MOVERS AND SHAKERS: EDITION 401

Amanda Winnick

Area Director – East, Association of Colleges

Start date: August 2022

Previous job: T Level transition programme manager, Association of Colleges

Interesting fact: Amanda started her career in education as a 3D design lecturer at a college in Suffolk and rose through the ranks to become director of creative arts, digital and science industries, before joining the AoC to lead the T Level transition programme project last year.

Philip Cunniffe

Vice Principal, Learning and Enterprise College Bexley

Start date: September 2022

Previous job: Assistant Principal – Student Success, Lambeth College

Interesting fact: Philip’s love of dogs led him to train as a dog groomer at the weekends in 2019. Later that year he set up a dog grooming salon with his fiancé. The salon is staffed by a small but dedicated team of qualified dog groomers and is growing year by year!

Team UK jet off for special WorldSkills competition

Teams of the UK’s most talented young trades people are being dispatched all over the world from this week to compete in a highly anticipated special version of Worldskills. 

The competition will see 61 finals take place in 15 countries such as the USA, Japan and Germany with more than 1,000 competitors over the next two months.

The UK is fielding 35 team members who will vie for gold, silver and bronze medals in 29 different skills including cyber security, mechatronics, cooking and jewellery.

This year’s multi-country international skills event, being referred to as the “WorldSkills Competition 2022 Special Edition”, replaces the traditional biennial event usually held in one city, known as the “Skills Olympics”. WorldSkills was originally planned for October in Shanghai, China but was called off due to the pandemic. 

The competition will now take place in smaller events across the world, which kicked off in Stuttgart, Germany on October 4 and ends on November 26 in Salzburg, Austria.

The UK will be looking to improve on a 12th place finish at the 2019 international event in Kazan, Russia and climb back in to the top 10 medal table.

FE Week takes a look at some of the competitors representing the UK…

Kamil Zmich and Liam Whitby, both aged 24, will take on seven other countries this week in a bid to take home the top prize in the new Industry 4.0 category.  

Industry 4.0 is making its WorldSkills competition debut this year as a relatively new discipline. Described by Whitby as “digitising the modern world”, the category takes its name from “the fourth industrial revolution” and covers the rapid changes happening to technology.

As well as showing the judges how they can design and implement systems which look at huge organisational risks such as cyber security, they are also the people who can programme your smart kettle. 

Whitby said: “I am so ecstatic to have made it to Team UK and that all the hard work has paid off. I always want to be the best I can and to push myself and compete internationally is another opportunity for me to do just that.”

‘I enjoy the thrill and pressure of competing’

Zmich’s talent is evidenced by his medals, being one of the UK team’s most decorated members. He has won gold, silver and bronze in mechatronics in the UK’s national finals, enjoying the “thrill and pressure” of competing and performing against others. 

Abi Stansfield, 22, will travel from her home in the Ribble Valley, Lancashire to Leonberg, Germany to compete for gold to become the world’s best at CNC Milling on October 10 to 15.

Stansfield will be competing against 25 other countries, including Indonesia, South Korea, Sweden and Mexico. 

After undertaking an apprenticeship with BAE Systems, she settled on tool making as her speciality. She has always been interested in how things work and she knew she wanted to be an engineer. Since the age of 12 she has been a keen stock car racer and used to work on her own cars. 

In 2017 Stansfield was helping out at the BAE stand during the WorldSkills competition when she became inspired by what she saw. She came back the year after to compete herself, winning a bronze medal in 2019.

Portsmouth’s Lewis Newton, 22, will represent the UK against rivals from 24 countries in the web developer competitions in Goyang, South Korea from October 13 to 16. 

He said: I can’t really put into words just how happy I am or what this means to me. All that hard work and putting everything I have learnt into practice has really paid off.

While studying at Highbury College, Newton became inspired by his peer Dan Levings who took the same course as him and represented the UK internationally in Brazil in 2015.

Newton said that due to low self-esteem he didn’t think he would come close to qualifying for the national finals, but won the gold medal in 2017. Since this win he believes in himself more and says he is not as afraid to try new things even when they’re outside his comfort zone. 

Week two of the competition will also see Ross Fiori, 22 from Langley-on-Tyne in Northumberland, go for gold in joinery. 

The joinery competitions will go ahead in Basel, Switzerland from October 11-14. Fiori chose to defy career advisors at school as he didn’t fancy university and wanted to do something practical, working with his hands. 

He said he wants to do his best and hopefully make his mum proud who inspired his drive after his father passed away when he was 13.

Other UK entrants include Sai Putravu, agreed 19, a cyber security ace from Bristol who wants to get gold in the cyber security championships in Korea, between October 13 to 16, alongside 20-year-old Luke Jowett from Walsall College.

“I am so excited to have made it to Team UK and to be going out to Korea. I am nervous about the next steps, but I can’t wait to take this to the next level and go up against the best of the best from around the world.”

Elsewhere, Lavanya Hemanth, a young lab technician from London, is hoping to be crowned the world’s best young laboratory technician in Austria in November. 

Hemanth, aged 22, from Queen’s Park, West London, came to this country from Bangalore, South India, five years ago to get a “better education” and improve herself.

After studying at Middlesex University, she began work at Diagnostics 360, in Chiswick, and found herself coping in the biggest health crisis of a generation. She was on the frontline during the Covid-19 pandemic working night and day to ensure test results were processed accurately and swiftly.

“It was hard work, and it was a continual learning curve to ensure that we kept ourselves up to date with the very latest research and understanding about the virus,” Hemanth said.

She added. “When I first came to this country, I felt that maybe I had made the mistake of not thinking it through properly and missed my friends and family. Now that so much has happened and I have found my feet, and success at WorldSkills UK, I know that it has all been worthwhile.”

Having triumphed in regional and national finals, most Team UK members have been training for a shot at being crowned world’s best in their field since January 2020.

The competition will include knowledge on the vulnerability of computer programs and ICT systems and how to keep hackers at bay.

Winners for each category will be announced during closing ceremonies at the end of each competition, announcing winners for gold, silver and bronze medals. Competitors will be awarded a medallion of excellence if they are judged to have reached world-class standard in their skill.

Picket lines swell as college staff strike in bid for higher pay

Strike action at an Oxfordshire college was called off this week, but went ahead at more than 20 others as staff entered the second week of protests against low pay in the face of the cost-of-living crisis.

University and College Union (UCU) members at Abingdon and Witney College voted to accept an improved pay deal last Friday of 8 per cent more for the lowest paid, 5 per cent for middle earners, including lecturers, and 3 per cent for the highest earners within management.

Staff at Croydon College in south London also voted to accept an improved pay deal that also increased the lowest salaries by 8 per cent.

But a further 23 colleges are yet to negotiate pay deals, with strikes continuing this week and next.

Unions have called for a 10 per cent rise to help with the cost-of-living crisis. In June the UCU rejected an Association of Colleges offer of 2.5 per cent.

Many UCU members walked out this week, holding banners at picket lines to the sound of drums, singing and chanting.

‘Enough is enough’

 Staff at the Burnley College picket line in Lancashire waved placards reading: “Don’t make us choose between heating, eating or teaching.”

Another staff member held up a sign saying: “How many unpaid hours does it take? Enough is enough!”

 Members of a large picket line outside City College Plymouth held up banners stating: “We care for SEN, who cares for us?”

One staff member said: “My resolve to continue has grown as the college has refused to negotiate properly”, while another said: “I felt proud to strike, but anxious about backlash from management.”

 There were similar signs at Derby College’s picket line. One read: “I’d rather be teaching, but we can’t afford not to strike.”

 Lewisham College in south London had a huge turnout, with staff congregated on the college steps alongside drums and banners reading “enough is enough”. They were joined by a dog (see picture) who stood in support of the protesters.

 Chants of “we are fighting, for better wages, we want them now, now, now” could be heard.

Jo Grady, the general secretary of the UCU, joined the picket line, telling the crowd: “I really feel there is a moment in this country that working-class people are waking up to their power.”

Some activists hired protest vans to display messages. A van at Derby College had messages reading: “Principal’s package: £198,000 each year: GIVE US FAIR PAY” and “£3.15 million spent on buildings in just two years. Equal to a 16 per cent pay raise for staff.”

Oldham College also used a van to display protest messages, prompting a visit from the Greater Manchester Police.

Waving pink flags and wearing matching pink hats, Oldham staff sang “ain’t no rain gonna stop this claim!”

According to The Oldham Times, the police attended the picket line on Tuesday, but left after determining that there was no obstruction.

The strikes are set to continue for another two weeks as the UCU negotiates with individual colleges for higher pay.

Making it easier for SMEs to take on apprentices at top of skills minister’s agenda

Andrea Jenkyns has pledged to put making it easier for small businesses to take on apprentices at the top her agenda as skills minister – although she is yet to be party to departmental conversations about making this happen.

The minister was appointed to the skills brief, which involves responsibility for apprenticeships, in July in Boris Johnson’s reshuffle before he resigned as prime minister. Jenkyns was reappointed to the role last month by new leader Liz Truss.

Jenkyns told the Conservative party conference this week that her “big focus” is improving engagement with employers in apprenticeships. She said: “How can we make the process easier for employers, especially if you are a one-man band where you wear several hats, it can be a cumbersome process and it has got to be easy.”

Her comment came after chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng said that too often regulation and “stifling red tape” holds “business and Britain back”, adding that there are “too many rules for small business owners who want to take on an apprentice” in his keynote conference speech this week.

But Jenkyns said she had not been part of ministerial conversations about tackling this issue to date.

“Look, I can’t say what discussions the chancellor is having in his department. We do have bilateral meetings, you know with the education secretary [Kit Matlhouse], but I haven’t been party to those yet,” she told FE Week.

“But I know the department, speaking to not only the civil servants but Kit and the rest of the team, we do want to unshackle businesses to be able to really take on more apprentices. So I say watch this space. I know it’s a cliché saying that, but it’s something the secretary of state and myself are really passionate about because it’s vital. It’s a no brainer, we’ve got to make it easier for businesses to take on apprentices.”

Her comments come six months after the then-skills minister Alex Burghart committed to “reduce friction” for small employers using the apprenticeships system.

The digital apprenticeship service was launched in April 2017 but was only for levy-paying employers to manage and spend their apprenticeship funding.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) fully transitioned onto the service in April 2021, meaning that all apprenticeship starts must now go through the system rather than procured non-levy contracts held by training providers.

Burghart said this has been a “time of significant change” and recognised there are concerns that this “new way of working” has introduced some “additional administration, which has been burdensome for providers, and for particularly for SMEs”.

He revealed in March that he had asked his officials to run a “series of hackathons on the system” to “make sure that we can make it as effective as it can be and reduce as much friction as possible so that we can encourage more SMEs to get involved”.

Asked what progress had been made since this commitment, the Department for Education told FE Week: “We will continue to work with the sector and employers to explore ways to remove barriers to engagement for employers, apprentices and providers.”

Tina McKenzie, the policy and advocacy chair of the Federation of Small Businesses, said it is “refreshing to hear DfE ministers talking so directly about unshackling and incentivising businesses to take on more apprentices”.

She said that two-fifths of small businesses with apprentices say that recruiting and training costs “are on the up – so they could streamline some of the requirements, there”.

Jane Hickie, chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, said that too many small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) find the apprenticeship system “too difficult to navigate – citing bureaucracy, cost, time, and administrative constraints”.

Recruitment, onboarding and navigating the funding rules are also raised most frequently by SMEs and the providers who support them.

Hickie said she the DfE “clearly recognise the scale of the problem and have committed to undertaking a simplification project – which is welcome”.

Other priorities Jenkyns listed off at the Conservative party conference included raising the “parity of esteem” between academic and technical education, continuing the rollout of T Levels, and introducing the lifelong loan entitlement in 2025.

Religious sixth form colleges to academise from 2023

Sixth form colleges with a religious character will be able to apply to become academies by the end of the year, the Department for Education has said.

Nearly all sixth form colleges (SFCs) have been able to convert to academy status, and in doing so enjoy the luxury of not paying VAT, since former chancellor George Osborne changed the rules in November 2015.

But a group of 13 SFCs which are Catholic-run have been prevented from doing so due to their religious character, which would not be maintained under government rules. If they converted, they would lose protections in areas of curriculum, acts of worship and governance.

The DfE finally found a solution to safeguard religious character through the Skills and Post-16 Education Act 2022, which became law in April.

However, the regulations to enable SFCs with a religious character to convert to academy status are yet to come into force.

After updating its guidance for SFCs considering becoming a 16 to 19 academy to include those with religious character this week, the Department for Education told FE Week that they expect those regulations to come into force by the end of 2022, at which point applications can be submitted.

James Kewin, deputy chief executive, said: “We are delighted that Catholic sixth form colleges will soon be able to academise.”

He told FE Week that 29 SFCs have converted since 2017 and are “flourishing as 16 to 19 academies”, so it is only “right that Catholic colleges now have the opportunity to join them”.

Kewin added that “many” of the 13 SFCs with religious character have been exploring conversion ahead of the formal announcement and his association expects that at least three or four will begin the application process in 2023.

WorldSkills: Driving growth with and for young people

Competing in skills competitions across the world can help drive up standards and growth at home, writes Neil Bentley-Gockmann

After the delays and difficulties of the past couple of years, 35 young women and men from all four UK nations are off to take on the best of the rest of the world in the WorldSkills international competitions.

The team is competing in 29 different skills in October and November, from cutting-edge disciplines such as web technology and cyber security in South Korea, to welding and construction metalwork in the United States, to industry 4.0 and mechatronics in Germany. We are immensely proud of them all for their dedication to training and their commitment to flying the flag for UK skills on the world stage.

As well as sending Team UK members off around the world, we are hosting the aircraft maintenance and the manufacturing team challenge competitions, bringing WorldSkills International to the UK for the first time since 2011. 

This gives us an amazing opportunity to raise the profile and prestige of UK skills and show how competition-based training can literally transform young people’s lives. Research conducted by Frontier Economics finds that young people who had participated in our competition-based training programmes earn more than those who have not. According to the research, WorldSkills UK alumni earnings are 63 per cent higher than the average earnings of their peers who had not taken part in our programmes.

This year we are looking to get even more out of our participation in the global competition so that even more young people can benefit from our work. By learning from competing against other leading countries in priority sectors of the economy, such as advanced manufacturing, we can capture and share those insights to help to drive up training standards.

This is vital against a challenging outlook for the economy because we know that a world-class skills base can help to give businesses confidence to invest, create jobs and hire talented young people. This could be pivotal for the government’s new investment zones and to improve prosperity.

Over the next two months we will be forensic in gathering insights on the latest global industry requirements, in technical precision as well as how skills are developed in a pressurised environment. And we will be sharing what we learn with our partners across the UK through our Centre of Excellence, in partnership with NCFE, as well as our innovation network.

I hope you will join me in wishing every member of Team UK the very best of luck.

Researchers to explore 14-16 college provision for first time

Further education chiefs have launched a research project that will assess the outcomes of thousands of 14 to 16-year-olds in college across England for the first time.

Around 10,000 students aged 14 to 16 learn in colleges rather than mainstream schools, with more than 100 of England’s 228 colleges catering for those learners, according to the Association of Colleges.

Now, the AoC and IOE, University College London’s faculty of education and society, have teamed up to research the outcomes of those learners and inform future policy.

Running until 2024, the Nuffield Foundation-funded research is set to assess the trajectory of those learners, with project bosses saying that the high likelihood of those learners to become NEET – not in employment, education or training – has been recognised but not researched to date.

David Hughes, AoC chief executive, said: “This is a ground-breaking project which will strengthen our collective understanding of a cohort of thousands of students which policymakers know little about.”

Those behind the research said it would represent the first in-depth study into “direct entry” learners and would help policymakers in their decision making in future.

Catherine Sezen, the AoC’s senior policy manager and principal investigator for the project, said: “This group of students is among the most vulnerable in further education, and building a deeper awareness of them and their outcomes will help the sector improve its provision for this cohort.”

Colleges have been able to deliver 14 to 16 courses since 2013, often catering for students who find mainstream school does not meet their needs.

Direct entry has, however, proved problematic for colleges as they are included in the government’s national league tables for Progress 8 – a score that tracks students’ progress over time from ages 11 to 16 and compares them to students of similar ability.

Latest Progress 8 scores were published in 2019 because of the Covid-19 pandemic, and showed an average of -2.10 at 16 FE colleges with provision for 14- to 16-year-olds.

That was the lowest of any type of educational establishment, with the benchmark no lower than -0.5. The figure for all state-funded schools that year was -0.03.

In 2018, FE leaders called for colleges to be excluded from the government’s Progress 8 data, arguing that because colleges could only take on learners from age 14, they had less opportunity than mainstream schools to achieve better progression as they only had students for two of the five years Progress 8 scores measure.

Two big college groups – London South East Colleges and NCG – walked away from delivering direct entry provision that year and said that the misleading figures were negatively impacting reputations because national newspapers would list them as one of “the worst schools in the country” based on their Progress 8 scores.

The issue had also impacted on Ofsted inspections, with South Devon College complaining in December 2017 that it had been marked down in its inspection for its 14 to 16 provision.

Leeds City College in 2018 ended up in the bizarre scenario of being listed as one of “the worst schools in the country” by national newspapers because of its low Progress 8 score, but had an ‘outstanding’ Ofsted rating for its 14 to 16 provision.

Lynne Rogers, co-director of the centre for post-14 education and work at IOE and co-investigator for the new research said: “It is scandalous that so little is known about these young people. Given the evidenced vulnerability of this cohort and the longer-term consequences for young adults who fail to gain essential literacy and numeracy skills and drop out of education, there is an imperative to understand the role of FE provision in supporting these young people to achieve positive educational outcomes.”

Ofsted leaves a bitter taste for online-only dental school

A dental training school that recently moved into the apprenticeships market by training learners solely online has received a scathing Ofsted verdict.

Lotus Education Ltd, which also goes by the name Lotus Dental School, has been running commercial training courses since 2012, but began delivering Level 3 dental nursing apprenticeships in 2021.

It claims on its website to offer “a great course that changes the lives of our students”.

But Ofsted inspectors carrying out an early monitoring visit found a catalogue of issues, determining that the provider was making ‘insufficient progress’ across the board in a report published this week.

The report said that most apprentices – 33 at the time of the inspection and mostly aged 19 and above – were in dental practices in the east of England, but “apprenticeship training is provided wholly online”.

Inspectors reported that “no apprentices will complete their apprenticeship in the time planned” at Lotus, and said that few reviews of their skills training had taken place so far.

The report said that apprentices used recordings of lessons to consolidate their learning, but “assessors accept apprentices catching up on missed lessons as off-the-job learning”.

In addition, inspectors found that staff did not have “appropriate expertise to provide a programme of training that meets the requirements of an apprenticeship”, such as English and maths training.

Ofsted has voiced concerns over online-only teaching in the past. In its latest education recovery research published in July, the watchdog said: “Unless there are clear benefits for learners and their curriculum, remote learning narrows opportunities for skills acquisition and rehearsal, and limits social engagement.”

In the same paper it added that learners are “unable to learn practical skills remotely”.

Chief inspector Amanda Spielman addressing the Annual Apprenticeship Conference in 2021 said that “remote apprenticeships are very much the second-best option, reserved for crises such as the pandemic”.

She added: “Face-to-face training for apprentices is still the gold standard for most industries.”

Lotus’ Ofsted report said that managers had not yet ensured that apprentices had received their off-the-job training entitlement, and managers did not identify which aspects of the training were good and which needed improving.

It added that tutors did not use assessment effectively to inform ongoing learning, or mark written work promptly, as well as failing to provide feedback that helped apprentices improve.

Inspectors noted that the staff turnover was high, which had negatively impacted on learning. “A significant proportion of apprentices have left their apprenticeship early,” as a result of losing motivation, the report added.

Employers, the report said, were not invited to be involved in planning training or progress reviews, but noted that employers themselves were fully involved in the learning of apprentices at work.

Basic expectations of keeping apprentices safe were also not covered, the watchdog found.

The provider now faces a suspension on starts until Ofsted identifies improvements, in line with government funding rules.

Ofsted guidance states that a provider receiving an insufficient progress judgment in a monitoring visit will likely receive a full inspection within six-to-12 months of their monitoring report being published.

Lotus did not respond to requests for comment.

Prisoner apprenticeships: The start of a new policy paradigm

This week saw a monumental change in the justice sector. Just three days after legislation was changed to allow prisoners to become apprentices while completing their sentences, the first offenders have already started their apprenticeships.

It is difficult to understate how transformative this change is for prison education – and the justice sector more broadly. It will provide a fresh start for many offenders by offering a high-quality technical pathway for them to gain the skills that are so essential to securing stable employment upon their release. This is a critical part of breaking the cycle of reoffending.

At LTE Group, we are fortunate to bring together experts from the full spectrum of the FE and skills sector, from further and higher education to apprenticeships and prison education. Over the past 12 months, we have used this unique position to play a leading role in putting this policy change into practice. This has led to offender learning specialists, Novus, and independent training provider, Total People, working hand in hand to deliver one of the very first prisoner apprenticeships in partnership with the Timpson Group, with the support of HMP Thorn Cross. 

The benefits

In our minds, there are two core benefits to changing legislation to enable offenders proper access to apprenticeships (including allowing those in open prisons approaching the end of their sentences to leave custody to undertake on-the-job training).

First, given that many offenders have low literacy levels, providing them with a hands-on alternative has the power to engage offenders in skills and learning in a way that they might struggle to access in a classroom. This more practical pathway will enable more offenders to make the most of their time in prison, and ensure as many as possible can gain skills and prepare for a career at the end of their sentence. This not only ensures that sentences are more productive but also benefits society more broadly, as research shows that prison education can significantly reduce reoffending rates.

Second, we passionately believe that high-quality skills and training are key to solving skills gaps in the economy. That includes equipping prisoners with the skills needed to support the economy upon their release from custody. With many sectors having more vacancies than available skilled workers, it is vital every source of potential talent is tapped. We believe that equipping offenders with skills is an important part of the solution. 

A blueprint for innovation

In May, LTE Group held a roundtable that brought senior officials from the Department for Education and the Ministry of Justice together with experts from Novus and across the sector to discuss how we could collectively make apprenticeships a reality for prisoners. We are delighted that, this week, that vision has come to pass.  Not only is it a positive and progressive policy that has transformative powers for offenders, but it also demonstrates the power of collaborative working within the sector and across government.

This change would not have been possible were it not for organisations from different parts of the FE and skills sector working together and with central government. We are hopeful that the powerful impact of this approach in prison education will provide a blueprint for engineering further policy changes in the future with the potential to unleash impactful innovations.

When viewed in the context of a UK economy at close to full employment and a growing number of vacancies in the jobs market – coupled with skills gaps in numerous sectors and a shortage of the highly skilled workers employers need – it is clear such collaboration and innovation is essential if the FE and skills sector is to play its full part in meeting the challenges faced by UK plc.