‘Plumber’s Apprentice’ statue unveiled at Cannon Street Station

 

A sculpture of the ‘Plumber’s Apprentice’ has been unveiled by the Duke of Gloucester at Cannon Street Station.

The seven-foot tall, bronze statue has been built to represent the industry’s history with London and the company’s commitment to training young plumbers.

Chris Sneath, Master of the Worshipful Company of Plumbers, said: “The statue is as much as about promoting plumbing as a worthy career for young people as it is about marking our ancient connections with the City of London.”

The unveiling has coincided with the WorldSkills London 2011 competition, where Team UK is competing in a number of trades, including plumbing, to showcase the importance of apprenticeships.

“The current controversy over university fees and the desperate shortage of suitably skilled and competent trades people point towards vocational qualifications playing an increasingly important role,” Mr Sneath said.

WorldSkills London 2011: Opening with a bang

With a rush of activity and a buzz of excitement, the world’s largest international skills competition arrived on UK shores.

WorldSkills London 2011 – dubbed the skills Olympics – engulfed ExCel London, on Wednesday ahead of four-days of competition to find the best-of-the-best the skills sector has to offer.

Before the 944 competitors, representing 51 nations, got underway, the nearby O2 Arena hosted the opening ceremony on Tuesday.

Chairman of WorldSkills London 2011 Chris Humphries and Deputy Prime Minster, Nick Clegg officially marked the start of the skills competition, jobs and careers event, before a feast of entertainment, including dancing, singing and the traditional flag ceremony.

However, once the formalities – and the pleasantries between the entrants – were over, it was down to the hard-graft of the competition the following morning as the ExCel flung its doors open for the first time.

Speaking to FE Week just hours after thousands of people began flocking into the exhibition centre, Aidan Jones, the chief executive of WorldSkills London 2011, said: “It’s going brilliantly.

“We had a fantastic opening ceremony at the O2 on Tuesday night and we were very pleased to welcome Nick Clegg to join us.

“I was then lucky enough to be here when the roller shutters opened for the first time and people crossed them into the hall.

“It was like the Christmas sales. My heart was ticking really fast, seeing after three years of working for this that people were coming through the doors ready to enjoy the skills on show and on offer.”

However, Mr Jones does not just see this as an important event for the competitors – he also sees it as vital for the future of the nation.

He added: “There has never been a more important time to show the UK that skills shape our world and the future success of Britain’s businesses depend on a highly skilled workforce.

“We hope WorldSkills London demonstrates to the world how talented young British people are.”

While the competitors got down to the nitty-gritty action of their chosen skill, the halls filled with visitors – and not forgetting the event’s ambassadors, who proudly patrolled the arena to will the competitors on.

One of those was Eddie ‘The Eagle’ Edwards, who became Britain’s first Olympic ski jumper when he took to the slopes at the Calgary Winter Olympics in 1988, becoming a national hero.

However, it was as a plasterer the former Olympian spread his wings, having grown up in a family of plasterers.
As an ambassador for WorldSkills London 2011, he was delighted to watch the event unfold and cheer on Team UK.

He said: “I split my time now with Eddie ‘The Eagle’ work and when I’m not doing that I’m plastering ceilings and walls.

“This year was the first time I’d heard of the event and now that I’m finally here, I’m really looking forward to getting out on the shop floor.”

When arriving at the vast exhibition centre, he was surprised to see how big it was and how many schoolchildren were attending.

The first day of the event also saw the Junior WorldSkills event and a raft of primary schools invited to attend.

Eddie said: “There were a lot of schoolchildren looking around which is wonderful as most people think about university to study, but there are lots of things you can do without going to university.”

He was also keen to ‘Have a Go’ at the other trades and skills on offer available at the event to try himself, adding: “Who knows, I might get into something else. I’m all for learning.”

Another ambassador, who knows what it is like to perform on the world stage in front of thousands of people, is Olympic gold medallist Jason Gardener – and he was delighted to support Team UK.

The sprinter, won gold in the 4×100 metre replay at the 2004 summer Olympics games in Athens, said: “When I walked into the ExCel, I thought ‘wow, this place is enormous’. It blew my mind.”

He added: “It was great to meet Team UK and the competitors in the send-off event last week.

“Team UK have been prepared, they’ve gone through a rigorous two years of training, they’ve had mentoring and developed their skills and identified areas to improve.”

Businessman and star of BBC Two show Dragon’s Den, Theo Paphitis was also on hand to show his support for the skills sector.

He said: “Skills are vital to ensuring the UK’s future as one of the world’s biggest economies.

“Skills not only provide the talent organisations need to thrive, evolve and grow, but also give people a solid grounding on which to start their enterprises.

“By encouraging and nurturing those who take vocational routes – and raising awareness of the great opportunities out there for skilled workers – we can ensure the UK has the skills we need for the future.”

For a full FE Week round-up, including results, from WorldSkills London 2011, see our website www.feweek.co.uk on Monday.

Picture: Jazz Hands: City College Norwich Dance troupe performing on the main stage at WorldSkills

250 apprentices at risk of derailment at Bombardier

Around 250 young people will be affected by lost apprenticeships and engineering jobs at Bombardier, a union has warned.

Rail union RMT said the firm will be forced to reduce apprenticeships from the Bombardier Centre of Excellence in Derby, if the Government fails to reverse the decision to send the Thameslink fleet contract overseas.

The news coincided with the end of the statutory ninety day consultation on the loss of 1,400 jobs at Bombardier factory last week, and as the Conservatives held their annual conference.

The union said Bombardier would be forced to reduce apprentices by 15 this year, due to the Thameslink loss, and would recruit 10 per year instead of 20 for the next seven years, with the loss of 85 apprentices in total.

In addition, for the Engineering Centre of Excellence the Thameslink contract would have guaranteed an additional 150 permanent engineers.

Also scrapped would be the commitment with JCB academy to develop future engineers where Bombardier had committed to invest in two students per year for the next three years to further develop skills for the future.

RMT General Secretary Bob Crow said: “The Tory Party will be spouting their usual warm words on training and apprenticeships whereas in reality they are on course to destroy career opportunities for a whole generation in Derby through their betrayal of Bombardier.”

However, the National Apprenticeship Service (NAS) said they are working with Bombardier to secure employment opportunities at the firm.

Karen Woodward, Divisional Apprenticeship Director (Central), NAS said: “The National Apprenticeship Service is working with Bombardier to ensure that the 200 adult apprentices currently employed by the company are able to complete their Apprenticeships and find alternative employment where possible.

“We are also working to secure training and employment opportunities for the 15 people who were due to start new
Apprenticeships at Bombardier.”

WorldSkills London 2011: Triumph for Team UK

Christopher Berridge, Gold medal winner in the Stonemasonry competition. All pictures by Nick Linford for FE Week.

Team UK bagged 12 medals at WorldSkills London 2011, making it their best performance to date.

UK competitors received four Gold, two Silver and six Bronze at the awards ceremony in the packed out O2 Arena last night (Sunday).

The Team also received 12 Medallions for Excellence, an award given to those competitors with above average scores. It was Korea who topped the WorldSkills London 2011 medal table, as they picked up a total of 24 medals and 12 Medallions for Excellence.

The prize giving was presented by Gabby Logan and Michael Underwood and included a performance from Beardyman. The huge audience was made up of supporters from every corner of the world.

WorldSkills will next be hosted in Leipzig in Germany in 2013. The German team received four medals at this years event.

President of WorldSkills International and Chief Executive of UK Skills, Simon Bartley, at the closing ceremony with FE Week’s exclusive WorldSkills t-shirt.

Team UK’s medal wins in full:

 

Gold Medals

Shane Trevitt, Plumbing and Heating

Philip Green, Bricklaying

Ben Murphy, Cooking

Kirsty Hoadley, Visual Merchandising

Christopher Berridge, Stonemasonry (Stonemasonry was not considered an official skill as there are too few participants)

 

Silver Medals

Ross Varnam, Autobody Repair

Landscape Gardening, Simon Abbott and James Cuffey

 

Bronze Medals

Ryan Sheridan, Mechanical Engineering Design – CAD

Jake Rambaldini, Welding

John Couldridge, Automobile Technology

Ben Eaton, Car Painting

Adam Bushnell, Joinery

Stuart Millar, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning

John Hayes, Minister for Skills, presenting Korea with one of many gold medals at WorldSkills London 2011

For full medal listings, visit: http://www.worldskills.org/results.html and for more on WorldSkills London, see this week’s FE Week.

For more photos of the event go to FE Week‘s Flickr page.

Conservatives call on employers to take on more apprentices

Apprenticeships, apprenticeships, apprenticeships.

The vocational qualification was at the forefront of speeches made during the Conservative Party conference in Manchester last week.

The Prime Minister David Cameron called on large businesses to take on more apprentices during his speech on Wednesday.

“When a balanced economy needs workers with skills, we need to end the old snobbery about vocational education and training. We’ve provided funding for 250,000 extra apprenticeships – but not enough big companies are delivering,” Mr Cameron said.

“So here’s a direct appeal: If you want skilled employees, we’ll provide the funding, we’ll cut the red tape. But you’ve got to show more leadership and give us the apprenticeships we need.”

David Willets, MP for Havant and Minister of State for Universities and Science echoed Mr Cameron’s views, but added that too many young people were failing to take up apprenticeships.

He said that in the three miles surrounding Tottenham, there were 3,100 vacancies on the National Apprenticeship website during the London riots.

“When we make opportunities available we expect young people to take them up. There are no excuses,” Mr Willets said.

John Hayes, Minister for Further Education, Skills and Lifelong used the Conservative Party conference to remind delegates of the increased number of apprentices created by the government.

Mr Hayes, during the ‘Rebalancing the Economy’ session held on Monday, said: “The government has put apprenticeships at the heart of our programme for skills. Apprenticeships are growing beyond labour’s wildest dreams.

“We’ve already delivered 100,000 new places and we will create 250,000 more apprenticeships over this parliament.”

Mr Hayes later announced that the government would be creating 10,000 new higher level apprenticeships at level 3, 4 and above.

He said: “I want to see the vocational route be just as navigable, progressive and seductive as the academic path. I want to give those that learn by doing their place in the sun.”

Mr Hayes was also part of a fringe event called ‘Unleashing the Talent: How do we foster the skills needed for economic growth?’ chaired by the think-tank Demos.

Tom Wilson, Director of Unionlearn, was one of the speakers at the event and said that that it was vital that the quality of the apprenticeship brand was protected.

He added that unions were working with the government and National Apprenticeship Service (NAS) to “crack down on unscrupulous employers who are putting on a few weeks worth of training and calling them apprenticeships.”

The annual conference follows those held by both the Liberal Democrat and Labour parties in the last month.

FE Week reporter ‘Has a Go’ at WorldSkills London 2011

FE Week News Reporter Nick Summers gets into the spirit of WorldSkills London 2011 by ‘having a go’ at the trade skills on offer

WorldSkills has been cleverly dubbed the ‘skills Olympics’ – but to think of it merely as a tournament would be short-sighted. The aim of the event is not only to inspire visitors through the competition, but to encourage them to try some of the professions for themselves.

The ‘Have a Go’ activities were designed to get the public involved and try various skills. Booths were dotted all over the ExCel London and attracted plenty of attention thanks to huge billboards shouting “I am… ready to have a go!” These workshops were open plan and designed to represent and reflect the surrounding trades.

The activities, to name just a few, included plastering, carpentry, airbrushing and virtual car painting, hair styling, making wooden rocking horses and chocolate welding.

So in the spirit of WorldSkills (and with a bit of bribery from my editor) I got stuck in and tried as many vocational skills as possible.

My first challenge was to change the rear tire on a Honda motorcycle. Visitors were timed to see how long it took them to remove a bolt and washer, remove the rear calibre and slide out the spindle connecting the tyre. This was then followed by a new rear tyre, which visitors needed to use to put the bike back together again. Tricky.

The wheels were particularly heavy and I was surprised at the strength needed to use the ratchet gun and wrench. One of the mechanics was on hand to make sure I didn’t damage any of the equipment, and I was very impressed with just how hands-on I was allowed to get with the task.

Needless to say my final time for the activity was appalling (no surprise there). Even so, I felt that the task was a realistic glimpse of a profession that would be difficult to reproduce in a college prospectus or open day.

Tiling was next on my list. ‘How hard could it be to stick some ceramics to a wall?’ I thought with blissful ignorance.

To start with, the activity was made far harder by the tile design itself. The various slabs joined together to form a colourful union jack, and it was infuriatingly hard to try and sort them out and put them in their appropriate places. Sticking them to the wall proved even more challenging.

Putting plaster onto the various tools and spreading it with a thin consistency required a level of skill that I obviously didn’t have. The WorldSkills staff were keen to show me how to handle the grey goo with the necessary precision, but to be honest I knew I was a lost hope. Time for something else.

When I think of Bentley cars, I think of designers in smoky rooms, burly mechanics in steel factories and pristine businessmen in immaculate showrooms. Sewing does not come to mind. Yet this was the profession being shown off by the traditional and luxury British car company, offering visitors the chance to finish some cross stitching on a steering wheel.

I saw numerous young men scoff initially at the idea of sewing, but they soon changed their minds when they realised which company was behind the activity (show them a flash car and they’ll do anything – fact). It was refreshing to see the admirable care and craft that goes into car manufacturing, and I think it reminded many people of the different professions that are out there.

Waltham Forest College were offering skills arguably a little more ‘hip’ and modern. An instructor from Streetlife Radio taught me how to use a pair of turntables, keeping in tempo with the music and ‘fading’ across to various tracks. The timing was really tricky and it took me numerous attempts to finally nail a session and put two songs in perfect harmony. Based on the feedback from passers-by, I bet the classes are a resounding success at the college.

Throughout the day I also had the chance to sit in a Formula 1 racing car, try my hand as a racing jockey and even apply various facial masks.

You name it and WorldSkills London 2011 was offering it. Many of the activities were also child friendly, encouraging little ones to try simpler tasks such as plumbing puzzles and building cardboard furniture.

Everything on offer was exciting, fresh and hands-on. It was the perfect opportunity for any school leaver or potential learner to consider a vocational profession, not only by seeing what they enjoyed the most, but also by seeing what they were best at.

Team UK and the inevitable medals table will no doubt grab most of the headlines at WorldSkills, but I’d argue that training providers and young visitors are the real event winners. The first day of the competition was a resounding success and the ‘Have a Go’ activities helped unquestionably to inspire the future of Britain.

 Photos by Nick Linford, for FE Week

NUS launches ‘Fair Necessities’ campaign at FEstival

It was a feast of further education (FE) as hundreds of youngsters flocked to Birmingham to launch a series of student-led campaigns for this academic year.

On Monday, more than 200 FE student representatives attended the single largest National Union of Students’ (NUS) FE specific event, FEstival.

It brought together Student Officers from Students’ Unions from across the UK to mark the launch of a series of NUS’ campaigns for 2011/12 and the start of a new academic year.

The free, one day event, was held at Birmingham University’s Guild of Students and built on the success of the first FEstival back in 2009, aiming to stimulate and motivate student representatives and officers for the year ahead through structured and informal networking, campaigning and skills workshops and campaign launches.

Even our own Managing Editor, Nick Linford, held a workshop focusing on funding in the sector.

The main hall was decked out with bunting, balloons and there was plenty of music being played; in order to create a festival atmosphere. At 10am before the bulk of attendees arrived NUS staff were buzzing with excitement about the day’s line up.

The event kicked off at 11am with a key note speech from Toni Pearce, Vice President (VP) FE NUS, who introduced the event and launched the NUS FE priority campaign for the year ahead, Fair Necessities. This year’s priority campaign looks at equipping students’ unions with the tools and skills to campaign against the cuts made to enrichment funding in the UK.

During her key note speech when launching the campaign, Pearce said, “enrichment funding was first introduced in 2000 to provide 16-19 year old in full time further education access to a wide range of extra-curricular activities and extra learning support including, tutorials, pastoral care and citizenship. The Government have made a 75 per cent cut in this service which will have an impact on student lives and force colleges in making tough decisions around which services to prioritise.”

The toolkit is designed for both students and staff working in students’ union and is available here.

FE Week has since learnt that there are plans for NUS to release their very own versions of the Jungle Book classic, Look for the Bear Necessities.

There is often a perception in NUS that it is only the remit of the VPFE to represent FE students. Following on from Pearce’s key note speech, there was a Q&A session with the other 4 vice presidents and the National President, Liam Burns. This was a first for NUS, never before had all of the VPs and President been in attendance together to discuss how their own remits work to benefit FE.

The VPs went into detail around the various ways they are representing FE over the coming year, from the VP Society and Citizenship outlining an exciting new partnership with Oxfam to build citizenship in FE to the VP Union Development announcing Activism 2011, a day which will focus on training student officers on how to campaign effectively.

During the lunch break another campaign was launched by the VP Welfare, Pete Mercer. By way of parking a red double decker bus outside the venue, Mercer launched the Get on the Bus campaign. FEstival goers were encouraged to “Get on the Bus” in-time for a launch speech from the VP Welfare.

Mercer explained the campaign aims to highlight the issues that students face regarding the cost of travel in the UK. Aimed at FE colleges, the campaign will see a bus tour around the UK to encourage FE students to approach their local councils in order to improve travel subsidies for young people.

In between the campaign launches and speeches there were numerous workshops that attendees could choose from. Workshops on offer varied from Campaigning tips for students’ unions, broadening membership, enterprising students’ unions and adult education funding.

Speaking to FE Week after FEstival, Larni Baird, President, Aberdeen College Students’ Union said: “I made the epic journey from Aberdeen to come along to today’s event. It was truly overwhelming to see so many FE student officers attending Festival. I have been an officer in the student movement now for 2 and a half years and never seen an FE event so well attended. But not only was attendance high, the calibre of officers and their enthusiasm was inspirational.”

Pearce formally closed FEstival with a vote of thanks to everyone that had contributed to what had been for her “one of the most amazing events she had ever attended.” Speaking after FEstival, Pearce said, “Today has been incredible, not only because so many FE students came along, but because so many are now engaged and want to get out there and campaign for their members. Whether that be for the reinstatement of EMA, increases in transport subsidy or votes at 16. Our members, here today, showed that students in FE have a bigger voice than ever before.”

FEstival was certainly one of the, if not most, successful FE specific events that NUS has staged in recent years. It has been a strategic aim of the organisation in recent years to engage with more with FE students. Events such as this certainly prove they have engaged with more FE students than ever before. FE Week will be keeping up to date with all the latest news from the campaigns over the coming year.

Department for Education launch 16-19 Funding Formula Review

The Secretary of State for Education, Michael Gove has launched a consultation to reform and simplify the ‘16-19 funding formula’, for implemtation in 2013/14.

The announcement, published by the Department for Education (DfE) last Thursday, states: “Proposals in the consultation include moving away from the current complex system of funding on the basis of ‘payment per qualification’ to introduce a much simpler system of funding at the level of the learner.

“Such a change is essential if we are to make a reality of the proposals in Professor Alison Wolf’s groundbreaking report on vocational education.

“It also supports the Government’s aims of reducing bureaucracy for education providers and making the funding system simpler, more transparent and readily understood by all.

“Responses to the consultation are sought from 16-19 education and training providers in general and specialist further education colleges, sixth form colleges, maintained schools and Academy sixth forms as well as commercial and charitable providers, and Apprenticeship providers.”

FE Week understands that the consultation launch was originally planned for May 2011 but the DfE delayed implementation so it could also consider the reform of 5-16 year-old funding.

The current formula was implemented in 2008/09 by the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) in an effort to simplify funding.

John Bolt, former  national technical lead for funding at the LSC said: “I am pleased that the DfE and Young People’s Learning Agency have now published the latest consultation.  It was expected earlier this year, and will apply from 2013/14 and not a year earlier as was previously thought.

As ever, it is difficult to strike the right balance between simplicity, fairness and new Government policy, which is reflected within the numerous options within the report.  There seems to be a move towards funding 16-18 learners in a similar way to pre-16 learners, which may simplify things for school sixth forms but less so for colleges.”

The closing date for responses is Wednesday 4 January 2012.

An inconvenient truth

In August of this year the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) published a report of an enquiry into value for money in the education of those aged 16-18. It followed an investigation by the National Audit Office on the same subject but the committee itself took additional evidence from a number of expert witnesses.

Sadly the Guardian Newspaper had a travesty of an article headed “’Money is ‘wasted on badly managed colleges’”, the main thrust of which bore little relationship to anything the PAC had said.”

The full document, which does not take long to read, is available here.

The report deserves to be widely read, not least because it was not well reported in the education press. It does not appear to have surfaced in FE Focus in the TES. The BBC has a competent summary on its website here, but sadly the Guardian Newspaper had a travesty of an article headed “’Money is ‘wasted on badly managed colleges’”, the main thrust of which bore little relationship to anything the PAC had said.

Since the Guardian has been one of the few papers to report anything about FE in recent years, and generally enjoys a good reputation for informed and balanced journalism it is important to point out that the PAC makes no mention at all of ‘bad colleges’. It most certainly does not, as the article explicitly states, warn that ‘the government is wasting money by funding poorly-managed colleges.’

The main focus of PAC criticism is clearly the government, not institutions and it aims its fire accurately at the complex and inconsistent arrangements for monitoring the performance of the sector, not at school heads or college principals.”

Indeed when the PAC mentions colleges specifically it is to point out that their record in terms of increasing efficiency is superior to that of schools. They state for example: “As a result of fewer resources in the past, further education colleges have become more adept at making tough choices to improve value for money.” They also point out that the accountability arrangements for colleges are clearer than those for sixth forms.

‘Colleges were required to meet minimum levels of performance (based on success rates), and the Young People’s Learning Agency set clear action plans where colleges failed to meet them. In contrast, local authorities were not consistent in their approach to dealing with poor performance in school sixth forms.’

The main focus of PAC criticism is clearly the government, not institutions and it aims its fire accurately at the complex and inconsistent arrangements for monitoring the performance of the sector, not at school heads or college principals.

There are in fact three main strands to the PAC report all of which have important implications for government policy. The first is that the committee is clear that larger institutions benefit learners. ‘Larger providers benefit from economies of scale and can provide a wider choice of courses for their students.

The evidence also suggests student achievement is higher in larger institutions’. The PAC is not the first to point to such evidence but the authority of the chief parliamentary watchdog on value for money is such that it must call into question the government’s enthusiasm for opening yet more small sixth forms in areas well provided for by FE and sixth form colleges.

The second strand of the PAC report relates to collaboration. Some of the benefits of scale can be achieved by smaller providers it argues if they are able to collaborate, for example by sharing back office services. The competitive environment in which schools and colleges have to operate however acts as a powerful inhibitor of such collaboration and consequently restricts its impact. Taken together with the comments on the benefits of scale this undermines BIS proposals for the future shape of the FE landscape which once again advocates partnerships and seek to discourage merger.

It is however the third charge made by the committee that is perhaps the most serious. The systems of reporting and performance management for schools and colleges are so different that potential students cannot effectively exercise choice and government cannot be sure that it is obtaining value for money.

Colleges have the more robust systems in place both in terms of efficiency and effectiveness but a direct comparison between the sectors is still frustrated. It is hard to believe that a decade after coming together with colleges under the LSC school sixth forms still cannot produce reliable data on qualification success rates (QSR) that enable real comparison with FE.

It is however reminiscent of claims by DES officials in the 1980s and 1990s that comparing the cost to the public purse of provision in schools and colleges was not possible owing to its technical complexity; and of course the fact that seven years after LSDA research definitively established the scale of the funding gap between schools and colleges officials have still failed to close it.

The current target date for convergence of funding is 2015, well into the future. Conspiracy theories are usually wrong but the difficulties encountered when trying to compare the performance of schools and colleges might be the exception. The Whitehall machine seems really reluctant to allow awkward comparisons to be made: could the reason be that the policy implications might just be too inconvenient.

Mick Fletcher, visiting Research Fellow at the Institute of Education