Two more colleges have dropped a grade in recent Ofsted inspections.

Bracknell and Wokingham College and Worcester College of Technology were both graded ‘satisfactory’ in Ofsted reports published last week, after having been awarded ‘good’ when inspected in 2009.

In the breakdown of the overall grade both colleges received a mix of marks, with a number of areas of provision deemed ‘good’.

Campbell Christie CBE, principal and chief executive of Bracknell and Wokingham College, said the Ofsted report was “a fair reflection on the college, particularly in regards to their focus on last year’s data”.

“The Ofsted team were constructive, worked with us and gave us some very useful consultancy,” he said.

The report read: “Over the last three years, the proportion of learners who successfully complete their course has fluctuated with few clear trends of improvement. Success rates improved in 2009/10 to be satisfactory only to decline again in 2010/11 to their previous level.”

Mr Christie highlighted that the college’s retention rates had been impacted by the “huge disruption” caused by the construction of the college’s new building.

Although there was some “outstanding” teaching at Bracknell and Wokingham College, “too much [was] dull and uninspiring”, according to Ofsted.

“A number of teachers understand the importance of varying teaching techniques and checking learning thoroughly, but many do not perform these roles well enough,” the report read.

One of the key points of praise, however, was the college’s partnership work, which was described as “particularly strong” and to have “a very positive benefit for the local community.”

Mr Christie, who has been at the College since September last year, said he wants to take the College’s involvement in the community “to an even higher level”.

“I’m pleased with it, but I shall never rest on my laurels,” he said.

The leadership team was strongly commended: “The principal has set a challenging agenda for change over the last 12 months with a strong focus on increasing success rates and providing high quality education and training…This has inspired staff to start to develop and improve the provision more effectively.”

The report added: “Learners feel very safe in the college environment. Standards of learners’ work are high overall and learners develop good employability and personal skills. There is significant evidence to show that outcomes generally have improved markedly for learners during 2011/12.”

The report for Worcester College of Technology gave a mixed picture of success rates. “Long course success rates have increased to just below average, but short course rates have decreased and are low,” it read.

“Success rates for learners aged 16 to 18 are high at foundation level, but are low at advanced level. Success rates for adults have increased significantly at advanced level. but are low at intermediate level.”

Teaching, learning and assessment was “satisfactory overall”, but “good for work-based learners”.

“Learning resources are good, especially the content and use of the virtual learning environment,” the report read. “Teachers check on and extend learners’ learning skilfully.”

The partnership arrangements were described as “outstanding”.

“Staff work very effectively with a wide range of organisations to enable the most vulnerable learners to access training…Most areas have excellent links with employers that improve provision.”

The government will pay private companies, including 24 FE colleges, to help 16 and 17 year-olds back into a job or education, it was announced today.

The initiative is part of the Youth Contract, unveiled by Nick Clegg in February and worth up to £126 million.

Charities and businesses will be paid up to £2,200 for every young person helped, with the full amount being awarded only if they are still in full-time education, training, or work six months later.

It is hoped a flexible ‘payment by results’ system will allow firms to drastically reduce the number of young people not in education, employment or training (NEET).

The programme will operate over the next three years and help at least 55,000 NEETS with no GCSEs graded A* to C.

Nick Clegg said the scheme would help young people “who have fallen through the net” to get back on track.

“We can’t treat them like round pegs being forced into square holes,” he said.

“If you’re young and have got to the point where you feel on the scrapheap, you need extra help to succeed in life.”

The Deputy Prime Minister said the ‘payment by results’ approach would also allow businesses to do “whatever it takes” to help young people back into education or work.

“In exchange for this freedom, all we ask is that they get results,”  he said.

“It’s a win-win for government, young people and the organisations involved.”

The government also announced today the companies which have been approved to take part in the scheme.

Among the preferred bidders are 24 FE colleges:

East of England:
The Learning Partnership (incorporating Central Bedfordshire College, Bedford College)
The College of West Anglia
Peterborough Regional College
City College Norwich
Lowestoft College West Suffolk College
Otley College

North East:
Stockton Riverside College
Sunderland City College

South East:
Milton Keynes College

West Midlands:
South Birmingham College
Walsall College
Derbyshire College
Bournville College
New College Telford
Solihull College
City of Wolverhampton College
Shropshire College

Yorkshire and the Humber:
Calderdale College
Dearne Valley College
Doncaster College
East Riding College

London:
Newham College of Further Education

Colleges and other training providers could be given the chance to gain “chartered” status as a mark of quality, FE Week has learned.

A new “chartered community college” grade would be introduced, with institutions assessed against a range of criteria possibly including the levels of qualifications of their staff, learner feedback and community involvement.

The plans are also being billed as helping immigration officials in their crackdown on “bogus” colleges.

The move is set out in a paper, leaked to FE Week, which was presented to the Further Education and Skills Ministerial Advisory Panel last week.

The document, written by Department for Business, Innovation and Skills civil servant Valerie Carpenter, says the introduction of “Chartered Community College Status” would aim to enhance the reputation of the sector, promote quality and improve the training of the workforce.

It would also have the aim of helping “the border agency to be able to recognise legitimate colleges and training providers,” says the document.

Chartered Community College status would apply to colleges, with an equivalent status available for non-college training providers.

The paper says that many providers would meet the criteria for the status “almost immediately”, but that “others would have further work to do to attain it”. “Experts from the FE sector” would sit on panels to assess bids.

Suggested criteria – included in the document to “stimulate debate” – include:

–          “quality indicators”,including qualification levels in the workforce

–          “learner-centred indicators”:student involvement in running the college, excellent customer feedback

–          “employer-centred indicators”, such as, again, customer feedback or clarity over fees charged

–          “community-centred indicators”: community engagement.

–          “open data”

The paper suggests the status should be voluntary, but that there might need to be “incentives”, such as “further freedoms and flexibilities” – to drive initial take-up.

Community colleges exist in the United States and there was speculation this week that this had inspired the term.

Jim Crawley, chair of the post-16 committee of the Universities Council for the Education of Teachers, said: “I have been to community colleges in the States and they are very close to their communities and seem to have a slightly higher status than FE colleges here.

“Chartered Community College status could be a hallmark of quality. A lot of our colleges do some great work, which never seems to get the recognition that it should.  So maybe Chartered Community College status could help.

“On the other hand, it could be that all the existing models of good practice that already exist in the sector could be ignored if some new status comes out instead.”

The Chartered Community College idea, which was put forward at the meeting chaired by the FE minister John Hayes, is being considered alongside the establishment of a Further Education Guild (see seperate article).

Both could become Government policy in the autumn.

The Government is poised to set up a new professional body for further education, a document leaked to FE Week reveals.

The Further Education Guild would act as a “focal point” for ministerial efforts to promote professionalism in the sector, including taking on aspects of the regulation of lecturers through setting professional standards and codes of behaviour.

The Guild would also develop qualifications and support and promote continuing professional development (CPD).

The Guild and an associated proposal to develop a new “Chartered Community College” grade for institutions appear to be part of Government moves to a new professional landscape for FE in which staff will no longer be required to be qualified teachers.

The Guild plan is set out in a paper presented last week to the Further Education and Skills Ministerial Advisory Panel at a meeting chaired by the FE minister John Hayes. The panel makes recommendations to the Government.

“FE Week has now also learned that Lord Lingfield’s final report, initially scheduled for publication this month, has been put back until early autumn.

The document is being seen as a response to Lord Lingfield’s review of professionalism in the sector, which produced an interim report in April recommending the scrapping of compulsory registration with the Institute for Learning and an end to the requirement for lecturers to be qualified teachers.

Sources say it is an attempt to offer something in response to criticism of the deregulation move in Lingfield.

FE Week has now also learned that Lord Lingfield’s final report, initially scheduled for publication this month, has been put back until early autumn.

an overarching body with end to end responsibility for professionalism and vocational education across the sector”

The document, “Developing an FE Guild” was written by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) civil servant Jonathan Yewdall and presented to a meeting of the panel, which includes representatives from stakeholder bodies across FE, on Tuesday last week (10^th July).

It says: “Reflecting current thinking about modern guilds, key functions and features of an FE Guild are likely to include:

“Acting as an overarching body with end to end responsibility for professionalism and vocational education across the sector, including to own professional standards and codes of behaviour for members; develop appropriate qualifications for people working in the sector through which people can progress; support  individual, subject specific and corporate CPD; [and] support employer recognition of professionalism.”

The Guild would offer institutional and individual membership, says the paper, both of which would be on a voluntary basis.

However, individuals and colleges would be given incentives to join, in that corporate membership of the Guild would be a key criterion for an institution qualifying as a “Chartered Community College” (see separate article).

Individuals would have an incentive to join, too, it says, as the training courses the Guild provided would be linked to higher level qualifications.

The document, which says the Guild would provide a “single, collective focus for raising standards of professionalism and being a custodian of excellence”, would be an “employer-led partnership drawing in employee representative organisations and sector bodies concerned with workforce development”.

The paper also raises questions as to whether the Guild would have any role in lecturers’ pay and conditions and whether it would have any role to play in handling unprofessional conduct complaints by individuals and institutions.

The Hospitality Guild, which was set up last year for the hotel and catering sector with funding from the Government’s £34 million Growth and Innovation Fund, is being seen as a model for the FE version.

The document does not represent finalised Government policy but sources at the meeting said there was no disagreement voiced among attendees. One source said: “There was widespread consensus that it would be worth pursuing both options, and this is something that is being taken forward. It’s very much John Hayes’s baby.”

Another source said, however, that the document raised many questions, including how a Guild would co-exist with current organisations including the Learning and Skills Improvement Service.

Full details are still to be finalised but an announcement is expected in the autumn, possibly at the annual conference of the Association of Colleges in November.

Participants in the meeting did not want to comment on the record.

BIS was also keeping tight-lipped about the proposals. “We don’t comment on leaks,” said a spokeswoman.

The interim Lingfield review said its final report would be published in July 2012, but the spokeswoman said the “evidence gathering for the final report” would be finished this month, with the final Lingfield report itself coming out in “early autumn.”

Unexplained changes to college data tables on what classifies as a ‘high grade’ have baffled colleges, who have seen their high grades drop “dramatically”.

The Association of Colleges (AoC) brought the problem to the attention of their members in a briefing leaked to FE Week.

The briefing said that “changes seem to have been made to the definitions of high grades in learner responsive performance reports” managed by the information authority and that the impact on colleges was “significant”, in some cases “halving” their high grade profile.

Joy Mercer, the AoC’s director of policy, said: “It is a mystery to us as to who changed the definition of high grades in college data tables. The AoC has asked the information authority to investigate.”

The organisation believes that high grades for GCSEs are now defined as A* to B rather than A* to C. National Diploma Level 3 qualifications (including the Sub Diploma and Extended Diploma) “now seem to need at least one distinction” in their grade to count as a high grade. “Three merits used to count as high grades but don’t seem to anymore,” the briefing added.

Ms Mercer added: “Colleges are always trying to improve the amounts of students who achieve high grades and this feeds into their own data analysis and improvement agenda. Colleges were confused as to why their high grades had dropped dramatically and also whether this would affect Ofsted inspections and performance tables. We have been reassured by both that they will not be using any new definition as it had not been agreed.

“It is also unclear which authorities and departments will be using this new definition and which will not. This could lead to a confusing time in colleges as they try to aggregate their own information and cross reference it with centralised data sets.”