Teachers in 23 sixth form colleges who are members of the NASUWT union have voted for strike action – in a ballot that “confusingly” included academised sixth forms.
The union is also controversially refusing to reveal the names of the colleges that have voted to strike.
It comes a week after members of the National Education Union called off their proposed further strikes, having already hit the picket lines for eight days, after deciding to consult on a pay deal of 4.3 per cent for 2024/25 put forward by the Sixth Form Colleges Association (SFCA).
The disputes stem from ministers’ decision last summer to hand schools and sixth form colleges that have converted to academy status a slice of £1.2 billion to help cover a 5.5 per cent salary boost for teachers.
The funding was not extended to the 40 sixth form colleges that have decided to not academise. It meant there would be an unequal pay rise for standalone sixth form college teachers and their colleagues who work in academised sixth form colleges in 2024/25.
The SFCA secured an extra £50 million from government in December to be released this academic year, following threat of a judicial review, to help fund pay rises in standalone sixth form colleges. This increased their pay offer from 2 per cent to 4.3 per cent.
NASUWT launched its strike ballot in January. The union’s general secretary Patrick Roach (pictured) claimed at the time that standalone sixth form college employers have spent the past months “advancing spurious arguments to justify not passing on an acceptable pay award to their teachers”.
Despite the fact that academised sixth form colleges were already implementing a 5.5 per cent pay rise for their teachers for the full 2024/25 academic year, NASUWT also balloted academised sixth form colleges.
It is not clear why the union chose to do this.
A press release from the union stated: “As a result of the NASUWT’s decision to ballot members working in sixth form college academies, the employers have confirmed that a 5.5 per cent pay award backdated to September 2024 will now be paid to all teachers. Once the pay awards are implemented, the NASUWT’s disputes in individual sixth form college academies will be resolved.”
A ‘confusing and disappointing move’
The union claimed that 23 sixth form colleges voted in support of strike action and/or action short of strike action, with a turnout of 56 per cent.
Bill Watkin, chief executive of the SFCA, said this is a “confusing and disappointing move from NASUWT”.
He told FE Week: “They appear to have balloted members in 16 to 19 academies even though teachers in these institutions will receive the 5.5 per cent pay award NASUWT is seeking.
“They have not provided a list of the 23 institutions that have voted in support of strike action so we are unclear if any are 16 to 19 academies and will therefore not be affected but it appears that teachers voted not to strike in nearly three quarters of the institutions balloted. And they have completely ignored the role of the government in this dispute.
“Sixth form colleges cannot make the same pay award as 16 to 19 academies unless they receive the same funding to support a pay award. Rather than penalising students that have already experienced eight days of disruption as a result of this dispute, NASUWT should be working with us to secure the additional funding required from the government. This is a divisive and poorly timed development given that sixth form colleges are in the process of implementing the pay offer for 2024/25.”
Roach said: “All sixth form college employers have the flexibility to use their existing funds, reserves and additional funding allocations due in April this year to deliver the 5.5 per cent backdated award in full. There is simply no excuse and no justification for any teacher to be denied a fair and equitable pay award.
“We are today giving notice to college employers that they can avoid industrial action where they agree to provide teachers with the 5.5 per cent backdated pay award to which they are entitled.”
New laws abolishing the government’s technical education quango and handing ministers power over the approval of apprenticeships have cleared the House of Lords.
The Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (Transfer of Functions) Bill passed its third reading in the House of Lords this afternoon, meaning it now goes to the House of Commons before becoming law.
Opposition MPs are expected to challenge the government’s approach to the independence of Skills England, and new powers given to ministers to approve apprenticeship standards and assessment plans.
Opposition Lords successfully amended the bill to delay the closure of IfATE. The government’s plan was for the bill to come into force, and therefore abolish IfATE, at a time of the secretary of state’s choosing.
However, Conservative shadow education minister Baroness Barran and crossbench peer Baroness Alison Wolf successfully passed amendment that would delay the bill coming into force to one year after Skills England is created. Barran argued this was needed to give time for Skills England to focus on its more strategic objectives without being “swamped” by IfATE’s more technical responsibilities.
It is likely the government will use their majority in the House of Commons to change the bill back to how it was.
Baroness Barran
Speaking in the House of Lords this afternoon, Barran said: “We hope very much that the government will think hard about our amendment to delay the abolition of IfATE to give Skills England the time to set itself up for success, and that the bill will be accepted in its current form in the other place [the House of Commons] so that, in the nicest possible way, we don’t see the bill again in your Lordships house.”
No delay to Skills England
Skills minister Baroness Jacqui Smith said she would “engage” with Lords about their concerns on the delay.
She said: “I must be clear that delay which this house has considered would create additional uncertainty for employers and learners and for IfATE staff, undermining the ongoing preparation for their transfer [to Skills England].
“Crucially, a delay to the full formation of Skills England would limit progress on tackling skills gaps to drive growth and promote opportunity, and this is my prime concern.”
Smith amended the bill herself last week to reassure peers concerned over the use of powers given to the secretary of state to unilaterally approve standards and apprenticeship assessment plans.
The bill was formally introduced in the House of Commons yesterday and will have its first debate among MPs on Tuesday, February 25.
The ability to communicate in the most commonly-used language where you live and the ability to understand quantities and use numbers are vital skills for life.
In other words, English (here in the UK) and maths.
Stephen Evans and I agree, emphatically on this (as we do on many other things).
Equally emphatically – no. And I’m delighted that the government has started to change this, initially, as announced this week, by removing the requirement for apprentices aged 19 or above.
Five key reasons why:
1) Written tests, however ‘functional’ in intent, are a crude method for assessing real-world language and numeracy capabilities. They are, after all, only functional when used and evidenced in the real world, outside of a test centre and away from a test paper (by the way, I am as sceptical about English and maths GCSEs as markers of competence as I am about functional skills exams)
2) Truly functional skills are best included in their respective standard: if you can’t calculate how many bricks you need, how much hair dye to mix or understand the dispensing instructions on a medicine then you won’t be a competent bricklayer, hairdresser or care professional; should Skills England check and strengthen these in all standards? Absolutely.
3) If English and maths qualifications (as opposed to the skills themselves) were so essential, then we should insist on all other qualifications having them as an exit requirement as well. Why is it only apprenticeships? A-levels, T Levels, even PhDs do not need them as standard – is that because we assume people already have English and maths? Or do we (despite our best protestations) still ultimately cling to a belief that academic qualifications are still ‘best’ and that vocationally competent apprentices should nonetheless have to do something academic as well?
4) Perhaps in an ideal world, in which there was lots of spare money and tonnes of teachers available, we would insist on everyone getting not just their apprenticeship but English and maths too. We are not in an ideal world though, and at the moment, where the choice is between having no apprenticeship and no functional skills or having an apprenticeship and no functional skills, I choose the second of these. In this choice, the person has a job, even a career, is motivated and is almost certainly accruing English and maths skills as a by-product of all the other benefits. The other alternative means they have none of these things (but we have maintained our academic standards!)
5) If you have struggled with English and/or maths for 11 years at school, then it is likely that you don’t have the full range of pathways ahead of you. Certainly, there will be plenty of people lining up to tell you how difficult you are going to find it. So how cruel is it that, just at the point when you are finding your vocation in life and where formal English and maths qualifications, for the first time, don’t matter so much – people then deliberately insist on you having to stick with the very source of your classroom misery, formal English and Maths? No wonder it is putting off learners and employers from apprenticeships in their droves.
Finally, English and maths are vital skills that all should have. But they are not the only ones: empathy, problem solving, conceptualising and clarifying instructions, self-awareness, self-evaluation, digital skills and many others are just as important. I would like to see us collectively engage on how we best inculcate these essential skills for life (the strapline of National Apprenticeship Week, after all) as much as I would like to see us hone our approach to language and numeracy skills. The government has been really sensible in this first step, and – as the overwhelming reactions to my posts about this on social media suggest – will have made a massive difference to the life chances of thousands.
Functional skills within apprenticeships are one of the most talked about issues for DfE to consider and after much debate, the government has finally announced that functional skills will no longer be a requirement for apprentices over 19. While we await further details, it’s important that we bear in mind just how important functional skills are, not just for apprenticeships but for community and ‘growth’.
Employers need workers with strong literacy and numeracy skills for tasks like administration, communication, problem-solving and financial management. In an increasingly data driven world we need to understand what data is telling us but also be able to present it effectively and imaginatively. A skilled multi-faceted workforce boosts productivity and innovation, driving economic growth whilst low literacy and numeracy levels contribute to unemployment and lower wages for individuals with fewer chances for advancement.
Good literacy skills help individuals access and understand information, improving learning and societal outcomes, whilst numeracy is essential for managing finances, budgeting, and making informed decisions on credit, mortgages and student loans.
We know there are gaps in literacy and numeracy attainment that contribute to inequality across different groups. Education is the leveller in this, creating opportunities for personal and community advancement and affecting other areas of life such as positive health and actions.
Within our daily lives literacy is needed for reading medical instructions, legal documents, and public information. Numeracy helps us with understanding bills, calculating discounts, and managing time effectively. We know that poor literacy and numeracy can lead to financial struggles, health risks, and difficulty accessing services.
Studies show a strong link between low literacy levels and crime whilst improving literacy and numeracy can help prevent reoffending by offering the chance for education with a hope of leading to employment. The new prisons minister, James Timpson understands this, and Open Awards was pleased to advocate for apprenticeships beginning in prisons alongside education programmes focusing on functional skills to seek to rehabilitate offenders.
Within England 18 per cent of adults have “very poor literacy skills” and government data indicates 49 per cent have numeracy skills at or below primary school children. Whilst we’ve seen an increase in attainment of children, we still have a task ahead with adults, an issue that stubbornly continues and under the proposed reforms is unlikely to improve. Functional Skills with their practical approach play an important role in addressing this. More investment is needed to encourage their uptake within employers, communities and individuals.
Indeed, the 2004 Leitch review of skills recommended that 95 per cent of adults achieve functional literacy and numeracy, highlighting the shared responsibility among individuals, employers, and the government in achieving this.
Functional skills are crucial in improving literacy and numeracy because they provide practical, real-world applications of English and Maths, helping develop essential life and workplace skills. They help people read and understand bills, contracts, and medical information, manage finances, calculate budgets, and understand interest rates. Importantly they enable communications in work and social settings.
Functional skills qualifications focus on problem-solving and critical thinking rather than just academic knowledge and serve as an alternative to GCSEs, helping people who struggled with traditional exams gain qualifications. Key industries like healthcare, construction, and retail require strong literacy and numeracy for tasks like report writing, safety procedures, and financial transactions. They provide a second chance for those who didn’t achieve a pass in GCSEs. Importantly, universities and colleges accept them as equivalent to GCSEs for certain courses.
Functional skills qualifications allow individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds or with English as a second language to improve their prospects, promoting inclusivity, especially for those with learning difficulties or alternative learning styles. Improving confidence in people’s literacy and numeracy empowers them to engage more in society, whether in civic duties, parenting, or managing personal affairs.
Let’s celebrate functional skills for their breadth and practical applications – and focus on how they best support apprenticeships, education and employment.
I can understand why many will welcome the government’s changes to reduce the minimum duration of apprenticeships from 12 to 8 months and remove the requirements for adult apprentices to pass functional English and maths qualifications to complete their apprenticeship.
It’s clear that some current apprentices don’t need the full 12 months to do their apprenticeship and that some employers are filtering out apprenticeship applicants who don’t already have functional skills. So these changes will better match people’s needs and open up opportunity more widely, right?
Wrong. England is already an outlier compared to apprenticeships in many other countries. Our apprenticeships are shorter than best practice countries like Germany, where they typically last two, three or four years. And they have less general education like English and maths. The OECD pointed out that general education in apprenticeships in England is limited to functional skills courses typically lasting around 100 hours in total. That compares to 400 hours in Switzerland, around 480 hours in Germany, and 588 hours in Norway.
So apprentices in England are getting at most one quarter of the general education of apprentices in other leading countries, and even this requirement is now going to be removed for apprentices aged 19 and over.
But the government’s kept the English and maths requirements for apprentices aged under 19, so isn’t that fine? No. One in five adults in England has low literacy or numeracy. This is woeful. It holds back people’s career prospects and their ability to access public services. And these skills are only going to become more important over time.
A recent OECD survey found that young people’s English and maths had improved over the last decade, the result in part of policy efforts to change this such as the condition of funding rule in further education. But adults’ scores had gone backwards, the product of reduced focus as government austerity led to a 63 per cent fall in adults completing English and maths qualifications.
With 80 per cent of our 2035 workforce having already left compulsory education, and the bar of skills required for life and work rising, we need a renewed focused on these fundamentals for all. Not to take a step backwards.
The net result of these changes will likely be more people completing apprenticeships than would otherwise have done so. But those apprenticeships will be of lower quality than they could’ve been and prepare them less well for their future careers.
That is not a trade-off we need to make. If something is important but not working, the answer surely is to fix it, not just give up on it.
We need investment to test new ways to help apprentices succeed in English and maths, a focus on building these skills into occupational learning so people can see the relevance, and to reflect the extra time that this all takes in funding and support for employers.
We also need to be clear about what an apprenticeship is and what it isn’t. It is meant to be a job with substantial training and about your future career not just your current job. In trying to make everything an apprenticeship, in part because people recognise the brand, in part because large employers wanted to recoup as much of their levy payments as possible, the last Government lost its way somewhat.
This Government has a chance to change that, with a more flexible Growth and Skills Levy allowing valuable training that’s not an apprenticeship to be funded and focusing apprenticeships on what they’re meant to be about.
These changes take us in the wrong direction. And they won’t ultimately benefit apprentices or employers. Lowering standards only gives the false illusion of raising opportunity.
A tech industry leader and a former Department for Education (DfE) permanent secretary have been selected to lead Skills England.
Labour’s flagship new skills agency will be chaired by Phil Smith who until last month was chair of semiconductor materials supplier IQE plc and was previously the chair of TechSkills.org, Innovate UK and Cisco, which he also led for over two decades as CEO.
Smith will be joined at the top of Skills England by Sir David Bell, the former Ofsted chief inspector and DfE permanent secretary, as vice chair.
Two job-sharing civil servants will take the reins as joint chief executives of Skills England.
Tessa Griffiths and Sarah Maclean, both currently directors for post-16 skills and strategy at the department, will take on the job and be joined by Greater Manchester Combined Authority’s skills director Gemma Marsh as their deputy CEO.
Labour set up Skills England in shadow form shortly after winning July’s general election. Once fully established, it will work across government to advise ministers on skills and funding policy, and work across government to co-ordinate strategy.
It has already absorbed the functions of the former Unit for Future Skills and published its first report on the country’s skills needs in September.
A bill currently going through parliament will abolish the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IfATE) and transfer its functions to the Department for Education.
Ministers have been criticised for establishing Skills England as an executive agency within the DfE, rather than as an independent statutory body.
Speaking in a Lords debate on the bill last week, skills minister Jacqui Smith said: “I assure noble Lords that we have borne in mind the necessity to have strong credibility with employers in choosing who the non-executive chair will be.
“Working with the board, the chair will provide the strong and independent leadership, support and challenge needed for Skills England to deliver its objectives.”
The rest of Skills England’s board have not yet been announced.
In the chair
Phil Smith will replace Richard Pennycook, who has led Skills England as interim chair since July.
Smith has a four-decade career in the technology industry, working at electronics companies such as Phillips Electronics and IBM.
Phil Smith
He is a former CEO and chair of software and network solutions company Cisco UK & Ireland, spending over 20 years with the company. He was later chair of Innovate UK for seven years and held chair roles at the Digital Skills Partnership Board, the Tech Partnership, and semiconductor supplier IQE PLC. He is currently chair of fintech brands Streeva and AppyWay.
Smith is also a keen triathlete, having competed twice in the International Triathlon Union world final, representing Great Britain.
He was awarded a CBE in 2019 for services to technology, business and skills.
Bell returns to DfE
Sir David Bell
David Bell has had an extensive career in education. He started out as a primary school teacher in Glasgow until moving to education roles within English councils in the 1990s. He also was an Ofsted inspector until becoming the chief inspector in 2002 and later permanent secretary in the Department for Education between 2006 and 2012.
He then moved to the University of Reading to become vice-chancellor and is currently vice-chancellor of the University of Sunderland.
Bell led an independent review in to the Education and Skills Funding Agency is 2022, which saw the agency stripped of its policy role to focus on funding.
Before the general election, Bell was commissioned by the Labour party to conduct a review into early years education provision. His findings called for a one-year strategy into early years, an increase to early years pupil premium and more regulation.
Chief executive trio
Tessa Griffiths and Sarah Maclean will jointly serve as CEO, while Gemma Marsh will serve as deputy CEO.
MacLean and Griffiths have been job sharing in government roles for almost two decades.
They’ve worked at the DfE for much of this time – including on A-levels, GCSEs and vocational education – but have also worked as directors of strategy and governance at the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
Their experience also includes three years as deputy directors in the Cabinet Office, working on “intergovernmental relations and devolution capability”.
In the early 2010s they worked on funding new free schools at the Education Funding Agency.
In a DfE blog posted in 2013, they said job sharing allowed them to take on “stretching, difficult roles” that would have been difficult to do part time.
They added: “Having someone at work on the days you are not there gives you a proper work-life balance and the opportunity to do a high-profile job at the same time.”
The pair were awarded CBEs for their work on services to education and the government’s covid response having worked as directors of UK strategy at Test and Trace from June to November 2020, and as “lead policy and delivery” for the DfE’s covid response measures for the following two years.
Skills England’s deputy CEO will be Gemma Marsh, currently the Greater Manchester Combined Authority’s director of education, work and skills.
She has been at the authority, one of the “trailblazers” in English devolution, since 2014.
But she also has experience in central government, after a two-year secondment to Downing Street in 2021, to advise the government on “local delivery” of policy.
The government has confirmed it will axe English and maths functional skills exit requirements for adult apprentices with immediate effect.
Ministers have also revealed that the minimum duration of apprenticeships will be shortened from 12 to eight months from the next academic year.
Education secretary Bridget Phillipson announced the major reforms today to mark National Apprenticeship Week, claiming that the changes slash red tape that will lead to a conservative estimate of 10,000 more apprentice completions a year.
FSQs out for adults but stay for 16-18s
As first revealed by FE Week last week, ministers will end the current requirement that apprentices aged 19 or older must pass level 2 functional skills courses to complete their apprenticeship.
The exit rule will be made optional for adults from today and can be applied to existing apprentices currently on-programme as well as new starters.
The DfE told FE Week that employers and providers will have until April 1, 2025 to “agree with their existing adult apprentices whether to continue or discontinue studying towards English and maths and will need to update their training plans accordingly”.
“We will be publishing updated funding rules shortly which set out more details regarding the policy change,” the department added.
There will be no change to the rule for 16 to 18 apprentices, who will still be required to pass level 2 functional skills exams to complete their apprenticeship.
Ministers have been warned by the Association of Employment and Learning Providers that not relaxing this exit requirement for young people risks making apprenticeships for this age group, which have plummeted over the past decade, even more “less attractive” to employers.
A DfE spokesperson said the change to English and maths rules for adult apprentices means “more learners can qualify in high demand sectors such as healthcare, social care and construction, helping to drove growth and meet government targets in key areas such as housebuilding”. They estimate this could mean “as many as 10,000 more apprentices per year will be able to complete their apprenticeship”.
The DfE added that this “does not mean that apprentices won’t be assessed on core English and maths skills relevant to their occupation, but it does mean that apprentices will be able to focus more on their paid work”.
Ben Rowland, chief executive of the AELP, said the functional skills exit requirement is “one of the biggest barriers providers, employers and apprentices face within the apprenticeship system, and has caused significant stress and missed opportunities for learners, meaning less progression and locking out many individuals from being able to access an apprenticeship opportunity”.
He added: “While good literacy and numeracy are important in work and life, it is right to remove this as an arbitrary requirement for adults.”
Jill Whittaker, co-founder and executive chair of hospitality apprenticeships provider HIT Training, told FE Week that removing the exit requirement for adults puts apprenticeships “on a level playing field with other post-16 programmes”.
However, she added that the sector must not “throw the baby out with the bathwater”. Providers must “continue to offer high quality English and maths support to those who want and need it”.
The department today revealed that the current 12-month minimum will be reduced to eight months from August 2025, but this is “subject to the legislative timetable”.
Three “trailblazer apprenticeships” in key shortage occupations will look to “pioneer” the new shorter apprenticeship approach, with apprentices in green energy, healthcare and film/TV production set to be able to take on these new courses, according to the DfE.
The three standards are: level 2 dual fuel smart meter installers, level 2 healthcare support workers, and level 3 production assistants- screen and audio.
The DfE added that one of Skills England’s first orders of business will be to identify which apprenticeships would be best served by the shorter duration approach.
Skills England, which had its leadership team announced today, will “prioritise key shortage occupations as per the industrial strategy, helping to boost growth under our Plan for Change”.
Phillipson said:“Businesses have been calling out for change to the apprenticeship system and these reforms show that we are listening. Our new offer of shorter apprenticeships and less red tape strikes the right balance between speed and quality, helping achieve our number one mission to grow the economy.”
Federation of Small Businesses executive director, Craig Beaumont,said the flexibilities announced today “should help SME employers fill skills gaps faster”.
John Lewis Partnership’s executive director of people, Jo Rackham, added:“Gaining GCSE maths and English qualifications can be a significant barrier to starting or completing one and we believe it will help more disadvantaged people, including those who leave the care system or those with learning disabilities, make a career for themselves.”
A London-based public relations training firm has received top grades in its first full Ofsted inspection.
In a glowing report by the watchdog published this morning, Public Relations Communications Association (PRCA) was awarded an ‘outstanding’ in all areas for its strong employer engagement and “exceptional” leadership.
The training arm of the PR professional membership body has been contracted to deliver level four public relations and communications assistant apprenticeships since September 2022.
At the time of its January 8 to 10 inspection, it had 31 adult apprentices enrolled, working at marketing companies and PR consultancies and agencies across England.
The “exceptional” leaders at the ITP provide “outstanding” education, training and support to apprentices, inspectors said.
According to the report, leaders have “enhanced” how they monitor apprenticeship provision since its monitoring visit in September 2023 and collaborate with board members and staff for a “secure oversight and implementation”.
The independent training provider has created three “useful” phases for apprentices to learn the fundamentals of public relations; from learning the PR tools and working with clients before learning how to pitch stories. Finally, they manage their own campaigns and understand crisis and regulation management.
“As a result, apprentices gradually build an in-depth knowledge of the PR industry and conduct activities professionally,” the report said.
This gradual learning comes from a “well-structured” training plan, developed by training coaches and employers with extensive experience and knowledge.
The report said coaches and employers work “extremely well” to thoroughly prepare apprentices for taking on new responsibilities at work.
Ofsted also praised the approach where apprentices shadow colleagues before holding client meetings by themselves so that they can feel confident.
Inspectors noted the “highly effective” techniques to teach the curriculum, which includes discussions, case studies and high-quality presentations.
One example asks apprentices to conduct mock phone calls to journalists which prepares them for doing this at work.
Apprentices are also given immediate developmental feedback in sessions and are guided through the content and structure of their assignments.
Ofsted inspectors commended apprentices for their “positive” attitudes to training and their “exceptional” personal development, confidence and resilience.
PRCA CEO Sarah Waddington said: “This outstanding rating is testament to the hard work and dedication of our team, our trainers, and our apprentices. I’m grateful to them all.
“Our apprenticeship programme is designed to provide industry-leading training that equips professionals with the skills and confidence to excel in PR, public affairs and communications. It provides an accessible pathway to the sector and aids social mobility, supporting one of the PRCA’s strategic goals of being inclusive by default.
“We are immensely proud of this achievement and remain committed to delivering excellence in apprenticeship education.”
Wigan & Leigh college principal Anna Dawe demonstrates how collaboration is power if regions are to fully harness the opportunities offered by devolution
Much of Anna Dawe’s further education career has been “coloured” by the idea that colleges compete against each other in a “highly competitive market”.
Years ago, she recalls colleges paying for adverts on the back of buses and around towns that boasted their achievement rate topped those of rivals.
But not these days.
She has just come off a call “chewing the cud” with eight fellow Greater Manchester principals. Dawe, chair of the group, describes their relationship as “supportive” and credits devolution for their “distinctly increased levels of collaboration”.
That wasn’t the case when she joined Wigan & Leigh College a decade ago. At the time, Greater Manchester was going through an area-review process, with the combined authority at loggerheads with colleges over merger proposals.
Arthur Wasse’s picture depicting Wigan’s female miners – the college, initially built for miners’ education, owns the painting
Wigan & Leigh was once a mining college. Dawe proudly shows me a painting displayed in the reception of the college’s main building of local pit brow lasses.
The college’s motto, “So out of darkness comes light”, reflects the image, and also Dawe’s own career path, during which she has helped lead successive colleges out of their darkest times.
Life in HE
She has done so with a willingness to buck national trends to meet community needs – doubling 16-to-18 apprenticeships provision at a time when others were pulling back, and currently fully embracing T Levels.
Dawe’s collaborative ethos extends to schools and HE partners too. Her college runs a 14-to-16 programme to get elective home educated teenagers re-familiarised with mainstream education, and she sits on the University of Manchester’s governing board.
I didn’t appreciate the skills required of a governor
Seeing things from the “other side of the fence” as a board member is hugely revealing, she says.
“Until I’d walked in the shoes of a governor, I didn’t have a full appreciation of the skills required. And you don’t know HE as well as you think until you’re there. It wakes you up that you’ve still so much learning to bring back to your own leadership.”
Wigan & Leigh’s history timeline that covers an entire wall with artefacts
Dawe chose to carve her career as a young law lecturer in FE rather than HE.
After studying law at the University of Central Lancashire in Preston, half an hour up the road from her hometown of Blackpool, she took a law master’s at Sheffield University “to put off making the decision about becoming a solicitor”.
Aged 22, she started teaching law at her university and GCSE law at Sheffield College. She preferred the FE classes.
“I’d come out of those classes with a real buzz,” she recalls. “You could see those learners grow in confidence and stature over the year.”
After beginning a PHD but growing “tired of academic work”, she opted to teach full-time at Calderdale College in Halifax, West Yorks.
Dawe was living in Merseyside with her two young children when she accepted a head of department role at Tameside College. Aged 32, in 2003, she became an assistant principal. She moved to Riverside College five years later to be closer to home.
Riverside had formed from a merger of Halton College and Widnes and Runcorn Sixth Form College two years earlier, so it had never been inspected. Seven months after she arrived, Ofsted rated it grade four.
“It was devastating to see the impact it had on colleagues,” Dawe says.
Anna Dawe speaking at an event
Darkest days
But the verdict was a catalyst for change. Mike Sheehan was brought in from grade one-Runshaw College in Leyland, Lancs, and what Dawe learned from him shaped her as a leader.
These were her “darkest days” and Dawe put “everything I could” into Riverside. But curiously, after the college had progressed on its turnaround journey (it was rated grade two in 2010, and again in 2015), she admits “boredom” set in.
“You spend years wanting a peaceful life, wanting the college to get where it should, and then you go, ‘is that it?’,” she says.
Relishing the prospect of a “new roller-coaster ride”, Dawe followed Sheehan to Wigan & Leigh College which had “fallen on hard times” in terms of finances and quality.
Ofsted inspectors arrived during her first week and bumped it from grade two to three. Dawe was “quite pleased” with the judgement which “could have been worse”.
She credits Sheehan for the “heavy lifting” needed for significant change. But after he decided to move on, it was not an obvious choice for her to step into his shoes.
Dawe “loved that closeness to the students” she gained from being involved in curriculum development as an assistant and then vice principal, and worried she would become bored as principal.
But she did not relish the prospect of a stranger stepping in and potentially derailing their improvement plans.
So the decision was made, and after working a stint as interim leader she applied for the post and “never looked back”.
Wigan & Leigh was given a grade two in 2016 which was a “good springboard for staff to know we were on the right trajectory”. More importantly for Dawe, the improvement was recognised by the local community.
The college had been “losing learners it should have had”, but as it “found its place again and began to do what it should be doing, they came back to their local college”.
Wigan & Leigh has since doubled its student numbers (to 4,100) and turnover from £25 million to £50 million.
Wigan & Leigh College on a sunny day in January
Apprenticeship growth
The college appeals to Dawe because it is “general FE in its richest sense”, providing 16 to 18, adult education, apprenticeships and higher education. She says she was determined to ensure that despite its financial challenges, the college should “sustain that breadth of work”.
That meant continuing to provide apprenticeships when they were judged ‘requires improvement’ while the rest of the college was graded ‘good’.
While common sense was telling her to close the apprenticeships division, which “would have been easier to maintain a healthy Ofsted grade”, she also knew “this borough thrives on apprenticeships”.
Dawe tells me apprenticeships were “almost seen as a side part of the college and not central” to it, but says: “It doesn’t matter whether 16 to 18 is the bulk of your funding. Every single learner is as important as the others.”
Wigan & Leigh initially shrank its 2,000 strong apprenticeships offer to focus on quality, then rebuilt it to 2,500 apprentices, increasing income from the schemes from £4.6 million in 2016 to £8.7 million this year. Its age 16 to 18 cohort has grown 47 per cent since 2021 during a period of decline nationally.
Wigan also bucks the trend for NEET (not in education, employment or training) numbers; the NEET ratio was 7 per cent in November for Wigan, compared to 10 per cent regionally and around 13 per cent nationally.
Dawe believes NEET trajectories would have been worse had BTECs not been given a defunding reprieve.
A loss of Wigan & Leigh’s BTEC in health and social care would have “halved the numbers overnight” of prospective health and social care workers “at a time when the NHS workforce plan requires them”, she says.
Anna Dawe with one of her patient mannequins
T Level trouble
Dawe ushers me into a health T Level workshop, where a row of mannequin ‘patients’ lie in hospital beds with seemingly anguished expressions. She grimaces, “convinced” that “one day, one of them will get up and walk to my office, like something from Doctor Who”.
The principal is a fan of T Levels, which have been “highly successful” at Wigan & Leigh; over 200 students are taking them. But she believes they are over-assessed compared to A-levels, “in some cases, asking for far too much”.
If a young person fails one A-level, they typically still “walk out” with two others, whereas with T Levels, “if you fail any part over two years, you fail the whole qualification”, she says.
In 2023-24 only 0.2 per cent of T Level entrants got the highest grade (distinction*). If that percentage of young people got A*s in A-levels, Dawe believes “there’d be a national outcry”.
She “fed this back” through government channels but was told “there has to be rigour” in T Levels. She retorts that as an educationalist, she is “all for rigour”, but “there’s a point at which you have to be pragmatic”.
Dawe sees T Levels as “the technical level three pathway” but over-assessment is “making it harder for young people who sometimes don’t have maths and English, and that was their pathway”.
She adds: “It’s taken the pathway from the very kids that level three technical education was meant for, and reshaped it into another pathway for someone who can do A-levels.”
Dawe would like to see “tweaks and changes” made to the qualification rather than a full-scale overhaul, and despairs that when a new curriculum is introduced in FE, it is not properly impact assessed.
“We tend to kind of just throw the baby out with the bathwater and bring something new in – it’s very difficult to keep a curriculum updated when the [structure] is permanently changing,” she says.
Anna Dawe in her office
Collaboration applauded
Dawe tells me the combined authority has worked with the college to secure T Level work placements from employers, which is an onerous task due to their duration.
For the first time in her FE career she is hearing a politician (mayor Andy Burnham) “stand up” and say that “technical education is as important [as academic]”.
And Dawe is proud that Wigan & Leigh got a mention in the recent devolution white paper, for its work with the combined authority and Kraft Heinz in applying “flexed AEB funding” to “address a productivity-limiting skills gap”.
The white paper says Greater Manchester identified AEB eligibility for 17,000 more residents enrolling on over 28,000 learning aims that “wouldn’t have been accessible under national eligibility”. Dawe credits devolution for enabling Wigan & Leigh to do “much more bespoke employer work”.
But it hasn’t all been plain sailing with the combined authority. Initially, discussions “presented quite a lot of challenges” because the college was used to seeing the AEB as its own – a case of “I’ll use it how I want, thank you”.
Devolution means the college can be “more creative” with AEB funding. Dawe and her fellow Greater Manchester principals “sit and talk” about how they are spending it, which never happened previously.
Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham
Burnham’s single pot
But there are plenty more changes in the pipeline.
Dawe says Wigan & Leigh will “absolutely” benefit from Burnham’s Greater Manchester Baccalaureate, or MBacc, offering school pupils a suite of technical subjects to better prepare them for FE and the workforce.
And Burnham will soon get his hands on a single consolidated budget, giving him the power to channel AEB funding into potentially vote-winning transport projects if he chooses.
Although Dawe does not see this as a threat, she does “worry” that much of the dialogue from Greater Manchester around skills is centred around 16 to 18 initiatives rather than adult education, which “just can’t take any more cuts”.
“It’s a great shame, because the value in FE is all its component parts,” she adds. “We focus on what seems to be the flavour of the day, and that’s never changed.”
