Understanding the origins of next month’s celebratory activity – and when it first arrived in your local area – can be deeply engaging for students, writes Ellisha Soanes
Did you know that Black History Month originally started in America?
The Association for the Study of African American Life was founded in 1915, 50 years after the abolition of slavery, to celebrate the progress and achievement of black citizens in that time.
By 1926, one of its founders, Carter G. Woodson, set up a history month so that these achievements and issues could be studied annually. It was placed in the second week of February, to coincide with the birthday of black icons such as social reformer and abolitionist, Frederick Douglass.
The event inspired schools and communities to celebrate nationwide. They established history clubs and hosted performances and lectures. By the 1970s, U.S. presidents officially acknowledged this month as Black History Month.
Across the pond this found a platform in the U.K. in 1987. Ghanaian activist Akyaaba Addai-Sebo steered this movement with local councils across London, supported by Linda Bellos, the leader of Lambeth council.
Still going strong
Thirty years on, the mission of paying homage to the people who brought about positive change remains.
I investigated how Black History Month came to prominence in the county where I live, Suffolk. I discovered that back in 1993, thanks to the work of a lady called Del White, the event started to have an impact in our community.
At the time, Del had to create her own campaign, working with local authorities to help push more diverse and inclusive programmes in schools and colleges.
One of the success stories relates to a student group that has been set up at The One Sixth Form College in Ipswich, called the Ethnic Youth Empowerment Society. It had been supported by Ian Brown and Ashton Harewood, personal progress tutors from the sixth form, which is part of Eastern Colleges Group.
Ian and Ashton are trailblazers who have created art galleries featuring black heroes; been to Notting Hill to find out about the origins of the carnival; and talked with two of the writers of the iconic BBC TV series Small Axe, which focuses on the lives of Caribbean migrants in London from the 1960s to the 1980s. They have also celebrated Windrush Day.
This year, Ian and Ashton will be creating a video on what black history means to our students and this will be showcased to staff, feeder schools and the community.
Meanwhile, as part of my work with community partners, I’ve written an interactive black history book aimed at young people, exploring local and national heroes from the black community with Aspire Black Suffolk. This is a community enterprise that focuses on diversity, equality and inclusion through positive action.
As a result of partnerships with local community groups, we have also brought people into the college to tell their amazing stories.
We’ve had artists, professional footballers, pilots, entrepreneurs, charity bosses and singers.
Memories of Windrush
One of the breakthrough moments for me was when our students heard a talk from people with connections to the Windrush generation. Sadly, the vast majority of our learners had never heard of this story. It was emotional to see the impact these talks had.
The majority of our learners had never heard of the Windrush generation
I’m inspired everyday by a quote from Marian Wright Edelman, an American civil rights activist, who said: “you can’t be what you can’t see”. If you show your college community success stories from a range of communities, it has a positive impact on their futures. People feel represented.
As part of our last big event, we also hosted an exhibition from an artist from Ukraine who had recently left her homeland to escape the war currently raging.
For all these reasons and more, Black History Month is vital. But it’s also important to listen and hear from gamechangers that represent a host of different communities to help inspire us all. Not just as a one-off, but throughout the year.
So, why not start by learning about the local history of Black History Month in your area? You never know where it might lead you.
The Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) is on the hunt for a new vice chair after Alex Khan stepped down.
Khan was elected in February but questions over whether he would stay in the position were raised two months later after he resigned as chief executive of Lifetime Training, England’s largest apprenticeship provider.
It wasn’t until last week that Khan’s position as a director and vice chair of AELP was ended. AELP board members need to be serving leaders of training providers.
The AELP is now exploring ways to fill the vacancy on its board and the position of vice chair. It is likely that the position will not be filled until the association’s next annual general meeting in February next year.
Jane Hickie, AELP chief executive, told FE Week: “AELP regrets to announce that Alex Khan has left the AELP board in accordance with our articles. Alex had previously resigned his position as chief executive of Lifetime, where he represented large providers on the AELP board.”
She added: “Throughout his time on the board, Alex has been a great champion for the sector and for AELP. I would like to add my personal thanks to him for his commitment and support over the years. He has been a pleasure to work with. Going forward, the board is looking at how to fill this gap ahead of the elections in February 2023.”
According to Khan’s LinkedIn page, he became a director of LearnBox, a video AELP starts search to fill vice chair vacancy production company that specialises in adult education and online learning, in May this year after leaving Lifetime Training.
Khan said: “I think AELP is a great organisation. Over the years it has made some powerful changes in the wonderful world of work-placed learning and made it a better place.”
A former top civil servant in the government’s skills funding agency is to take up a leadership role at The Skills Network.
Paul McGuire will join the major the online training firm from apprenticeship provider JTL where he has spent the past six years as chief operating officer and most recently interim chief executive.
He’ll become the new chief financial officer of The Skills Network, which is led by former Association of Employment and Learning Providers chief executive Mark Dawe, “shortly after” JTL recruits a permanent chief executive.
McGuire spent five years as chief financial officer of the Learning and Skills Council between 2005 to 2010 and then another five years as chief operating officer of the Skills Funding Agency between 2010 and 2015.
He is a qualified accountant with over 30 years’ experience in financial management roles across both the private and public sectors.
A statement from The Skills Newtork said: “The pandemic experience made Paul, like many people, re-evaluate his future, resulting in Paul deciding that the time was right for a new challenge and accepting this exciting opportunity as chief financial officer at The Skills Network.
“The Skills Network is looking forward to Paul joining to help drive forward an exciting agenda providing online delivery and resources to the learning and skills sector.”
The Skills Network had over 23,000 students enrolled onto distance-learning adult education courses and apprenticeships last year, according to the company’s latest accounts.
Most of The Skills Network’s courses are delivered through subcontracts with colleges.
The government has committed to improving the assessment and support of prisoners with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) following scrutiny of the state of prison education by MPs.
Officials have also pledged to provide education “passports” and more in-cell laptops in a bid to improve prison education, as well as changing legislation to allow prisoners to take apprenticeships.
Ministers, however, have been criticised by the Prisoners’ Education Trust for failing to “deliver the scale of change needed” and for refusing to address long-standing funding issues.
‘Clunky, chaotic and disjointed system’
MPs on the education committee, which is chaired by Robert Halfon, warned of “cracks in a clunky, chaotic and disjointed system which does not value education as the key to rehabilitation” in a report published earlier this year.
In its response to the report, the government promised to expand its use of CURIOUS – a system that captures information on special learning needs – in order to get a better understanding of “a full range of learning difficulties and disabilities (LDD)” across the prison system.
A review of LDD assessment and screening tools has also been commissioned by HM Prison and Probation Service, while officials have also committed to employing 61 SEND support managers each year for two years until there is one support manager in every prison by 2024.
Halfon said it was “encouraging to see the government finally grapple with the disastrously overlooked issue of prisoners with SEND”.
One of the committee’s other key points was a demand for prisoners to be offered the opportunity to take up apprenticeships. As a result, the government committed to changing legislation to make this happen earlier this year.
The Department for Education, meanwhile, said it is currently “working at pace” with the Ministry of Justice to introduce apprenticeships for those in prison and who are close to being released.
Officials said they expect to make the necessary changes to legislation “by the autumn to allow the first apprenticeship starts in the autumn”. The plan is to initially allow up to 100 prisoners a year to be supported to begin an apprenticeship in custody.
Halfon welcomed this move, saying that ex-prisoners who find employment are “statistically less likely to offend” and “giving offenders a route back into work is the best way to reintegrate and reinvest them in society”.
The government’s commitment to improve SEND data and introduce a support manager in every prison will allow prisoners to fully access the rehabilitating education they need
The government has also promised to introduce “digital education passports” which will record learning and assessments to minimise the loss or delay of prisoners’ educational records when they are transferred between prisons at short notice.
“Resettlement passports” have also been committed to, which will set up bank accounts and help with CV prior to a prisoner’s release to help them reintegrate back into society. In addition, in-cell laptops for prisoners to use when undertaking education have also been expanded to 41 prisons.
A series of recommendations from MPs, however, were rejected. This includes setting a date for when all prisons will be able to support broadband, as well as removing the “six-year rule” which would allow prisoners on longer sentences to apply for higher education courses earlier in their sentence.
A recommendation to make pay for education equal to the pay for prison work was also rejected by the government, which argued that the responsibility to do this lies with the prison governors.
The Prisoners’ Education Trust criticised the government’s response, stating that it “mostly describes changes that are already underway and restates announcements that have already been made”, while “on the biggest issues facing prison education – the lack of funding and slow progress in making digital technology available to prisoners – it has nothing new to say”.
A spokesperson for the trust also criticised the government for only rolling out in-cell technology in a handful of prisons.
Executive Director for Education and Justice, Seetec
Start date: September 2022
Previous job: Chief executive officer, St Margaret Clitherow Catholic Academy Trust
Interesting fact: Amy worked at the Ministry of Justice for over 10 years and has been a non executive director at Northumbria University for 8 years.
Tom Roberts
Assistant Principal – Curriculum & Quality, East Coast College
Start date: September 2022
Previous job: Director of Resourcing and Performance, City College Norwich
Interesting fact: Tom loves travelling the world and spent time teaching sport to children in Fiji. Closer to home he enjoys exploring the Norfolk Broads on his Paddleboard.
A pilot scheme for new short higher education courses should be reviewed if numbers do not significantly pick up, an MP has said, after just 12 applications for student loans have been received to date.
The Department for Education last year announced 22 providers – all but one being universities – would design and deliver the £2 million Higher Education Short Course Trial for level 4 to 6 courses, with delivery beginning in the 2022/23 academic year.
In response to a parliamentary question by Labour MP Emma Hardy this week, the DfE said that it expected most courses to launch in January next year, but confirmed that just a dozen requests had been made to the Student Loans Company for tuition fee loans so far.
The maximum tuition fee loan available is £3,080 per course for those with 40 credits, or up to £2,310 for 30-credit courses. Students, though, are not required to take out a loan and can opt to fund the courses themselves or ask their employer to pay the fees.
Andrea Jenkyns, the skills minister, said she expects more students to participate in the courses. The very low figure, however, has sounded alarm bells.
“Access to short courses linked to skills is needed if we are to address the skills gap, and this was the DfE’s much heralded response,” said Hardy, MP for Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle.
“However, the first signs are that there is a lack of demand to pay for these using the current loan system. I doubt this is the level of take-up the DfE was hoping for. Should it remain at these low levels I expect there to be a proper review and the issues addressed.”
The exact number of applicants is not yet known as it is held at individual provider level. FE Week has approached all of the pilot providers to request applicant numbers but did not receive response at the time of going to press.
In her response to Hardy, Jenkyns added: “The department will be monitoring the overall number of students on courses and the number of applications for loans at various points throughout the trial.
“As a new type of learning the department is expecting demand for short courses to increase over the course of the three-year trial, as more people become aware of these opportunities and realise the benefits flexible learning can bring.”
The DfE announced the scheme last year as a step towards the lifelong loan entitlement plans from 2025, which eventually aims to fund the equivalent of four years of post-18 education.
Weston College was the only FE college to secure a contract in the three-year pilot, with the remaining 21 being handed to universities.
More than 100 courses are on offer in the trial, ranging from four weeks to a year. Among some of the courses are network security, disability inclusion, designing net-zero buildings, as well as mental health and wellbeing for children.
Meanwhile, the Office for Students said the courses aim to provide a more flexible way for students to acquire the skills needed by both employers and the economy.
Only two years ago, the adult education sector was called ‘the crown’ and community learning its ‘jewel’ by the education select committee.
So why is a narrow offer (unless you can pay) possibly set to become even narrower? Jess Staufenberg finds out
The “existential decline” of the adult education sector because of drops in funding, status and public awareness of provision is a national tragedy, say sector leaders and experts.
FE Week can reveal a mass move among adult education providers towards fee-paying courses as free languages and creative arts provision is squeezed out; preventative programmes under threat from a new government consultation; and a residential adult provision that believes its specialist funding will be pulled from 2023.
It comes at a time when the case for lifelong learning has perhaps never made so much sense. A potent combination of the skills shortage laid bare by the pandemic and Brexit, people living longer lives and a public largely sick of austerity measures means the timing seems politically ripe.
Visit either of the main party conferences and you’ll hear “skills” mentioned on repeat. Perhaps not since the end of the world wars has the case for lifelong learning seemed so important.
Adult education – which is delivered by general FE colleges but more broadly by the adult community education sector – could finally get the recognition it deserves.
But there are two big problems.
Firstly, skills for what? Skills for jobs? Or for life? For communities? For oneself? The debate rages on between ministers and providers – and the heat has turned up after the government proposed narrowing the ‘outcomes’ it is willing to fund to those only related to employment.
Secondly, the adult education sector is no longer engaging anywhere near the number of adults it once was. Despite an additional £900 million pledged in last year’s spending review for adult education by 2024–25, total spending on adult education and adult apprenticeships will still be 25 per cent lower in 2024-25 compared to 2010-11, according to the Institute of Fiscal Studies.
Another way of putting it, from Learning and Work Institute, is there will be £1 billion less in adult education in 2025 compared to 2010 (and the 2010 level wasn’t even high enough, the LWI adds).
The result of these cuts – also fuelled by the 2013 switch to advanced learner loans for those over 24 studying levels 3 and 4, saddling adults with debt – has been “plummeting participation” in adult education, says Simon Parkinson, chief executive at the Workers’ Educational Association (WEA), in what will be news to nobody.
It means there has been a 50 per cent fall in adults taking qualifications at level 2 and below, alongside a 33 per cent fall in the number of adults taking level 3 qualifications since 2010. By 2020, that meant about four million “lost learners” according to LWI.
But adult education also includes non-accredited courses relating to personal growth, social activism, health, creativity, employability skills and so on. Here, data on participation is harder to come by – but providers have widely told FE Week they have been forced to introduce fees for formerly free courses and focus their scarce resources on the most vulnerable.
Exhibition of advanced children’s book illustration at City Lit
To remind you, the adult education budget is about £1.5 billion a year and is divided into two funding lines.
The first is the ‘education and training’ funding line, which is for accredited courses and usually covers English and maths, ESOL and digital skills qualifications, with various entitlements to free courses depending on your situation. This funding line is delivered by both general FE colleges and adult education community providers.
The second is the ‘community learning’ funding line, which covers both accredited and non-accredited courses, both free and fee-paying (depending on who and where you are). This funding line is not delivered by general FE colleges, but by adult communication education providers only, including local authority services, specialist ‘institutes of adult learning’ colleges and charities such as the WEA.
It’s an especially varied sector encompassing 200 providers, 10,000 venues, 15,000 staff and around 500,000 learners, according to sector body HOLEX. But it only has a budget of £215 million a year (almost unchanged since 2005), which amounts to less than one per cent of the entire post-18 education and skills budget (for context, 84 per cent of that budget goes to universities).
Overall, adult education – and community education particularly – is now a tiny drop in the ocean of the entire education budget of £99 billion a year.
A proud (potted) history
Let’s start in 1919. After the First World War the newly formed ‘ministry of reconstruction’ launches a sub-committee for adult education, which produces a radical report. It calls for ‘extra mural’ departments (meaning ‘outside the walls’) to be set up in every university to engage adults in the community in non-vocational, non-accredited courses – a national commitment to adult education for education’s sake, led by HE.
Then before the end of the Second World War, the 1944 education act empowers local authorities to get more involved in delivery. The following 1960s and 1970s are the “heyday” of adult education, says John Holford, professor of adult education at Nottingham University, with strong links between providers, trade unions (who often fund their workers’ courses) and community groups.
The 1980s then bring “enormous change” under a Conservative government, with a drive towards employability outcomes, says Holford. Meanwhile, the 1992 further and higher education act separates FE and HE funding, so breaking up the partnership between the WEA and extra mural departments.
The 1980s brought enormous change for adult education
Also, adult education stops being a ringfenced funding stream for higher education, so universities largely pull out. Now, community providers such as local authorities and FE colleges are the main players.
By 2000 the new adult learning inspectorate is launched (later rolled into Ofsted), with regulations and outcomes continuing to be firmed up. By 2005, the Leitch review of skills argues employers should be directly involved in deciding what the training priorities should be. It also says individuals and employers should pay towards any courses which only have a “private benefit”.
Funding cuts follow from 2010. The sector does get a welcome 2011 policy document, which states that community learning should “develop stronger communities”, improve personal confidence and social wellbeing. The New Challenges, New Chances strategy also calls for public funding to be focused on those most disadvantaged, with fees for “people who can afford to pay”.
But as the cuts begin to bite, there is a rush of reports arguing for a more generous adult education model from 2016 onwards.
A UNESCO paper on adult learning and education praises its impact on everything from “healthier behaviours” to greater awareness of “arts, ethics and cultural heritage”. In 2017, University of Warwick academics report that adult education helps meet “major challenges including ageing, loneliness, mental health” and saves the NHS and social services money.
By 2019, the ‘Centenary Commission’, launched 100 years after the 1919 report, calls for a clear national strategy for adult education and lifelong learning, chaired by Helen Ghosh, an Oxford university academic and former civil servant.
To top things off, the education select committee produces “A Plan for an Adult Skills and Lifelong Learning Revolution” in 2020, calling for a community learning centre in every town. Bitingly, it adds: “The report finds that the Department for Education does not fully grasp the value and purpose of community learning”. By contrast the committee dubs community learning the “jewel in the crown” of adult education.
But the DfE is headed in a different direction.
The “employer-led system” approach is well under way with local skills improvement plans, with higher technical skills having been prioritised with free level 3 courses from 2021 (despite the government’s own research revealing in July that many people can’t get onto these courses because they haven’t got lower-level qualifications).
And then this summer a funding and accountability consultation quietly announced the “need to re-orientate the vision for non-qualification provision” along three new objectives: employment outcomes for all learners, progression into further learning that moves learners closer to the labour market, and helping those with special educational needs and disabilities with their personal development. The “stronger communities” and “confidence” objectives have both disappeared.
Double whammy: review and recruitment
FE Week spoke to 16 members of staff in organisations dedicated solely to adult education – institutes of adult learning, local authority adult education services and adult community learning providers.
We also visited two providers: City Lit, an institute of adult learning college in London, and Wensum Lodge, Norfolk county council’s adult education centre in Norwich.
With 93 per cent of the adult community education sector graded Ofsted 1 or 2, it is unsurprising to find some brilliant practice across the board.
In Norfolk, for instance, the local authority applied to the government’s community renewal fund and landed £600,000 to develop two new construction skills centres this year. It is expecting 900 adult learners to attend the two new sites on non-accredited courses, and is working with City & Guilds to develop qualification pathways. Impressively, 30 per cent of enrolments are women.
At Wensum Lodge, one learner says he sees the construction skills as a “back up” to his job in computing, and he can now do some home DIY without having to pay someone. But above all, the course has helped him “feel happy”, he explains.
A construction learner and tutor at an adult education centre in Norwich
FE Week also met a class of four ESOL learners from Ukraine (the service works with about 500 displaced people), three apprentices on a level 4 accounting apprenticeship and a roomful of older clients learning the ukulele. Half of the council’s provision is for education and training, the other half is for community learning.
But it is rare for community adult education providers to access capital funds for new premises, according to Denise Saadvandi, head of service for adult learning.
“Whereas colleges have been able to access pots of capital funding, we usually haven’t. We really need more of that type of funding stream if you want us to be able to respond to the labour market.”
And even with new facilities, staffing them is a problem, explains Carl Fiander, assistant head of service at Wensum Lodge.
“It’s exceptionally difficult, especially for construction and in accounting, where pay in the industry is so high,” he says. To tackle the issue, the service pays for people to do the level 3 and 4 education and training qualification in teaching, training about 12 staff a year this way – but there are still vacancies.
A ukulele lesson at an adult education centre in Norwich
Down in London, the Westminster adult education service delivers everything from level 1 to 3 graphic design courses, working with partners such as the Royal Palaces and Transport for London, to the library information and archive service apprenticeship with the British Library and Tate Modern.
But other programmes would be under threat from the new objectives proposed in the funding and accountability consultation, says Arinola Edeh, service principal. The council spends 20 per cent of its budget on community learning.
This includes a course on household finances which “isn’t about getting into work, but is about protecting the most vulnerable, helping them improve their credit rating,” says Edeh.
Similarly, there’s a course on how to use your phone – so people can access services online, but not necessarily find employment – and a programme called ‘Brave’, which “helps parents spot signs of radicalisation, grooming and violence”.
“Community education is rarely in the first instance about getting into work,” Edeh adds. “All of that would be under threat from this review.”
At Lewisham council in south London, the local authority delivers a mental health course called Mindlift for £100,600 a year, which Sidra Hill-Reid, head of adult learning,says helps ease pressures on the NHS.
But as the local authority’s transition data for all its courses shows, 76 per cent progress into other adult education courses and only four per cent straight into employment, so she again fears the provision could be under threat. “That lovely outcome around ‘building communities’ isn’t in there anymore,” she worries.
Just as in Norfolk, recruitment of staff is also a big problem. “They jump to an FE college where they can get a permanent contract, which is understandable,” continues Hill-Reid.
Staff jump to an FE college to get a permanent contract
The last government pay survey shows that teachers in adult education are paid £17,500 a year on average, compared to £27,000 in colleges – a huge gap.
Kerry Roberts, an adult education tutor with the WEA who delivers confidence-building courses, says her job is “very rewarding” but not paid “what it deserves”.
She adds her family learning courses, such as how to plan a day-trip focused on strengthening family relationships, wouldn’t clearly fall under the consultation’s new objectives. Multiple providers tell FE Week their family learning programmes feel particularly under threat from the review.
For free or for a fee?
But aside from the threats to their existing courses, providers also warn about the ongoing issue of fees.
At Lewisham council for instance, where 65 per cent of adult education is community learning, much of that is now fee-paying. Of its £4 million in income for adult education last year, 12 per cent (£470,000) came from residents paying fees, of which £167,600 were for community learning courses.
“From 2010 onwards, there were such significant cuts to funding that local authorities had to make tough decisions about who they were going to target,” explains Hill-Reid, service lead, adding fees from wealthier residents are used to subsidise courses for their poorer neighbours.
But residents “still come through who say ‘I can’t afford this’, she continues. “There is a gap in provision for those who earn over the London living wage but still can’t afford to do this stuff.” Adults are reluctant to take on learner loans, she adds.
Community learning fees are also rising at the council: from £6 on average an hour (£3 when subsidised) last year to £6.50 (and £3.25) this year.
Jewellery-making at City Lit college in London
Similarly at Bristol city council about a quarter of income for adult education comes from fees, bringing in £378,000 a year (though all community learning is kept free).
The most expensive course is £253 for 36 hours – with the reduced fee usually 70 per cent of the full fee – and the least expensive £12, according to Jane Taylor, head of service.
“What about all these other people on low incomes? I just have to say, we don’t have the funding for that,” she says. “It means that languages and arts are not so widely available.”
Languages and arts are now not widely available
She adds: “In days gone by we had more adult education centres in Bristol, but they are all closed now.”
Meanwhile at Birmingham adult education service, the council has seen its fee income drop because of the need to focus staff and resources on courses for the poorest residents.
“As we are reengineering the curriculum to offer more to the most disadvantaged, we’re getting less from fees,” explains Ilgun Yusuf, principal of the service. Whereas the council got £1.4 million in fees in 2016-17, only £453,000 came from fees in 2021-22.
“Of course we need to make sure we’re not using public funds for courses people can afford. But because we have less money, we have to prioritise certain things,” continues Yusuf.
“It’s absolutely tragic. I call it the existential decline of adult education.”
College offer under threat
We also spoke to five colleges: four institutes of adult learning and one general FE college.
Two are the only residential adult education colleges left in the country, taking some of the most vulnerable learners in the Yorkshire area (Northern College) and West Midlands (Fircroft College). Other residential colleges have closed or merged, with their provision scaled back.
Both the remaining institutions, which have relatively small incomes of only £4 million and £2.6 million respectively, have been threatened for several years with the removal of their funding uplift for residential placements, which is worth 4.7 times the base funding rate.
Now, FE Week can reveal that Northern College says it has been told by the ESFA “not to expect residential funding from DfE” from 2023-24.
“That’s massive for us,” says principal Yultan Mellor. “It would be a very silly move to whip away residential funding next year, when the market has bounced back and we are oversubscribed.”
The college, which has 75 bedrooms, is at full capacity, says Mellor. She has even reduced the length of residential stays from a full week to three days because “so many people need to work as well as study”.
This has doubled residential placement availability, but the college is still full, according to Mellor.
Mel Lenehan, principal at Fircroft College, adds: “Residential provision is unique because it’s a wraparound experience for our most vulnerable adults.” Half of her students declare a mental health need when they enrol. “We can’t just expect that type of adult to succeed on a limited set of outcomes.”
A DfE spokesperson said no decision on residential adult education funding had been made.
Ceramics at City Lit college in London
Less residential provision has also reduced the space where people could learn how to transform their communities, says Sharon Clancy, assistant professor in educational leadership and management at Nottingham University. For instance, the working-class MPs Dennis Skinner and John Prescott both went to residential colleges (now closed) and on to Parliament.
The focus on individual health and wellbeing overlooks the importance of social and political education, continues Clancy, who also sat on the 2019 centenary commission. “It’s not about individual social mobility, but about returning to your own community and enacting change. That small ‘p’ political purpose is being lost.”
Meanwhile Rebecca Taylor, vice principal for curriculum and standards at John Ruskin College, says adult learner numbers “are not the same as they were” due to funding cuts.
“We’ve had to focus on competency-based offers, with a clear qualification, rather than the more diagnostic work that is more exploratory and will help someone decide what they might like to do.” During the pandemic, colleges found it so hard to spend their adult education budgets that 103 institutions had to return money to the government, with 19 handing back more than £1 million.
Finally, FE Week’s tour around the sparkling facilities at City Lit in London revealed fantastic children’s illustration exhibitions, ceramics displays, jewellery and book-binding workbenches, a spacious drama studio, adult lipreading unit, a classics and American history departments, and much more. There are 6,000 courses at the college, which is open seven days a week, 46 weeks a year.
“Adult education is a way to find respite from the day-to-day,” explains principal Mark Malcolmson.
Adult education is a way to find respite from the day-to-day
“But my biggest worry is adult education could get priced out. London is very, very expensive.” His institution doesn’t have sliding fees but does have bursaries and instalment payments for some programmes.
But the pressure is on: the college’s fee income dropped from £10.1 million prior to the pandemic to £7.4 million in 2020-21. The college, though, is now back on track to producing more than half its income through enrolment fees, says Malcolmson.
Cause for hope?
Experts are clear – the current situation is serious. Sixty-three per cent fewer adults are in literacy and numeracy classes now than in 2010, according to LWI research. “It’s disastrous, a complete crisis,” says chief executive Stephen Evans.
He adds: “The other depressing statistic is it’s not just about government spending. Employers are spending 28 per cent less on employee training than in 2005.”
There have been good policies – the apprenticeship levy, Multiply and devolution – which just need tweaks, adds Evans. The new skills fund, which the AEB will be rolled into, should also be accompanied by “much simpler eligibility criteria” so people are less confused, he adds.
A big government push for greater awareness of adult education is also needed, says Alice Wilcock, head of education at the Centre for Social Justice. Research shows degree-educated people are more likely to know about adult education than those without.
“So what opens up is this cumulative learning gap,” says Wilcock. Instead, she calls for a “lifelong learning strategy that starts at foundation level not level 3”, and “a place to tell people centrally about what opportunities are open to them”.
Community providers must also be brought to the table to help determine local skills improvement plans, she adds.
There is food for thought for the sector, too. More high-quality career coaches in both adult education colleges and services could be a good idea. There is one career coach at Bristol city council, with another soon to join. Is that enough? Do such roles need to be more widespread to aid transition into work?
Meanwhile, Gerald Jones, director of community learning at Morley College, believes “simple and effective ways to measure the impact” of adult education holistically is genuinely possible. He sits on a government working group on how such outcomes might be measured (although it’s not clear whether it will continue under the new government). “Even an app could work,” he says.
For now, the sector is firefighting. The next battle is the funding and accountability consultation, which closes in mid-October. However, a long-term strategy, and future, remain unclear.
Our WEA tutor, Roberts, concludes. “I honestly think that a society that doesn’t look after itself is headed for a massive disaster.”
A two-year trial to deliver T Levels for adults was quietly launched this month, as education chiefs look to test the flagship qualifications on 150 older learners ahead of a potential 2025 rollout.
The Department for Education previously said that its new technical education courses for 16- to 19-year-olds would eventually become available to adults, but ministers hadn’t put a timeframe on that.
It has now emerged that 11 colleges have been selected to deliver a pilot, starting from this month, with around 150 learners expected in the first cohort.
The launch has been decidedly subdued, with no external communications from the government on the scheme to date, and only a few details emerging following enquiries from FE Week.
What the department has confirmed is that 11 colleges are part of the pilot, although not all of those may have started delivering the courses as they may be on flexible delivery models.
The pilot covers wave one and two pathways in the digital, construction, education, and health and science routes. While total numbers have not yet been confirmed, the DfE said it did not expect any more than 150 learners in total.
The DfE said ministers will be given evidence at the end of the trial in 2024 that will inform any decision on whether to roll the courses out nationally to adults from September 2025. However, that decision is “likely to be subject to Treasury approval”.
The DfE said it cannot name the providers in the pilot because it has not released its own external communications yet.
FE Week found reference to delivering the courses for adults on the websites of six colleges: Exeter, Barnsley, Derby, East Sussex, TEC Partnership and Barking and Dagenham College. All have been approached for comment.
The DfE has also refused to clarify funding arrangements, saying only that while funding is different to that for 16- to 19-year-olds, the funding levels were comparable.
It is understood that the funding has not come through the adult education budget but from a separate pot.
A DfE spokesperson said: “The pilot is deliberately small scale and numbers of participating providers and learners will be small.
“We hope to learn valuable lessons from the pilot regarding how adults can be supported in accessing T Levels, should we decide to offer T Levels to adults in the future.”
T Levels were launched in September 2020 as technical equivalents to A-levels, but originally intended for those aged 16 to 19.
Students aged 19 to 25 who have an education health and care plan can currently access any T Level available for 16 to 19s.
A consultation by the DfE in 2021 on post-16 level 3 qualifications asked the sector whether T Levels should be offered to adults. It found that 71 per cent agreed the qualifications should be offered to learners aged 19 and above, with respondents in favour saying it would provide progression opportunities, upskilling options and specialist training for those changing careers.
Exeter College, which taught 330 T Level students aged 16 to 18 in 2021/22, is one of the colleges selected for the adult trial. The college this month began delivering the digital production, design and development T Level to adults on a part-time basis only.
That was a decision made to enable flexible learning so adults could continue working alongside their studies. Learning is timetabled over two days a week there.
Despite the quiet launch of the pilot nationally, Exeter said recruitment of adult learners was not an issue, with 18 adults applying for its 15 places.
Lucinda Sanders, director of higher education and adult learning, said the college had formed a dedicated digital and data department specifically for adult learners, as it is one of the biggest skills gaps in the south west. It meant it could market the T Level alongside existing offers such as digital skills bootcamps and a free level 2 digital technologies course it had already been offering.
“Under the branding of this digital and data department is really where we got people. We have had some level 2s progress on to it, and some of our ex-bootcamp learners who are now working in industry and choosing to work part time because they want to come back and do the T Level,” Sanders said.
“We have full employment in Exeter, so whereas the bootcamp might be really good for someone wanting to upskill, the T Level is for somebody who wants to retrain and get into that sector. Someone who might not have the skills to get on an apprenticeship in digital but really wants to get into the industry, but at the same time needs to be able to work.”
Sanders said the line-of-sight to employment “seems to be a big hook for adults”, adding that those who had enrolled were already enthusiastic about the course and its links to industry through the mandatory 45-day work placement.
The college has confirmed it is teaching its adults in separate classes to its 16- to 18-year-olds and will be providing data returns to the DfE on starts, retention figures, progress marks and completion rates.
Barnsley College was among the few to publicly announce it was delivering adult T Levels from this month in childcare, construction and digital.
It said that adult learners will complete a “skill-scan” as part of their enrolment. That is to analyse their existing skills and experience, to determine the length of their study. It said that flexible options could be available to help students fit in the course alongside their existing commitments.
Further education leaders have vowed to march on parliament if proposed cuts to Whitehall budgets hit the sector.
The Treasury will write to all government departments in the coming days to demand they find efficiency savings to reduce the level of borrowing needed in a bid to calm the financial market, according to reports.
The moves comes despite prime minister Liz Truss saying that she was “not planning public spending reductions” during the Conservative party’s leadership contest.
Leaders of colleges and training providers now fear that their frontline services, which are already under huge pressure because of high inflation, will bear the brunt of cuts to the Department for Education’s budget.
David Hughes, chief executive of the Association of Colleges, said: “The idea of further cuts to college funding is chilling. After 12 years of underinvestment there is no fat to cut. Reduced funding would mean fewer courses on offer, lower hours of teaching, less student support and an even worse staffing crisis.”
Hughes also took to Twitter to say his membership body would organise a protest after Derwentside College principal Chris Todd tweeted: “If this [Whitehall cuts] comes to further education, after everything we’ve been through, I’m marching on the capital. Who’s with me?”
The University and College Union, Sixth Form Colleges Association and adult education provider network HOLEX all told FE Week they would join a sector-wide protest.
Jo Grady, UCU general secretary, said: “It would be a grotesque act of harm and deeply damaging to the life chances of those who rely on further education to announce further devastating cuts. If further cuts are visited on further education, UCU and its members will have no hesitation in taking to the streets.”
Bill Watkin, SFCA chief executive, added: “If the request to find efficiency savings leads to the possibility of cuts in frontline services we will respond in the strongest possible terms. Funding cuts would affect the whole of 16- to 19-year-olds education, so it would be important to respond with one voice. We saw from the Raise the Rate campaign what can be achieved when colleges, schools, students, and trade unions work closely together.
“We hope that common sense will prevail, but if it does not we will do everything we can to ensure that the government’s economic experiment does not damage the life chances of sixth form students.”
The DfE’s total departmental spending came to £102,897,000 in 2020-21, according to its most recently published accounts. It is not clear at this stage how much in savings each government department will be told to find by the Treasury.
Last year’s spending review pledged funding increases to 16- to 18-year-olds and adult education budgets.
But the Institute for Fiscal Studies found that due to significant cuts over the past decade, government spending will still be 25 per cent lower in 2024–25 than 2010–11 for adult education.
Per student spending in further education and sixth form colleges for 16- to 18-year-olds will also be 10 per cent lower by 2023-24 than when the Conservatives entered government, according to the IFS.
Sue Pember, the director of policy at HOLEX and a former DfE senior skills civil servant, said all services should be worried that the government is beginning to talk about cuts but she urged her counterparts to “not do the government’s work for them and use this exercise to create division in the wider education sector by suggesting some things are less important and therefore can be cut”.
“All the slack, if there was any, was cut out of the sector in 2012. What is left is the minimum needed to build a cohesive society and support economic growth.”
Pember added: “What we must do is work collectively to reiterate the importance of adult education and skills development in a period of recession. People are worried and they need support through learning new skills so they can ride out of this period of upheaval and set of unknowns.”
Jane Hickie, Association of Employment and Learning Providers chief executive, said her membership body is also “deeply concerned” with reports that cabinet ministers will be asked to find “efficiency savings” which are tantamount to funding cuts.
“The training provider sector can ill afford any more financial blows at this challenging time,” she said. “I hope the education secretary Kit Malthouse will make a strong case for continued – and ideally increased – investment in further education and skills.”
