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

The Autumn Statement proposals for skills policies and strategies may turn out to be less benign than they appear, says Steve Sawbridge

Colleges must adapt to a new landscape following the Chancellor’s implicit support for local employer partnerships (LEPs).

The Independent Commission on Colleges in their Communities noted with concern that the pace of development in LEPs was slow with remits unclear, a finding borne out by AoC’s own survey published earlier this year.  Their record on skills has been variable.

From 2015 LEPs will benefit from a single pot of growth-related funding to support the delivery of a strategic plan for local growth.  And, yes, this includes funding for skills.  But please note: not all funding.

There’s some encouragement for college representation on LEP boards. Provided, of course, that whoever sits on the board speaks for the whole local FE community and is mandated by it. But the Autumn Statement proposals for skills policies and strategies may turn out to be less benign.

The development of a strategic plan for skills makes good sense.  If you don’t have one, how do you know where you’re going or who’s behind the wheel?  But for colleges, if this is the basis on which a devolved skills budget is allocated, there’s clearly a danger of a return to external plan-led control; an anathema in the context of freedoms and flexibilities.

How to respond?  Where skills plans are concerned it’s best to be in the driving seat.  And what’s going to carry most weight is a coherent collective response from colleges within the LEP area.

The notion of self-organised groups of colleges first emerged in the Foster report of 2005. Articulated more explicitly in Skills for Sustainable Growth (2010), self-organised networks are seen as the mechanism for engagement with LEPs and the means to ensure alignment between economic development priorities and the skills provision available locally. It clearly is an idea whose time has come.

There’s clearly a danger of a return to external plan-led control”

But what will make these networks something more than a local provider “consultative forum”? And why should colleges put aside years of institutional self-interest and preservation for the benefit of the wider FE network?

Two reasons: a growing and genuine recognition that collaboration can achieve more for all; and a more immediate and practical response to increased competition from schools and the 57 other post-16 varieties of provider currently available.

There are already many good examples of self-organised networks working effectively with LEPs and other local partners – the network of colleges in Bristol, for example.  But it’s been interesting to see a collaborative grouping of colleges come together in Greater Birmingham and Solihull, something those who know FE in Birmingham might at one time have considered impossible.

It’s symptomatic of a genuinely new way of working.  A recognition that external partners will listen more attentively to a collective voice; that colleges can shape, influence and deliver skills provision, particularly where LEPs are struggling to articulate skills’ needs.

The opportunities for gap filling in provision can be more easily achieved where colleges collaborate on the basis of their strengths.  A strong unity will be a significant asset in attracting inward investment and can only enhance the strong individual brands of colleges.

There’s still a lot to do – not least on the sharing and use of data and the development of a collective approach to quality across the network but a new collaborative culture is very definitely emerging.

Brenda Sheils, principal at Solihull College, put it succinctly recently when she said it’s not just about being on-side with the LEP but inside, working equally with officers in the LEP secretariat as well as contributing at board level.

Ultimately this will be the real test of the maturity of the partnership; recognition that it is just that – one in which the collective strengths of all partners, including colleges, are utilised and mutually respected.

Steve Sawbridge is the
West Midlands regional director for AoC

To read what David Frost, CBE, chair of the LEP Network has to say on LEPs click here