Group adds to Careers Service debate

A membership body which represents 27 further education colleges has called on the government to think again on the future of the Careers Service.

The 157 Group has been enthusiastic about proposals for an all-age guidance service.

However, it fears proposed changes to the service for young people will deny many the opportunity for a face-to-face interview with a qualified careers advisor. 

Lynne Sedgmore CBE, executive director of the 157 Group, said: “We are seriously concerned that delegating responsibility for the provision of careers guidance to schools will result in many young people not receiving impartial professional guidance at a critical stage in their lives.

“We know that many schools do not give students the full picture about the opportunities available in vocational education and apprenticeships.”

Frank McLoughlin CBE, chair of the 157 Group and principal of City and Islington College, added: “It is crucial that correct information, advice and guidance is available to ensure learners are placed on the best possible pathways to fulfil their ambitions in life.”

The 157 Group will be working with the Institute of Careers Guidance to develop a policy paper to present to ministers in both the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and the Department for Education this autumn.

 A debate on the Careers Service is due to take place tomorrow (Tuesday) in the House of Commons.

Dame Ruth Silver, chair, Learning and Skills Improvement Service

 “I told them to get lost a thousand times,” says Dame Ruth Silver, of the Learning and Skills Improvement Service (LSIS) of which she is now chair.

Having announced her impending retirement from Lewisham College, she was intending to “have a break and not do anything,” and certainly wasn’t looking for another big challenge.

But despite her outward protests, the idea of heading up the sector-led improvement body, was starting to get under her skin. After a lot of persuasion, she put in an application. “What came across was the sincerity of having a sector owned, sector led body, like a trade union, using the sector to improve itself. And the more I thought about it, the more I thought it would be fabulous.”

She admits her interview technique was unconventional. “I said ‘I don’t really want this job but I don’t know how I can walk away with it because it matches with my beliefs, but I would love it if you didn’t appoint me’.” She got the job and has been an enthusiastic chair of the LSIS board since March 2008.

Unorthodoxy is a recurring theme in Silver’s 30 year career in the sector, which has included child guidance, teaching and inspection and even a spell in the civil service. There was no grand plan, she says and she certainly didn’t set out to be a college principal, which “just kind of happened, naturally.”

Her trademark red curls, bold wardrobe and obsession with rosemary oil (she bought it in bulk from Neal’s Yard and sprinkled it in all the classrooms at Lewisham College during exam times) has always set her apart from the men in grey suits, as has her positivity and absolute refusal to whinge about the sector.

I think you always have to remember that when the folk you are fighting with are within (the college), you are actually fighting for something you believe in.”

The whole of her career, she says, “was a training ground for Lewisham” where she was principal for 17 years, and brought the college (formerly known as the South East London Technical College) out of the doldrums into an outstanding beacon college. Silver says she owes a lot of her success to her upbringing in close knit mining community in Lanarkshire, Western Scotland where “every house had an auntie or an uncle or a cousin in it and everyone looked after everyone else’s children.”

Born prematurely in 1945, weighing just three pounds, Silver spent the first months of her life in an incubator and was “mollycoddled” by the rest of her family. But despite ongoing problems with her eyesight, due to her prematurity, she was always “a clever wee thing” and the year she left primary education, was the only child in the village to pass the 11 plus and go to grammar school.

Her father’s ill health (he suffered from kidney problems throughout her childhood) meant the family wasn’t well off and everyone in the village chipped in to help her on her way. “Someone got me the badge for my blazer, someone got me the tie…I felt kitted out by the whole village and there was no way I failed an exam after that,” she recalls.

And when her father died, when she was 15, “the whole community wrapped itself around the family,” including the local branch of the National Union of Mineworkers who knocked on her door and promised help with her education. “I went off to Glasgow University to read literature and psychology funded by the NUM, which made me the richest kid in Glasgow. I had no soles in my shoes until I went there, but suddenly I had all this money for books and things.”

So when Silver was awarded a CBE in 2006, she had a strong sense that the achievement wasn’t hers alone. “I went out to John Lewis and bought ribbon in the same colour as my medal and sat for weeks and weeks attaching ribbon to cards that said ‘this is your share of my CBE.’ I think I sent out 400 cards in the end. I sent it my mum’s neighbour, the trade union…everyone who had helped in some way.”

As a child, she wanted to be a hospital social worker, or almoner is it was then called, even though her teachers thought she should go to drama school. “I liked the way they – hospital almoners – intervened, the way they made things happen for people. Somehow that spoke to me.”

After postgraduate studies at Southampton University and the Tavistock Institute for Human Relations in Adolescence and Transition in London, Silver ended up working in child guidance.

Throughout her career she has tried to recreate that sense of community she felt in her own childhood and one of the things she is most proud of at Lewisham College is setting up a special access fund so “my ballet dancers had shoes and my construction lads had Stanley measures.”

She identifies strongly with her Scottish heritage, repeatedly referring to herself as a “tough old Scot” – something she feels prepared her well for the challenges of leadership, which she admits, can often involve disagreement and compromise. “I think you always have to remember that when the folk you are fighting with are within (the college), you are actually fighting for something you believe in.”

One of toughest times of her career was when she joined Newham College as vice-principal in the late 1980s. Six weeks into the job, having spent years as a women’s rights campaigner giving speeches warning women against the dangers of giving up their career and being forced into housewifery, she found out she was pregnant. “I used to say ‘don’t have babies, they ruin your life and your body’ and all that stuff,” she laughs. “And of course when I became a mammy I was over the moon, it was the best thing I have done.”

But she admits it was tough. Her partner, a writer and actor was able to take the lead on childcare, but she remembers crying on the bus on the way to and from work because she was missing her daughter so much. There were other difficult times, not least when Private Eye ran a series of articles on her, claiming she was splashing out on posh lunches and employing a driver – out of the college budget. The lunches were actually charity fundraisers, and the driver, Silver maintains, was paid out of her own pocket after she was attacked on her way home one evening after a governors’ meeting. “My daughter was about eight at the time and I remember going home and thinking ‘what would happen if she lost me?’ I went in the next day and resigned. The chair of governors said ‘well the college can pick you up now and drop you  off.’ And I paid the home to work cost of that – that was Herbie’s (the member of security staff who became her driver) as well as the petrol and stuff.”

They’re not bloody Peter Pans, they’re politicians.”

Silver has spent the last year “in mourning for what the FE sector nearly became.” Widening participation, the expansion of higher education in FE colleges, the EMA have been replaced by a “sleeker world where there are many more freedoms.” But things are looking up, she says. “It has taken me a year to stop feeling sad about what we could have become, what we nearly became, and to get a sense of what we can become now – and I am really quite excited again. I mean, the last decade was wonderful but all we did was deliver qualifications and we have some space now to do more than that. You can see that.

“Some colleges are forming themselves into mutuals and trusts. So the seeds of that reformulation are now beginning to emerge, I think.”

But politicians are still missing the point when it comes to education, she says. “Every Secretary of State I have ever worked with – and I’ve worked with them all – tries to recreate their childhood educational experience. John Major was saying that the kids need to go and get a job and to get them ready in school to do that. David Blunkett said ‘bring back apprenticeships’. Charles Clarke said ‘bring back uniforms’, Estelle Morris said ‘bring back mixed ability teaching’, Ruth Kelly said ‘keep A-levels’, Michael Gove is saying ‘let’s have a philosophical core’. And they do it because actually, that’s what was good for them. It’s not an imperious imposition, it is a genuine belief. But it’s not a simple question of recreating your own childhood. They’re not bloody Peter Pans, they’re politicians.”

Silver says she has no imminent plans to retire but is aware that LSIS could well be her “final innovation of respect to a lifetime in FE.” While there are “books to write and galleries to see” for now she is happy to continue, alongside her LSIS job, with some of her other roles, which include chairing the taskforce on the future of the careers profession for the government, co-chairing the Skills Commission in the House of Commons with Barry Shearman and being on Jamie Oliver Foundation board “which is great fun, because he’s free from all political and funding imperatives so it’s down to learning.” Now 66, she has recently had laser surgery on her eyes, which she says, has given her a new lease of life. She is even thinking about learning to drive. Proof, if ever it was needed, that there is life in the “old Scot” yet.

FE Week mini-mascot (edition 1)

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

Mostly this week I have been keeping mummy and daddy awake”

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

 

12 week apprenticeships still advertised

Despite increased criticism in what the Chief Executive of the National Apprenticeship Service (NAS) called ‘hot-housing’, many short NVQ and apprenticeship programmes are still being advertised.

In June FE Week reported on the rise of 12 week apprentices, and referred to the call centre training provider Synapse. Since then the Synapse website simply states: “Synapse is no longer recruiting apprentices”, but short programmes continue to be advertised by others.

The Security Training School Limited, a subcontractor to Leeds and Newham Colleges and Durham University, advertise two day fully funded NVQs as well as 12 week apprenticeships (see picture).

Lord Grove, Managing Director at The Security Training School said: “I believe that concerns regarding the duration of apprentices courses are in many cases well founded, but each circumstance should be assessed fairly on its own merits.

“Technical apprentice courses involving trades are far more in-depth and require greater study, than the spectator safety courses we run for example, but that is reflected in the weighting of funding involved.”

ALT delegates seek technological innovation despite challenging times

[Click here to download the FE Week ALT conference double page spread (3mb)]

The education sector is seeking innovation at a time when budgets are increasingly being slashed. Colleges are now looking to technology not only as a way of improving efficiency and running costs, but as a means to improving the student experience in further education (FE).

The Association for Learning Technology (ALT) annual conference allows education providers, technologists, researchers and policy makers to come together and discuss the latest technological developments.

The message ‘sit tight and carry on’ is not an option”

The event was titled ‘Thriving in a colder and more challenging climate’, a chilling reminder of the financial circumstances which the further education sector finds itself in at the moment.

Seb Schmoller, Chief Executive of ALT, said: “At times of crisis, and in many respects, there is a crisis; there are opportunities to use innovation as a way of overcoming the pressure that people are under.

“The message ‘sit tight and carry on’ is not an option, in the current economic climate people need to think carefully about how they can take advantage of technology and use it in a way that will benefit whatever they’re focussed on.”

Hundreds of delegates crammed into the main auditorium at the University of Leeds on Tuesday morning. Councillor Reverend Alan Taylor, the Lord Mayor of Leeds, opened the proceedings and welcomed the international attendees – some of which had come from as far as New Zealand, Japan and India.

Taylor said: “There’s never been a greater demand placed on teaching to reach its leaners using all the tools of the trade.

“It’s important that all young learners are equipped to use technology to their advantage.”

This was followed by a keynote speech given by Miguel Brechner, President of the Uruguayan Centre for Technological and Social Inclusion (CITS). Miguel’s presentation detailed Plan Ceibal, a project that hopes to give a laptop to every student and teacher in the country.

Brechner said: “When the President of Uruguay announced in 2006 that all children in public education should have a laptop, with connectivity before his mandate, everybody thought that that was a dream and that was vapourware in politics. But that was not so.”

Uruguay has accomplished a remarkable feat in the context of both education and technology. The government initially aimed to deliver 300,000 laptops over the space of 3 years, but has since gone on to deliver more than 450,000 units. This means every child between the first year of primary school and the third year of secondary school now owns their own public funded laptop.

As the first wave of children grow up, Plan Ceibal is set to filter into the Uruguay equivalent of both further and higher education.

The government’s dedication to providing widespread internet access has also been successful. Miguel said: “We have given internet and connectivity to 2500 schools and high schools.

“99% of the children have connectivity in their educational facilities, and 180,000 (40%) don’t have to walk more than 300 metres to get internet in our own network.”

Plan Ceibal shares many similarities with the FE sector in England. The project was conceived as a social inclusion programme and based on three ‘pillars’; equality, learning and technology. These ideals will feel familiar to anyone who that champions equal opportunities in education, and asks whether access to laptops and internet connectivity should ever be perceived as a ‘right’.

Delegates debated over whether the importance of technology has grown to a point where it is now deemed a social necessity. Questions remained over whether such a model could ever be considered in a nation such as our own.

The ALT conference also had a number of technology related exhibitors such as Adobe, Google and the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) present.

Malcolm Read, Executive Secretary of JISC said: “This is one of relatively few conferences that attracts a good audience both from further education and higher education.

“Clearly the use of technology in improving and enhancing the student experience, and the quality of learning and teaching is important to both sectors.”

Malcolm Read was also attending as an invited speaker who discussed student feedback, e-assessment and open educational resources during the event.

He added: “(Technology) is one of those areas where further education makes a very significant contribution, perhaps because they can be a bit more flexible and responsive.

“They can also perhaps be more risk taking than universities in the way they tend to be in the innovative use of technology for teaching.”

It’s one of the best networking opportunities if you want to see what’s current in terms of research and what people are thinking.”

The ALT conference is also host to the Learning Technologist of the Year Award, a prestigious prize recognising excellent practice and outstanding achievement in the learning technology field.

The team award category was given to the In-Folio Implementation Team, five organisations who collectively developed an e-portfolio for use in the Independent Specialist Colleges Sector.

The Infolio system is particularly remarkable because it enables learners with disabilities or learning difficulties to record their achievements and abilities.

Shirley Evans, a JISC Techdis associate who worked on the project said: “Infolio can be used by a range of students, including students that have a learning difficulty.

“For example, it can also be used by students for who have a visual impairment, because they can resize the text and change the colour contrast. So it’s very flexible in that respect.”

Sal Cooke, Director at JISC Techdis and JISC services was thrilled to have In-Folio considered for the accolade. She said: “It’s really exciting for us to have been nominated and to win this award.

“I think that the recognition of the university, the service at JISC Techdis and those specialist colleges coming together, to actually give something back to the rest of the sector and get recognition for that is fantastic.”

She added the tool will now be used in 40 colleges and rolled out in other parts of the FE and skills sector.

Although the ALT conference is aimed at all levels of education, the event attracts a much higher number of delegates from higher education (HE) than FE.

Ellen Lessner, E-Learning co-ordinator at Abingdon Witney College believes this could be because the event is held so closely to enrolment time in the FE sector. She said: “It’s a big problem, I’m on the ALT FE Committee and it is something that we discuss every year. It’s got a lot to offer and there are a small number of us from FE who are allowed, or have managed to get out at the busiest time of the year.”

Ellen was blogging the event on behalf of the Learning and Skills Improvement Service (LSIS), providing coverage that is tailored particularly for the further education sector. She said: “I think the content is excellent. It’s one of the best networking opportunities if you want to see what’s current in terms of research and what people are thinking.”

The ALT conference was a vital opportunity for FE providers to learn about technology and how it can be used to improve their own services. It’s unclear whether the event will be able to attract a wider audience from the FE sector in the future, but this didn’t take away from the quality and beneficial content on offer at Leeds.

City & Guilds allocated more than £8m for 25,000 Asda apprentices

The Skills Funding Agency (SFA) has allocated more than £8m to City & Guilds in order to deliver 25,000 apprenticeships at Asda.

The funding will be used to train employees from May 2011 to July 2012, comprising of £736,824 until the end of July 2011 with a further £7.7m between August 2011 and the end of July 2012.

A spokesperson from the SFA said: “The Skills Funding Agency is contracted with City & Guilds for Business, a wholly owned subsidiary of the awarding body City & Guilds.”

As previously reported in FE Week, this new allocation is similar to the contract between Elmfield Training and Morrisons (click here).

The Morrisons partnership has already created more than 20,000 Level 2 Retail apprenticeships starts, specifically for those aged 25 and over.

FE Week understands Asda is not paying City & Guilds any money for the scheme, but is instead investing “time awarded to colleagues in store.”

John Hayes, Minister for FE, recently announced the government has smashed their apprenticeship recruitment target for the financial year ending March 2011.

Asda said they will create 6,000 apprentices by the end of this year and 25,000 by the end of 2012 under the Asda Skills Academy.

The supermarket chain has been offering employees Level 2, Level 3 and Level 4 qualifications from June 6.

Sarah Dickins, people operations and policy director at Asda, said: “This is something that our colleagues have been asking for. Getting that qualification is really important to them, as it builds up their education as well as improving their skills in the workplace.”

The training is being provided by City & Guilds for Business, a City & Guilds approved Centre which has worked in the past with companies such as Tesco, McDonalds and British Airways.

Lisa Burnett, People Development Manager at Asda plc said: “City & Guilds is well known in Asda so our pilot training scheme gained instant credibility.”

Simon Witts, Director of City & Guilds for Business added: “The Asda Skills Academy is an exciting expansion of our existing relationship and offers us a new model for working with employers in future.

“It also puts us well on the way to achieving Million Extra – our commitment to help create one million new apprenticeships by the summer of 2013.”

The SFA hopes that their additional investment in apprenticeships will support learners aged between 19 and 24, rather than older or existing employees.

An update posted in August on the SFA website reads: “We would hope that employers and providers do not move this extra resource into significantly expanding their Intermediate Apprenticeships (Level 2) for 25-year-olds and over.”

City & Guilds is not the first awarding body to take on the role of both training and certification.

An Ofqual spokesperson said: “In circumstances where the awarding organisation is also acting as training provider, they will be required to have in place arrangements to manage any possible conflicts of interest. Breaches of the conditions can result in regulatory action.”

Asda spokeswoman Tori Pourzand added: “The priority for us is the quality of learning for the individual, not the speed of it; however, we anticipate colleagues will complete the programme between 9 and 12 months.”

Existing employees are currently being signed up to the scheme, and new employees can join after completing a 12 week training programme.

FE Week joins 1000 mile in 10 day charity challenge

FE Week cycled hard last month to join South Birmingham College Principal Mike Hopkins and local blind man Dave Heeley as part of their Top2Toe charity challenge.

We followed the pair as they exited Birmingham, creating an exclusive video report and in-depth interview about their progress.

Mike Hopkins and Dave Heeley were riding a tandem bicycle together as part of a gruelling 10 day charity ride, completing a total of 1,000 miles from John O’Groats to Land’s End.

Dave said: “To have the support of a principal of a college really does add fantastic profile for Top2Toe.

“It also encourages many young people to follow what we are doing to help make a difference to the lives of people living with cancer”.

FE Week would like to reassure readers that no journalists were harmed in the making of this video

The fundraiser also included a 26.2 mile marathon which ‘Blind Dave’ ran each morning in order to cover the colossal distance.

Dave hopes that the challenge will raise £100,000 for Macmillan Cancer Support. To date the JustGiving website alone has received over £52,000 in donations.

Mike Hopkins told FE Week: “I’m a keen racing cyclist and compete in road races, time trials and cyclocross, and the college and I have supported Macmillan Cancer for many years, so this was the perfect challenge for me to take part in.”

You can see our video coverage, including an exclusive interview with Dave and Mike over on the FE Week YouTube Channel: www.youtube.com/feweekpodcast

A written report can also be found on the FE Week website: www.tinyurl.com/feweekcycle

New Year, New Challenges

The latest bundle of Papers which came out from Government over the summer on FE reform pose more questions than answers, nearly 60 questions in all covering most aspects of the FE system.

Nor are things likely to be clear for some time. We’ve got an Education and Skills Growth Review under way, consultations going on around both the Wolf proposals and the HE White Paper recommendations and the Chancellor working away on an Autumn Financial Statement.

FE’s ability to cope with change is legendary. So what does it need to look out for this time?

Five themes stand out.

First, organisational change, creating what the Minister called ‘a rainbow of provision rather than a monotone of grey uniformity.’ Opening up the market is a phrase being applied across the education system at present and FE is not immune. Corporations will be variously considering relationships with University Technical Colleges, National Skills Academies and HE over the coming months with some even venturing into college companies and mutual trusts. A lot depends on the local context, but the Government is keen to encourage greater diversity and liberalisation and will publish guidelines on business models later in the year.

Increasingly, colleges are being asked to take control of their own destiny.”

Second, provision in key areas. For 14-19 year olds, Wolf has set new demands on 16-19 programmes and opened up mobility between schools and colleges. For skills, literacy, numeracy, apprenticeship and level 2 provision remain key along with the demands of the Growth agenda. For adult and community learning, consultation continues but the driver here is the Big Society while for HE, big opportunities will arise partly though new validation arrangements and partly through the ‘contestable’ places.

Third, teaching and learning and the continuing emphasis on quality, performance and outcomes. Increasingly, colleges are being asked to take control of their own destiny. This means greater reliance on internal performance and data management procedures and less on external mechanisms with responsiveness to learners and communities the critical feature.

 Fourth, funding developments and in particular the proposed introduction of a fee loan system for higher level provision. FE has traditionally exercised discretion over fee charging but the loan system when it comes in for the 2013 academic year will see a change in culture with a greater emphasis on pricing, collection and, for learners, returns on investment. As the consultation implies, colleges have a crucial role; not only will they have to manage the system, they’ll have to ‘sell’ it as well.

Fifth, wider structural change with a range of furniture removal going on to give colleges more space to perform. Curtailing intermediary bodies, reducing the streams of funding, removing a number of centrally imposed targets, streamlining the qualification approval process and rationalising local planning arrangements are all part of this.

 It’s enough to be going on with.

Steve Besley, Head of Policy at Pearson and tweeting as @SteveBesley

 

Quit the excuses and listen to those not attending

Many colleges are nervously counting 16-18 year-old learners in and out of classes this week, totting up the totals and making judgements about whether or not they are below, on or above recruitment targets.

 When 16 year-old enrolments do not materialise into attendance the same excuses are rolled out at this time every year. The two classics are: “learners enrolled at lots of colleges and have followed their mates elsewhere”, and “those pesky schools have clung onto them”.

 There are now two new excuses to consider this year. Firstly, there is of course the scrapping of the Educational Maintenance Allowance (EMA) to blame for putting learners off.

 But what if in reality the EMA has had limited impact on recruitment. After all, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) research found that “65 out of every 69 individuals aged 16 who are eligible for the EMA would have stayed in education without the payment.”

 The EMA only rewarded regular attendance, so it’s not recruitment but retention and achievement rates which are most likely to suffer. As the IFS goes on to say: “those who receive EMA and would have stayed in education regardless of it might still benefit educationally through other channels: for example through better attendance, or more study time as a result of not having to take on a part-time job.”

 Then there is the geographic and demographics excuse. The Treasury have long been predicting a decline in the number of 16-18 year-olds, and for the first time we saw a significant reduction in the overall number of 16-18 year-olds planned by the Young People’s Learning Agency (YPLA). Yet this should have been taken into account when the YPLA set final allocation targets.

 In reality missing targets is more likely owing to the curriculum not being as attractive as the neighbouring college and student services failing basic customer service standards.

 Colleges failing to hit recruitment targets need to quickly call those that are not attending and act on what they are told.