Hospice dedicates valuable brick to Newham College fundraisers

Teenagers’ fundraising efforts for a children’s hospice were celebrated in a newly-created garden of meditation.

Richard House Children’s Hospice staff dedicated a special brick in their garden’s a ‘path of life’ for the £550 raised by 14 teenagers brought together by Newham College.

The hospice transformed a derelict part of its grounds into a garden to give family members and friends space to treasure precious moments with children with life-threatening health conditions.

Hospice life president Anthea Hare said: “The path of life creates a positive experience for family members and friends of the children who stay here and represents so many individuals and organisations that have helped us to expand our work.

“The children enjoy being here and we give them support to do things that they wouldn’t be able to do in their own homes.”

College staff member, Liana Mathurin-Brown, last summer organised activities for the teenagers for the ‘Summer of Lifetime’ programme. The programme was supported by the Dame Kelly Holmes Legacy Trust, vinspired, Newham Council, and the government. Greenfingers Charity designed and built the path with financial assistance from Grange Farm Centre that totalled around £20,000.

Student at Weston College is video star

Weston College’s youngest professionally qualified student film editor has used his creative skills in a cutting edge music video for a rising local singing star.

Corry Raymond (18), who qualified in ‘Final Cut Pro’ three years ago, has worked alongside singer Ryan Inglis – a former Weston College student – on a video for his latest single, Feel Any Feeling. The BTEC media production course student, of Shrubbery Terrace, said: “It’s taken two months to put together using state-of-the-art studios at College and I’ve had brilliant help from almost all departments at University Campus.

Ryan (30), of Weston, recorded songs for his album at the world famous Abbey Road studios in London, where the Beatles recorded many of their albums.

College music course co-ordinator, Wendy Chadwick, added: “Corry’s doing this as part of his course work and his editing skills are amazingly sophisticated. We are also fortunate to have fantastic technology here.”

NUS celebrates 90 years at annual conference

Toni Pearce was reelected as VP for FE

Over 1,500 students from across educational institutions in the UK descended upon Sheffield’s City Hall to attend the National Union of Students (NUS)flagship National Conference.

National conference is the sovereign body of the NUS and sees delegates electing their representatives and policy for the forthcoming academic year. A raft of policy was debated and approved by delegates regarding the Union’s political stance on various aspects of further education (FE).

Celebrating 90 years since its formation, the NUS, has often been criticised for its prioritisation of more higher education related campaigns. However in recent years efforts have been made by many to raise the profile of FE within the NUS and to more ferociously campaign on the issues that the FE membership mandate the Union with.

On day two of the conference Toni Pearce was re-elected in a landslide victory to the office of vice president further education for the NUS.

Pearce, formally President of Cornwall College Students’ Union, was elected in the first round of voting, securing 127 of 199 votes. Her opponent Jamil Keating received 69 votes and “re-open nominations” three.

Speaking during the election’s hustings on the second day of conference, Pearce said: “NUS must move forward with our narrative of a fair, high quality tertiary education system for all, based on parity of esteem between academic and vocational, supported by genuinely independent information advice and guidance and properly funded by the state.”

Following on from the ballot of FE delegates and her re-election in Sheffield, Pearce explained to FE Week the mandate that she has been given by her membership for the forthcoming year.

We are witnessing an entire generation of young people not just being forgotten by their government, but being completely abandoned”

“I am overwhelmed that the FE membership has given me the opportunity to once again represent FE students. My first term has thrown at me many challenges and our movement begun the fight to protect our sector and students. From the harsh withdrawal of EMA to the proposed removal of the Care to Learn grant. We have only seen what two years of this Coalition Government has done to the sector, we have another three.”

Pearce went on to declare that her second term will be one where she leads the Union’s refocus to those who are the most vulnerable.

“We are witnessing an entire generation of young people not just being forgotten by their government, but being completely abandoned. Successive governments have attempted to pull the rug from under young people, and maybe they’ve almost been successful. But I absolutely refuse to sit back and accept it. Last year we were successful in our campaign to prevent the withdrawal of Care to Learn and I am determined that we are mobilise our Unions once more to protect those that are most vulnerable.”

During the conference the 1,500 delegates mandated the Union with plethora of new policies that it must act upon during the forthcoming academic year. The further education zone committee proposed several polices which sanctioned stances on Ofsted, Student Governors, Offender Learning and called for the implementation of independent complaints and appeals procedure outside of internal institutional structures; similar to the OIA in Higher Education.

Delegates also debated the Union’s approach to the government’s White Paper on higher education reforms leading to a vote calling for the resignation of David Willets, the universities and science minister. The conference delegates also voted to hold a national demonstration against the government’s reforms in the first term of the 2012-13 academic year; a demonstration that is expected to involve thousands of FE students; in opposition to government cuts in education.

The NUS Annual Conference was held at Sheffield City Hall    Liam Burns was reelected as President of the NUS

Keep FE Free campaign launched by NUS

On the first day of its National Conference on Tuesday, NUS launched its latest FE campaign – Keep FE Free; its campaign against the introduction of fees and student loans for adults in further education in England.

The campaign launch featured as part of a fringe event during the conference discussing the government’s proposal of introducing a system of student loans; similar to tuition fee loans in HE. This introduction of loans is to offset the governments planned withdrawal of the current 50 per cent subsidy for level 3 qualifications for those over 24 years old.

The vice president of NUS, Toni Pearce opened the fringe by providing the room, of around 100 FE and HE students, with an introduction to the government’s proposals and why NUS believes the government should “halt progress on the introduction of fees for college students.”

Pearce went on to add that, “under the new regime, adults will face barriers to participation and progression, leaving them with limited education, training and employment opportunities.”

Following on from her opening of the fringe and launch of the campaign; Pearce was joined on the platform by Fiona Aldridge, head of work place learning at the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE). Alridge informed the delegates of NIACE’s undertaking of research into the impact the Government’s proposals would have and declared that they “were a high risk strategy.”

Aldridge explained that NIACE in principle supports the policy of learner contributions towards to the cost of their education; however warned that the impact of the current proposal is under-researched.

“We would support in principle that if you can contribute to the cost of your learning then adding private money to public money does increase the provision that can be offered. However, we do think that the demand for loans and the impact of loans is under-researched, that the policy is being implemented too quickly and there is a severe underestimate of the complexity.”

Following on from the remarks of both speakers, delegates were then invited to debate their views on the proposals and were encouraged to lobby their local MP’s. Delegates discussed and shared their own experiences from their Unions. The FE Zone Committee of the NUS has produced post cards with a clear message emblazoned requesting their MP to not support these proposals.

Pearce added: “This cut in funding will be hugely damaging to further education, normally a place where adults can get a second chance if they’ve been failed the first time around. How will adults re-train to find work in the current economic climate? How will they access higher level apprenticeships? And how will they afford Access to HE courses? I and my membership will campaign tirelessly against the implementation of these loans.”

Havering College students show fashion flair

The next generation of up-and-coming designers from Havering College of Further and Higher Education showcased their creations at a major catwalk event.

Five final year BA Fashion degree students from the college in Hornchurch, Essex, took their cutting edge collections to London’s Alternative Fashion Week.

Press photographers from across the globe descended on the six day event at Spitalfields Traders Market in East London.

The bi-annual show is regarded by the fashion industry as a hotbed for raw, undiscovered designer talent.

Havering College was chosen from hundreds of applications for one of 85 catwalk show slots.

Head of fashion Marie Loney said: “Alternative Fashion Week is a truly international event and we are very proud our BA Fashion degree students were given the opportunity to be a part of it.

“It gave the students a real buzz to see the fantastic reaction from the sea of photographers when the models stepped onto the catwalk wearing their designs.”

Gary Lineker gets behind Salford City College

Students from the Salford City College Sports Academy were recently invited to Old Trafford to meet England football hero Gary Lineker.

The BBC Match of the Day host was guest speaker at the Greater Manchester launch of Drive IQ – a programme to educate young people before they get behind the wheel, made up of ‘brain training modules’ that are often missed in traditional teaching methods.

Lineker said: “As a father with sons making their way out on the road, I want to be sure they’re as prepared as they can be, Drive IQ is a great starting point.”

Salford City College students were invited to participate in taster workshops which used the Drive IQ software. Student Jessica Martins said: “I think it’s a great idea to give young people more support before they begin driving; if it helps reduce the risk of accidents, it’s worth doing the programme.”

Sports development manager Phil Arbelo-Dolan said: “The students had a great time learning about the Drive IQ programme and were thrilled to meet one of their sporting heroes.”

What counts as being a successful college?

The 157 Group has been debating how it moves forward six years on from its inception. The sector context in 2012 is very different from 2006, not least with the new flexibilities and freedoms, the changing style of Ofsted, fiscal reductions and a new spirit of entrepreneurialism. A key question is how a successful college is defined and measured in this changing political, educational and policy environment.

As a Group, our recent focus has been on helping shape policy and influencing development of the sector, drawing on a powerful principal peer support group, a system of eleven peer networks and the added value of delivering focussed project activities. We believe that it is timely and important to articulate, a new, sophisticated and sector owned approach to determining what counts as a successful college in the current decade. We believe it must encompass Ofsted judgements, but go even further.

The capacity to maintain and improve the broad range of college provision and performance in changing contexts is key to any assessment of whether a college as a whole can be termed successful. The views of those who look at one aspect of a college’s work in depth such as Ofsted, the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) and Skills Funding Agency are important, but a more holistic judgment can only be achieved through a process involving rigorous peer review.

The 157 Group, like other college groups, has initiated a peer review process among its members in a conscious attempt to ensure a sector owned/led approach to success and quality improvement that builds on but goes beyond external assessments.

The broader mission of an FE college, the various purposes it serves in a community, its economic mission and the extent to which the college as a whole can fulfil its stated purposes, now and in the future, must be the core basis for assessing its overall success.

It is not appropriate for colleges to be measured primarily from a schools, qualification and academic centric paradigm when our mission is to deliver a broad spectrum of services beyond qualifications and contribute to the broad spectrum of community, economic and social benefit.

External judgments on inspected provision made by bodies like Ofsted and QAA will be an important component of any such assessment. So too will external judgments of a college’s financial health, including auditors reports. However, since Ofsted reports are based on snapshot trends covering only a small fraction of a college’s work, their main value is in helping assess how far we can have confidence in a college’s own judgments.

It is good Ofsted is moving to focus consistently on determining the quality of teaching and learning, rather than reflecting more transient political agendas. In determining whether an institution is successful, increasing attention needs to be paid to other factors.
In a user-driven system the judgments of key users, for example, as reflected in surveys of student and employer satisfaction, will become increasingly central. Success rates are one important outcome but increasingly it is recognised that so too are student destinations. In the future a college’s success may need to be assessed in terms of preparing students to be entrepreneurial and enterprising – exercising initiative and innovation.

In addition, there are benefits a college needs to be able to demonstrate, such as impact on local business viability, a contribution to economic regeneration, increasing social cohesion and other aspects of engagement with the wider community. A successful college has to be both effective and inclusive. It is not sufficient to achieve high success rates by not engaging with the full range of potential clients or by being too selective.

Finally, to be truly successful, a college needs to be outward looking, working with and where necessary supporting other institutions as well as contributing to the wider process of policy formulation.

Lynne Sedgmore CBE, Executive Director,
157 Group

John Hayes on hand to unveil South Essex College’s £102 million plans for the future

A college’s plans for the future were unveiled during a visit by John Hayes, the minister of state for FE, skills and lifelong learning.

The Basildon Campus of South Essex College hosted Mr Hayes, along with local MPs, to listen to a briefing on the three new builds the college is planning to embark upon.

The projects see a new circa £30 million campus in Basildon in 2015, a £45 million campus in Thurrock in 2014, and a campus in Southend, where work has already started on a new £27 million state-of-the-art library and learning facility for 2013. He also met students studying various motor vehicle based qualifications, including apprentices in light vehicle maintenance and repair and IMI Level 2 motor vehicle maintenance and repair of light vehicles.

Acting principal John Hayles said: “The Minister was impressed about the progress we are making in raising aspirations and results across the region.

“He was also great advocate that positive buildings make for a great place for learning, which is very much our vision.”

Gemma Knott, policy and communications officer, 157 Group

“The worst thing that could happen to me is for someone to say that I didn’t try hard enough,” says Gemma Knott, the 157 Group’s policy and communications officer.

A self-confessed “geek,” she loved reading and writing from an early age and excelled academically. But there were few role models on Northfields estate in Leicester where she grew up.

“There were low aspirations, a lot of people living on benefits and struggling with money, and once you’re on an estate like that, it can become a vicious cycle; you don’t broaden your horizons and it gets harder to escape.”

While her own ambition, and her parents’ support, undoubtedly had a role to play in her educational success, Knott says she also benefited from the Aim Higher scheme, an initiative developed under the last Labour government, which aimed to encourage young people from deprived areas to consider higher education.

This gave her the opportunity to go to open days and summer schools at various universities – including Oxford, where she was later selected for interview. Although she learned a lot from the process, it was a “very daunting experience,” she says.

“I am an ambitious person, but I still felt like I stuck out like a sore thumb at the interviews.

“Talking to the other applicants – and this might sound judgmental – they did sound like they were born with silver spoons in their mouths; they weren’t just comparing grades, they were comparing 100 per cent scores. There was a very competitive edge to everything.”

While her Oxford application was unsuccessful, Knott was offered a place to study history at Warwick University. And while her parents – a forklift truck operator and an administrative clerk – were supportive of her aspirations, they did worry about her getting into debt.

I have to pinch myself sometimes with the people I get to talk to”

“No one in my family had ever been to university – not many of them even own their own houses – and in that kind of culture there is a fear factor about owing money,” she says.

Among the first cohort of students to see tuition fees rise from £1,000-a-year to more than £3,000-a-year, Knott says she can empathise with prospective students (who, from September, will have to pay up to £9,000-a-year) who are fearful of debt. “When you’re from that kind of background, you don’t want to spend any more than you earn.”

Determined not to be a financial burden on her parents, from the age of 16, Knott held down numerous part-time jobs, including several stints as a tour guide at Buckingham Palace. In the final year of her degree, she got up at five in the morning to do a cleaning job at the university.

“I think my housemates thought I was crazy, when they heard the front door closing at 5am,” she recalls. “I got the 2:1 I wanted but, when I look back, I wonder how I did it.”

While she admits she “could have slowed down at bit”, juggling education and part-time work stood her in good stead when it came to finding her first job, she says.

“I made so many friends, I networked and I earned my money and learned the value of a hard day’s work. When I worked in a call centre, I learned how to listen and all those other soft skills employers really want… it’s amazing how many people are clever and have qualifications that don’t have that.”

After graduation, Knott had set her sights on a career in law, but a short-term temping job – covering for the PA to the principal of Warwickshire College – changed everything.

I’m always looking for the next strategic challenge in FE and I have got so many ideas whirring around in my head”

“It was never my choice to go into the education world but once I started work at Warwickshire College, I loved it,” she says. “I saw how hard-working and how innovative FE staff are, and I loved the buzz and the atmosphere at the college and how forward-thinking it was.”

Landing her current job at the 157 Group – less than a year after graduating – is the best thing that has ever happened to her, she says.

While there is no “typical week,” her job can involve anything from writing press releases and policy briefings to having tea at Number 10.

“I have to pinch myself sometimes with the people I get to talk to, but at the same time I have to keep myself grounded because I have to bear in mind it is all about the learners,” she says.

“You can’t get carried away, having tea and wining and dining in the House of Lords, because you have to remember you are there primarily for the learners and the agenda of the membership.”

Knott admits she is her “own worst enemy” when it comes to workload and is so full of ideas, she sometimes ends up working around the clock to get things done.

“I have so many ideas and I guess I have an advantage with my age and not being out of university that long, which means I can empathise with learners and what their problems are.

“It is a busy role, but I do make time for other things as well.”

Whatever role I do, for me it will just be a blessing to stay in the sector”

After taking up running just a year ago, Knott recently completely the Paris Marathon, raising £800 for the Stroke Association and is already considering training again for another long-distance run in the future.

At 23, she is relaxed about her future career plans, although she would like to remain involved with the FE sector. What continues to drive her is her aspiration for all young people to have the chance to fulfil their potential, she says.

“I like the policy and communication side of things, but whatever role I do, for me it will just be a blessing to stay in the sector. I’m always looking for the next strategic challenge in FE and I have got so many ideas whirring around in my head – as long as I am in the sector I will be really happy. I guess it all comes back to what education has done for me; I want to make sure that all learners have access to the same kinds of opportunities.”

But she “would be lying” if she said didn’t ever feel she was taken less seriously by colleagues in the sector because of her age. “I have often felt that when I walk into a room of one of these national groups ‘Hmm, she’s a bit of a whippersnapper,’ but in a way that’s my own insecurity and I think people judge you on your outcomes.

I hope that I have now gained a voice at the table and that my age is no longer a reflection of my abilities.”

FE should learn ‘employment truths’ from welfare-to-work

The relationship between further education, the world of work, and local economic development is at a crossroads. With over one million young people unemployed for the first time, FE colleges are now in a unique position to revolutionise how they support learners’ migration from training into gainful employment.

The Wolf Review suggested we shift the focus from “the accrual of qualifications” to “employment outcomes” and this is the clear direction of travel for government. New funding streams have been opened up for colleges that train jobseekers, and colleges will begin experiencing funding outcomes related to a progression into employment. Additionally, the increase in apprenticeships and other incentives in the Youth Contract to boost youth employability all point to the pivotal role colleges must play in reversing the youth unemployment trend.

As FE principals consider the new role their institutions will play in getting young Britons working, there are three “employment truths” FE can borrow from the welfare-to-work sector that will boost employability outcomes and put their college on the front foot in tackling youth unemployment.

Qualifications matter much less than attitude
Our research into the value of vocational skills and apprenticeships found employers and young people recognise that securing meaningful work in today’s economy requires training beyond earned qualifications, namely an increased focus on employability or “soft skills”.

Communication skills, organisational skills, time keeping, team work and motivation are ranked as more important than qualifications achieved by the young people and employers we interviewed. FE colleges are well placed to incorporate these softer skills into the student experience. Learners must leave FE with not only work-ready qualifications but armed with a work-ready attitude.

Local economic growth relies on specific skill development
When an employer plans to invest in new manufacturing or distribution facilities, there is a long-term vision, looking at the likely labour market skills to support the business not in 2012 but in 2015, 2020 and beyond. FE institutions should also take a similar long-term approach when developing and marketing their course offering.

This requires better access to labour market intelligence, something colleges can achieve through more collaboration with their Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) or Chamber of Commerce. Colleges that trade in popular, but low need vocational skills (for instance media or hairdressing courses) for less well-known, but potentially more sought after skills (like process engineering and green construction) demanded by local entrepreneurship, will produce graduates with the training and qualifications that will help them secure sustainable employment.

Matchmaking and networking are critical to recruitment success
Mentors and professional role models build young people’s confidence, passion and experience, all critical factors for securing work in the current jobs market. Equally, local employers, with limited resources to recruit, benefit from access to a pool of skilled, passionate young employees. Working with LEPs or Chambers of Commerce, colleges can align local business services to effectively join up an “employer offer”.

Existing digitally or through traditional jobs boards and networking, colleges must increase employers’ engagement with learners before the official job search begins. Learners can build employability skills through industry master classes and mentoring schemes that give them access to successful local individuals and SMEs.

Colleges needn’t go it alone when it comes to placing employability at the heart of their student support. Collaborating with one another and working in partnership with organisations that have strong track records in addressing employability needs and securing job outcomes will provide FE learners with the additional career support necessary to secure a foot on the job ladder in a challenging labour market.

Whether through an outsourced or tailored model, colleges that set employment-outcomes at the heart of their operations will not only empower young people to build lasting careers, but prove their contribution to a competitive labour market ready to compete in the global economy of the 21st century.

Mike Lee, Head of Skills and Young People, Working Links