Electro-pop band, KOVAK were given the star treatment by Media students from Central Sussex College, when they met for a publicity masterclass.
With a day of photography, interviews, performance, and a podcast, the students needed to maintain a professional, yet creative approach during the session held at Brighton’s KOMEDIA.
KOVAK, who are due to release their second album will look closely at images from the day, and possibly use students’ ideas for their new album cover.
Sparsholt College’s Equine Centre has recently received a Venue of the Year Award 2011 by British Dressage. The award is based on the quality of facilities, atmosphere and efficiency, including the speed at which results are published on the day and made public thereafter.
Kathy Bamber, Equine Manager says: “Events at Sparsholt continue to develop in terms of numbers and quality of competitors. We have all worked very hard to provide first class customer care and excellent facilities and this award acknowledges the combined efforts of the volunteers, the judges, the scorers and all the staff and students.”
The Equine facilities at Sparsholt are British Horse Society-approved. Modern teaching facilities including 70 stables, an indoor arena, three outdoor arenas, horsewalker, grass rides and cross country schooling fences.
The Equine Centre at Sparsholt College has been included within the London 2012 Pre-Olympic Games training guide.
The stars of retail were celebrated last week at the Skillsmart Retail Rising Stars Awards, held at London’s Grosvenor House Hotel.
The cream of talent from across the UK came together for the annual awards ceremony, with star guest Theo Paphitis, to find out who would take home the honours.
Almost 80 people and teams from a range of businesses and skills shops across the country battled it out in 17 categories, hoping to get their hands on one of the much sought after trophies.
We caught up with “Skillsmart Retail Apprentice of the Year” 17-year-old April Bell who works for Monica F Hewitt Florists in Sheffield. April is working towards a Level 2 apprenticeship in Retail with The Source Skills Academy in Sheffield.
April said: “I had convinced myself that I hadn’t won it, I was seated next to Theo Paphitis and thought, well, whatever happens I’ve had a right good night!
“I’m just waiting for my results in English, and then hopefully I can go onto Level 3. I’m hoping to study for some First Aid qualifications too. My ambition is to get properly trained and qualified, then one day I’d like to have my own florists. I’d love that.”
The Source Skills Academy is based in Meadowhall shopping centre.
Managing Director Ann Cadman told FE Week: “The Rising Star Awards are among the most prestigious awards in the Retail Sector. We are delighted for April and to be crowned Retail Apprentice of the Year is great testament to her hard work and dedication. April truly is a rising star and we are proud to celebrate her achievement.”
Dragons’ Den star Theo Paphitis said: “Winning the Apprentice of the Year Award is a massive achievement. The competition was of a very high standard and April is a great example of the drive, commitment, enthusiasm and sheer passion required to make it in retail.
“April shows every sign of becoming one of tomorrow’s retail leaders and I look forward to seeing her develop her career in what I believe to be the most dynamic and exciting industry.”
Monitoring apprentices is critical to high completion and success rates.
Having committed a further £222 million to vocational training earlier in the year, apprenticeship schemes are undoubtedly high on the government’s agenda. Often beset by high dropout rates, however, education providers need to display that they are a valid ongoing investment. Effectively tracking learners can have a direct impact on apprenticeship success rates while concurrently demonstrating that the funding is well spent.
As reported by FE Week (click here), between April 2010 and March 2011, the government targeted that 203,200 19 year olds and above would start an apprenticeship scheme. Figures released in June, however, revealed that the actual figure was 257,000 – an astonishing 54,000 more than expected.
Figures like these demonstrate the potential power of apprenticeships but, for them to work successfully, the alarming dropout rate of around 25 per cent needs to be rectified to ensure success rates become consistently high.
Further education colleges can help to address this issue by effectively tracking every learner’s progression and attendance. Historically, this has been a cumbersome and highly inaccurate process that had very little effect on success rates, however, there are effective ways to manage this.
By having instantaneous access to up-to-date records on all students, colleges have the data they need to not only increase the success of their learners but also the success of the scheme itself. As a result, if either aren’t delivering to their full potential, colleges would be able to use an accurate flow of information that will directly lead to the point of breakdown, allowing it to be rectified before any serious or long-term damage is caused.
Increasing and maintaining motivation is another important factor that can be heavily influenced by the implementation of online management software. Institutions have reported that their apprentices displayed an increased willingness to learn and determination to improve themselves when they could view their own progress – a simple yet highly effective means of lowering dropout rates while increasing individual and overall success.
Apprentices displayed an increased willingness to learn and determination to improve themselves when they could view their own progress”
Arming colleges with the tools they need to manage apprentices through effective learner-centric tracking of progression against qualifications, frameworks and milestones, as well as managing funding, recruitment and statistical reporting from a single platform, provides them with the ability to have much greater control of the destiny of the scheme and those taking part.
Apprenticeship schemes without a doubt have the power to reduce unemployment rates and address the UK’s skills shortage problem but, in order to do this successfully and recurrently, they need to show that they are worth the ongoing investment, which currently sits at £1.4 billion every year. Monitoring students has a key part to play in demonstrating and influencing this.
Paul Davis is Managing Director of Perspective, a provider of learner management products. Tweeting as @PDPerspective
A new generation of chefs from South East Cornwall and Plymouth donned their whites for the first ever practical lesson in Cornwall College Saltash’s brand new £300,000 industry standard training kitchen.
The state-of-the-art facilities will be used to train full-time post-16 students, 14-16 year olds from local schools, and apprentices in Professional Cookery qualifications.
Chef lecturer Jan Langley (pictured) brings over 30 years of experience with her, having started out in the industry at 16 assisting in the kitchens of London hotels. She worked her way up learning her trade as an apprentice with classical training, progressing in her career from three star to five star establishments in varying chef roles and even did a stint aboard the QE2!
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) have published the September edition of their Labour Market Statistics, and the summary table of statistics says that youth unemployment has “never” been higher (click here to download).
The ONS Statistic Bulletin published 14 September reads: “The unemployment rate for 16 to 24 year olds was 20.8 per cent of the economically active population in the three months to July 2011, up 1.6 percentage points from the three months to April 2011. There were 973,000 unemployed 16 to 24 year olds in the three months to July 2011, up 78,000 from the three months to April 2011.
“The number of unemployed 16 to 17 year olds increased by 1,000 on the quarter to reach 203,000 and the number of unemployed 18 to 24 year olds rose by 77,000 on the quarter to reach 769,000.”
Like any other company, business or organisation FE colleges are open to as much reputation tarnishing as any other brand. However by managing your social media presence and using Facebook as part of your social marketing strategy, you can start to engage with your audience and realise that social networking isn’t just about the number of “likes” but the level of engagement between you and your students.
Creating relationships and a positive experience can enhance any positive responses and counteract a bad reputation. So in line with the marketing strategy and corporate objectives, social media can control to some extent college’s online influence and overall personality.
Engaging your students on Facebook
There is the risk of running your college facebook page as an advertising billboard, by bombarding your fans with constant marketing messages, however if this is your approach then the whole focus of your social media strategy is fuzzy and will put off potential fans. Social media should be about starting a conversation topic and then monitoring the type of comments and feedback the students are responding with.
At Bournemouth and Poole College this approach has been effective, as instant feedback was used to change a process at enrolment. It gave an instant student response and helped the college get to the root of the student experience.
Resolving issues is not the only benefit of interacting with your students, as Facebook can act as another line of enquiry for not only new and prospective students but current students as well. Questions and queries will be common but it’s the way in which the college responds that can affect the online relationship with your audience. Responding quickly or instantly will begin to build up a rapport with your audience; it’s not necessarily about knowing all the answers to the questions but being supportive and responsive. If the students know that you are there to help they will continue to ask questions and feel part of a community.
Social Media Metrics
From a marketing point of view you might be thinking about spending serious time and money on social media, but are you measuring your return on investment (ROI)? If not, how do you know it’s even working? By measuring these 5 metrics, you will be well on your way to getting an accurate representation of your ROI.
1. Referring Sites
By measuring the majority of your website clicks and where they are coming from, you can determine which social media platforms you should be spending more or less time on. For instance, if only 2 per cent of your clicks come from Twitter but 65 per cent come from Facebook, then you know that your audience is more present on Facebook and you should spend more time there.
2. Comments
If you monitor your comments over a period of time, you can see which topics have got your audience talking and continue to post about those topics. If you have a Facebook business page and monitor your Insights, you can find this metric in the “Interactions” portion of your Insights page.
3. Klout
The Klout Score measures influence based on your ability to drive action. Every time you create content or engage, you influence others. The Klout Score uses data from Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Foursquare in order to measure:
• How many people you influence
• How much you influence them
• How influential they are
Klout explains, “How often do top Influencers share and respond to your content? When they do so, they are increasing your Network Score.”
4. Sentiment
Sentiment is simply whether people are saying positive, negative or indifferent things about your brand.
5. Mentions by Source
Mentions by source will tell you where people are talking about you, which gives you the perfect segue into the conversation. For instance, people may be asking their friends questions about your brand on Twitter; you could chime in and help answer them. If this metric is measured correctly, it will tell you what percent of your mentions are coming from blogs as well as social media. You then should be able to view each mention and see the sentiment.
If you start measuring these five metrics, you should have an idea of your return on investment and whether you are spending your time and money wisely. By ignoring these simple metrics and continuing your social media strategy blindly, you are just throwing away your time and money.
Start by finding a good social media management platform tool, there are lots to choose from and basically all platforms have the same monitoring function.
Rachel Batho is Marketing Co-ordinator at Bournemouth and Poole College
Read the FE Week FE Guide to Twitter: click here
Train’d Up is the latest provider to be advertsing 12 week apprenticeships.
The Skills Funding Agency has allocated Train’d Up £585,542 to deliver apprenticeships in 2011/12.
The company website (see below) advertises City & Guilds Railway Engineering NVQ Level 2 Apprenticeship, promising learners “£100 per week for 12 weeks.”
FE Week has spoken and written to Train’d Up, but have been unable to secure a comment at the time of publication.
It won’t be easy. It’s at best confusing and contradictory, and at worst – morally deficient.
As part of the government’s further education reform program, they have made the decision to begin charging over 24s for their first Level 3 qualifications (A level equivalents). They soon realised that some people who don’t have these qualifications might not be able to afford to get them. So, rather benevolently, they decided to offer them loans! Except it doesn’t look like they’ve thought through how it might work in practice, and now they’re having a consultation to if out how it will work.
These loans are for anyone aged 24 or over who is on a Level 3 course and doesn’t already have a Level 3 qualification, including apprenticeships and Access to HE courses. That’s because before the age of 24, if you don’t already have a Level 3 qualification, you can get it for free.
The loans are designed to cover the cost of study for up to £4,000. However, unlike in the Higher Education system, there is no limit on what Colleges can charge adults for their qualifications. I’ll repeat that, there is no cap. So even if you get the maximum possible loan, it still might not cover the whole cost of study. If you can pay for part of the course yourself then you’ll be able to get a smaller loan. But if you want to do an apprenticeship then your employer will be expected to make a 50% contribution, so you’ll only get a loan for half the cost. And there are no maintenance loans available.
You can only have access to the loans for two years to complete your course, so if you don’t get the results you need in that time, you’ll have to pay for it yourself.
The loans will be administered by the Student Loans Company, but the consultation tells us they number available will be finite. Unlike in HE, where if you are accepted on to a course you are automatically eligible for a loan, you’ll have to apply for a loan and apply to your course at the same time; and hope you get both.
In their own consultation document, the government tells us that, “the demand for Further Education is relatively price inelastic”. In English, that means you can’t raise the price of FE very much before people stop paying for it. It also tells us that a report commissioned by the Learning and Skills Research Centre in 2006 found that one third of learners would consider taking out a loan to fund their learning. So they already know that two thirds of learners wouldn’t consider using this loan system.
We have the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills trying to impose a flawed HE model in the FE sector where it is even more inappropriate, and it’s
dangerous”
And yet the government have already decided to implement this plan, they’re just consulting on how to do it.
So here we have the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills trying to impose a flawed Higher Education model in the Further Education sector where it is even more inappropriate, and it’s dangerous. The people who will be accessing these loans are the most debt-averse in society (much more so than those who might be put off by the cost of Higher Education), there isn’t even the financial reward that a degree brings on offer, particularly with current unemployment rates. And those who won’t access them are even more vulnerable.
But my biggest issue with this policy of Further Education loans is that it just shouldn’t be necessary. It is a disgrace that we have gotten to a state in our society where those who have the least, are unqualified and have been let down by our education system the first time around; have no opportunity for a second chance.
What is it that changes when a person turns 24 that means they don’t deserve to get a job, to provide for their family or to realize their potential?
Toni Pearce Vice President (FE), NUS, Tweeting as @Toni_Pearce
