for self employment as well as advertised vacancies; to take account of informal as well as formal channels of recruitment and reflect the fact that when employers recruit they do not always select using those qualifications that observers think that they should. Occupations differ in the extent to which they train and promote in house, and the extent to which they recruit young people rather than adults.
In relation to vocational education for young people, we need to remember that it is more than training in a narrow set of skills for current jobs. It is concerned to prepare them for a lifetime as citizens as well as employees; for a world in which they are likely to change jobs several times and where they will need regularly to update their skills: and as countless opinion surveys repeat “soft skills” such as attitude to work, adaptability and the willingness to learn are far more important to employers than specific skills or knowledge.
In the light of these complexities it is sad
that the LGA report continues to churn out tired stereotypes on the basis of highly imperfect data – by their own admission about two thirds of their qualifications data
cannot be neatly fitted into a sectoral analysis of occupations.
Those in further education know, for example, that hairdressing offers lots of opportunities for self employment and part-time work, and provides transferable skills that are valued in many other contexts,such as reception
and call centre businesses. It is no surprise to anyone who knows more than just statistics that industry doesn’t recruit health and
safety officers from 17-year-olds with shiny new certificates; and it doesn’t need much research to find out that there are more
vacancies per qualified individual in London than in the North East.
Local authorities have much to offer the learning and skills system if they step back from attempting to micro-manage provision. They have important roles in promoting economic development, in leading social regeneration and in helping shape and support communities. Working with employers and others in LEPs they have the potential to catalyse growth in their locality.
If they act as strategic partners to colleges sharing their aspirations and knowledge, and aligning their resources with those of the sector they will find that colleges are only too ready to respond; but if they hark back to the days when town halls tried to dictate course planning they will condemn themselves to sitting on the sidelines as decisions are taken elsewhere.
Lynne Sedgmore, Executive director of the 157 Group
Should FE colleges be allowed to charge their sub-contractors “management fees”?
That is charging external education providers for passing business their way if they are unable to fulfil a contract themselves.
For instance, a business needs to train new staff members in a certain skill, and seeks their local FE college for assistance. Unfortunately the college offers no such course, but knows of another local educator – or sub-contractor – who can do the job.
Here’s the rub though: there are documented cases of colleges charging sub-contractors as much as 50 per cent of the cost of the actual training merely for passing the business their way. For many reasons this is wrong.
The fact that they even charge a “passer’s fee” is, in the Forum’s view at least, a contentious issue. If they can’t provide the training themselves, then should what is essentially a public sector organisation be allowed to indulge in such shameless profiteering at the expense of private sector business? For it is small firms who ultimately pick up the tab as naturally costs are passed on.
If colleges are greedily taking bigger, and bigger slices of the pie then that has to impact on the overall quality of the training.
Colleges would no doubt argue that it’s a justifiable revenue generator given the austere times, when no doubt they are looking at all ways to bridge gaps caused by Government cuts.
Perhaps the real focus therefore, should be on the actual prices the FE colleges are charging – or allowed to charge. With prices as high as 50 per cent, some colleges are, frankly, adopting a blatant rip-off mentality as and when they can.
So what can be done about it?
The Skills Funding Agency does not impose a maximum percentage that the colleges can charge, but suggests it should not exceed 15 per cent. Even that’s generous for merely passing on someone’s details, most right-thinking people surely would agree.
The problem lies with the power of the colleges to simply do as they please. There is nothing to govern their behaviour that allows them to lord it over sub-contractors increasingly desperate for work.
This essentially goes against the fundamental practice of sub-contracting which should be a collaboration of equals – not one bossing the other about thanks to financial clout.
Whilst this practice might happen to a degree in certain private sector industries, there really is no place for it in the public sector.
It’s time that we had guidelines that govern what the colleges can charge.
Quite simply FE colleges should not be making huge profits at the expense of sub-contractors or businesses, the latter of whom are parting with money in good faith so that their staff are trained to the best possible standard.
If colleges are greedily taking bigger, and bigger slices of the pie then that has to impact on the overall quality of the training.
We would advise businesses to clarify with training providers exactly who will be carrying out the training they are paying for.
Most businesses would naturally assume that if they pay a college for training then it will be the college who does the work, not simply passing it to a sub-contractor as a means to make a quick buck via a crude passer’s fee.
Cutting out the middle man usually tends to save money.
It could be that FE colleges are finding themselves short of money in the current climate with government reining in spending, but it is certainly not for them to be milking the system to make a quick buck at the expense of other providers and ultimately the businesses paying for the training.
It’s time that we had guidelines that govern what the colleges can charge.
Robert Downes, policy advisor for Forum of Private Business
We asked a few FE heroes what they thought of our first year…
The further education and skills sector has always needed a voice. Somewhere to analyse the latest policy proposals, and ask the difficult questions when high quality teaching and learning is threatened. That’s why last summer I decided to launch a weekly newspaper and online website dedicated to covering the FE sector.
Over the last ten months the team at FE Week has investigated the most pressing issues in the sector, from short duration apprenticeships to falling Ofsted inspection grades. In each instance we’ve spent time talking to key stakeholders and listening to those who are most adversely affected.
The results have been overwhelming. The government has made countless U-turns on what we thought were immovable policies and consulted with the sector like never before. But life is never dull in the world of FE policy and implementation. FE loans are on the horizon, Ofsted are introducing a new inspection framework and two new ‘simplified’ funding systems for 16-19 and adult skills are being hotly debated.
The printed newspaper will be taking a break over the summer, although the website will continue to publish news. We’ll also look to see where we can refocus our efforts and expand coverage like never before.
Thank you to everyone who has supported the newspaper throughout this academic year. Onwards and upwards!
Nick Linford, managing editor and founder of FE Week
AN INVESTIGATIVE ANALYSIS OF WHAT’S GOING ON
FE week has transformed media coverage of FE by creating an outlet for detailed information and real investigative analysis of what’s going on under the surface of the sector. A sector champion such as FE Week has the capacity to build effective cross-sector campaigns.
The pressure it has built up around apprenticeship quality has been fantastic; this power can be carried across other education policy areas such as the introduction of FE fees and loans, and to celebrate the huge impact that student voice has on quality, retention and student experience in those providers that do it best.
In the absence of FE Week over the summer, we have to remember that policymaking does not end and that a busy summer is often the rug that policy changes are swept under. NUS will be spending the summer building towards a national demonstration against the bleak future faced by students of all ages and at all levels and I’d hope that FE Week readers will be joining us on November 21.
Toni Pearce, VP (FE) at the National Union of Students
IT HAS CREATED A REAL BUZZ AND FILLED A VOID
Well done to FE Week on completing its first academic year. Set against a backdrop of dwindling coverage of FE issues in the wider media, it has created a real buzz and filled a void for news specifically for our sector. I hope it will continue to be a voice for the FE community and to report on the good news and success stories, as well as outlining the challenges and changes ahead. These have been manifold over the past 12 months and show no signs of abating in 2012/13.
The sector will need to respond to the impact of planned changes to 16-19 funding and programmes of study, FE loans, and changes to the inspection framework, not to mention planned curriculum changes in A-levels and functional skills.
Despite this sometimes overwhelming agenda and reductions in public funds, the FE sector is rising to the challenge of developing the nation’s skills base to support the economic recovery. We hope colleges’ efforts will be aided by a better dialogue with policymakers and fewer distractions from ministers. ASCL and its affiliated association, PPC, will continue to put weight behind these efforts and to support colleagues individually.
Brian Lightman, general secretary of the ASCL
PROVIDING DETAILED COVERAGE OF THE SECTOR
With national media coverage of our sector becoming a distant memory, except when there is a scandal to report, FE Week has been a welcome addition to the debate surrounding FE and skills reform over the past 12 months. To borrow school governor parlance, it might be described as a “critical friend”, although it has arguably stretched the friendship a little too far on occasion!
But it is important to recognise the positive things about FE Week’s arrival, starting with the fact that it is filling a huge gap in providing detailed coverage of the sector and that launching a print publication of any kind in the current economic climate is brave.
The “FE Week Gets Technical” charts are an excellent innovation for those of us who sometimes only have a few minutes on a train to catch up on certain developments, while it is encouraging to see the space given over to stakeholders to offer their views on current issues.
Independent providers are also welcoming that their part of the sector is receiving regular coverage and, surprise, surprise, this means that they have started advertising in FE Week.
It is ironic, though, that I am making this contribution to an “end of term” issue when the work-based learning community will carry on working with young apprentices and employers throughout the summer as we fight to get Britain out of recession.
I would like to see the paper develop more of its analytical side over the coming months, yet overall AELP is very happy to work with FE Week to see it grow and contribute to ongoing debates in the sector.
Graham Hoyle, chief executive of AELP
POWERFUL INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM
It’s been a busy year for the FE and Skills sector, but then which year hasn’t been busy? There are many contentious issues facing FE, but we need to remember we are also presented with opportunities to work together, to shape the future, and to create our destiny.
One of the differences this year is that we have had FE Week accompanying us on every step of the journey. It is not often that a publication makes its mark as quickly as FE Week has, but the sector has welcomed having its own expert journal and powerful investigative journalism focused on the critical issues, however uncomfortable that may be at times. Alongside well-written articles, FE Week has provided a much needed opportunity and forum for the sector’s own leaders to engage in real debate about the big issues we face on a weekly basis.
The focus for the next academic year has to be on teaching and learning – improving and maintaining the quality of what our learners experience, particularly in the classroom or work environment and demonstrating the really innovative ways in which the sector gets the best out of people.
I hope that FE Week will help provide a platform for highlighting and debating evidence about effective practice which will inform the new Commission on Adult Vocational Pedagogy. The challenge of youth unemployment will continue to be a major concern during 2012/13 – read our new policy paper which has just been published (see page 9).
I wish all your readers a well-earned summer break, and hope they return fresh and energetic for a new academic year.
Lynne Sedgmore, executive director of the 157 Group
UNDOUBTEDLY, FE WEEK HAS FILLED A GAP
For working people, who care about learning and training, there are big issues looming. The move to FE loans is a great worry. Surely it is inconceivable that employers will start asking their over-24 level 3 apprentices to fund their own training out of a loan. But what about others? The BIS research shows a very mixed and uncertain picture.
The likely appetite for learning among older workers could plummet. Women and BME working people are more likely to be put off. Of course there are also upsides too, such as the opportunity to borrow to pursue long- cherished ambitions, just like HE students. But there must be a major communications drive and a readiness to tackle emerging problem areas with additional help and to think again.
Nobody can be content when 20 per cent of apprentices are not even receiving the Statutory Minimum Wage and a similar number report not getting the minimum SASE compliant training. It is welcome that NAS and BIS are now tackling this with urgency. So is Unionlearn. We will be campaigning for better enforcement and will highlight any abuses we find.
Undoubtedly FE Week has filled a gap. But one aspect of the paper is slightly depressing. The focus on technical issues, including micro adjustments to meet the funding formulae reflects, of course, the reality for colleges and other providers.
But I look forward to the day when FE Week carries just as many stories of imaginative, new provision; geared to meeting employment needs – enthusiastically supported by a new and more liberal funding regime with the active involvement of all social partners.
Tom Wilson, director of Unionlearn
HAS THE FEEL OF A WELL ESTABLISHED NEWSPAPER
Is this really only issue 36 of FE Week? It has the feel of a well-established newspaper that makes waves. It revealed inadequacies in apprenticeships that were at first denied by ministers and the National Apprenticeship Service and then, when the excuses ran out, acted on with moves to ban inadequate and unjustifiably short courses.
FE Week has its detractors as well as its admirers, but sets a high benchmark that it must maintain. I suggest three inter-related areas for critical attention in the coming year: leadership and governance, deregulation and financial survival – what people will do to keep their institutions going when faced with reduced funding.
Deregulation is sweeping through FE just when the full extent of damage from the failure to regulate banks and markets adequately is being exposed. Effective regulation should not be overbearing but supportive, nurturing effective leadership and governance at all levels.
However, to the current government, ideologically obsessed with “small government”, almost any level of regulation is anathema.
The consequent failure to be watchful resulted in the abuses and financial mismanagement of pockets of apprenticeship provision exposed by FE Week.
We’ve been here before. Almost 20 years ago, after college incorporation, politicians started with denials and were then forced to act on growing scandals that gave FE such a lasting bad reputation and led to the very regulations the Coalition Government is busy dismantling.
With less regulation, we need a vigilant fourth estate (FE Week) to keep close scrutiny on what institutions are doing to survive.
Denise Brown-Sackey describes further education as being in a constant state of flux and change. It’s why, as a natural survivor and “pretty fearless” leader, she’s the ideal principal for Newham College.
From the age of three, Denise grew up in local authority care. The experience gave her strength and an adaptability that is still with her to this day.
“I would see myself as being a care thriver,” she says.
“It was possibly traumatic at the time, but I built a resilience that enabled me to turn it into an experience.”
Denise and her sister were the “core” of a children’s home for 15 years. “You don’t become attached too easily,” she says.
“You develop skills to communicate with people, to get on with people and to do it in a way that you don’t become overly attached.
“I think that’s an important survival technique, particularly in a career, because if you become attached to a particular way of doing something or a particular idea, and it doesn’t work out, it can crush you.”
When I ask if she was academic at school, Denise says it was difficult to know. Her upbringing meant she had little emotional support or way of comparing her achievements.
“Expectations were zero,” she says.
“You go to school because you have to. There wasn’t any real expectation of achievement and by and large, lived up to that.”
However, Denise was bright and very able. She came out with good O-levels, far higher than the national average for children in care. It led to an ordinary national diploma in catering management at Tameside College of Technology, later opening up a route into higher education at Leeds Polytechnic.
But Denise says she often struggled to gain recognition for her academic ability. At the time social workers were keen to enrol care leavers on vocational courses because they thought it would improve their chances of finding a job.
“I applied to do dietetics at university and then applied to do a higher vocational qualification in hotel and catering management,” she explains.
“My college tutor at the time said, well I’m not going to give you a very supportive reference for dietetics, because I don’t think it’s for you, but you will get a glowing reference for the other one. Sure enough I got on the course which I got a glowing reference for.”
Denise recalls what it was like to move to Leeds, but I’m surprised by her response. Living in a children’s home, she says with a chuckle, wasn’t too dissimilar to student halls of residence.
“I seemed to have gone from a small children’s home to a big children’s home! There were corridors of separate doors with people who lived in them and whom I interacted with, but they weren’t family. In that sense, it wasn’t hugely different.”
Although Denise rarely felt challenged at university, it was an “absolutely essential” part of her life. Every young person, she says, should experience being away from home before they’re fully independent.
Within the first six months of leaving university she had moved to London and secured her first management job in contract catering. Alongside her job she took a postgraduate diploma in management studies at Kingston University, hoping – she says with a snigger – that she would become a “international fantastic super-duper head-hunted hotel entrepreneur manager”.
However, Denise wasn’t satisfied with her line of work. It was only after she stumbled across a recruitment poster for volunteer teachers that she finally found her true calling.
“I hadn’t really valued education. I thought school was great, I thought it was great fun, and that’s because I never really struggled to get the basics. So to discover there were adults older than me who couldn’t read was amazing.”
Denise recalls, smiling from ear to ear, how elderly women from the Caribbean would attend with a Bible, incredibly keen to learn. Unfortunately figuring out what they had learned was quite tough, because they had memorised almost every psalm on every page.
“They would be following it with their finger and reading it off par, so you would slow down and say ‘okay, what does this word say?’ They would reply ‘oh me no know, let me carry on reading’, and before you knew it they were back into their flow.”
Keen to leave her old job behind, Denise began teaching vocational courses and adult literacy courses part-time. After a couple of years she took a job as a grade one lecturer, with an additional role as head of adult education centre.
But that wasn’t enough. Denise enrolled on a part-time Master’s degree at Bournemouth University, and became pregnant with her first child in the second year. Frequently travelling back and forth by train, it was a constant balancing act during her mid-twenties.
“I loved it and I suppose my partner at the time was the same. We were both high energy people. I look back now, and where I am in my life now, and realise that if you’re not going to do it at 25 you’re never going to do it. You’re not going to have that level of energy, that drive, that ability to have 10 plates in the air and keep them all spinning. Because if you do stop and think about it, you wouldn’t do it.”
During her Master’s degree Denise found a new job as a grade 2 lecturer at Newham College. Appointed as a multi-ethnic education adviser by Dame Ruth Silver, she was tasked with increasing and broadening participation in the college.
“The challenge was to break down internal barriers which were stopping ethnic minority students being recruited and external
barriers which stopped them applying to the college,” she says.
“Twenty-five years on, the balance has completely reversed. Now it is absolutely reflective of the local community.”
Denise was frequently promoted at the college, never staying in the same position for more than 18 months. While she says she had “a huge attachment” to the organisation, it didn’t stop her moving to Havering College as vice principal 14 years later.
“It was the lack of opportunity at the next level that took me away, I suppose that indicates I was always ambitious, because I wasn’t ready or prepared to sit as a director – I wanted to go and be a vice principal and the opportunity wasn’t at Newham College” she says.
Working at Havering College for two years gave Denise a fresh batch of confidence. It was the sudden realisation that she could change the college not because people liked her – or had worked with her for more than a decade – but because she was very good at her job.
Two years later Denise moved back to Newham College as deputy principal. The experience was like “going home”, but with one key difference: colleagues could clearly see how far she had grown.
“It was instant. I think they had respect for what I had done at Havering but also respect because they had felt the difference when I wasn’t there.”
Denise became principal in 2010. She says the sense of responsibility, more than anything else, was the greatest shock.
“If you invert a pyramid and stand it on its head, that’s what it feels like. You’re at the bottom, holding up this huge organisation and, if it can, everything will be delegated to you because people want your input into everything, your attention. That’s great, in fact it’s really fantastic, but you’re only one person and they are many!”
If you invert a pyramid and stand it on its head, that’s what it feels like
Clearly she doesn’t mind. Denise is passionate about the future and what Newham College continues to achieve.
“We will find a course that’s right for you. We’re not looking at your CV; we’re looking at where you want to go and how we can help you get there. That’s what we’re about.”
The news of Education Secretary Michael Gove’s proposals for reforming the qualification system has brought into sharp focus the extent to which education needs to change to equip the workforce of the future.
The Education Secretary is right to call for a curriculum that “prepares all children for success at 16 and beyond, by broadening what is taught in our schools and in improving how it is assessed”. Would industry see the O-level and CSE curriculum of the seventies as containing the breadth needed to support that ambition? The Gazelle Colleges Group asked that question at a House of Commons symposium with industry representatives last week.
The event, designed to help develop our vision for an “entrepreneurial college of the future” and based on our recent Enterprising Futures report, was hosted by Neil Carmichael MP of the Education Select Committee. Panellists included: Stephen Uden, head of citizenship at Microsoft; Penny Power, founder of Ecademy; James Groves, head of education, Policy Exchange; Stella Mbubaegbu CBE, principal, Highbury College Portsmouth; and David Wilson, deputy director of policy and strategy, enterprise directorate, BIS. The debate was chaired by Michael Hayman, co-founder of Seven Hills and StartUp Britain.
The overarching view? The current further education system as it is cannot meet the needs of a changing economy. Industry, however, is not universally in search of the creative, enterprising people that the Gazelle report suggests is the case.
The artisanal, networking and entrepreneurial worlds described in the report are growing in global employment influence, but the corporate world dominates, and the larger companies will continue, for a time at least, to recruit individuals with only the specialist skills required for corporate success. Colleges therefore need to create breadth but not at the expense of technical excellence.
Lara Morgan, founder of Company Shortcuts and Gazelle entrepreneur representative, suggested that there is a need for the education system to be more “uncomfortable”, pushing people outside their comfort zone. She said: “There is a missed opportunity. We need to encourage the willingness to be competitive, to want to win and to be proud of making money and building wealth and success. We need to teach bravery. We need to allow students to build their own self confidence”.
Stephen Uden from Microsoft confirmed that it is those who have the agility to adapt their skills that will be the employees that succeed and thrive.
Stella Mbubaegbu, CBE, principal and chief executive of Highbury College, Portsmouth, was more radical in her call for a “paradigm shift” in further education.
She said: “There is failure in the wider system and this is affecting our young people. We need learning that develops an entrepreneurial mindset through enterprising approaches within an entrepreneurial environment.
If we’re talking about successful outcomes for education and training, we would like government to recognise this, develop supportive policies, not just enterprise initiatives and come with us on the journey.”
If we are to advance an argument for recognisable entrepreneurial colleges in the UK we need a louder voice than just the Gazelle Principals Group.
In recruiting some outstanding entrepreneurs to the Gazelle movement we have begun to create a lobby for change that is respected and valued in the corporate environment.
We also need to advance the debate with the leaders of industry. The constant rejection of young people emerging from the education system on the basis of their lack of initiative, discipline, creativity and basic skills by employers can only be addressed if those employers work with us to define the experience needed to create that output.
There were no advocates at the symposium for an O-level curriculum or indeed for a traditional teaching paradigm that segregated students and measured success in qualification output. There was therefore a meeting of minds around the need for new qualifications and new learning models that could better address the changing needs of industry, and the changing expectations of young people in particular.
The Gazelle Colleges Group, representing 19 colleges at the event, resolved to increase dialogue with industry at every level. In the same way that we have brought entrepreneurs and education leaders together to champion entrepreneurship as a strategic driver for change, we need now to bring industry at its most senior level into a similar strategic debate.
Industry must be empowered by our colleges to engage proactively in learning design and curriculum delivery. It needs to become an advocate for a new type of college and part of its architecture.
Fintan Donohue, CEO of Gazelle and principal of North Hertfordshire College.
More than 180 representatives from colleges, training providers, universities and government agencies packed Morley College’s main hall during the one warm summer’s day we had late last month for the Lsect Summer Term Data Conference.
The termly conference, which is organised by Lsect, the publisher of FE Week, had a full agenda that treated delegates to a plethora of policy updates and developments in the sector.
Speakers included Karl Bentley, lead auditor at RSM Tenon, Alan Billingham, production and quality director at the Data Service, Mark Emerson, director of MIS at Chelmsford College, Peter Ashton, standards and quality manager at the Information Authority, and Andrew King, lead for 24+ advanced learning loans at BIS.
There is a strong importance on ensuring that communication of loans is clear for learners.
Andrew King gave the conference an update on the implementation of FE loans for 2013/14. He told delegates that it was important to remember the context in which the loans were being introduced.
“Loans need to be seen in the context of lower public expenditure and greater shared responsibility for investment in training. Without loans there would be a significant reduction in learner numbers; with them we can support thousands more.”
King also clarified eligibility for FE loans, saying that they would be available for learners over 24 at the start of their course, studying at level 3 or above. This includes QCF certificates and Diploma, Access to HE, A-levels and Advanced and Higher Apprenticeships.
“Our market research has indicated that about 75 per cent of learners would still consider learning following the introduction of loans; however, those over the age 40 are less likely to consider learning funded through a loan.
“The research also identified that there is a strong importance on ensuring that communication of loans is clear for learners. We are continuing to research the potential barriers and are looking at options for providing additional support to those groups.”
Peter Ashton spoke about the emerging data arrangements for the 24-plus advanced learning loans. The ILR data would be submitted for learners in receipt of a loan and colleges would utilise the existing, but adapted, HE loans system.
During the afternoon session Karl Bentley said that the upcoming round of funding audits was in its final stages of preparation and notifications of audit would be issued soon. He reminded the conference that the audits would no longer cover distance learning and unitisation.
If you have any problems speak to the auditor as soon as possible.
“The best advice I can provide is to prepare for the audit. Taking steps such as providing a clean ILR at least three weeks in advance to audit and provide a sample 10 days before, with your DSAT samples and comments. Remember if you have any problems speak to the auditor as soon as possible.”
Nick Linford , the managing director of Lsect and managing editor of FE Week, also provided several workshop-style sessions throughout the day focusing on topics such as funding rules for 2012/13, developments with streamlined funding and remarks around where next for quality and demands.
Exhibitors at the event included Capita, Corero, Drake Lane Associates and Perspective.
Delegates networked, discussed the presentations, spoke to exhibitors about their products and services and enjoyed the all-you-can-eat ice cream from the Lsect Ice Cream Tricycle!
Hundreds have been watching South Yorkshire’s newest fashion talent present their work at Doncaster College.
The annual shows were part of the student’s end-of-year showcase, which included illustration, games animation art, graphic design, photography, multimedia presentations, fine arts and craft as well as performances from dance, theatre and music students.
Debbie Pulleyblank, assistant director for the school of arts, said: “These events always provide us with a great opportunity to showcase the exceptional, creative diversity and professional design and realisation skills of Doncaster College’s and University Centre Doncaster art students and graduates.”
Dozens of fashion students paraded their work in front of friends, family and industry experts at the popular show, which included an exciting and original collection of group fashion projects.
Krissy Charles-Jones is determined that the subcontracting of apprenticeships has to change.
The chief executive of Bright International Training told the Apprenticeships England conference last week about the impact on her business when her prime contractor pulled the funding of a cohort of learners on a pilot programme.
“This left us in a difficult position. We had delivered the course, paid registration fees, we had paid our staff and the learners were about to finish. In fact about half of them had already been offered jobs within the sector on the provision that they achieved this qualification.
“This is not new, my story is not unique. I have worked in the sector for over a decade. I have seen subcontractors go to the wall because of situations like mine and it is not acceptable.”
The conference, organised by Peter Cobrin and Lindsay McCurdy of the popular LinkedIn group ‘Apprenticeships England’, is the second this year. Held at the Queens Hotel in Leeds, more than 150 representatives from colleges and providers debated: “how we can continue to make apprenticeships even better.”
I have seen subcontractors go to the wall because of situations like mine and it is not acceptable.
Charles-Jones was one of six sector representatives to take part in the morning’s panel debate. The other panellists included Professor Jill Brunt, director of education at Pearson, Barry Brooks, director for education and Skills Strategy at Tribal, Scott Upton, vice-principal of Sandwell College and Ged Syddall, CEO of Elmfield Training.
Charles-Jones also outlined her frustrations with the response she received from the Skills Funding Agency (SFA). The agency told her that “there was nothing they could do”, but she approached someone higher in the organisation and her company was eventually partnered with an alternative prime provider.
“My advice to anybody in my situation is not to give up; you have to fight your corner, go as high as you have to within the SFA. Before you agree to work with a prime, make sure you do your own due diligence. Check their Ofsted report, other publicly available information and speak to other providers about their experience. Do not put all your eggs in one basket; put them in three of four. The SFA have to change their policies when it comes to subcontracting – from the minimum value a contract has to be before declaration to a guarantee of support from the SFA when things go wrong. At the moment it’s just not acceptable; the SFA are responsible for what happens to our learners.”
Panellists also raised concerns about management fees between prime providers and sub-contractors. Recent analysis from FE Week suggested that lead providers charged more than £175 million in management fees to sub-contractors during the previous academic year.
Colleges have not been fully undertaking their responsibility in growing apprenticeships and instead subcontracting it to others.
Making, what is thought to be one of his first public appearances at a sector conference following his evidence session at the BIS select committee earlier this year, Ged Syddall used the conference to announce that his organisation would no longer charge a “top-slice” to third sector and social enterprises from next year; a move well received by a representative of the organisation Deaf Apprentice.
The scheme, which will run as a pilot for the next academic year, will allow Elmfield to support the third sector and social enterprises in their work with apprentices.
Syddall added: “I am passionate about the current localism agenda and I believe that it is the third sector and social enterprises that truly underpin this. Therefore by piloting such a scheme as an organisation we can help to drive this agenda.”
Scott Upton added: “Top-slicing is an area which needs to be looked at more thoroughly by the government and SFA. In my opinion, withdrawing these funds which can be anything up to 30 per cent, ultimately impacts on the quality of the education received by the learner.”
Chairing the debate, Nick Linford, managing editor of FE Week, referred to a line in the recently published SFA Annual Account that said, “The reasons for the large increase in subcontracting over the last year has been not only due to the expected growth, but because colleges have not been fully undertaking their responsibility in growing apprenticeships and instead subcontracting it to others.”
There was also some amusement when Scott Upton asked a series of questions about the current system. When the audience were asked whether “there was any real value in the online Apprenticeships Vacancy Matching Service”, not one person raised his or her hand in support of the service, leading to Upton making the statement, “why don’t they close the thing down, it costs money and resources to run and we spend great time uploading vacancies online. The money saved by its closure could be put towards expanding the successful advertising campaign which NAS have run.”
I am passionate about the current localism agenda and I believe that it is the third sector and social enterprises that truly underpin this.
Peter Corbin and Lindsay McCurdy spoke to FE Week about the event’s future as they will now being going their seperate ways. McCurdy said that she would run her next conference in October, but with more of an employer focus and as Apprenticeships England (AE) Ltd.
Peter Cobrin added; “Lindsay’s energy and knowledge is absolutely perfect for the area of employer engagement, which she now wishes to focus her time on. As for me, I will continue, through the Apprenticeships England CIC, the campaigning element.”
A group of creative trailblazers from Kensington and Chelsea College are set to debut their collection of cutting edge designs at a leading national exhibition.
The New Designers Exhibition 2012 brings together the UK’s graduating designers and gives them a platform to showcase their work to industry employers, the media and public.
This year, six students from the college’s professional development designer makers course will be among the cream of the crop displaying their creative flair at the exhibition.
Their work includes stunning jewellery, glass and ceramic pieces.
Ksenia Goryainova, who is exhibiting her first jewellery collection, said: “My passion for bespoke is a driving force behind my collection.
“I am thrilled to be exhibiting for the first time in New Designers.
“It is such a solid and exciting platform for all design students.”
