South Cheshire College secures Olympic chance

Security firm G4S will be providing security guards for the 2012 Olympic Games and South Cheshire College will be used to stage the interviews.

This Tuesday the college will be helping G4S recruit young people aged 18 and above who are keen to land a security or stewarding job at the Olympics.

Anyone applying must complete or have completed a Level 2 Door Supervisors qualification and impress at the interview stage.

The college is also part of the London 2012 Get Set network and has encouraged students from different courses to get involved in a series of different Olympic-themed projects.

Sports Lecturer Chris Hollinshead said: “We are delighted that G4S have linked up with the College to stage regional interviews for security posts at the Olympics.

“Our students will join lots of other students from across the North West at next week’s interviews and hopefully they will impress.”

Sixty students at South Cheshire College have put themselves forward to be interviewed by G4S.

Gold and Silver wins for Sparsholt College students

Sparsholt College Equine Centre is celebrating the success of Horse Management student Toby Small at the Junior Tent Pegging Championships in South Africa.   Part of the inaugural junior team, Toby won one gold and four silver medals for Great Britain, with the team overall winning two golds, eight silvers and a number of bronze medals.

Tent Pegging is a sport which has developed from military training that would have been undertaken by the cavalry in the 19th and early 20th Century. The sport is practised in UK, USA, India, Pakistan, Australia, Oman, Holland, South Africa (the reigning world champions), plus numerous other countries.

When not representing Great Britain, Toby is studying for a BTEC Level 3 Extended Diploma in Horse Management at Sparsholt College’s Equine Centre.

WorldSkills London 2011: Time for takeoff

While the world’s best sports stars still have another nine months to wait until next year’s 2012 Olympic Games, the skills sector is just days away from showcasing the best of its international talent.

Dubbed the skills Olympics, WorldSkills London 2011 will this week take over ExCel London, in Docklands, for four days, as young people go for gold in a space the size of ten football pitches.

It’s a life-changing experience and a most definitely a career-changing experience.”

More than 1,000 competitors from over 50 countries will battle it out in 46 skills such as car repairs, robotics, floristry and cooking, in front of a live audience of an expected 150,000 people.

With figures like that, and home pride at stake, it is no surprise the 43 young people who will represent Team UK in 37 skills are taking the event – which takes place from Wednesday to Saturday – very seriously.

As Karen Woodward, apprenticeship director for the National Apprenticeship Service (NAS), explains, the journey to WorldSkills London 2011 has been “several years in the making” for Team UK.

It started, she said, around two years ago with national-based skill events to choose a select talent pool. What followed has been hours of training, with each potential competitor – akin to their sporting neighbours – assigned coaches and put through strict, personalised training programmes.

She said: “If they performed well in the national competitions, they were then put in a shortlist of around 1,500 youngsters. Then, over the last 18 months, they have been tested and trialled to prove they are the best of the best in the UK.”

But when the final squad was chosen back in June, for the selected members it was a journey well worth the time.

Mrs Woodward said: “It’s a huge privilege for the Team UK competitors. It’s a life-changing experience and a most definitely a career-changing experience. A lot of our alumni have gone on to be recognised, from WorldSkills achievements, as the best in the UK.”

Fully aware of the honour it holds to be a part of Team UK, 22-year-old floristry star Victoria Richards has gone to great lengths to ensure she is as prepared as she can be for the competition.

In her bid for gold, Victoria has reduced her working hours at the florists in Aldridge, West Midlands, where she works, to part-time and has had little time to see her friends.

But she insists it will all be worth it. She said: “When I was selected for the squad and then finally the team, it’s become more intense. I went down from full-time to part-time at work, which now means I work two days a week. You don’t get to see your friends much, but they appreciate what it is that you’re doing.”

She added: “It means so much to me. I never thought when I started that I could do anything like this.”

Despite hours of preparation, Victoria said the event is “a bit like stepping into the unknown” as she will not know what beautiful arrangement she needs to create until she steps into the exhibition hall.

She said: “With my skill, you have to learn around 20 different modules and you will get tested in eight to 12 of them. So you’ve got to know all the different techniques to ensure you’re ready for what the test could involve.”

With that in mind, how is she feeling?

“I’m feeling okay. If you asked me last week, I would’ve asked you not to mention it. I was very nervous. But now, it’s a mix of knowing what to expect, but not 100 per cent how big it will be because you’ve never done it,” she said.

Joinery competitor Adam Bushnell perhaps has more reason than most to fight for the gold medal at this week’s event.

The 21-year-old came agonisingly close to making the Team UK team for the biennial event last time out.

We have high hopes for Team UK.”

However, he is using his disappointment as motivation. He said: “I’m taking it in my stride. I’ve had a lot of training so I’m eager to get started and will be glad when it’s all over. I was knocked out at the team selection stage last year so I’ve been doing it for four years now. I wasn’t too bothered when I wasn’t selected because I knew I was young enough to do it all again. But it did make me train harder to make sure I was selected.”

Although Adam has a rough idea of what he will be asked to do, he is aware of the margins of error. He said: “With joinery, if you make it too small, that’s it. I hope to be able to get a medal but anything can happen on the day.”

However what Adam, from Oxford, is 100-per-cent aware of are the opportunities the event can bring. He said: “I’m only 21 so people tend to think I’m not that experienced but this will show I’ve got quality beyond my years.”

With just hours to the start of the competition, questions turn to the aspirations of Team UK and their potential medal haul.

The team’s bosses have high hopes for the medal table following a solid show in Calgary, Canada, two years ago. The 2009 competition saw Team UK finish sixth, up from 14th in 2007.

Mrs Woodward said: “We have high hopes for Team UK. They’ve performed well in national and international when tested against others. But it’s still a nerve-wracking time for them.”

She added: “We expect to be in the top 10. We exceeded our expectations in Calgary and this is a very good team so we expect great things from them. We want to be seen as a leader of excellence in skills.”

Picture is Ross Varnam, hoping to make sparkes fly for Team UK at WorldSkills

London Irish RFC backs East Berkshire College’s brand new Rugby Academy

Combining education and sporting excellence, East Berkshire College has launched a new Rugby Academy in partnership with one of the country’s top rugby clubs, London Irish RFC.

To mark the official launch, students from the college’s rugby team were invited down to the London Irish training ground in Sunbury-on-Thames to meet their sporting heroes face to face.

First team players were on hand to put the students through their paces, giving the students advice on tactics and training.

Forming part of the college’s Sports Academy, the new rugby programme offers males and females aged 16-19 the chance to study a full-time course whilst training to an elite level, with professional coaches.

London Irish and England winger Topsy Ojo said: “The College’s academy provides young players with a great opportunity to combine rugby progression with academic development. The Academy will equip players with the skills necessary to continue their careers in sport whether their destiny is on the pitch or off of it.”

VIPs open Microsoft Academy at Burton and South Derbyshire College

The Rt Hon Iain Duncan-Smith MP, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and Stuart Pearce MBE, Head Coach for the England Under-21s football team, visited Burton and South Derbyshire College to launch a new Microsoft IT Academy.

The VIPs met with current students and business customers before conducting an official opening ceremony to launch the college’s new facilities.

The college launched the Academy after a report by e-skills UK highlighted that the technology profession needs another 110,000 recruits this year alone, with the IT and Telecoms Industry set to grow at five times the national average over the next decade.

Dawn Ward OBE, Chief Executive and Principal at Burton and South Derbyshire College, said: “Colleges have a vital role to play in supporting people of all ages to develop the knowledge and skills relevant to employment trends.” She added: “The Microsoft Academy is yet another example of the college working with high profile companies in order to meet skills gaps and to give our students the best possible chance of career success.”

Shared services will fail, and potentially put people in jail

Some of us find sharing difficult, some of us don’t play nice with others…some of us don’t even realise this.

Colleges are not known for playing nice with their neighbouring colleges. The closest college is, in the main, a vicious competitor who knows no boundaries… who will stop at nothing to steal your students, steal your PR and spend more money on advertising than you do.

They do interesting deals with bus companies, might have sparkly new buildings and their principal’s teeth may be whiter than yours… in short, they are the enemy.

The fastest shared mode of transport to incarceration is to set up a cartel and start price fixing.”

So, when it was announced that millions, yes millions of pounds would be spent on college collaborations, agitator was intrigued, wide mouthed even. How could this be?

£2.3million has gone to the AoC and, £2.3million has gone to the 157 Group, yes that’s right readers, £4.6million of government money has been ‘shared’, and this spending of millions to save millions, confounds me. Call me old fashioned, but why would I want to share commercially sensitive services, and valuable information with my competitors.

“Oh grow up”, I hear you say, “we’re big boys playing in a grown up sector, we can be friends, help each other and, once we’ve spent these millions, we will be able to save millions more.”

No, you won’t! Take off those rose tinted specs (they don’t suit you), slap yourself and take a huge whiff of strong black coffee.

Protectionism is rife in FE, the funding and targets that we all strive to meet make it that way, and don’t forget, despite what your principal looks like, we’re all human.

It’s a car crash waiting to happen, a conspiracy of fools…”

Most principals have massive egos; it’s part of the job. It comes with the oversized desk and the dual aspect windows.

Partnership has become a ‘buzz’ word of late and these unnatural collaborations, forced into being, by a pot of money are destined to fail. The fastest shared mode of transport to incarceration is to set up a cartel and start price fixing.

You could screw down the price quoted from awarding bodies, nail building firms to the wall over quotes and, circumnavigate data protection laws, getting the low down on staff and students.

And, when those shared services are up and running consultation can rear its ugly head and, you can brace yourself for an unpleasant round of redundancies.

As one principal told me, “It’s a car crash waiting to happen, a conspiracy of fools…” just wait and see: a high profile EU court case, unfair competition, laws broken and redundancies…

Collaboration will only lead to collusion, that’s not going to be good for staff, learners or colleges in the long run.

Oooops STOP THE PRESS!

Agitator has just seen some of the comments to FE Week’s page three story (click here) about this on line and there may be a saving grace.

Regular commentator Steve Hewitt must have had a large swig of something which got his creative juices flowing (don’t doubt it, agitator has seen his tweets when he’s had a few). Steve  reckons that shared services might be just the thing to sort some of the SMTs out.

He posted: “…wonder whether reducing the number of Senior Post-holders is the easiest way to share a “service”? Can we not just share principals? Think of the savings!

Richard Teare on the other had has suggested: “If shared services are the panacea that politicians and others seem to think they are, why do we have a Civil Service (which apparently administers this country) that is -what?-twice as large now than when we “ruled”/administered 1/3rd of the planet?”

Hmmm… food for thought indeed. Given the weather this weekend, share a two-scoop?

Grimsby Institute plumber wins award

An Apprentice from the Grimsby Institute has won the national title of SkillPlumb Champion 2011, part of the International WorldSkills competitions.

24-year-old Tom King started his training with the Grimsby Institute’s Department of Plumbing two years ago as an Apprentice Plumber, having already completed an Apprenticeship in Joinery.

Tom displayed a natural aptitude for Plumbing and his tutor at that time, Jason Laycock, realised that Tom had a talent for the accuracy of his pipework, which he attributed partly to the ‘measure twice, cut once’ mentality of joiners.

The final took place at Leeds College of Building with the UK’s top 10 Apprentice Plumbers competing for the title of SkillPlumb Champion 2011.

Over the difficult and intense four-day challenge, Tom performed exceptionally well and was finally announced as the UK SkillPlumb Champion.

Tom will attend the WorldSkills events in London in October to receive his award, he said: “I really didn’t expect to win.  We were asked to spend the four days installing a bathroom suite which included the fitting of a couple of radiators, a basin, a shower, all of which was really difficult, especially the intricate pipe-work and the bends.

“I’m over the moon and to be honest really chuffed with myself, to win the national final is just an amazing feeling.”

A view on the Government’s FE Loans Consultation

The consultation on the proposed 2013 introduction to further education loans is an important opportunity for FE to raise collective questions and push for a more detailed consideration of the impact on learners, the economy and education providers. The loans represent a seismic shift not only in the way FE will be funded, but how it will be received, managed and delivered by institutions. Just as HE had to adapt to fees, FE will have to adapt to learners paying for qualifications they were once entitled to receive. That there will be an impact is obvious, what that impact will be is certainly not so.

The removal of ‘entitlement’ is more emblematic of current policy than the introduction of the loans themselves. Learners over 24, many of whom may not have benefited from their years in compulsory education,  must now come to terms with the fact that the state no longer considers it within the “principles of fairness” to fund a Level 3/4 qualification that is likely to improve their life chances and employment prospects.

The sector will need to rethink how qualifications are delivered and embrace different ideas, but the issue remains as to where potential learners go if they do not feel able to accept a fee paying schema for further education.

When one considers who will be affected by the new system, the quick realisation is that it is the already disadvantaged who will be disadvantaged once more.”

Certainly, as is the case with HE, a system which allows learners to repay based on their eventual income should make sure that the possible initial barrier of ‘not being able to afford it’ is removed (unless courses cost more than £4000). Yet with many adult learners in FE currently coming from disadvantaged, BME or low income backgrounds, contemplating fees for lower level and essential qualifications will inevitably cause potential learners to question the case for study, where there was only encouragement before.

When one considers who will be affected by the new system, the quick realisation is that it is the already disadvantaged who will be disadvantaged once more. Those who may have been let down by the state in their past will be asked to pay for their future.

Equally, when we see rising unemployment for 19-24 year olds reported daily, how will this generation re-skill for employment if the state will not support it, and how will the unemployed learners who do take up FE loans be supported whilst studying without an FE equivalent maintenance loan or requirement for Access Agreements?

New Challenges, New Chances talks the good talk regarding a knowledge and skills based economy, whilst introducing financial implications for one generation to access what those below them are still entitled to.

Of the nine specific questions in the consultation, it is worrying that only one relates to the possible impact of FE loans. It is imperative that the sector engages with the sheer scale of this question and provides as much evidence-based opinion and data as possible. Perhaps just as importantly, the missing questions relating to the impact on providers must be articulated and highlighted. The trickledown effect of the loan system has not yet been fully contemplated; it is now our job to do just that.

Daniel Khan OBE is Chief Executive of the Open College Network London

The Treasury giveth and the Treasury taketh away

Effective marketing – rather than over-reliance on financial incentives for students – is the best long-term solution to increasing numbers at 16-18 in a sustainable way.

The introduction and withdrawal of Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) has hit the sector hard. The student subsidy was part of the furniture, quietly holding up recruitment of school-leavers while colleges turned their attention to improving demand in other areas.

Colleges need not take it for granted that life after EMA should mean accepting reduced numbers”

Against this background, it is understandable that demand for 16-18 began to be taken somewhat for granted – leaving colleges exposed. Many colleges have found a drop in numbers of more than 10 per cent as they assess the damage to this year’s intake.

Yet colleges need not take it for granted that life after EMA should mean accepting reduced numbers. Nor should the demographic changes reported in FE Week be regarded as the basis for accepting defeat.

There are plenty of people not in education, employment or training (NEETs) to go for and, as most colleges acknowledge, plenty of 16 year-olds being wrongly herded away from vocational education. My own work with colleges has proved that, far from stopping the rot, they can still significantly increase demand.

Each college has its market conditions to respond to – but here are some key aspects to look at.

Strategy

Colleges must develop a clear marketing strategy, reflected in an implementation plan which is fully understood by all those involved, not just by those who work in the marketing department. In too many cases, the marketing plan, if it exists, is buried inside the college’s wider business plan and its contents are just as much of a mystery.

Process

Marketing is as much about how you serve your customers as about how many walk into the shop. Colleges must ensure they have the capacity to quickly handle applications and course inquiries. It is not morally or commercially acceptable to leave potentially vulnerable young people waiting to be satisfied as the result of inadequate internal processes.

Targeting

While schools and parents will always have a role, it is important that your messages are also directly transmitted to young people so they can be encouraged to independently consider the merits of FE without those messages being distorted by mediators who may have another agenda.

Budget control

Be clear about what proportion of your marketing resources (both cash and staff time) are to be devoted to driving 16-18 demand. Transmit this information to your managers and ensure their expectations are managed accordingly. Meeting all internal ad-hoc requests for marketing support will inevitably undermine the execution of the strategy.

Product

Remember that your product is more than simply the prospect of one or two more years in education – which is not, of itself, the most enticing proposition for everyone. Colleges are about the realisation of people’s personal and career aspirations. Ensure that your messaging, channels of communication and language reflect this.

After school, and leaving aside the call individuals may have on the NHS, the further education sector offers by far the most exciting proposition free at the point of use in the public sector.

With this intrinsic value, there is no doubt that colleges with falling numbers can turn things around – but not if they continue with the approaches which failed them this year.

Steve Hook, Communications Consultant, stevehook@hookcommunications.co.uk