South Thames College hosts speed modelling competition for young video game developers

Gaming enthusiasts were put through their paces in a virtual competition.

South Thames College hosted a Speed Modelling Competition as part of the WorldSkills UK series.

It was developed by a panel of London colleges and experts in the field, with students competing to create a 3D computer generated model in one of the college’s new computer suites.

Games development lecturer Mike Spence said: “We’ve been keen to run a competition with WorldSkills for a while so we took the initiative to get one going.

“South Thames College is an ideal venue to host the competition because we have state of the art learning facilities and specialist computer aided design technology to give young people exceptional skills in this area.”

Judges included experts Charles Burt, from Colossal Games, and Darren White, the lead visual artist on top racing game Need for Speed, who works at Slightly Mad Studios; a multi-award winning video game company.

Prizes included WorldSkills UK medals and exposure in the industry.

Charles Burt, from Colossal Games, said: “South Thames College provides their students with the essential building blocks needed to start a career in the games industry or to further their education at university.”

Continuing Professional Development that works

You may think that continuing professional development (CPD) is the bane of many teachers’ lives, and you may even have overheard it being described as one of the most boring things on earth. My recent involvement in a range of focus groups across the country tells a different story.

Staying up to date is essential in every profession – law, medicine, plumbing, engineering, catering, accountancy, healthcare, to name a few, and teaching is no different.

Like other professionals, teachers and trainers in further education and skills need to keep a record of their CPD and declare the number of hours spent every year and the type of development undertaken to their employer and to their professional body, the Institute for Learning (IfL).

Each year, as part of the monitoring process, IfL carries out a random in-depth sample to identify effective practice in CPD and prepares a ‘state of the nation’ report to share with its members and the sector, to help inform plans and priorities for CPD.

The 2011/12 CPD review will be our third, and this year we decided to organise 18 regional focus groups, two in each of the nine regions in England.

The participants were randomly selected from IfL’s database of members and invited to attend. To complement this, we arranged a series of local focus groups, hosted by more than 40 IfL CPD reviewers in the organisations where they work.

Together, these regional and local focus groups gave us a useful insight into members’ CPD this year. Hundreds of teachers and trainers analysed and shared with IfL their enthusiasm for CPD that inspires them and leads improvement, for the benefit of their learners.

As expected, the CPD undertaken by individuals over the year varied widely, reflecting the diverse nature of our sector, the vast number of subject areas covered, a wide age range and differing lengths of service in the teaching workforce. Much of the feedback we received, however, can be distilled into four important themes:

1. Sharing the outcomes of CPD constitutes excellent CPD in itself. Learning together about what is effective and what might be transferable is vital, and organisations need to recognise and support this form of sharing.

2. Planning ahead for CPD is difficult for teachers in further education and skills. Schoolteachers and university lecturers can usually plan ahead, but our sector has to be more flexible and responsive, and many CPD needs emerge as the year progresses. What seems to be significant is that ad hoc, and in many cases self directed, professional development often has the most impact on teaching and learning.

3. In times of uncertainty, CPD to enhance a career profile and readiness for job changes or opportunities is vital. This sometimes means accredited CPD (such as master’s degrees) but also increasing breadth of experience in teaching and subject specialisms.

4. For maximum impact, it is important to involve learners in development activities. This deepens the relationship between the teacher or trainer and the learner and extends beyond surface evaluations to deep learning.

As part of its commitment to supporting members’ CPD, IfL has created an online community for members to share ideas, resources and information with each other, and to discuss the issues that are important to their teaching and training practice and professional development.

It is clear from the exchanges between members posting comments on this forum that they find sharing details of their CPD useful and empowering, as these snippets show:

“I have found that I feel more confident about trying something new in the classroom if I know it has already worked with someone else.”

“One of my colleagues from another teaching institution sends me her CPD via REfLECT [the online personal learning space that IfL gives members to plan, record and assess the impact of CPD on their practice]. Her CPD always motivates me and I feel encouraged to do more.”

“I think it’s a great idea to share CPD and to consider what actually constitutes this. What I have found to be really useful whilst in training sessions and what I feel has made a difference is when practitioners share ideas and resources and how they use these with different student groups.”

Continuing Professional Development is the bane of many teachers’ lives”

“This can really impact on an individual’s development by giving a more holistic insight into how to accommodate learners’ needs and can help inform future practice.”

One member described his happiness at being able to engage with other practitioners online:

“I have always found it difficult to share CPD in practice because historically the college timetable did not allow for informal meetings. I was sharing a particular classroom and desk arrangement with my other colleagues that could be described as ‘hot desking’ followed by ‘hot rooming’.
“When taken in concert with having to recruit, enrol, and record outcomes for learners on a rolling Skills for Life programme, this led to minute glimpses of genius being flittered away in the corridors of learning … Thank you for letting me join this forum; hope my contributions help.”

Teaching methods are continually being reviewed to reflect technological developments and changes in demand from employers.

Recent innovations include, for example, the increasing use of the Apple iPad for group work in sessions; creating YouTube films for presentations; using coloured cards for students to indicate their levels of understanding, so that the teacher gets instant and nuanced feedback from learners to see where more reinforcement of learning is needed; and other methods of assessment for learning based on robust research evidence of teaching that works and is suited to the context of FE and skills.

IfL is working with other sector agencies, including the Learning and Skills Improvement Service (LSIS), JISC and others, to ensure that teachers and trainers in further education and skills have access to CPD that helps them stay up to date in teaching methods and technological innovations, for the benefit of their learners.

IfL members are also likely to belong to the professional bodies representing their specialist subject or vocational area, and we are keen to encourage their commitment to staying up to date in their chosen specialism, as well as in teaching and training.

Their dual professionalism is a distinguishing factor for teachers and trainers in our sector, and the reason why they are vital to this country’s economy at a time when teaching essential skills to young and adult learners alike has never been more important.

IfL’s approach to CPD sampling for 2011/12 has involved increasing the opportunities for collaborative reflection across the country, generating great energy, critical review and creativity for the very best CPD.

This is an important role of the professional body for teachers and trainers in our sector.

IfL’s next report on CPD will be published in December 2011, and will be available online at www.ifl.ac.uk.

You can download previous CPD annual reports from IfL’s website:

• 2008-09 IfL review of CPD – Making a difference for teachers, trainers and learners
• 2009-10 IfL review of CPD – Excellence in professional development: looking back, looking forward

You can also watch a video of one of the CPD Focus Groups by clicking here

 

By Dr Jean Kelly

Royal visit for East Surrey College students

Flag waving youngsters heralded the arrival of The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh as they opened a new college campus.

Locals gathered and lined the streets of Redhill and Merstham for the arrival of the pair, who visited East Surrey College (ESC) to unveil a plaque at Gatton Point.

They were greeted by children from Furzefield Primary School and officially welcomed by Sarah Goad, Lord Lieutenant of Surrey.

Inside the new college campus, The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh were introduced to students, staff, members of the new build project team and partners of the college before embarking on a small private lunch with local dignitaries.

Laura Selby, Student Union President at ESC, said: “It was such an honour to be part of this day. I was on the same table as the Queen for lunch and it was top class – the lunch was really good.

“The atmosphere was fantastic, everyone was really chatty, talking about the college – the Queen spoke to everyone on the table – it was like a little community.”

As part of the two and three quarter hour visit the couple continued with a tour of the state-of-the-art facilities, meeting students from various departments along the way.

Jayne Dickinson, the acting principal and CE of East Surrey College said: “It really was an outstanding day and truly memorable for the college and all our guests.

“What stood out for me was how engaged both the Queen and Duke were with the students, they showed so much interest in what they were doing and their plans for the future.

“I am so proud of the students and the staff, they did a fantastic job of showing what makes vocational courses at the college stand out.”

FE Week mini-mascot (Edition 12)

Follow the adventures of FE Week’s biggest and smallest fan!

Mostly this week I have been trying to find a path-related pun”

And also you can follow our FE Week mini-mascot on Twitter @daniellinford

Stop lecturing me and play fair

It was billed as the “biggest strike for over 30 years” with schools, colleges, universities, hospitals, courts, transport, immigration and government all hit by a walkout involving up to two million workers.

I’m old enough to remember the ‘Winter of Discontent’ and the strikes of the 80s and I am struggling to recall what industrial action has actually achieved. Even the Jarrow March in 1936 failed to achieve anything, other than notoriety.

When the Jarrow crusaders finished their march, very little was done for them. The ship industries stayed closed and the marchers were given £1 each to get the train back home, from London.

As I watched the march, the big screen on Embankment, the rousing music, the passionate (and not so passionate) speakers, placards donning ‘iron fist’ emblems, the anarchists that aren’t there to support anyone, copies of Socialist Worker strewn across the road, I felt depressed.

It felt like 1984; George Orwell’s 1984 and of course the 1984/85 national miners’ strike.
Thirty years ago the teachers disrupted my secondary education; the miners disrupted my community and health professionals affected waiting lists, which disrupted my father’s care when he had his first heart attack.

Strikes have rules, ballots, negotiations and majorities, but the rules seem to bend at will”

Strikes do not sit well with me.

Public sector workers believe their actions are valid (even when they’ve walked out on students to celebrate “today’s success with Cuban rum and UCU comrades in the Casa Bar” as @UCUFENorthWest tweeted).

They are protesting over reforms that unions say will force them to work for longer before they can retire, and pay more for pensions, which will be worth less. They expect that pay freezes and capped wages are going to be very widespread.

According to The Guardian, the government spends more than £26billion a year on public sector pensions and the government says this is not sustainable.

Strikes have rules, ballots, negotiations and majorities, but the rules seem to bend at will.

The government, from what I can see is trying to negotiate, so how can a strike be valid when negotiations are still ongoing? It’s been said before, but let Agitator say it again… striking during negotiation is not playing by the rules, so don’t lecture me on fair play.

This strike, and the others that ensue will cost us dearly. Obviously they will cost us financially, the chancellor said; “The strike is not going to achieve anything. It’s not going to change anything.”

They’ve walked out on students to celebrate ‘today’s success with Cuban rum and UCU comrades in the Casa Bar’”

Strikes do nothing to enhance the reputation of the education sector, even striking lecturers will agree their actions reduce the quality of the student experience, if I were a student, I’d call that stealing.

And, internationally, our reputation is plummeting: why would international students pay thousands to study at a strike-ridden college, or university? It’s rip off Britain all over again.

Private training providers could have the advantage here, where college staff are concerned about the picket line, employers are concerned with their bottom line, and strikes don’t tend to endear customer loyalty.

Employer led? Learner focused? These are just phrases in your prospectus… they don’t mean anything if your college closed.

If I was a private training provider, I’d be selling my training on “uninterrupted service”, a guarantee that colleges, with their unionised staff cannot offer with a straight face.

Although a straight face isn’t something that strikers tend to worry about, they take a day off, screw up your life, and then complain and berate others that are trying to rise to the occasion.

This is the 21st century; our working lives and the demands on our society have changed enormously in the last 30 years. So, why, in this day and age, are the unions using the same methods?

We have moved on and so should they, and preferably without shouting, “Scab” as they do so.

And, anyway, as any hematologist would tell you, scabs save lives!

Toni Pearce, vice president for FE, NUS

The last time I interviewed Toni Pearce, she was visibly nervous. As the incoming NUS vice president (FE), it was her first official press interview and it was clear she was both exhilarated and worried about the year ahead.

Having led the NUS campaign to save the Education Maintenance Allowance, which resulted in a partial u-turn from the government, the outgoing vice president, Shane Chowen, would be a hard act to follow, she said.

Also daunting was the prospect of public speaking, which she confessed she didn’t really enjoy. And having spent two years as union president at Cornwall College, where she sat on various boards and committees (including the governing body), she knew some people might need convincing that she was more than just a glorified head girl.

But when she published her first blog as president, last May, there was little doubt that Pearce meant business. In it, she claimed that since being elected as vice-president, she had had to deal with “dozens” of cases of sexual harassment, where union officers and students had approached her, expecting her to have sex with them because they had elected her. She wanted to make clear that NUS had a “zero tolerance” approach to sexual harassment

It was a bold move, but one that seems to have paid off. Six months on, Pearce says the harassment issues have calmed down. She has also realised that she is “not as bad at public speaking as she thought she was” and has coped well, even when she spent three weeks as acting president after Liam Burns took leave for personal reasons.

“I think people have realised that I’m not just here to make up the numbers,” she says.“I’m definitely here because it’s what I am passionate about and it’s what I want to do…and I’m not going to take any of that quietly.”

It’s hard to imagine Pearce taking anything quietly and, as ever, she is keen to point out that she is “not afraid of speaking her mind”, a quality that has earned her the reputation of being a bit fierce. In fact, she is reputed to be so feisty, someone has set up a Twitter account to lampoon her. Toni_Fierce boasts of getting legless on cider and picking fights with people in the street, which Pearce mostly takes in good humour.

At times some of the posts have been a bit close to the bone, (including one, when she was still Cornwall SU president, about getting drunk with the principal’s sons) but Pearce accepts it comes with the territory.

One of the biggest challenges has been moving away from her home in Cornwall for the first time. While she loves living in London, having been a “big fish in small pond” at Cornwall College, becoming part of something “that’s much bigger” has taken some getting used to.

And juggling the competing demands of the job has also been difficult at times. “What I’ve found is that things come up and they’re all equally important so it’s about prioritising…whether to campaign on student governors, international students, enrichment, funding cuts or adult students or whatever. In reality, you can’t really prioritise and you have to just sort of do your best for everybody.”

But saying yes all the time can be tiring. Most weeks are spent travelling up and down the country (Virgin trains are getting good business out of her, Pearce jokes) attending meetings, conferences, and visiting colleges.

It is certainly not a 9 to 5 job, and she admits she never really feels as if she’s off duty. “I guess at 2am you’re still vice-president. It doesn’t matter that it’s not office hours and I don’t think that excuse would wash with our membership. I mean, people don’t stop being students at 2am, so I shouldn’t really stop being their representative.”

Thankfully, when she gets a call out of normal office hours, invariably it is something nice, like an invite to a campaign launch or a radio appearance. But Pearce does admit that she finds networking “difficult at times.”

And although she is rarely “star struck” (the former Lewisham College principal and LSIS chief Dame Ruth Silver being one notable exception), attending award ceremonies and events with “important people” and having one-to-one meetings and phone calls with ministers has taken her out of her “comfort zone “ more than anything in the job.

Union officers and students had approached her, expecting her to have sex with them because they had elected her”

Pearce says she has also found people management hard at times and admits she is still learning to think before she speaks. “I guess that people generally understand when I am being sarcastic or when I am making a joke, but maybe that’s not always the case. And I can be quite challenging and confrontational if someone says something I don’t agree with…which I guess is not always the best way of dealing with a situation.”

But she has many achievements to be proud of – not least her successful campaign to stop the government removing the requirement for every college to have at least student governors. She is also proud of helping to educate the student movement that further education is much more than “16-18 students doing A-levels.”

But there is still work to do on that front and the education minister Michael Gove, who she claims “doesn’t even seem to know FE exists in the NUS” is top of her hit list. “One thing I have noticed since I started doing the job is that 16-19 year olds who are in further education colleges are really glossed over by the government in that they tend to focus on apprenticeships, apprenticeships, apprenticeships and some higher education.

The Department for Education generally focuses on schools and sixth forms, so anyone who is 16-19 and studies in a college gets missed out quite a lot by the government.”

But she has nothing but praise for the skills minister John Hayes, who she says has “a lot of time” for the NUS and students generally. “He is really keen on students being involved in the design and delivery of further education.

I think he is really positive and quite refreshing particularly from this government,” she says. “It’s good to be able to chat to him about student governors and explain to him how we feel, whereas we get the complete opposite from Mr Gove.”

Pearce says, with mock outrage, that Andy Burnham moving over to health really “trashed her” (the running joke amongst her NUS colleagues is that she has a big crush on the former shadow education minister) and the jury is still out on his replacement, Stephen Twigg.

While it is early days, “he has definitely picked up the portfolio of education minister in the same way that Michael Gove sees it, as about schools and maybe 16-18 and not necessarily more broadly speaking,” she says.

And while she is pleased about his announcement, at last month’s Association of College’s conference, of a commitment to reinstate face-to-face careers advice in colleges and schools, it is “really disappointing” that he hasn’t made a similar commitment on the EMA. “I think a lot of people walk into education, and particularly further education, thinking that it is fairly simple – and they couldn’t be more wrong.”

Pearce, who is now 21, says she has been thinking about her plans for next year, but won’t make any final decisions until after Christmas about whether she will stand for vice president (FE) – or indeed any other post – next year. And she is still no clearer about her long -term career plans than she was a year ago, when she had applied to “five different universities to do five different degrees” (ranging from politics to neuroscience).

While she says the idea of becoming an MP “is not an attractive prospect,” she would love an education job in policy or campaigning.

Her proudest moment as vice president (FE) was returning to Cornwall College recently to give a speech at a graduation ceremony for degree students. “To go back and speak to them…as someone who doesn’t have a degree and hasn’t graduated, who is still able to get up there and give a speech to people who I have grown up. with It was a real privilege.”

Who knows where the secrets are buried?

History. Everyone and everywhere has one. We all do. We like telling stories. In fact we define our lives through stories. We are surrounded by them: anecdotes, jokes, newspapers, soaps, films, books. That‘s how we understand things. And FE colleges have their history in spades.

I have been knocking around the sector for about 30 years now and every time I go into a college and talk to anyone I get the “history”. I know it’s coming, I just brace myself. “So,” I ask innocently, “why do you do this?”

“Ah well,” they say, “the so and so decided this was a good idea [we go back to 1972 or summat] and then so and so did this, and someone else did that. Before you know it you have an accretion of bonkers stuff and you are looking at a system that no one in their right mind would ever invent unless they wanted to be carted off to Broadmoor. You know, like FE funding systems.

I once worked in a college where the enrolment system was so convoluted that huge queues built up. It was like Soviet Russia. To entertain the queues they played them re runs on video of black and white episodes of The Lone Ranger.

Following the music, I stumbled into a whole roomful of stunned looking people transfixed by the William Tell Overture and chaps on horses. All they wanted to do was to get onto an AAT course.

Perhaps they regarded this as part of the process, like some sort of endurance test. I once tried enrolling on an FE course myself. It was surreal! But that’s another story.
I learnt something quite early on. The caretakers know everything. They are often first in in the morning and last out at night. They observe and they gossip and they judge, but no one ever asks them what they see or know.

If you want to know what goes on in a college you ask the caretakers. Or the receptionists. It’s call tacit knowledge (http://www.knowledgeboard.com/download/3512/Tacit-vs-Explicit.pdf) , and it’s underestimated.

For all their E&D policies and “open door management” guff most FE colleges are more hierarchical than the Catholic Church.

If it’s any consolation, universities are worse.
I once did a job for a college in, um, the South East. The Principal was troubled, as so many are when you get them behind closed doors, and spent a long time fretting about the state of the place.

Making the front page of the Daily Mirror the previous day hadn’t helped his equilibrium either, especially that picture of him with Fergie. On skis. He gave me a free rein to go anywhere and talk to anyone.
I quickly sought out the head caretaker and bought him a cup of tea. He was, of course, dead suspicious. It was either my charm or the jam doughnut which did the trick. He then told me exactly what the Principal had told me and quite a lot more besides (great stuff if you like gossip) and concluded by saying, “Of course, the Principal knows none of this.”

Well not the sexier stuff anyway, some of which was eye opening and, frankly, quite tricky when you have a formal meeting with the culprits the next day and have to keep a straight face about what you know about the car park, the Christmas party and the stationery cupboard.

This tacit knowledge is a powerful thing. So much of the money spent on surveys and research exercises and complaints procedures and whatnot could be saved if people just got the receptionists and caretakers in for a monthly chat to find out what was really going on and what the students were happy or griping about.

Try it. You could learn a lot about your own college.

 

By Nick Warren

Colleges close as lecturers walkout over pension dispute

Lecturers across the country went on strike as part of the industrial action against pension cuts.

A number of further education (FE) colleges closed due to the extent of the walkout, while others stayed open but experienced disruptions to their daily schedules.

The action took place on Wednesday as part of a nationwide public service strike, which saw up to two million workers in sectors including education and health walkout.

Despite the college closures, principals remained adamant that no teaching hours would be lost.

Peter Mayhew-Smith, principal of Kingston College, said: “With almost all of our site and security teams planning to strike, we cannot open all the college sites safely.

“Instead, we will replace all lost hours during the rest of the year so that no student loses any of their learning.”

Teachers and staff at Greenwich Community College picketed outside of the campus’ main entrance before joining a joint union rally at General Gordon Square. Claire Miller, a lecturer and community development worker at Greenwich Community College, said: “It’s not as if our current salaries and our current pensions are excessive.

“The myths that are being put out by the government are a travesty for those of us that are working here.”

She added: “In June, the bankers said in justification of maintaining their high levels of both income and bonus that if you didn’t pay what bankers were due, you wouldn’t get the same quality of banking – and banking would collapse.

“It begs the question, why different for teaching and public services? Why should that be any different?”

Mary Bottomley, another lecturer at the college, said the government needed to show more “good faith” to the public sector.

“I think they have to face the reality that lots of people are feeling angry, disgruntled, and worried,” she said.

“We’re not asking for a silver handshake, a golden handshake or anything like that. It was done in good faith and we want that good faith reciprocated.”

The picket line was just one of more than one hundred demonstrations taking place up and down the country. The epicentre of the industrial action took place in the capital, where thousands of concerned public workers marched from Lincoln Inn Fields, near Holborn, to a rally in Victoria Embankment.

Walter Valentine, a lecturer at Cambridge Regional College and member of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL), said: “The government is deliberately provoking some sort of reaction because they want to try and use some of the money from the pensions pot to offset some of the deficit.

“The problem has been that we’ve been given no alternative – the government has refused to negotiate and they’ve already imposed changes on the pension scheme without negotiation.”

Under government proposals, pension contributions from lecturers in the FE sector will increase from 6.4 per cent to up to 9.8 per cent by 2015.

Lecturers earning less than £15,000 are said to be excluded from the contribution increases.

Sally Hunt, general secretary of the University and College Union (UCU), has been involved in recent negotiations with government.

There are also hard liners. Militants, itching for a fight”

She said: “What is very clear is that there is not good communications, and not agreed figures between those who are negotiating with us and the Treasury.

“We have been going in there with good faith, and I have got no issue with the civil servants that we are dealing with, but those civil servants have no mandate to extend or change the amounts of money we are talking about, at which point we are simply talking about moving around different figures to mitigate cuts in different places.”

Public sector pensions have already been switched so that each year they now rise in line with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) measure of inflation, rather than the Retail Price Index (RPI).

The Independent Public Service Pensions Commission, led by Lord Hutton, has said the change will cut the value of public sector pensions by roughly 15 per cent.

Additional proposals include increasing the retirement age to 66 by 2020 and up to 68 by 2046.

Mr Valentine said: “They’ve already announced that we’ll be working longer, moving from 66 to 68 years of age.

“As one colleague joked at a committee, ‘I started my primary school teaching taking children to the toilet, and I just feel that by the time I’m 68 they’ll be taking me to the toilet!’”

Michael Gove, secretary of state for education, called on teachers to “think again” about taking part in the industrial action during a speech at the think tank Policy Exchange.

He said: “Union leaders are people that work hard for their members, and who I respect.

“But there are also hard liners. Militants, itching for a fight. They want families to be inconvenienced. They want mothers to give up a day’s work, or pay for expensive childcare, because schools will be closed. They want teachers and other public sector workers to lose a day’s pay in the run up to Christmas.”

Mr Gove added: “These people want scenes of industrial strife on our TV screens, they want to make economic recovery harder, they want to provide a platform for confrontation, just when we all need to pull together.
“I want to appeal directly to teachers, and other public sector workers – please, even now, do think again.”

Not every Union was supporting the strike action however. The Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), representing 15,000 leaders of secondary schools and colleges, had ‘different views’ on how best to solve the dispute.

Brian Lightman, general secretary of ASCL, said: “ASCL members fully understand and share the anger of those teachers who have reluctantly decided to take industrial action.

“While we have different views on the best way to resolve the dispute, all the unions are united in opposition to the severity of the proposed changes to pensions and have been working with one voice to influence negotiations.”
Mr Lightman added: “Negotiations are at a highly critical stage but there is reason to believe that with a constructive approach and goodwill from all parties we can reach a successful outcome. The government must show that it is serious about reaching a compromise.”

 People are feeling angry, disgruntled, and worried”

Voice, a union for education professionals, strives on its cardinal rule that “members shall not go on strike in any circumstances.”

Philip Parkin, the general secretary of Voice, said: “Voice members do not undertake industrial action because we believe it to be ineffective, negative and damaging, both to the cause of those taking it and to the interests of children, students and their parents.

“Those whose lives are disrupted by strike action are not those responsible for making decisions on public sector pensions.”

Unions will continue to negotiate with the government in the run up to Christmas.

Sally Hunt said the unions would continue to push “as far as is necessary” to try and change the proposals.

“If I was them, I would think very hard about being as stubborn as they are being because I think they’re losing credibility throughout the sector at the moment every time they open their mouth,” she said.

“People are not greedy, and people are not selfish, and people want to see a resolution to this.”

VAT exemption for shared services

The government has announced plans to make colleges and charities exempt from paying VAT when they share services.

It has been heralded as “unusual good news” for colleges and could lead to innovative savings through cross-college – or even cross-sector – partnerships.

In the Autumn Statement, which was published by the Treasury last week, it states: “Following consultation after Budget 2011, the Government will introduce a VAT exemption for services shared between VAT exempt bodies, including charities and universities.”

The Association of Colleges (AoC) say they “welcome the fact that action is being taken” in response to the consultation, which was held by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) in June.

“Among the tax changes scheduled for 2012 is a plan to change the way in which VAT is levied on universities, colleges and charities when they share services,” the AoC response to the paper states.

“Our experience in supporting shared service projects in colleges suggests that there will be long-term savings to match the loss of VAT income which results from these plans.”

Colleges are exempt from paying VAT when they deliver education and training.

However, they currently pay tax on some supplies and likewise have to charge students VAT for products which are tax eligible, such as the sales of coffee, and food to non-students

Bob Deed, a financial director and consultant, said: “The VAT exception for shared services is unusual good news for colleges. It removes an obstacle to joint working.

“However, the devil will be in the detailed requirements of the Revenue and Custom.

“Moreover, many college managers are wary of sharing anything with anybody in an increasingly competitive environment.”

Mr Deed added: “The Policy Costings issued alongside the Autumn Statement recognise that the probable take-up is uncertain and likely to be low for both colleges and charities.

“Nevertheless, the VAT exception may allow some brave colleges to innovate and generate some savings by working with other colleges or even organisations outside the sector such as charities, higher education institutions and local authorities.”

Colleges currently pay an estimated £210 million in irrecoverable VAT each year.

An AoC spokesperson said: “Colleges are able to reclaim some of the VAT which they pay to the extent that they have non-exempt business activity, but this is not normally more than five per cent or so.

“Some agricultural colleges have a high proportion of VAT-able business and might claim more like 20 per cent of their lost VAT.”

The HM Revenue & Customs consultation, titled ‘VAT: Cost Sharing Exemption’, said that by removing a VAT charge colleges would benefit from efficiency savings.

The report states: “It is designed for use by businesses and organisations unable to recover all of the VAT they incur on their purchases, such as charities, universities and further education colleges.”

It later adds that to be compliant with European legislation, colleges would need to become members of an independent ‘cost sharing group (CSG)’, which would be put in charge of supplying VAT exempt services.

The AoC said in response to the consultation that the exemption could provide the sector with annual savings of between £15 and £30 million.

“We would expect that many colleges would consider forming or joining a CSG; more than 100 colleges (from a total of 347) are already involved in Shared Services Projects,” the response states.

“Colleges inform us that they would consider transferring the following into a CSG: payroll; IT maintenance; data storage; finance functions; management information and systems; health and safety advice and guidance; procurement; facilities management and catering.”