Focus feature: Decarbonising college estates

Decarbonising a college estate is a huge, multi-million-pound project. Jess Staufenberg talks to three leaders about risking it all for huge cuts to bills and carbon footprint

Even before the current crisis in spiralling energy bills, colleges were sounding warning shots about the costs facing them this year. Cast your mind back to 2021, when a number of energy suppliers went bust amid rising gas prices and when a survey by the Association of Colleges showed colleges faced a rise of £20 million in energy bills this year.

Since then, the war in Ukraine has brought an unwelcome ethical as well as economic element into the equation. FE Week has previously reported how colleges face a “moral dilemma” over exiting contracts with Russian suppliers such as Gazprom ̶ torn between not wanting to fund an invasion and having to negotiate new, pricier energy contracts.

At the same time, carbon zero targets march ever closer. Our climate strategy deep-dive in November revealed many FE providers are playing catch-up as local authorities have announced climate emergencies and the government set its 2050 net zero carbon target.

Then in April the Department for Education published its ‘green strategy’ for education, including a requirement for all capital projects to consider carbon reduction measures, and reminding the sector that the UK aims to reduce emissions from public sector buildings by 75 per cent by 2037 compared to a 2017 baseline.

So decarbonising the college estate looks more urgent than ever – but with squeezed budgets, it’s also harder for colleges to undertake the massive restructuring projects to wean themselves off environmentally harmful, and morally compromised, gas and coal.

So how can it be done?

The ‘why’

FE Week has spoken at length to three colleges with large campuses that undertook multi-million-pound projects around their energy sources.

Luke Rake, chief executive at Kingston Maurward College in Dorset, says it felt like a “pretty poor show” for a land-based college to have a heating system based on oil and liquid petroleum gas. Overall, the college was releasing about 1,000 tons of carbon a year.

“All of our courses involve the environment, plants and animals. But the reality was we were not doing a great thing for the carbon footprint.”

External targets also made an impression, he continues: the National Farmers’ Union set a carbon zero target for 2040, Dorset Council set 2030 and campaign group Extinction Rebellion set 2025. Rake, himself an environmentalist, chose 2025.

Luke Rake, chief executive, Kingston Maurward College

Meanwhile Derby College Group was also motivated by practical considerations. According to Iain Baldwin, director of estates, the Broomfield Hall campus was heavily dependent on coal-fired boilers which needed lorryloads of coal to be delivered on the site and shovelled into the ovens.

“It was heavily reliant on manual input to operate it,” says Baldwin, and it meant lorries were constantly visiting the site.

Finance and resilience were other key drivers. “It was a substantial cost – we used to have a delivery every ten days throughout the year,” he says.

“I also didn’t want a whole site with one heating system, because if one thing goes down, it all goes down. One of the reasons for introducing the new provision was spread betting.”

The new air source heat pumps at Derby College group

Finally, reducing the carbon footprint at the Colchester Institute in north Essex was “close to the heart of the principal,” Alison Andreas, according to her deputy chief executive. Gary Horne explains the college declared a climate emergency in October last year and set a target to slash its carbon emissions 50 per cent by 2030.

Students were also suffering from the poor insulation and heating systems throughout the college, Horne adds. “There were single glazed metal windows, and many of them either wouldn’t close or were welded shut.” The heating was expensive yet learners often had to wear coats indoors in winter.

Another main motivator was financial. As finance director, Horne has got a horribly tight situation on his books as energy prices rise. The college’s energy bill is forecast to rise from half a million pounds to £1.3 million next year, and he needs all the help he can get in finding efficiencies.

Gary Horne, deputy chief executive, Colchester Institute

Raising funds

Each college is clear they could never have carried out the huge capital project work without government funding. They all applied to the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme, which was launched by the government in 2020 and has had three funding rounds so far.

Kingston Maurward College secured just over £2 million from the fund, with £300,000 extra put in by Dorset Council, to instal ground-source heat pumps. Work began last January and completed in March.

Colchester Institute got £3.7 million, and put in £1.3 million itself by selling some land. The funds allowed the college to replace its gas-fired boilers with air-source heat pumps as well as replace single glazed windows and instal insulation panels. Work began in August 2021 and, due to Covid delays, only completed in March this year. 

Meanwhile, Derby College Group secured £3.6 million from the fund, to replace its coal-fired boilers with six air-source heat pumps and three water-source heat pumps, as well as to install 101 solar panels, LED lighting and insulation. Work also began in August last year, with the new technology switched on in January this year.

The pump for bringing up the hot water from underground at Kingston Maurward College

For the uninitiated, an air-source heat pump is like reverse air conditioning. It absorbs heat from the air outside a building, which is used to heat either the air or water inside the building. Because it runs on electricity, it can be connected to a renewable energy source and so provides a low-carbon alternative to fossil-fuelled heating.

A ground-source heat pump transfers natural heat from the ground, again using renewable electricity to compress fluid, run it deep into the earth, raise it to a higher temperature and return it to the building.

Getting ready

“You need to go into this stuff with your eyes open and a good plan because the timeline is tight, and you need to have all your ducks in order,” says Rake, for whom this was his first major build as a principal.

In his case, permissions were the first hurdle. The main building at Kingston Maurward College is a grade I listed mansion and other buildings are grade II*, so planning permission was needed from national charity Historic England as well as the local conservation officer at Dorset Council. Thankfully, they both agreed.

Rake and his team also had to work out the most financially efficient way of getting the work done, eventually settling on eight contracts with five different contractors as the “best for the public purse”.

At Derby College Group, the 200 acres of parkland means there’s a lot of wildlife on site, Baldwin says, and so the team had to run bat surveys to establish the migratory paths of bat colonies and ensure they were safe.

Iain Baldwin, director of estates, Derby College Group

Meanwhile Colchester Institute took a ‘fabric first’ approach and re-insulated its main building before tackling the energy supply. Another requirement of the fund was to employ at least 50 local construction staff – the college managed to find 71 staff locally, hitting a key performance indicator and allowing work to go ahead.

The final but crucial piece of preparation is to “win the hearts and minds” of staff and students, adds Horne. This will help with everyone understanding any inconveniences further down the line.

Works on site

At Colchester Institute, the main challenge was teaching in a building where all the windows and insulation were being ripped out and replaced, continues Horne.

“We had to move classes into other blocks, and we took out two storeys at a time in a five-floor building,” he explains. It also helps to have “an understanding contractor who will down tools” around the exam period, he adds.

Covid also slowed the work down. The project was originally meant to be completed by November 2021 but computer chips coming from the continent for the new system were delayed by nearly eight weeks, pushing the completion date to March this year.

At Kingston Maurward College, the main challenge was the mud. The site needed 144 boreholes to be drilled, which were 130 metres deep to where the earth’s temperature is warmer and liquid heats to 63 degrees Celsius. When Storm Eunice arrived in February this year, the college grounds “looked like the Somme,” says Rake drily.

“I’m not overstating how much of a challenge the mud was. There was a lot of mess, mud trampled into everything.”

Preparing the boring holes at Kingston Maurward College

The college was under particular pressure to keep the site presentable as it doubles up as a wedding venue, so to ensure minimal loss of income the works were scheduled for winter, when bookings are scarce, explains Rake.

Meanwhile, the campus at Derby College Group has many learners with additional needs, who needed extra support to ensure they were not at risk from all the building works happening on site, explains Baldwin.

“We had to be very mindful of learners who may be deaf and may not hear the lorry coming,” he says.

Results and the future

By replacing four gas-fired boilers with air-source heat pumps run on electricity from wind farms off the coast of Essex, Colchester Institute has cut down on 290 tonnes of carbon per year. That’s an 18 per cent reduction of the college’s annual carbon footprint overall, amounting to about £50,000 in savings a year.

So to become carbon net zero, the college wants to do the same work “four times over”, at a cost of approximately £5 million each time, explains Horne. It shows the huge sums of money involved in effective decarbonisation.

“Our long-term aim is to be off grid if we can,” he adds. This would enable the college to be completely independent of fluctuating national grid prices and the fossil fuel market, and the senior leadership team are already looking at solar panels in pursuit of that goal.

Another key benefit was educational: eight construction apprentices were employed by the contractors on site and enrolled with the college as part of the project.

New solar panels at Derby College group

Next, at Kingston Maurward College, more than 200 tonnes of carbon have been cut per year, or around 25 per cent of its carbon footprint. It amounts to around £25,000 in savings in the short term, with chief executive Luke Rake anticipating greater savings in the longer term.

The college has also seen an uptick in recruitment to its construction courses, possibly as a result of the reputational pull of the large-scale environmental project, he says.

Meanwhile at Derby College Group, a staggering 659 tonnes of carbon have been cut, resulting in £14,000 of savings a year. The project has also “improved site safety because we don’t have lorries delivering coal, and the environment is better as we took down a ten-metre high chimney stack,” explains Baldwin.

Improvements

All the colleges praised the expert support provided by Salix, the non-departmental public body which awards the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme funding (it’s funded by the Department for Education and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy).

But the criteria for winning the funding can be tough, and may change for each new funding cycle, they add.

“It’s first come, first served, so you’ve got to get in early,” explains Horne. “It means you need to do all the legwork upfront and you’re developing plans at risk.”

Meanwhile the externally imposed timeframes for completing the works are tight and “do put you under pressure,” says Rake (whose team had from January to end of March 2022 to get everything done).

These individual case studies are inspiring – but the mission now must be to convert such projects into a whole-sector transformation.

It’s first come, first served, so you’ve got to get in early

Yet we’re still a long way off. According to Salix, 63 colleges applied for decarbonisation funding from Salix in 2020/21, but only seven were successful, with £10.2 million handed out.

Meanwhile in 2021/22, 27 applied and 16 were successful, with £12.1 million handed out. The next funding round opens for applications in September 2022.

So as ever, the government is making FE providers fight one another for a pot of money many times smaller than the amount needed to allow them to do what’s necessary.

As a reminder, £13.5 billion was spent in one year on Covid testing, showing what money can be made available.

The climate emergency is surely even more serious than Covid. Rather than making colleges write yet more bids, perhaps government should allocate sufficient decarbonisation funding to every college estate, so that the sector has a real hope of meeting the 2037 deadline.

Ex-DfE adviser and ESFA boss appointed in Ofqual board shake-up

A former adviser to the Department for Education and the ex-top boss at the Education and Skills Funding Agency have joined the Ofqual board.

Chris Paterson and Eileen Milner are among six new members in a shake-up of the exam regulator’s board announced today.

Paterson joined the Education Endowment Foundation last year after leaving his post as senior policy adviser to then-education secretary Gavin Williamson. He had advised five different education secretaries over seven years.

Milner was ESFA chief executive from 2017 to 2021, before becoming chief executive of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority.

Also appointed on a three-year term is Cindy Leslie, chair of governors at Channing School, an independent school for girls in Highgate, north London.

She is also a member of Women2Win, an organisation that “aims to increase the number of Conservative women in Parliament and public life,” says the appointment.

Hardip Begol, chief executive at Woodard Academies Trust, Clare Pelham, chief executive of Epilepsy Society and Mark Farrar ex-CEO of the Association of Accounting Technicians have also been appointed.

Meanwhile, the Department for Education has re-appointed Susan Barrett, a former audit partner at Deloitte, Matt Tee, an executive director at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, and Frances Wadsworth, a deputy further education commissioner.

ofqual
Ian Bauckham

Hywel Jones’ current term has been extended by two months until September. He is CEO at Bedford College Academies Trust.

Ofqual chair Ian Bauckham said the members have a “rich range of experience including in education and public service”.

“They are joining Ofqual at a very exciting time, now that the first set of GCSE, AS and A-level summer exams since 2019 has taken place. They will bring invaluable insight and advice in the years ahead.”

The board makes sure Ofqual carries out its legal responsibilities and shows “integrity and objectivity” in regulating exams and assessments.

Remuneration is £6,000 a year for up to 20 days.

Hampshire college retains ‘outstanding’ grade a decade after last Ofsted inspection

A Hampshire college has retained its ‘outstanding’ rating from Ofsted – more than a decade after last being inspected.

Farnborough College of Technology, which has campuses in Farnborough and Aldershot, secured the education watchdog’s top rating following a visit in May.

It marks the first inspection it has had since November 2011, when it also received an ‘outstanding’, after Ofsted last year removed the inspection exemption for those providers which received the highest rating.

Principal Virginia Barrett said: “Since my arrival at the college in 2016 our strategy has focused on becoming a more inclusive institution with the highest expectations from our learners.

“Ensuring that learners embrace the goal of becoming a ‘T-shaped person’ by developing soft skills alongside their core subjects has led to a fantastic blend of qualities that is underlined by their professional standards – punctuality, arriving ready to learn, and having a real drive to be their best.

 “Our focus on progression and employability with the help of industry boards, experienced lecturers, and our careers programme also makes our college a great launchpad for our learners’ next steps, which is a particular area of pride given the excellent opportunities available in our region.”

The report said that learners and apprentices “flourish in a college culture of mutual respect”.

Inspectors recognised that students “grow in confidence and develop their character” because “they value how well staff know, understand and respond to their individual learning and pastoral needs and aspirations”.

The college put in place additional support for those who struggled during the Covid-19 pandemic, which Ofsted described as “excellent”.

Elsewhere, the report said the college had been especially successful in helping learners and apprentices develop professional behaviour, and said course leaders “use their very well-established links with local businesses, industry and community groups to shape the courses, qualifications and training they offer”.

It highlighted a host of courses such as level 3 games development and level 2 and 3 hair professional apprenticeships where industry-standard facilities were used to develop learners.

According to Ofsted, there were just over 2,000 young learners, 670 apprentices and 1,000 adult learners at the time of the inspection.

Barrett said her college could not have reached this “excellent result without the commitment of all college staff, who consistently go above and beyond to give learners an experience that we consider to be beyond outstanding”.

This is what I’ve learnt as a staff member with ADHD

Staff can use the term ‘ADHD’ flippantly, but a thorough understanding and compassion for the diagnosis is needed, writes Richard Moody

At 26 years old I was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. It was a long journey to get there.

Growing up, I knew I wasn’t necessarily ‘normal’. That feeling followed me through my late teens and into adulthood, as I dropped out of university and stumbled into my career in FE.

In 2020 I was in the second year of my CertEd, specialising in SEND. Then the pandemic hit and like everyone, I was suddenly working from home, left to my own devices.

It was impossible. I sat at my computer for hours on end and tried so hard, and nothing happened. I couldn’t work, and I felt lazy and guilty about it. It wasn’t that I was getting distracted by other things, I just couldn’t make my hands move.

This wasn’t a new sensation, but the reality of that feeling every day for weeks at a time forced me to look for answers again. Fast forward to October 2021 and I had one – an ADHD diagnosis.

I sat at my computer for hours and couldn’t work

Nothing changed overnight, but it felt good to have something of an answer. There were still a lot of questions. When I told my manager, she asked: “What reasonable adjustments can we put in place to help you?”. Honestly, I had no idea. I was used to my normal.

I needed something to change, though, because like a lot of new teachers, I was finding my first year tough, and I was struggling with feeling isolated.

It didn’t help to hear people (sometimes colleagues) speaking about ADHD flippantly or in an uninformed way. My condition would be minimised into a stereotype (lazy or hyper) or even used as an adjective (“He’s so ADHD!”). I can’t really blame them because I used to have the same misconceptions.

ADHD isn’t what I thought it was. My image was of hyperactive children bouncing off the walls ̶ naughty, disruptive behaviour. 

ADHD is a neurodevelopmental disorder. Hyperactivity and inattentiveness are part of a bigger picture that includes executive dysfunction, emotional dysregulation and impaired social skills. Things that, in their own ways, affect me more than I would have liked to admit before my diagnosis.

It was taking medication that helped me to understand my differences. Medicated, I am at the normal of the people around me, but for me that feels superpowered. It isn’t perfect, but I can do things when I want to. I can focus on one thing at a time.

I understand now, and am learning more and more, that feeling normal is more important than people anticipate. With neurodiversity as a term to apply to myself, I had an identity and community. It wasn’t that I never fitted in, it was that I was judging myself against people who were simply not like me.

When I started to talk to people with the same condition as me, I finally got the validation that it was OK to be me.

We still have a way to go. Across all levels of staff in FE, training is imperative. It should be designed to remove stereotypes and stigma and should be led by medical experts or by people with those conditions.

Organisations should make reasonable adjustments tailored to their staff. For me, that means making sure I have structured routines with clear and distinct deadlines, with advance warnings about any changes as well as regular meetings with my manager.

These things help me to manage at work, but for others, those adjustments could be completely different. However, I think the most important thing for anybody with ADHD is compassion. I don’t expect a free pass on making mistakes, but know that when I am late, or I am reacting badly to a change, these things aren’t always in my control, and I am trying my best.

I am fortunate enough now that I am beginning to understand myself and feel more confident to ask for what I need. With the right training and understanding, organisations should know what I might need and ask me first.

The most important lesson I learnt, however, is that I am not alone.

Could better investment in skills derail future train strikes?

Training and upskilling opportunities are an important way to improve job satisfaction and retention in essential jobs, writes Kirstie Donnelly

Last week’s rail strikes highlighted many critical issues facing workers in our transport sector, with trade union RMT calling for better pay, better working conditions and the guarantee of no forced redundancy.

But they aren’t the only ones suffering. As the rail strikes come to an end (for now), there are murmurs of other sectors starting their own picket lines, with workers and unions across healthcare, education and other public services also threatening strike action this summer.

It’s no coincidence that these industries are the very ones that were deemed essential during the pandemic, providing the critical services and infrastructure that communities and people rely on, day in, day out.

Making up half of the workforce, these essential jobs are the lifeblood of Britain’s economy.

And over the coming years, we’re only going to see the number of roles in these critical sectors increase, with more than three million essential job openings expected in the next five years, including 340,000 brand new jobs.

But, it’s not just the workers who are discontented. Employers are already reporting that they are struggling to fill vacancies, leaving us with a labour market crisis that is set to worsen in the years ahead without intervention

It’s about more than just the money. Our research published earlier this year looked into the vital role these industries play. We found that despite the ten key worker sectors being critical to keeping our lights on, only 25 per cent of the UK population would consider working in one.

The research demonstrates the undeniable fact that low salaries, unattractive or inflexible working conditions and a general lack of respect for these critical jobs is having a catastrophic impact on the ability of employers to fill these roles.

Across the board, good pay, a respected status and sociable hours are cited as the top three reasons why people find certain essential jobs attractive.

As well as these, other important factors included having the relevant skills, experience or qualifications and good opportunities for career progression – demonstrating once again that training and upskilling opportunities are crucial for encouraging more people to apply for these roles.

The government needs to take action to place higher value on these essential roles

So, while there is work to be done in reviewing and increasing pay for some of these industries, that’s just one piece of the puzzle.

In the face of further potential strike action, and a growing labour crisis that continues to impact these vital industries and wider society, we need to collectively take a long, hard look at how we can make these jobs more attractive.

Find out what employees want

Employers should consider polling their workers on what they really want, and prioritise offering benefits, such as flexible working or increased learning and development opportunities, if they don’t already do so.

Offer upskilling opportunities

There is a need to focus on training and upskilling throughout people’s careers to ensure that the current workforce maintains their skillsets. Also important is a strong offering to younger people (i.e. traineeships and level 2 and 3 apprenticeships) to ensure a solid talent pipeline of people coming into industries

Boost pride and pay in essential jobs

The government needs to take action to place higher value on these essential roles and drive a public behaviour change through working with employers to ensure fair wages across both public and private sector roles and by supporting positive campaigning to reinforce the pride in essential jobs.

If we’re to solve the crippling skills and recruitment gaps these sectors are facing once and for all, employers, industries, educators, government and the general public must all give these hard-to-fill roles the respect they deserve and reposition them as the foundation for our whole economy.

Councils are taking wildly different approaches to Multiply

Hard-to-reach learners won’t be helped by the programme if councils engage the same old providers, writes Ian Ross

It has become apparent from contacting numerous local councils that many are taking wildly different approaches to rolling out the Multiply programme.

As a quick reminder, the programme, part of the UK shared prosperity fund, is gearing up to support adults in improving their numeracy skills. Currently, half of the working-age population have entry-level everyday maths skills.

Multiply will help to boost confidence and assist individuals with career progression while supporting the government’s levelling-up mission to ensure that by 2030, the number of people successfully completing high-quality skills training will have increased.

Local authorities across England are finalising their investment plans, outlining how their proposed provision will meet the Multiply investment prospectus. Around £270 million is being allocated directly to 91 mayoral combined authorities and local councils. 

Local councils are also finalising their delivery plans and how they are going to respond to rolling out Multiply. But after contacting just 14 local authorities, it’s clear there are inconsistent approaches.

Allocating funds directly to 91 bodies, namely mayoral combined authorities and local councils, comes with many hurdles. This presents a challenge to ensuring the funding helps those that Multiply is designed to support.

Although there are advantages to devolution and giving local bodies the autonomy to lead Multiply in their areas, some local councils are already struggling in drafting their investment plans. I have seen some councils send out their entire investment plan templates inviting external stakeholders to write it for them. 

Some councils have written their plans behind closed doors

Other councils are running consultation events and co-producing their proposals with local stakeholders. But some have just written their investment plans internally behind closed doors. 

I have also observed how advanced some councils are in drafting their plans, while others are only just starting to think about what interventions they might offer.

The risk is that those councils without the internal expertise or passion risk squandering an opportunity for their residents to access high-quality numeracy provision.

Then there are major discrepancies in how Multiply will be delivered in year one, which runs from April 2022 to March 2023. 

Given that Multiply investment plans will not be approved by the Department for Education before August 2022, mayoral combined authorities and local councils will only have seven months to spend their year one allocations from September 2022. 

Although this timescale is tight for commissioning delivery partners, some bodies have decided to just hand the money out to FE colleges or their existing adult community learning providers in year one. Meanwhile other councils are running short competitive grant application processes during July. 

While I appreciate there may be capacity issues within local councils, handing money out to existing providers is unlikely to have the desired impact of finding hard-to-reach learners. 

FE colleges and council adult community learning providers already have adult education budget funding to deliver maths qualifications and non-accredited numeracy provision. I question why they are not already reaching these target group of learners with their existing AEB funding? 

So it is crucial those drafting their investment plans look beyond FE colleges and existing adult community learning providers. 

There are many local providers, already working with hard-to-reach learners, who can bring innovation and add value to Multiply. 

It is all well local councils reassuring the sector that new providers can get involved in year two but, as proved by West Sussex County Council and Brighton and Hove City Council, it is possible to roll out a short competitive grant process in year one if the drive and determination are there.

Let’s make sure Multiply has the impact it deserves, and we do not to waste a once-in-a-generation opportunity to drive up adult numeracy.

Collaboration between AELP, AoC and HOLEX is hugely important

The resilience of FE will be tested in the year ahead. Here are five key takeaways from our recent national conference, writes Jane Hickie

AELP’s first in-person national conference in three years took place this week. Among the packed agenda, we learned a lot from the two-day event. Here’s five key takeaways from me:

1. There are huge challenges facing us in the year ahead

There are big challenges ahead. A common theme from providers was the impact rising costs are having on their ability to continue delivering high-quality training provision, linked with issues around recruiting and retaining good staff.

Level 2 and below qualification reform is also a major worry. These are important stepping stones, and we must be careful not to remove opportunities in the name of simplification.

And we heard support for our position from Jennifer Coupland of the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education.

2. Our resilience will be tested at times – but we will persevere

These challenges will test our resilience. This includes meeting the skills minister’s new ambition for an overall 67 per cent achievement rate on apprenticeship standards by 2025  ̶  this ambitious target will need proper funding and support from government.

It was great to have the minister with us, and I hope he heard our concerns loud and clear.

While the new achievement rate target is certainly very ambitious, I fear it won’t be achievable until the Department for Education irons out unhelpful nuances in the current qualification achievement rates methodology and finds a better way to measure success.

Nevertheless, I’ve really appreciated the minister’s engagement with AELP recently – particularly his commitment to helping more SMEs to engage with apprenticeships. However, we clearly still have more lobbying to do around functional skills and tackling inflation before we see further movement. Rome wasn’t built in a day – we will persist!

3. We will need more collaboration in the sector

Meeting these challenges means we need to collaborate more effectively – the whole FE sector must push in the same direction on the big issues.

The whole FE sector must push in the same direction on the big issues

David Hughes, of the Association of Colleges (AoC), focused on this by pointing out there are many areas in which we share common challenges and aims – so why wouldn’t we work together?

Strengthening the relationship between AoC, adult education provider body HOLEX and AELP will be good for the whole sector.

Speaking of collaboration, on Tuesday, we launched our joint report with ERSA on employability and skills provision. ‘Hiding The Join’ – rather fittingly – calls for more collaboration between government departments to ensure better alignment across employability and skills.

4. AELP plays a crucial role in the sector

National conference was an opportunity to reflect on the importance of AELP’s work for our members.

At a time when providers need support and a national voice more than ever, that sense of community is crucial. Membership is growing steadily and skills have never been higher on the government’s agenda.

Despite the challenges, we’ve also had some great wins over the past 12 months, including positive changes to the off-the-job training requirements, a re-set on the cap of ten starts for non-levy-paying employers, imminent changes to the law so that prisoners can undertake an apprenticeship, and additional skills funding in the multi-year spending review.

5. A modern economy needs ITPs

The role of independent training providers in delivering the skills our country needs continues to grow. As we come out of the Covid-19 pandemic, and our relationship with the European Union changes, there is even more demand for high-quality home-grown skills.

ITPs – given their ability to adapt and innovate – should play a prime role in making levelling up a success and shifting to a low-carbon economy.

That’s why ensuring there’s a level playing field between all types of providers has never been more vital.

MOVERS AND SHAKERS: EDITION 395

Rachel Ellis-Jones

Principal, Grimsby Institute of Further and Higher Education

Start date: June 2022

Previous Job: Deputy Principal, Bishop Burton College

Interesting fact: Rachel had lots of interesting jobs as a student, including working for the National Union Of Mineworkers, a famous ballerina, driving a forklift truck and frying fish and chips.

Danny Metters

Principal, East Riding College & Scarborough TEC, part of TEC Partnership

Start date: June 2022

Previous Job: Vice Principal, Riseholme College, part of Bishop Burton College

Interesting fact: Danny lives on a small-holding and has over 50 animals; including
alpaca, horses, turkeys, peacocks, dogs and cats, most of which are rescues

Tom Bewick

Visiting Professor of Skills and Workforce Policy, Staffordshire University

Start date: July 2022

Concurrent Job: Chief Executive, Federation of Awarding Bodies

Interesting fact: In his 20s, Tom was a tech house DJ called Van Alen, living in Ibiza and Cape Town

SEND college judged ‘inadequate’ after Ofsted finds issues of neglect and ‘uninspiring’ curriculum

Ofsted has raised concerns over issues of neglect, hygiene standards and a curriculum that is “uninspiring” and “unambitious” at a college for students with special education needs or disabilities (SEND) in Wigan.

My Life Learning was handed an ‘inadequate’ rating by the inspection watchdog in a report published today following a visit in early May.

The college, which is a part of the My Life charity, caters for learners aged 16 to 25 with SEND, including severe learning difficulties, autism, speech and communication needs and emotional difficulties.

Inspectors said learners “did not benefit from a curriculum that prepares them for their next steps,” and “are not provided with opportunities for work-experience placements that relate to their future ambitions”.

The report continued that the curriculum is “unambitious” and doesn’t consider the different abilities of learners, while the quality of education was branded “uninspiring”.

Elsewhere, the report said: “Learners making sandwiches to sell to college staff do not follow appropriate food hygiene standards.”

In addition, safeguarding arrangements were described as “not effective”, as potential issues around neglect were not identified.

Safeguarding concerns were raised at a previous monitoring visit in July 2021, with a November follow-up saying reasonable progress had been made.

Ofsted tasked the college to “as a matter of urgency, put in place effective safeguarding arrangements, including prompt identification, referral and monitoring of safeguarding concerns, and the implementation of robust risk assessments”.

The report said there are 26 learners at the Greater Manchester college, studying horticulture, animal care and equine in one of three groups.

The establishment said it “wholly accepts” the findings.

A statement from My Life Learning said: “We were asked by Wigan Council to set up My Life Learning in 2018 and have gradually built the provision to provide crucial independent specialist further education for 26 learners in our beautiful 84-acre site in Standish.

“When we received an Ofsted new provider monitoring report last year, we acted upon the recommendations and put in place a new leadership team, brought in experts in specialist further education to refine our curriculum, and made further teaching appointments.

“We’ve also taken the opportunity over the last 12 months to consult with families in terms of what they wanted to see from My Life Learning. Overwhelmingly, they asked for individualised pathways for the young people they care for and to that end our curriculum now reflects that desire.”

The college said it was pleased Ofsted recognised learners enjoyed college and felt supported, and added that governors were now “suitably experienced in the further education and SEND sectors”.

The spokesperson added: “We’re confident that we’ve involved all stakeholders in our mission to improve My Life Learning, and that changes to offer an ambitious, aspirational and challenging curriculum will be both obvious and immediate.

Cath Pealing, assistant director of education at Wigan Council, the local SEND authority, said: “We are aware of the inspection outcome of this provider and are working with them to look at how they can make improvements.

“We will review the current placements of our young people attending and will support them with the most appropriate plan moving forward.”