Staff at the remaining 15 colleges will strike from Tuesday November 14 to Thursday November 16 – which comes just after the GCSE resit series but during the Association of Colleges annual conference.
The University and College Union would not disclose the agreed paid packages at the colleges, but said that they had agreed packages of at least 6.5 per cent – which is equal to the pay uplift recommendation made by the AoC in September.
When it first announced the national strike, the UCU said it had already settled disputes at 15 additional colleges after staff got offered pay rises of up to 8.5 per cent.
The UCU initially balloted 89 colleges for strike action this term, and 14 voted at the time to settle their disputes. Ballots at 43 colleges meanwhile failed to hit the 50 per cent turnout threshold required by law.
Meanwhile, responding to the strikes, Virginia Barrett, principal at Farnborough College of Technology, said she was “befuddled by this national slur on the college’s reputation”.
In an open letter to college staff, she said Farnborough College had made “significant efforts to reward staff above annual inflationary rates and above national recommendations from AoC’s negotiations with UCU”. In 2022/23, she claimed that the college had increased pay by 10 per cent, above the national inflation rate of 9.07 per cent.
She also said it had paid an “exceptional bonus” after it retained its outstanding Ofsted rating, and to support staff through the cost-of-living crisis. On top of that she said it was “amongst few colleges” to introduce the real living wage in 2021/22. Staff at the college are set to strike next week.
Last month, Jo Grady, general secretary at the UCU – who is running for reelection – called on all other colleges to “make staff a meaningful offer”.
“Any that refuse will be hit with strike action,” she said.
An adult education budget procurement bid from a major group of training providers was “unlawfully” downgraded by mysterious “non-evaluators”, it has been alleged.
New court documents filed by Learning Curve Group (LCG) and seven of its subsidiary training companies bring new allegations to light in their battle for damages and a re-run of the government’s latest £75 million AEB tender.
This latest twist comes as LCG this week refiled its claims against the Education and Skills Funding Agency following sight of voluntary disclosure material from the agency.
Learning Curve Group launched its High Court legal challenge in August. They were one of several high-profile providers not to secure a contract in the ESFA’s latest national adult education budget procurement.
The case rests on a row over Learning Curve’s Q1B1 submission – a template for bidders’ mobilisation and delivery plan which the DfE said should have included forecasts for training courses and learner numbers. A strict two-page limit was in place on the template, and bidders needed to score of at least 75 (good) to be considered.
Learner volume forecasts were also required in a separate volumes template.
Under the procurement guidance, technical questions like Q1B1 are marked by two individual evaluators. Their scores are then reviewed by a moderator who brings the two evaluators together to agree on “consensus scores” for each question.
Department for Education lawyers argued that Learning Curve’s providers did not list the number of forecasted learners for each course, so they received a score of 50 for Q1B1, the DfE said.
Learning Curve claimed its response satisfied the criteria for a higher score and now say voluntary disclosure documents show the Agency’s procurement evaluators scored their Q1B1 submission as ‘very good’ – a score of 100.
LCG’s new claim suggests that not only did they score above the required threshold to be considered for a contract, but the final score they were awarded was actually determined by “non-evaluators,” therefore not following the consensus process, published criteria or evaluator guidance.
“The voluntary disclosure shows that the scores awarded to the claimants’ [LCG et al] responses to Q1B1 were not determined by the evaluators … The non-evaluators did not apply the published award criteria or the Defendant’s [ESFA’s] evaluator guidance,” an amended particulars of claim reads.
The voluntary disclosure documents also allege that the ESFA evaluated Q1B1 responses from different bidders “on an inconsistent and unequal basis.”
Defence documents filed by DfE lawyers last month denied LCG’s claim that a “reasonably well-informed and normally diligent tenderer” would evaluate Q1B1 alongside the volumes template, indicating that evaluators would not cross-reference between the two.
Following voluntary disclosure, LCG now alleges they’ve seen some cases where agency evaluators did factor in the volumes template.
“The voluntary disclosure shows that the defendant [ESFA] evaluate different bidders’ responses to Q1B1 on an inconsistent and unequal basis … the voluntary disclosure shows in evaluating some bidders’ responses the defendant did have regard to the volumes template,” LCG’s revised claim states.
LCG was not the only training provider to challenge their unsuccessful procurement outcome.
Last month FE Week reported that Portland Training was awarded a £2.5 million AEB contract following an appeal.
A further defence from the DfE is expected next month.
Forty colleges will receive a slice of the government’s £165 million local skills improvement fund.
Grants ranging from £2.4 million to £10 million have been announced to fund new facilities and the development of new courses to meet skills needs identified in new local skills improvement plans (LSIP).
Bids were headed up by a lead college, but had to be supported by other local providers and have the endorsement of the employer representative body, in most cases a chamber of commerce.
The fund is split across two financial years; £80 million was made available for this financial year, split equally between revenue and capital. In 2024-25, £85 million is for capital only.
Bidding opened in May after first being proposed in the FE white paper in January 2021.
DfE approved the largest chunk of funding for Solihull College and University Centre and 19 neighbouring colleges, IoTs and universities. Backed by Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce, £10.3 million has been awarded to address local skills needs in engineering and manufacturing, green construction and digital.
Wigan and Leigh College and 18 Greater Manchester delivery partners won £8.5 million for projects boosting local skills provision in construction, digital, health and social care, engineering and manufacturing and green skills.
The green skills agenda features across the winning projects.
For example, MidKent College in Kent will use some of its £5 million to build a new training facility for courses teaching retrofit energy efficiency measures, and renewable and sustainable energy solutions.
The new courses will cover a range of areas including thermal imaging, aerial survey and mapping and will utilise virtual reality capabilities to develop simulated engineering challenges, construction processes and techniques, supporting people to gain the skills needed to launch green careers.
Simon Cook, principal and chief executive at MidKent College said: “We’re thrilled that construction and building services businesses across Kent & Medway will benefit from this investment in retrofit technology and training.
“We know from our conversations with employers that growing skills for sustainable construction practices and improving the energy efficiency of existing housing stock are priorities for the sector here in the Southeast.”
“We’re incredibly proud that this new facility will work seamlessly with our Home Energy Centre and Sustainable Construction Skills Factory at the heart of our Maidstone campus, and alongside our own efforts to make the campus carbon neutral by 2030.”
Secretary of state for education Gillian Keegan said: “This investment is about boosting local industries, building people’s skills and ultimately future-proofing our economy and the career prospects of the next generation.”
She added: “Our local skills projects will bring together regional organisations, businesses and education providers to respond to the specific needs of employers, building an increasingly skilled workforce and growing local economies.”
Lee Owston has been named as the next national director for education at Ofsted.
The current deputy director for schools and education will take over when Chris Russell retires at the end of the year.
FE Weekreported in September that Russell would retire after 17 years at Ofsted, and two in the national director role.
Owston, who has worked at the watchdog since 2013, temporarily served as national director of education for “several months” earlier this year, Ofsted said.
Since joining the inspectorate as an HMI, he has taken on several roles in the organisation, including as deputy director of schools inspection improvement.
Owston previously worked in senior leadership positions in schools and was a senior adviser for early education and primary schools for a local authority.
He was also a regional director for now defunct education programme The National Strategies, where he contributed to publications on English, phonics and assessment.
Chief inspector Amanda Spielman congratulated Owston, adding that: “I know that this will be a smooth transition given his extensive experience.
“I also want to thank Chris Russell for his substantial contributions in his time at Ofsted, as national director, education, in his leadership of the post-lockdown inspection restart programme, as a regional director and as an inspector.”
The move comes at a time of upheaval for Ofsted, with Spielman also set to leave at the end of the year.
Sir Martyn Oliver has been confirmed as her successor.
College principal Alun Francis has been appointed as the permanent chair of the government’s Social Mobility Commission.
Francis, who leads Blackpool and the Fylde College, was named deputy chair of the commission in October 2021 and stepped in as interim chair at the start of this year after Britain’s so-called “strictest headteacher” Katharine Birbalsingh from Michaela Community School in London quit.
Francis has been a notable figure in FE, having led Oldham College as principal since 2010, and then moving to head up Blackpool and the Fylde College this year.
He was also made an OBE in the Queen’s New Year 2021 Honours for his services to education.
The Social Mobility Commission is an advisory non-departmental body, sponsored by the Cabinet Office’s Equality Hub, which seeks to “create a country where the circumstances of someone’s birth do not determine their outcomes in life,” according to its website.
The role of chair pays £350 per day and its holder is required to work up to six days a month.
Francis’s appointment was approved minister for women and equalities Kemi Badenoch after a hearing conducted by the women and equalities select committee.
“I am pleased that Alun has now had his position confirmed and can continue with his important work as chair of the commission,” Badenoch said.
“The experience, knowledge and expertise he has gained through his work in education, as well as in the positions he has held at the Social Mobility Commission, will be vital to his work at the SMC as a champion of social mobility across the UK.”
Resham Kotecha and Rob Wilson will now serve as deputy chair on an interim job share basis.
Both Kotecha and Wilson have been working as commissioners at the non-departmental body since September 2022.
Kotecha is currently global head of policy at the Open Data Institute and is on the Government’s Smart Data Council. Wilson is a former MP and is chair of national wheelchair sports charity WheelPower.
Women and girls, including those who may not identify as female but as transgender or non-binary, are on average missing 20 days of education over the course of their college years due to their periods. The equivalent of four academic weeks, this is actually worse than before period equality schemes were put in force.
Our newest piece of research on the subject – the latest instalment in the longest-running research into educational absenteeism and periods in the UK – reveals that the key challenge is no longer one of availability but of access.
It’s without debate that significant progress has been made in making menstrual products more accessible by funding free access to them. In England alone, 99 per cent of secondary schools have ordered their quota of products since the scheme began. But our new statistics highlight issues getting products to girls and keeping girls in lessons.
The reasons for this vary – but a compelling argument can be made that it’s because over half of students (54 per cent) did not find period products freely available in washrooms and a further one in ten did not know if they were available. We need to close this gap between providing colleges with all the products they need and getting them into the hands of the learners who need them.
As providers of these products to colleges, we know from our own data that they have more than enough for their girls. DfE data also shows that colleges are ordering the products. However, the products might not be reaching learners because they are not easily accessible. Well-meaning teams may not realise that limiting access to products effectively stigmatises learners who are forced to ask for them.
We know that in many settings products are being locked away in cupboards. We also know that many girls are too embarrassed to ask for them. This is where we need to take action, ensuring everyone can access the products they need when they need them.
Limiting access to products effectively stigmatises learners
More than half of girls surveyed (52 per cent) are still taking time off college due to their monthly cycle. Worryingly, the number of students who say they are likely to miss college over the next year due to their periods has soared to more than half (52 per cent).
To avoid any disruption to learning caused by periods, it is key to the success of this initiative for girls to be able to access products exactly when and where they need them in a stigma-free way. But beyond that, the most important thing we can do to make a tangible difference is to have open conversations and actively promote the period equality schemes that are available in colleges across the country.
It’s simply not enough to blame absenteeism figures on access to products alone. All of us including educators need more education, support and information about periods. That menstruation is still a hidden and unspoken reality for so many is leading to more and more girls to stay away from the classroom. An inclusive ethos demands that we do better for them.
To support this, we have recently launched a podcast, The Blobcast: Free the Period. It comes with resources for educators to give everyone more knowledge about their periods and to instigate open and honest conversations around menstruation. More than that, it tackles these issues in a light-hearted way – an important part of reducing stigma, normalising these conversations and thereby tackling the ongoing taboos around periods.
I am incredibly proud of our work to highlight the issues faced by millions of girls. We remain as passionate and committed as ever to work with governments, local and educators to deploy the necessary measures to ensure that period inequality becomes a thing of the past.
Women and girls cannow access free period products that will ensure their education is uninterrupted. Together, it’s on us to ensure they do. And that’s as much about education as it is about availability.
Derwen College is a further education college with a difference. We’re not just a leading specialist college with big ambitions for our students; we’re also somewhere where the local community visits to shop, eat and even enjoy an overnight stay.
This forward-thinking college for students with a wide variety of special educational needs and disabilities has very few traditional classrooms. Instead, skills are learned and honed in an industry-standard environment, our Marketplace – a complex of shops and eateries which are open to the public seven days a week.
The Marketplace offers learners internal work experience in meaningful, real-life, customer-facing environments. This includes our on-site Orangery Restaurant, Walled Garden Café, garden centre and gift shop, a mini hotel, and a shop, The Vintage Advantage.
This unique setting encapsulates our core ethos of raising learner aspirations. We support students to develop their independence and work-ready skills to progress and contribute to their local community.
For those on study programmes, we offer four different pathways: horticulture, hospitality and food, retail and enterprise, and performing arts. Our students begin their journey learning core skills within their vocational area before progressing to the Marketplace provision to consolidate and further develop their vocational skills.
Our garden centre shop provides work experience for our retail and enterprise students. We sell a range of produce made by our students in hospitality and food such as jams, chutneys, sandwiches, cakes and breads. Outside, we sell an array of plants and flowers at very reasonable prices that our horticulture students have grown, maintained and cared for.
Our Orangery Restaurant and Walled Garden Café are very busy establishments within the week and at weekends. They offer our learners experience of serving customers, working in the kitchen area and back of house. You will also find an abundance of hand-made cakes in the Walled Garden Café, again made by our students.
Our complex of shops and eateries is open to the public seven days a week
Our newest Marketplace venture is our first ever charity shop, The Vintage Advantage. It was opened in 2020 and is a big draw to local shoppers seeking a pre-loved bargain. The Vintage Advantage supports retail and enterprise students to develop their shop skills, including pricing items, stock rotation, visual merchandising and sorting donations.
All of our facilities enable learners to provide a meaningful service to the local community and gain work-based learning opportunities in a real-life setting. We have fantastic support locally and it’s great for our learners to feel part of that community while at college. Customers experience service that is beyond industry standard norms.
Once our learners have gained skills and confidence within our internal work experience placements, they progress into external work experience at the point that is right for them. We have great support for this model from national and local businesses, including Premier Inn, Spar, Co-op, and a range of local shops, cafés, pubs and restaurants.
Earlier this month I was proud to host our graduation ceremony for 2023 leavers. Seeing each student’s journey from when they started at college through to graduating with qualifications, experience and skills in the sector they wish to work in is the best part of my job. We are helping to break down barriers to employment that young people with SEND so often face.
Derwen College is special because where others see a barrier, we see an opportunity. We were recognised at the 2023 nasen Awards, scooping FE Provision of the Year. An amazing achievement for our dedicated team. We strive to support each young person to contribute to society in a positive and purposeful way. We believe that our ethos and popular Marketplace make us unique.
Every college is different and not everyone is necessarily able to host a dedicated Marketplace like ours. However, real-world learning in a customer-facing environment – through college-led enterprises or partnerships with businesses – are possible anywhere. They not only offer vital employment preparation for learners but also a very effective tool to challenge the perceptions that so often hold them back.
Pop in for lunch or a shopping spree. Come stay a night at Hotel 751. I promise it’ll challenge your perceptions of what is possible at your college too.
As I stood at Leeds City College and listened to CEO Colin Booth reflect on my work as chair of Luminate, I felt both deeply embarrassed and pained.
Embarrassed as I’m used to making these tributes for others, and pained as I have had such a long association with West Yorkshire FE and it has been an honour to lead, and hold the confidence of the board, for so many years as chair.
Standing down now is a decision I can thank my past self for: in 2021 I made a speech in which I said chairs should consider eight or nine years a reasonable limit for their tenure. And so, as 2023 and my ninth year at Luminate came into view late last year, I knew it was time for the organisation to continue to move forward without me.
Do I regret making that comment? While I’ll dearly miss everyone, no. I believe that boards need to be refreshed, and new members need to have the chance to progress to vice chair and chair positions. It’s almost about doing yourself out of a job: getting to the point when there is such strength in depth among governors and the executive team means leaving on a high, having played a small part in the journey of an institution that has the lives of many at its heart.
Of course, I’m not stepping away from the FE sector. I remain in post as the chair of the Association of Colleges. In this role, I feel there’s a lot more that can be achieved. As the AoC annual conference approaches, I’ve been reflecting hard on the role FE governance must play – not only in the sector, but across society as whole.
We know that the quality of governance inside our colleges is crucial to the success of our students and our country. From student success and accountability to financial stability and long-term planning, governors and chairs make a real difference to the organisations they serve. Chairs, specifically, are responsible for building trust, mastering conflict, achieving commitment, embracing accountability and ensuring that the board focuses on delivering results and improving the outcomes of learners.
Quality of governance is crucial to students and our country
And as we look ahead to a general election next year (on Halloween, if reports are to be believed), I have three requests of our governing bodies.
First, work more closely with the education eco-system, particularly universities. Reach out to your local universities and build alliances. They are major employers and increasingly looking to their role as entrepreneurial institutions to help economic regeneration, growth and productivity with local and regional footprints. There are opportunities for alliances on educational progression, job opportunities for students, T Level placements, apprenticeships, mentoring and coaching of staff, research, and development.
Second, be opportunistic in the run up the general election. With skills and FE the talk of the political party conferences this year, this is a fantastic time for the sector to work together with one voice. Why not consider playing your part in our ‘extended team’ for AoC’s campaigning and influencing on behalf of the sector. Engage your local councillors, MPs and their staff. Keep abreast of the communications from AoC and weave the key messages into your local communications and when they visit your colleges.
And third, be place leaders and shapers. As system leaders networked with local/mayoral authorities, employers, partners, stakeholders, schools and local communities, you can deploy these connections to best effect across a disconnected education landscape which has been hard-wired to compete. This puts you in a unique place to foster and nurture collaboration to deliver improved outcomes for learners at your college and across your communities.
Finally, if I may, I have a request of the rest of the FE sector too: please recognise your governors for their dedication and hard work in your colleges. They are under-appreciated, under-valued and often misunderstood – barely receiving a mention in Ofsted reports. And yet, they are incredibly accountable for our organisations and vital to our successes.
Corndel have vast experience of working with industry to deliver transformative apprenticeships and focus on addressing some of the most pressing skills gaps in UK business today, having delivered training for 20,000 learners. With the launch of Corndel College London (CCL), we’re spearheading a new era of higher education. But we can’t disrupt the sector alone.
CCL embodies the opportunity afforded by building a higher education organisation from scratch, free from the constraints and burdens of traditional structures. By aligning industry demands with higher education, we will deliver better outcomes for students and employers alike.
Our long-standing relationships with FTSE 100 clients from BP to BUPA has allowed CCL to develop outstanding apprenticeship degree programmes that focus on management, data and tech, in order to deliver the skills that industry needs. These qualifications will instil employees with the knowledge that will help companies thrive, as well as the skills that will shape individuals’ careers.
Understandably, there is growing student and parent desire for a tangible return on investment in education. Our Workplace Training Report shows 79 per cent of 16-to-25s believe degree apprenticeships will become increasingly popular, and not just because students can earn while they learn. Students are seeking options that provide academic knowledge but also practical skills and direct pathways to employment.
Degree apprenticeships offer practical in-job training with increased employment opportunities – a social mobitlity win and a win for the economy. Recent policy announcements of plans to look at degree programmes going forward show government have no missed this fact. The Prime Minister’s campaign to ‘crack down’ on poor value degrees, mentioned in this week’s state opening of parliament, comes with a boost for apprenticeships and a cut in the red tape needed to register for one.
Our goal is to redefine higher education, but we can’t do it alone
Visa’s decision to place a number of its early talent employees on our BSc (Hons) Applied Business Management degree apprenticeship programme is a great example of the value apprenticeship degrees offer and the business community’s faith in them.
We’ll be involving employers at an early stage in the design of our courses, asking them what they are trying to achieve in their businesses, what they are looking for in future graduates and what their pain points and friction points are. We then use this information to create courses that meet the needs of students and their future employers alike. Our goal is to guarantee a trajectory that leads to career success and fulfilment.
Another strategy that has proven successful in our apprenticeship programmes is the incorporation of coaching from industry experts. This personalised approach allows apprentices to integrate industry requirements with their own purpose, desires, skill sets and personal development. By providing guidance from experienced professionals, we empower apprentices to excel in their chosen fields and stand out as exceptional candidates.
The coaching from tutors who have industry experience helps learners to reflect on their learning and to grow personally and professionally, with our coaches combining industry qualification with higher education expertise. This coaching benefits employers, too, as they get to understand how employees are progressing professionally. Line managers get the opportunity to have coaching conversations with the learners, which can help them to develop skills and knowledge themselves.
Our ultimate goal is to redefine the higher education landscape, but we can’t do it alone. In every locality, there are businesses big and small looking to capitalise on this potential, and further education providers are key to meeting their needs. Not only do they understand the qualifications, but they already work with the young people who are most likely to benefit from this new and important pathway to good employment and a strong career. Employers want degree apprentices now, but they also want a secure pipeline of talent for the future, and that talent is in our colleges.
The goal is nothing less than to shift the focus from delivering a generic experience to providing tailored education that meets the specific needs of students and employers. Our initial portfolio of degree apprenticeships is the first step in achieving this vision. We already know we will expand our offer. Colleges should seize the opportunity to join us.
