Latest news from FE Week

Colleges ordered to improve

*Since publication of this story, the Department for Education has said that the figures indicating Kingston Maurward needed to improve were incorrect and apologised to the college.

Three colleges have been ordered to improve after falling below the Education Funding Agency’s new minimum standards for key stage five.

In the 2011/12 academic year, South Thames College, Wiltshire College and Kingston Maurward College all failed to get at least 40 per cent of students to achieve an average point score per entry higher than 194 for academic qualifications or 172 for vocational qualifications.

According to the data released in May, 28 academies and 41 community or voluntary schools also fell short of the required standard.

A Department for Education (DfE) spokesperson said: “We have written to South Thames, Wiltshire and Kingston Maurward to make clear that we expect them to address the weaknesses that this measure has highlighted.

“In the event that these colleges are still below the standard next year, further action may be considered.”

The DfE website indicates funding could be reduced or removed, new or alternative provision, such as academy conversion or open competition, considered – or possible closure.

The interim minimum standards were introduced in April to identify poor performance in all colleges and schools offering provision for 16 to 19-year-olds.

In the last academic year at South Thames College, 38 per cent of eligible students (39 out of 102) did not achieve the minimum standard for academic qualifications.

A college spokesperson said: “At South Thames College, we take a long-term view of results and performance indicators.

“[We] recognise that our position in this table does not reflect the many talented and determined students we have.

“We shall continue to review and monitor performance tables and results and use them to inform our long-term plans.”

She said these plans included the college continuing to make “significant investments” in its facilities, teaching and student welfare.

She also highlighted the college’s ‘good’ Ofsted grading, which it maintained after it was inspected in 2012. That year’s report included “positive remarks on the ongoing guidance and support of learners”.

Thirty-two per cent of Wiltshire College’s learners, seven out of 22, met the academic minimum standard while at Kingston Maurward, which failed to meet the vocational standard, 12 per cent of learners, 18 out of 153 of those eligible, achieved higher than the target figure.

No one from Wiltshire College or Kingston Maurward College was available for comment. The Education Funding Agency (EFA) said the interim standards were “the absolute minimum expected performance for all providers of 16 to 18 education or training”.

“By establishing separate measures for performance in academic and vocational qualifications, comparing like with like, we are able to build a clear picture of how institutions are performing in different areas of their level three provision,” it says on the EFA website.

The minimum average point scores are calculated by taking the average of the bottom 5 per cent of scores nationally or the fifth percentile.

Resignations ‘won’t hit’ council work

The resignations of two members of the National Careers Council amid accusations that it was watering down recommendations to appease the government have been described as “regrettable”.

Heather Jackson and Professor Tony Watts walked out around a month before its first report was due to be published.

However, council chair Dr Deirdre Hughes said their resignations would not hit the report’s release or investigations.

“The resignations are regrettable, but will not affect the council’s ongoing work and its report, which will be launched on June 5,” she told FE Week.

The duo’s damning resignation statement said the report — a draft of which was presented to Skills Minister Matthew Hancock this month — proposed a rebalancing of funding that allowed the Department for Education (DfE) “to escape its responsibilities”.

They claimed the report suggested adult funding from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), which they claim funded the National Careers Service (NCS) with £83m in contrast to £7m from the DfE, might be used to pay for young people’s careers guidance.

They also criticised the report for failing to reference an Education Select Committee report critical of careers guidance services, and for not containing any proposal to boost “very limited marketing” of the NCS.

Their statement said these and other issues were left out to appease the government.

“We ultimately view this as a craven argument for a purportedly independent council to adopt,” it said.

“We are also deeply concerned about the way in which the report has been produced.

“The ‘rebalancing’ proposal, for example, was never discussed in any meetings of the council, and only emerged in a draft circulated three days before it was due to be submitted to the minister.”

Their statement added: “We asked for a postponement of the meeting with the minister, to enable the council to discuss the proposal in a considered way: this was refused. In our view, this is a totally inappropriate way for an independent council to operate.”

The resignations were raised when Mr Hancock appeared before the Education Select Committee on May 16. Committee members questioned him about the duo’s NCS funding concerns.

“Will the minister reassure us that the DfE is committed to supporting the work of the NCS properly? Will the DfE realise the opportunity that the NCS provides to ensure that we have an all-ages, competent, re-professionalised careers service?” said committee member Graham Stuart, Tory MP for Beverley and Holderness.

Mr Hancock said: “The funding issue has been raised many times. Times are, of course, tight for funding, but the central point is that the legal duty to secure independent and impartial advice in schools needs to be delivered from the schools budget.

“Schools have a whole budget to deliver this, not just the £7m the DfE put into the NCS.”

The council was set up by former Skills Minister John Hayes around a year ago to review careers policy at the Skills Funding Agency; the UK Commission for Employment and Skills; BIS; DfE; and the Department for Work and Pensions.

Members have since been involved in a number of investigations, including the Richard Review of Apprenticeships and Lord Heseltine’s report on UK economic growth. They have also given evidence to the Education Select Committee.

Principals fear ‘lack of new talent’

Succession planning is a key leadership challenge with too few would-be college principals waiting in the wings, a new report has warned.

The Principals’ Professional Council report, Further Education Colleges: Rising to the leadership challenge, pinpoints “a lack of new talent coming through”.

The report, based on consultation with 130 principals at nine events in England this year and given to FE Week ahead of going live last week, said: “Succession planning and the need to encourage and develop the next generation of principals was raised at a majority of these events.

“Many colleagues identified concerns regarding a lack of new talent coming through as a challenge and felt something should be done to encourage more vice-principals and deputies to aspire to become principals.”

Mike Hopkins, council chair and Middlesbrough College principal, said: “I have worked in and with the sector for some 32 years. When I began, typically a post would attract at least 50 candidates.

“Now, there, typically, will be between 10 and 15.”

He added: “A lot has changed . . . and I’d say, for all the pressures, much for the better.

“It is tough, but it’s perhaps, in part that toughness, which makes the job such a delight and challenge.”

Nick Lewis, the council’s general secretary and a former principal of 19 years at colleges in Nottingham, said a reduction in a principal’s independence had helped to make the role less attractive, but the government’s New Challenges, New Chances strategy — which prompted the research — would “reverse” the trend.

However, principals faced growing funding pressures, he said.

“The Coalition created New Challenges, New Chances, introduced new flexibilities and freedoms to colleges and has done a lot of work getting governors to recognise what they could be doing with those freedoms,” said Mr Lewis.

“Our piece of work is complementary to that — to try to get principals to think more laterally and creatively in this new context.

“From our point of view — from a principal’s point of view — what we see is that the Coalition’s strategy is reversing a decade in which our colleges have been drowned in bureaucracy and central government direction. Principals were not only told what to do but also how to do it.”

Their role — and the role of governors — had diminished in the past 10 years, he said. “We were directed by the government and its funding agencies,” said Mr Lewis.

“The biggest challenge for principals is that they’re being asked to become more innovative, creative and flexible, but that opportunity sits alongside fairly severe austerity.

“At a time when we want to become more innovative, and we’re encouraged to become more innovative, we’ve never faced such severe reductions in funding.

“The demands of the day job to keep your college successful when you’ve got huge budget cuts and, at the same time, rise to the challenge of innovation is an awful lot of pressure on college principals.”

The council’s final report is due out in September after three further consultation events, the first of which was due to take place Monday, June 3, at London’s Kingsway Hall Hotel.

The second event is expected on July 1 and 2 at the Mottram Hotel, South Manchester, and the third on July 11 and 12 at Stratford-Upon-Avon’s Arden Hotel. Places are limited. Visit www.ascl.org.uk/ppc for more details and to read the interim report under the Challenges for the Future section.

For more on Mr Hopkins’s view on the challenges in attracting new principals, see his expert article.

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Bursary scheme announced for early years apprenticeships

The government today announced a £2m apprenticeship bursary scheme for the early years profession.

Learners aiming at a career in early education will be able to apply for a bursary worth up to £1,500, with a further £300 available for more training, from September.

There will be up to 1,000 bursary places available.

Elizabeth Truss, Childcare and Education Minister, said: “Caring for and educating young children is a fantastically rewarding job.

“The bursaries announced today will make it easier for talented people to start a career in early education.

“Providing good quality early education is proven to help young children get a head-start in life, especially those who are from poorer backgrounds.

“I hope these bursaries encourage students to consider working in early education.”

In January, in More Great Childcare, the government said it would build a stronger and more professional early years workforce with more rigorous qualifications.

The apprenticeship bursary will be a transitional scheme ahead of the Early Years Educator qualifications in 2014. The Apprenticeship Bursary Scheme will also seek to support the delivery of the early learning places for two-year-olds.

The scheme, which will be run by the National College for Teaching and Leadership, will be open to applications from September.

To be eligible, applicants will need to secure an apprenticeship position in a nursery or other provision that delivers the early learning places for two year olds; and hold at least a GCSE, at grade C or above, in English and maths.

A spokesperson for the Association of Employment and Learning Providers said: “We welcome additional support for apprentices and are pleased that apprenticeships are seen as a major part of the solution in childcare training.

“We also hope that the National College will work closely with independent training providers who are already well established in the childcare sector on the allocation of the bursaries.

“We have some real concerns about excluding those without GCSEs in English or maths at grade C or above.

“We have also expressed our concern that at a time when we should be encouraging more apprenticeships in the sector, the introduction of loans for those in this group aged over 24 will reduce the potential take-up.”

Apprenticeships are expected to last an average of 20 months. They will consist of employment and study to gain a recognised qualification through various routes, including further education colleges.

Why are so few applying for principalship?

Ofsted, funding cuts, policy changes . . . it’s no surprise that the number of prospective FE principals/chief executives is falling, says Mike Hopkins

A straw poll of principal and chief executive colleagues makes clear the reality of the decline in the number of prospective principals. Why has this happened?

Broadly speaking, issues include Ofsted and the price that has to be paid for failure; the resulting caution of vice-principals and other senior managers; the complexity of combining the senior academic role of principal and the business orientated one of chief executive.

Then there’s the loss of autonomy as a result of FE finding itself at the heart of education politics; caution about recruiting from outside the sector; and the pressures of dealing with reduced funding.

The respondents to my straw poll saw Ofsted as an ‘adversarial’ organisation. One described the principal as having the job security of a Premier League football manager without the rewards. Officially outstanding colleges could become officially failing ones at the change of a common inspection framework.

One respondent described the principal as having the job security of a Premier League football manager without the rewards”

One respondent questioned why a person would apply to a college that ‘requires improvement’. Sustainable improvement could take two to three years with a reinspection in significantly less time than that.

Similarly, why would a person apply to an ‘outstanding’ college with the risk of an inferior grade awarded at the next inspection (which could be triggered by his or her arrival) and the governors seeking an immediate scapegoat?

Many respondents referred to their perceived loss of autonomy as FE became one of the key battleground’s of education party politics.

Despite New Challenges, New Chances, many felt that the focus on data, year-on-year cuts in funding, and frequent and often contradictory shifts in policy had all impaired any autonomy to make decisions.

Some lamented the absence of investment in a national training school and credible training for the principal/chief executive role. Others noted that most colleges still appointed from a field ‘limited’ to people who had risen to management via teaching.

The focus on ‘teaching’ could be overdone, they said, leading to a ‘bigotry’ around appointing from outside the sector.

Finally, it was also noted that senior leaders at vice-principal level were also focused on teaching and learning and therefore did not get the chance to develop the other skills required of the chief executive – for example, business acumen.

The role of principal had become far more complex since Incorporation. Having credibility in the teaching workforce combined with academic improvement, while also driving a multi-million business forward, required a broad set of skills.

When I began my career 32 years ago, my first principal would arrive into college at 8.45am precisely, with The Times folded neatly under his arm and sporting a yellow rose on his elegant Prince of Wales check suit. Generally, he wouldn’t be seen throughout the day until he left for home at 5pm.

A lot has changed since those long lost days and, despite all the pressures, much for the better.

It is tough, but it’s perhaps, in part, that toughness that makes the job such a delight and challenge.

But more than that, how many jobs can have such value-driven ethics at their heart?

Being an FE principal or chief executive is about being socially conscious, seeking economic and social equality and being at the heart of the skills chain.

It is at the heart of progressive politics, and I’d encourage anyone who is interested in that, to put themselves forward.

Mike Hopkins is chair of the Professional Principals’ Council and principal of Middlesbrough College

FE Guild renamed as a foundation

The FE Guild is to be renamed the Education and Training Foundation, FE Week can reveal.

The body, created to provide training and set professional standards in FE, has been registered at Companies House under the new name, said independent steering group chair David Hughes.

Due to launch in August, it was incorporated on May 22 and registered to the Association of Colleges’ (AoC) London HQ.

Mr Hughes, also chief executive of the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education, said the new name was “fully encompassing of the whole sector”.

“I am very pleased that we have now been able to register the new company under the name the Education and Training Foundation,” he said.

“Throughout the initial development phase there has been broad agreement about the need, remit and priorities for a new organisation but very diverse views about what the name should be.

We now have a name that best reflects the aims, priorities and values of the new organisation”

“Time after time people told us they wanted a name that really reflected our vision for the organisation — something that was modern, professional and fully encompassing of the entire sector.

“We listened to that feedback, discussed a range of suggestions, and have a name that best reflects the aims, priorities and values of the new organisation.”

The new title comes 10 months after FE Week first revealed the government was poised to set up a new professional body provisionally named FE Guild.

But a consultation earlier this year revealed that more than 60 per cent of respondents did not like the name.

Peter Davies, who headed a project tasked with shaping the foundation, said a survey on the new name was set up after around 200 consultation responses suggested the term FE did not “reflect the whole sector” while the word guild was “a bit traditional”.

Other suggestions had included the words skills, institute or alliance, the former principal of London-based adult education provider City Lit told FE Week at the time.

Companies House documents state the foundation’s board should be made up of no more than a dozen directors, including Duncan Anderson-Brown, an accountant who worked with the foundation’s steering group through its development and under whose name the body is registered.

According to the papers the directors will include three representatives appointed by the AoC, three by the Association of Employment and Learning Providers and one by the Association of Adult Education and Training Organisations (AAETO), which operates under the name HOLEX.

Mr Hughes said the first meeting of the new board, which this month appointed former New College Nottingham principal and chair of the Information Authority Sir Geoff Hall as the interim chief executive, would take place next month.

“Our next step is to engage leaders and practitioners in discussions about the priorities and the delivery plan,” added Mr Hughes.

First specialist college grade one under new regime

The first specialist college to achieve an outstanding grade under Ofsted’s tough new inspection regime has been announced.

David Lewis College, in Cheshire, which supports students aged 14 to 25 with complex learning difficulties, scored grade ones across all fields after it was inspected by the education watchdog in March.

The Ofsted report said: “The curriculum is outstanding. Learners are placed on courses at a level appropriate to their needs and personalised according to their changing circumstances.

“Learners benefit from extensive access to learning within the community and work placements.”

Billy McInally, the college’s director of education, told FE Week: “We’re absolutely delighted, particularly as the report recognises the work of everybody.

“Staff have been given the best training possible and share good practice through joint observations, attending meetings dedicated to sharing practice and having an open door policy. Everybody helps each other to improve.”

He said the nature of the needs his learners presented offered a “significant level of challenge”, but added: “Teaching our young people is different but it’s certainly not harder than a mainstream FE college — it just requires a slightly different approach.

“You can’t be successful unless you put the young person at the centre of everything — we base our curriculum on the needs of the individual.”

The college, made up of 87 students; 15 teachers and around 70 support staff, caters for learners with complex epilepsy, autism and learning difficulties and had its last inspection in 2007, resulting in a grade two result.

The report at the time said: “Many learners make good progress in their communication skills.

“However, the approach to increasing the communication skills for learners with complex needs is not sufficiently developed.”

It added: “The tracking and monitoring of learner progress is adequate, although the college recognises it requires further development.”

However, the achievement of the grade one result came under Ofsted’s new inspection framework, introduced from September. The framework includes a reduced inspection notice period from three weeks to two days and a potential re-inspection of providers ‘requiring improvement’ within 12 to 18 months.

You can’t be successful unless you put the young person at the centre of everything”

But the college’s glowing new Ofsted report highlighted the skills, enthusiasm and high quality practice of teachers, therapists and of specialist support staff.

“Staff work very well together to provide a high quality experience for the learners. Middle management is strong and provides excellent leadership for course teams,” said the report.

“Leadership and management are outstanding because of the relentless and successful drive for continuous improvement since the last inspection.”

Mr McInally said: “A process was put in place after our last inspection and we have been working towards improving our work for a number of years.

“This is recognition of that five years’ hard work and I am particularly pleased that Ofsted recognised the positive contribution of our entire college community.

“I would like to thank them all for the contributions they make, ensuring our students receive an outstanding learning experience, one that meets their individual needs.”

He added: “There is no doubt that by working together we can guarantee that the provision we offer our young people continues to be among the very best in the entire country.”