Colleges code revamp wins Lady Sharp approval

A revised guide on government measures to help colleges run courses in response to local employment and skills needs has won the approval of Lady Sharp.

It comes just over a month after she accused the Skills Funding Agency of misinterpreting her suggestions for the Innovation Code, “wrapping it up in precisely the sort of restrictions that we were trying to get away from”.

But Lady Sharp, the Liberal Democrats’ education spokesperson in the House of Lords, said the agency’s latest advice on using the code was a “major improvement…and really begins to give the flexibility we were asking for”.

She said: “I am particularly pleased to see the range of examples given of the likely scope for use of the code — supporting employment and progression in employment, developing specific skills for specific sectors, reskilling and upskilling, preparation for and progress within an apprenticeship, and to support entrepreneurship.

“The main condition is that there should not be a qualification that exactly meets these needs. It doesn’t have to be, at least initially, an accredited qualification, priority being to help get people into work and develop the qualification later.”

The code was a key element of recommendations that emerged last year from the Colleges in their Communities Inquiry, chaired by Lady Sharp.

However, following her criticism the code had not been flexible enough, the agency this month revised its guidance.

 I’m delighted the Skills Funding Agency has responded to earlier criticisms”

“We’ve listened to feedback from the sector and in response we’ve published revised guidance, in partnership with the Association of Colleges and the Association of Employers and Learning Providers,” said agency chief executive Kim Thorneywork.

“Our goal is really to make sure that providers have as much scope as possible to deliver the mix of learning and skills training that is the right fit for their local area.”
She added: “We know that if we are to put the FE system in the hands of the sector, and let them use their professional judgement to give learners and employers what they want, there won’t always be a package of learning or skills training that an individual might need.

“So we need to do all we can to support the offer, so that FE is accountable to local people. And we must do more to support those out of work to gain the skills to compete in long-term sustainable employment.

“And this is where the Innovation Code comes into its own.

“It allows a college or training organisation to deliver the provision that is needed in their area, without having to wait for a new qualification to be developed — a true ‘rapid response vehicle’.”

Lady Sharp said: “This is a major improvement on the agency’s earlier version and really begins to give the flexibility we were asking for.

“The new code does seem to give the two things we were looking for — flexibility and meeting local needs. I’m delighted the agency has responded to earlier criticisms and come up with something so much more positive.”

Martin Doel, chief executive, Association of Colleges

On the day he should have been sitting his maths A level, Martin Doel was in hospital after being hit by a cricket ball. And it wasn’t the first or last time sport got in the way of his studies.

Growing up in Romsey, Hampshire, he spent most of his time playing “football, rugby, cricket, basketball…anything with a ball involved.”

He walked out of his maths ‘A’ level after 15 minutes (having spent most of his time in the sixth form inventing excuses not to go to lessons) and left Totton Grammar School with two ‘A’ levels rather the three he needed to get into Durham University.

After a year out, working as a milkman and stock control clerk, and in bars and restaurants in Switzerland, he went to King Alfred’s College in Winchester, where he studied PE with education.

While he enjoyed the course, and achieved a first class degree, Doel became disillusioned with the idea of being a teacher. Having concluded that the philosophy of PE teaching was about “throwing a ball around and keeping them [the students] quiet for an hour,” by the end of his time at King Alfred’s, he just couldn’t see himself working in a school.

He recalls: “I’d really thought about how I wanted to deliver the subject and I thought there was so much more children could achieve through the medium of physical education that would benefit their wider development…I’m sure things are different now, but I knew I wouldn’t get the space to take control of that at the time.”

He joined the RAF instead, rising quickly through the ranks to senior roles, including working in an underground bunker in Scotland gathering intelligence on Soviet submarines (something he insists was not as glamorous as it sounds), supporting operations in the Balkans and leading an exercise that involved handing back an air base to the Germans, for which he was awarded an OBE in 1998.

By the time my eldest was 11, he had been to five schools, and we really couldn’t carry on like that”

But while he enjoyed having a new job every 18 months, and the experience of living abroad, the downside was disruption to family life, particularly for his two young children. “By the time my eldest was 11, he had been to five schools, and we really couldn’t carry on like that,” he recalls. “We enjoyed it [living abroad] as a family together, but it was just so disruptive to the children’s education…they had to go and stand in the playground and be the new boy every two years.”

The family returned to the UK in 1997 and Doel did a masters degree in War Studies at King’s College, before becoming director of studies there – a post created as a result of a partnership between the RAF and the university.

His next challenge involved merging three RAF bases in Cambridge and Bedfordshire, at one point having 1000 people working directly under him and – for the first time during his 20 years in the RAF – learning to fly a plane.

His decision to leave the air force in 2008, was motivated by the desire to plan the next chapter of his working life and “not just come out at the last moment and take what’s on offer.” (the retirement age for those in the services is generally around 55).

And having been involved in vocational education and training during his time in the RAF, the idea of working in education appealed to him and played to his strengths. So when the opportunity to lead the Association of Colleges came along, he jumped at the chance.

I soon realised you couldn’t say ‘subordinate’ here [at the AOC] but you could say ‘I want to do something’”

One of the biggest challenges was getting used to the fast pace of change in the sector, he says. “We had LSDA, QIA, CEL and any other number of acronyms you can think of that seemed to just come and go.”

And it wasn’t just the acronyms that took some getting used to. “I soon realised you couldn’t say ‘subordinate’ here [at the AOC] but you could say ‘I want to do something,’” he laughs. “And I had to learn the ‘we’ word, as in ‘we are going to do this.’ I mean, the belief and behaviours are no different…but the language is.

“While the sector continues to deliver quality to students, it has been “under resourced in comparison to other sectors for too long,” says Doel. “How is it that 16 to 18-year-olds in particular can be funded at a rate much lower than 11 to 16-year-olds…and why is that 16 to 24-year-olds are suddenly much cheaper to train or educate than those in universities?”

But it is still too early to measure the impact of the some government austerity measures, such as scrapping of the EMA or the introduction of FE loans, although early indications suggest it the most “vulnerable learners in the most vulnerable sectors” who will be affected, says Doel.

The publication of the government’s New Challenges, New Chances report – and in particular the proposals for a simplified funding system – represent an opportunity for colleges to have greater freedom and respond more closely to the needs of the communities they serve. But after years of being “micromanaged by the Learning and Skills Council,” it is a big change of culture for some colleges,” he says. At the same time, the government is introducing a number of strategies to encourage growth and Doel is concerned that this single stream of money promised to colleges could be compromised by new initiatives like the employer ownership pilot – sending them back to “chasing streams of money,” just as they were before.

The next big challenge for the AOC, in partnership with the Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) is the FE Guild – a new professional body that will set standards and codes of behaviour as well as develop qualifications for the sector – which could be up and running as early as next August. The biggest challenge, says Doel, will be bringing together a “disparate” sector, getting everyone in agreement and behind the initiative.

While he is reticent to be “self-congratulatory” about his successes in the role, he concedes that he was pleased by the AOC’s response to the capital funding fiasco. “It was a major crisis which was bad news for colleges but I think we as an association I think we found our voice again, particularly when it came to engaging with local MPS and in parliament.

“Colleges are hugely effective organisations that serve their communities and deserve a credible voice on their behalf. If we are being listened to in a considered way, that’s something I’m very proud of.”

It’s a personal thing

What’s your favourite book?
A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway

What did you want to be when you were younger?
A pilot

What do you do to switch off from work?
Watch football since I can’t play any more

If you could invite anyone to a dinner party, living or dead, who would it be?
Alistair Cooke, Katherine Hepburn and Edith Cavell

What would your super power be?
To be able to read people’s minds

Women ‘not at’ FE Colleges table

More taxpayers’ cash should be spent on attracting women to college governors’ boards in a bid to combat under-representation, according to the Women’s Leadership Network (WLN).

The campaign group’s chair, Sally Dicketts (pictured right) said the “magnitude of the role and the need to have the right people” meant more needed to be done to get women in roles of governance at colleges.

“There is a strong business case for using colleges’ existing expertise and HR resource to ensure the process of recruiting governors is similar to that of appointing senior staff, rather than the largely informal processes currently used, which offer insufficient rigour,” she said.

Ms Dicketts, who is also principal of Oxford and Cherwell Valley College, spoke out after research by WLN showed just how badly women were under-represented on FE college governor boards.

The majority of governors are men and most have been in the role for more than three years”

It found they had almost twice as many men and that less than 18 per cent of FE chairs were women.

It further found committees were almost three times as likely to be chaired by a man and in just 2.5 per cent of cases were governors appointed through competitive interviews.

“Colleges may worry about spending public funds on expensive recruitment processes for a volunteer board, but the magnitude of the role and the need to have the right people, and the right mix of people, must also be considered,” said Ms Dicketts.

“The majority of governors are men and most have been in the role for more than three years and some for more than ten, thus perpetuating the dominant culture.”

The purpose of the WLN research was to examine the performance of the FE sector in the context of Lord Davies’ February 2011 report Women on Boards, which highlighted the under-representation on corporate boards.

It looked at the positive contributions of women on boards and made a series of recommendations to improve the gender mix.

“As Lord Davies said, this is not a ‘gender numbers game’ — it is about the richness of a board that can combine different perspectives, backgrounds, life experiences and skills to offer a fully rounded view of a college’s achievements, ambitions, strategic decisions and forward plans, and to offer staff and students a clear demonstration of women’s achievement and success,” added Ms Dicketts.

Rob Wye, chief executive of the Learning and Skills Improvement Service, which funded the research, said: “This is an important and useful piece of research into the gender diversity on FE boards, and provides an excellent resource for corporations to better understand the national picture of women’s involvement in FE governance.”

Dan Taubman MBE, senior national education official at the University and College Union, said: “We believe there should be monitoring of who exactly is on FE corporation, urgently. This kind of monitoring hasn’t been done on a national scale for some time.”

He added: “The number of black and minority ethnic FE governors is probably also fairly low.”

Visit www.wlnfe.org.uk/downloads/FINALGovsSurveyReportvFinal.pdf to read the findings of the WLN research, carried out over six weeks this summer, in full.

Women ‘not at’ FE colleges table

More taxpayers’ cash should be spent on attracting women to college governors’ boards in a bid to combat under-representation, according to the Women’s Leadership Network (WLN).

The campaign group’s chair, Sally Dicketts (pictured right) said the “magnitude of the role and the need to have the right people” meant more needed to be done to get women in roles of governance at colleges.

“There is a strong business case for using colleges’ existing expertise and HR resource to ensure the process of recruiting governors is similar to that of appointing senior staff, rather than the largely informal processes currently used, which offer insufficient rigour,” she said.

Ms Dicketts, who is also principal of Oxford and Cherwell Valley College, spoke out after research by WLN showed just how badly women were under-represented on FE college governor boards.

It found they had almost twice as many men and that less than 18 per cent of FE chairs were women.

It further found committees were almost three times as likely to be chaired by a man and in just 2.5 per cent of cases were governors appointed through competitive interviews.

“Colleges may worry about spending public funds on expensive recruitment processes for a volunteer board, but the magnitude of the role and the need to have the right people, and the right mix of people, must also be considered,” said Ms Dicketts.

“The majority of governors are men and most have been in the role for more than three years and some for more than ten, thus perpetuating the dominant culture.”

The purpose of the WLN research was to examine the performance of the FE sector in the context of Lord Davies’ February 2011 report Women on Boards, which highlighted the under-representation on corporate boards.

It looked at the positive contributions of women on boards and made a series of recommendations to improve the gender mix.

“As Lord Davies said, this is not a ‘gender numbers game’ — it is about the richness of a board that can combine different perspectives, backgrounds, life experiences and skills to offer a fully rounded view of a college’s achievements, ambitions, strategic decisions and forward plans, and to offer staff and students a clear demonstration of women’s achievement and success,” added Ms Dicketts.

Rob Wye, chief executive of the Learning and Skills Improvement Service, which funded the research, said: “This is an important and useful piece of research into the gender diversity on FE boards, and provides an excellent resource for corporations to better understand the national picture of women’s involvement in FE governance.”

Dan Taubman MBE, senior national education official at the University and College Union, said: “We believe there should be monitoring of who exactly is on FE corporation, urgently. This kind of monitoring hasn’t been done on a national scale for some time.”

He added: “The number of black and minority ethnic FE governors is probably also fairly low.”

Visit www.wlnfe.org.uk/downloads/FINALGovsSurveyReportvFinal.pdf to read the findings of the WLN research, carried out over six weeks this summer, in full.

January exams at centre of row with watchdog

Plans to scrap staggered A-level exams and limit resit opportunities have been branded “overzealous changes” that could “thwart” learning.

The Institute for Learning (IfL) hit out after exam watchdog Ofqual announced that from September next year students in England would no longer be able to sit papers in January, and from 2014 candidates would get just one resit per paper.

Toni Fazaeli, IfL chief executive, said it expressed “deep concern” the changes would have “equality implications”, when they were consulted by the exam regulator.

“Learners who miss periods of education through illness, disability, caring for a family member or other unfortunate events should not have their life chances diminished,” she said.

“We believe that teaching practitioners should have the professional freedom to make judgements about the appropriate times for their students — including the most able and those who need extra support — to be assessed.”

Ofqual made the announcements after publishing the results of a consultation on the subject.

The government said it believed there were “serious problems” with current exams, that they did not prepare pupils properly for university and that the fact they were taken “in chunks” over two years, with resits, had led to “grade inflation”.

It favoured instead exams being taken at the end of two years of study and wanted more input from universities. There were also concerns that an emphasis on frequent exams meant students could not study a subject in enough depth.

But Mrs Fazaeli said that for those taking A-levels as a route to employment or higher-level apprenticeships, for example in accountancy, the heavy emphasis on progression to full-time higher education was “not the whole picture”.

“We expressed our deep concern about the equality implications of these proposals not having been assessed properly, and that they could have a disproportionate negative impact on learners,” she said.

“Teachers and trainers in FE…should not be thwarted by overzealous changes to exam rules.”

January exams at centre of row with watchdog

Plans to scrap staggered A-level exams and limit resit opportunities have been branded “overzealous changes” that could “thwart” learning.

The Institute for Learning (IfL) hit out after exam watchdog Ofqual announced that from September next year students in England would no longer be able to sit papers in January, and from 2014 candidates would get just one resit per paper.

Toni Fazaeli, IfL chief executive, said it expressed “deep concern” the changes would have “equality implications”, when they were consulted by the exam regulator.

“Learners who miss periods of education through illness, disability, caring for a family member or other unfortunate events should not have their life chances diminished,” she said.

“We believe that teaching practitioners should have the professional freedom to make judgements about the appropriate times for their students — including the most able and those who need extra support — to be assessed.”

Ofqual made the announcements after publishing the results of a consultation on the subject.

The government said it believed there were “serious problems” with current exams, that they did not prepare pupils properly for university and that the fact they were taken “in chunks” over two years, with resits, had led to “grade inflation”.

It favoured instead exams being taken at the end of two years of study and wanted more input from universities. There were also concerns that an emphasis on frequent exams meant students could not study a subject in enough depth.

But Mrs Fazaeli said that for those taking A-levels as a route to employment or higher-level apprenticeships, for example in accountancy, the heavy emphasis on progression to full-time higher education was “not the whole picture”.

“We expressed our deep concern about the equality implications of these proposals not having been assessed properly, and that they could have a disproportionate negative impact on learners,” she said.

“Teachers and trainers in FE…should not be thwarted by overzealous changes to exam rules.”

Bosses to get place at heart of Richard Review

Employers are set to figure at the heart of a much-awaited review of apprenticeships, FE Week can exclusively reveal.

Former Dragons’ Den star Doug Richard (pictured right), whose independent review is expected to be published by the end of the month, said he wanted to see “much more employer involvement” on apprenticeships.

“I’ve been doing everything I can, using as many different devices and activities to encourage, incentivise, drive and hope for, much more employer involvement because apprenticeships more than anything else are partly a job, which by definition means you need an employer in the mix,” he told FE Week at the launch of the Entrepreneurs and Education Programme at Lewisham College incorporating Southwark College on Monday, November 12.

“This is what’s unique about apprenticeships, therefore employer involvement on many levels is simply more important than in other things we do. I’ve put a lot of effort into increasing the type, the calibre and the depth of employer involvement and that’s a clear message of the review.”

Mr Richard was joined at Lewisham College’s Waterloo Campus for the programme launch by Michael Fallon MP, Minister for Business and Enterprise.

The Entrepreneurs and Education Programme is being funded by £1.1m of cash from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills over three years to provide support and advice to students, teachers and researchers across 100 colleges and universities.

Mr Fallon said: “Entrepreneurship is coming back into colleges. We’ve had enterprise societies across universities colleges and the further education sector. It can be taught by example. By getting entrepreneurs to come in to colleges, getting businesses into colleges and businesspeople to talk about how rewarding it can be to set up a business and start employing other people.”

The programme, supported by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, aims to create a new generation of educational entrepreneurs by equipping colleges and universities across the country with the tools to survive a competitive marketplace.

There were seminars throughout the day, from 9am, with students and staff listening to Mr Richard’s views and advice on business.

“Entrepreneurship can be taught,” he said. “And it’s not so much that’s it’s lacking in FE, it’s just that we don’t have the structures and the systems to promote it to flourish to the degree we want.

“This is broadly in the context of FE colleges, specifically in the context of vocational education and very much in the case of apprenticeships, which I intend to change.”
Read FE Week online for more from Mr Richard.

Future of LSIS in doubt as FE Guild role emerges

The future of the Learning and Skills Improvement Service (LSIS) is in doubt with plans for its role to be taken up by the FE Guild, FE Week can exclusively reveal.

A spokesperson for LSIS said the “transition” should be completed by the end of July next year. It is understood the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) wants the guild up and running the following month.

Last month, FE Minister Matthew Hancock announced that the Association of Colleges (AoC) and the Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) had won government approval to “take forward” proposals for the guild – a single body to set professional standards and codes of behaviour, as well as develop qualifications.

BIS is providing the AoC, as the lead body for the guild proposals, with £360,000 of funding until March.

In a letter seen by FE Week, Susan Pember, director of FE and skills investment at BIS, told LSIS chair Dame Ruth Silver: “The new guild organisation will assume responsibility for many of the broad areas of activity currently undertaken by LSIS, albeit probably in a different form.

“This clearly calls into question the future of LSIS as a separate entity and has major implications for its current staff.”

The LSIS spokesperson said: “Funding has now been agreed for the partnership to develop its plans and clarify how the guild will work and the scope of its activities.

“It is anticipated there will be consultation about the guild with the sector in the new year, which will clarify the implications for LSIS, with the aim of implementation of the transition by August 2013.”

LSIS was formed in October 2008 after a merger between the Centre for Excellence in Leadership and the Quality Improvement Agency.

A spokesperson for AELP and AoC said: “We have been charged with working with partners to establish an FE Guild. That process will begin with a comprehensive consultation of the sector to define the role of the guild. The results of that consultation will inform implications for other sector bodies.”

It would then be up to the sector to decide on the “best” employer-led contribution the guild could make to the “continued improvement of teaching, learning and governance”.

Ms Pember’s letter is the latest in a series of blows for LSIS staff. It was tasked with supporting and improving achievement in the FE and skills sector in England but has faced year-on-year government cuts.

In 2009, Dame Ruth announced that due to “severe funding pressures” it should be led by someone from the sector “steeped in current professional practice”. The then chief executive, Roger McClure, immediately stepped down.

Two years ago its budget was slashed from £145m to £65m. More cuts followed in June last year when it was announced that 30 per cent of the organisation’s core staff would lose their jobs.

David Hughes, chief executive of the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education, was this month appointed as chair of a steering group for the new guild.

New ofsted regime returns good news

The first general FE college inspection carried out under a new common inspection framework (CIF) has returned a good grading, while positives also emerged from the first re-inspection.

Ofsted inspectors armed with the new CIF gave City College Plymouth two days’ notice for an inspection between October 1 and 5.

They judged the 17,000-learner college to have improved from the satisfactory grade it got in September 2008.

Principal Phil Davies said it was “fantastic” news for the college and for Plymouth. “The college provides education and training for a large proportion of the local population, and we work closely with local businesses to ensure that local people have the skills they need. We have publicly stated our intention to significantly contribute to the social and economic regeneration of Plymouth,” he said.

He believed the college was bucking national trends. “In the last year the majority of inspected colleges saw their grades fall,” he said.

“Despite minimal notice and a new inspection framework, City College Plymouth has moved from satisfactory to good, with outstanding features. We have come a long way in a short space of time.”

But he said that it would not rest on its laurels. “Ofsted has given us food for thought. We know we have a very good and solid foundation on which to build as we continue on our journey to outstanding,” said Mr. Davies.

The new CIF was introduced from September following the inspection body’s Good Education For All consultation that ended in May.

It includes a reduced inspection notice period from three weeks to two days, with a re-inspection of providers ‘requiring improvement’ usually following within 12 to 18 months. Providers awarded the grade twice in a row can be judged inadequate on their third inspection if they haven’t improved.

Lambeth College, which got an inadequate grading when it was inspected under the old CIF in February, was said to be enjoying reasonable progress in the five areas that it was re-inspected on.

The 13,500-learner college had also seen significant progress in a sixth and final area reviewed by inspectors early last month.

Principal and chief executive Mark Silverman said: “We found the new CIF to be good — it is easier and very straightforward, the emphasis is where it should be, on teaching and learning.

“We were prepared as we have been working with the new CIF since June so knew what to expect. The two days’ notice was not an issue as all the relevant evidence was readily available through our own monitoring and quality systems.

“We were very pleased to receive a positive Ofsted monitoring report. We were able to demonstrate that the focus on change and improvement over the past few months is having a rapid impact.

“This is the first step to ensuring an outstanding Lambeth College.”

City College Plymouth’s deputy principal, Nicola Cove, gives an account of inspection under the new CIF on page 6.