‘Stop wasting money’ Unison tells colleges

Colleges spent at least £65 million on agency staff during the last financial year, according to information obtained by Unison.

The trade union has calculated a combined bill of £64,613,485 for 170 colleges through freedom of information requests.

The disclosure, which details spending between August 2010 and July 2011, follows plans for potential redundancies at a number of FE colleges across the country, as revealed in FE Week last month.

Unison say using agency workers is “a disgraceful waste of money”, and colleges should be using their resources to either protect jobs or improve wages.

Jon Richards, head of education at Unison, said: “Colleges are claiming that they cannot afford to relieve the pressure on workers and their families by giving them a pay rise.

“These staff will be rightly shocked that colleges have tens of millions to spend on agency workers and on VAT bills.”

Mr Richards added: “It is time for colleges to stop wasting money and manage their budgets so they can pay workers fairly and safeguard jobs.”

While Leeds City College appears at the top of the table, it is important to look at these figures in context.”

Leeds City College, who spent a total of £2,777,628 on agency workers in 2010/11, came out highest in the information gathered by Unison.

However, the college told FE Week it is common practice to employ external contractors and consultants.

A statement from the college reads: “It is imperative for the college to be able to fulfil its key function of teaching and learning – and due to a number of factors (for example maternity cover, staff absences as a result of illness), there may be the requirement for the use of highly specialised academic or business support personnel for short specific periods of time and/or projects.”

It later adds: “While Leeds City College appears at the top of the table, it is important to look at these figures in context.

“Leeds City College is the third largest FE college in the country and any additional temporary spend is likely to be numerically greater than that of most other colleges.

“In 2010/11, the College had an annual turnover of £80 million, with more than 45,000 students over multiple sites.

“College agency spend highlighted is the equivalent of 3.4% of total turnover.”

Rotherham College of Arts and Technology, which spent £2,214,529 on agency workers in 2010/11, has also defended the practice and says it helps them to quickly respond to learner needs.

Gill Alton, principal and chief executive of the college, told FE Week: “We use agency staffing as a part of our overall staffing mix.

“It enables us to respond flexibly to changes in student demand but also funding changes, of which there are a lot in further education at the moment.”

Unison say agencies regularly charge “as much as three times” what they would for a permanent member of staff, and also have to pay 20 per cent VAT on agency bills.

Evan Williams, director of employment and professional services at the Association of Colleges said: “Colleges, which are independent organisations, are aware of the financial benefits and implications of employing agency staff, but it is not always easy to fill these specialist positions often leaving the institutions with few alternatives. It is up to colleges to best channel resources to account for these conditions and they are always looking to be prudent.

“It is a more complicated issue that requires an all-round approach to maintain quality provision.”

‘Disappointing’ drop in adult participation says NIACE

The number of adults taking part in formal learning has fallen five percentage points, a survey by the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE) has revealed.

The annual adult participation in learning survey, published by the independent charity last week, shows that the majority of adults (62 per cent) have not participated in any formal study in the last three years.

The research also shows that more than a third of adults haven’t taken part in any learning since they left compulsory education.

David Hughes, chief executive of NIACE, said: “Participating in learning can help people secure work, stay and flourish in their jobs, keep healthy and play a positive role in their community.

“All of those are even more important now with a tough labour market, an ageing population and stressed communities.

“So it is disappointing that participation in learning is declining, with many of the people who could most benefit missing out.”

Roughly one in five adults who responded to the survey said they are currently learning, while 38 per cent said they had participated in the last three years.

NIACE say this is a drop of five percentage points since 2010.

What’s needed now is for policy-makers, providers, businesses, unions and charities to work together to encourage more people to take up learning.”

A Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) spokesperson said: “Adult learning has great benefits for individuals, their families and their communities as well for the economy and growth.

“That is why despite declining budgets we have protected investment for priority groups including the low skilled, young adults without intermediate and advanced qualifications and the unemployed.”

Toni Pearce, vice president (FE) at the National Union of Students (NUS), told FE Week the figures were “very worrying” and likely to decline further once the government’s FE loans scheme is introduced.

“It would be a national tragedy if those who have been shut out of education in the past, and who are increasingly unlikely to be offered the right opportunities to re-enter, were even further deterred from taking up life-changing routes to lifelong learning by the creation of new financial barriers to education and skills” she said.

“Ministers now need to urgently take the initiative and create a lifelong learning climate to replace the one-chance-and-you’re-out approach which casts those with huge potential onto the scrapheap and threatens to do permanent damage by offering no route back.”

The research, which surveyed 5,237 adults aged 17 and over, also provides a comparative snapshot in participation rates between adults in work, looking for work and retirement. More than 40 per cent of respondents in full and part time employment said they had participated in some kind of learning in the last three years, compared to only 14 per cent of retired people.

The survey also shows that adults who stayed on in initial education are much more likely to participate in learning than those who left at the earliest opportunity.

Mr Hughes said:  “Our survey shows that you are much less likely to take part in learning if you are retired, or outside of the labour market, if you are in a low skilled job, or if you didn’t do well in school.

“What’s needed now is for policy-makers, providers, businesses, unions and charities to work together to encourage more people to take up learning.”

The Association of Colleges (AoC) say it is difficult for providers to maintain the participation levels of adult learners when budgets are being cut and “student entitlements are being eroded.”

Joy Mercer, director of policy at the AoC, said: “It is a testament to the commitment of providers that there has not been a more substantial decline in the number of adult enrolments.

“Having said that, if colleges are going to be part of the solution to high levels of unemployment then there needs to be positive encouragement. Those from the most disadvantaged backgrounds should be helped as much as possible to engage with education, to retrain, or to upgrade their skills.”

BIS Select Committee announces final apprenticeship evidence session

The BIS Select Committee have announced details of their final evidence session on Apprenticeships. On the 16 May at 9.50am John Hayes MP, Minister of State for Further Education, Skills and Lifelong Learning will join Gila Sacks, Deputy Director of the Apprenticeships Unit (BIS/DfE), will give their evidence. The session will be streamed live on Parliament TV and is open to the public on a first come, first served basis.

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The Skills Funding Agency don’t do planning, and neither can you

When Skills Funding Agency (SFA) replaced the Learning and Skills Council in April 2010 a critical difference in function was a very public end to central planning.

This was accelerated by the coalition government when in June 2010 they scrapped the Summary Statement of Activity (a national template for provider plans) and introduced the ‘freedoms and flexibilites’ of a single Adult Skills Budget.

Yet, take a forensic look at how the SFA have been managing the £4bn budget, and you would be forgiven for thinking they did not want anyone else to stick to a plan either.

• In August colleges are unexpectedly told that despite policy announcements the previous November to the contrary, many unemployed learners on ‘wider benefit’s’ might remain eligible for full funding after all.

• In November colleges unexpectedly start being offered millions by the SFA to be spent on NEETs before the end of the academic year. With no explanation as to how this would be recorded nor monitored, the SFA simply told FE Week: “The funding forms part of the existing Adult Skills Budget that is being redeployed as part of our normal quarterly performance review”.

• In March colleges are unexpectedly given a share of £23 million in Discretionary Learner Support funding, to be spent before August. One principal told FE Week: “getting that sort of sum of money, in an unplanned way late in the year, just isn’t doing anybody any favour”.

• In April FE Week analysis of an SFA document shows that overall in-year allocations have increased a staggering £240 million since August. Newham College, for example, has received an in-year increase of more than £4m.

• In May the SFA unexpectedly announce they are adjusting 797 qualification funding rates with just three months of the year remaining. All 797 went up, some by more than 400 per cent. (See page 2 in the next edition of FE Week).

So it seems colleges and training providers are getting almost monthly calls from their friendly Skills Funding Agency account manager. If so, does the Agency say something like:

Forget the reduced funding rates and cut to your allocation while you were planning your courses, or that you made redundancies to find efficiencies. Now that your courses have started can you help us out? We have a couple of hundred million in unspent funding to offload.  Sound good?”

It may sound good, but how can providers be expected to sensibly plan the resources to deliver high quality courses with all these short-term ‘unexpected’ giveaways?

One claim from the SFA is these in-year increases reward success, and providers don’t earn the funding unless the courses are actually delivered. But this is not true. When funding went unspent last year the SFA said: “A tolerance of three per cent will be applied to the final out turn for 2010/11, so clawback will be waived for providers who have delivered 97 per cent or more.”

The other problem is that without an enforceable plan, colleges and providers can and do decide to use the funding for courses that the Skills Funding Agency do not want to purchase. For example, it is clear that 25+ apprenticeships starts continue to grow exponentially whilst the high priority 16-24 year-old starts have stalled.

So despite the end to central planning, when allocating funding for next year the SFA said that they don’t want “maintenance of current recruitment levels for those aged over 25” and “will monitor the pattern and volume of 25+ Apprenticeship delivery in-year”. Case of the SFA wanting to have one’s cake and eat it too?

Few support the principle of central control or giving money back to the Treasury, but Agitator sees a sector increasingly struggling to see the point of doing their own business planning much beyond lunch, let alone for the next academic year.

FE loans to be called “24+ Advanced Learning Loans”

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) has revealed to FE Week that the new FE loans system will be called “24+ Advanced Learning Loans” when it’s introduced next year.

A BIS spokesperson told FE Week: “It is important that the name for the loans reflects the type of learners and learning that it will apply to.

“The vast majority of public funding for further education will continue to be grant funded, with loans representing between 10-15 per cent of the total FE budget.”

The spokesperson added: “After carrying out testing with a sample of learners we have chosen the name “24+ Advanced Learning Loans”.

“This describes the loan offer which covers learners aged 24 and above studying at level 3 and above.”

(Note: Look out for coverage of the roundtable debate on FE loans, held by FE Week, in our next printed edition)

UKCES appoints four new commissioners

The UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES) has appointed four new commissioners.

Gail Cartmail, assistant general secretary for Unite the Union, Scott Johnson, chief executive of Chas Smith Shopfitters Ltd, Toby Peyton-Jones, HR director at Siemens UK & North West Europe and Neil Mclean, chair of the Leeds City Region Local Enterprise Partnership have been appointed on a three year term.

They will join the 23 existing commissioners led by Charlie Mayfield, chairman of the John Lewis Partnership.

“I am extremely pleased to welcome four Commissioners of such high calibre,” Mr Mayfield said.

“They join the Commission at an exciting time, as we seek to ensure that skills development is really embedded within industrial policy to help boost jobs and growth.

“Gail, Scott, Neil and Toby join our other new Commissioners, Paul McKelvie and Scott Waddington, who were appointed by the Scottish and Welsh government respectively, and joined us last month.”

The appointments were announced by business secretary Vince Cable earlier today.

“Building a skilled workforce is a key part of our efforts to stimulate economic recovery and growth,” Mr Cable said.

“I am therefore delighted to announce these appointments, the diverse backgrounds and viewpoints represented by the new Commissioners will strengthen the Commission’s capacity to deliver skills for growth across all sectors.”

Derby College starts work on new Academy

Work has started on Derby College’s new £3.5 million Construction Academy in Pride Park which is due to open to students this September.

The college is working with developers Cedar House to construct a 3,000 sq metre building on land currently owned by the Homes and Communities Agency and originally earmarked by former East Midlands Developments Agency for the Railway Technical Centre.

It will house 650 full time and part time students as well as apprentices in bricklaying, joinery and carpentry, painting and decorating and plastering.

Head of faculty Dawn Kemp said: “We are very excited that work has started on the new Construction Academy which has already attracted a great deal of interest in potential learners looking to come to College in September to learn a trade.

Chesterfield College staff set to strike

Members of the University and College Union (UCU) at Chesterfield College today (Friday) voted to take industrial action in a row over jobs and pay.

Nine in ten (88 per cent) of those who voted voted for strike action. A date for the action will be announced next week.

The union’s action is in response to the college’s plans to make 39 teaching staff redundant by the end of the academic year – details of which were revealed by FE Week last week.

UCU regional official, Anne O’Sullivan, said: “It is a real shame that things have to come to this, but we are not prepared sit back while jobs and pay are attacked in this way. These plans are little more than an attempt to deliver teaching on the cheap and are bad for staff and students.”

Weston College students pamper pensioners

Weston College pampered 24 pensioners to help launch Age UK Somerset’s year-long ‘Joining in Together’ service to reduce isolation.

Men and women aged from 50 to nearly 90 enjoyed £5 professional facials, manicures and pedicures at the College’s bespoke salon.

Dennis Newbury, 82 of Worlebury, who had top to toe treatments, said: “I’ve never had a facial. I thought it wasn’t the sort of thing a man did but I thoroughly enjoyed it all.”

Pauline Roberts, 86, of Ridgeway in Weston town centre, said: “This was my first facial and I worried I was too old but it’s been lovely and I’ve had my nails painted lilac.”

The ‘Joining in Together’ service is supported by Somerset Racial Equality Council and funded by the Fair Share Trust.

Age UK Somerset campaign co-ordinator, Linda Jones, said: “This pamper day has been an incredible success which couldn’t have happened without Weston College.”