With just a few weeks to go before the nominations for this year’s BTEC Awards close, the countdown is on. Nominating is easy, you can nominate multiple times and there is plenty to be won.
The annual event, now in its 12th year, recognises and celebrates the hard work and dedication of BTEC learners, tutors, and colleges from all around the globe.
Why not give someone at your college some well-earned recognition?
The Awards are an opportunity to honour exceptional vocational learning and teaching. There are awards for Tutor of the Year and College of the Year – as well as many learner sector awards and overall Young and Adult Learner of the year.
The Awards are being held in central London this summer. Gold winners and their guests will be invited, along with their nominator, for an afternoon filled with inspiring stories that celebrate the triumphs and achievements of learners, educators and providers within the BTEC community.
We want to hear from all the colleges that have excelled during this extraordinary year, through their resilience, enthusiasm, and community spirit. If this sounds like your college, why not nominate your team for a BTEC College of the Year Award?
Previous BTEC Awards winners have benefited from nationwide publicity for their college staff and learners through regional and national press coverage. Many BTEC College of the Year winners have gone on to become BTEC ambassadors, featuring in Pearson BTEC advertising campaigns and in the press.
To nominate and find out more about the BTEC Awards and enter, visit: btec.co.uk/awards
Governors of a land-based college have been criticised by the FE Commissioner for a “lack of urgency” in addressing financial issues which have resurfaced multiple times since 2015.
Kingston Maurward College in Dorset has been placed in early intervention three times over the past seven years, most recently in December 2020, due to deteriorating financial performance.
A report published by the FE Commissioner yesterday detailed the results of a November 2021 visit. The report said that while the current leadership had stabilised prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, “financial risks are accumulating”.
Risks include a “substantial” Education and Skills Funding Agency clawback following an apprenticeships audit, repayment of a Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS) loan, two large grant-funded capital projects, bank covenants being broken, and limited cash reserves particularly during the February and March low points.
The report said governors are now aware they are “facing several difficult and critical strategic decisions regarding the future financial viability and sustainability of the college”.
Despite this, the FE Commissioner’s team warned that there “continues to be a lack of urgency” among governors, and “too willing an acceptance of reasons for the lack of pace and progress in addressing issues – particularly in relation to overall planning, process improvement, assessment and analysis related to financial planning and efficiency improvements”.
The report also accused leaders of the college for being “overly optimistic about student growth potential in a sub-region with a flat demographic”.
Responding to the report, Luke Rake, principal of Kingston Maurward College, told FE Week that he did not believe there is a lack of urgency.
“But the FE commissioners are entirely entitled to their view and we respect it,” he said.
“The FE Commissioner’s team have been very supportive in helping the board focus on key metrics and areas of improvement.”
Rake explained that the pandemic has made things more challenging for the college with a larger than usual commercial component that, due to government-imposed restrictions on trade, had meant a significant loss of income in the last two years.
One issue raised by the report is that there is still a “danger” that governors and senior leaders are overly optimistic about student growth potential.
Rake told FE Week that current recruitment data is strong and the college has grown student numbers for the last three years.
“We will not know until enrolment whether we are overly optimistic, but at the moment feel our current levels of optimism may be justified based upon the data we have,” he said.
“Recent funding allocations for the next financial year show significant growth in funding due to not only student number growth, but also improvements to retention as well.
“There is always a risk we have been too optimistic. There is similarly a possibility we haven’t been optimistic enough. We shall see in September,” Rake added.
A key financial risk highlighted by the report is that the college faces a “substantial ESFA clawback”.
Since the FE Commissioner’s visit in November 2021, Rake said that the college has successfully argued a business case for the adult education budget clawback, after his college only spent 51 per cent of its allocation in 2020/21.
However, Rake said the college has an ongoing audit which has highlighted a “potential risk around apprenticeships”. This has “yet to complete and any final figures are yet to be determined”, he added.
Russia and Belarus have been suspended from WorldSkills competitions and the EuroSkills 2023 event will no longer be held in St Petersburg following the invasion of Ukraine.
WorldSkills Europe board members this morning announced the decision to relocate next year’s event to an as yet unnamed other country following an emergency meeting.
At the same time, WorldSkills International announced that it has also cancelled WorldSkills Russia’s participation in WorldSkills Shanghai 2022. Belarus has also been kicked out due to its “active support” of Russia’s invasion.
Both countries have had their WorldSkills International memberships suspended with immediate effect.
In a statement, WorldSkills International said: “WorldSkills is politically and denominationally neutral. The invasion of Ukraine by Russia is a clear and enormous breach of our code of ethics and conduct. Belarus, by its active support of Russia’s invasion, has also breached our code of ethics and conduct.
“The Russian government has made choices that forfeit its access to participate in events and activities organized by WorldSkills and its members.”
EuroSkills 2023 had been set to take place in St Petersburg from August 16 to 20, 2023.
WorldSkills Shangahi is currently scheduled to run from October 12 to 17, 2022.
WorldSkills UK chief executive, Neil Bentley-Gockmann, welcomed today’s “swift and decisive” actions.
“We have ceased all our bilateral work with WorldSkills Russia, including suspending our international partnership,” he added.
“We will continue to work with our peers across the rest of the world as we move towards supporting and delivering a successful WorldSkills Shanghai 2022 in October this year.”
Martin Dunford, chair and a co-founder of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, is retiring from the role. He reflects on the many policy shifts AELP has achieved over the years
“So one day I got this fax through. It was a fax to the ten largest training providers to say, ‘Why don’t we have a meeting?’ – and it was because none of us knew anything about each other.”
If some of the public – and many ministers – can be hazy about what colleges offer (if they’ve gone through the schools system), then it’s fair to say independent training providers are even more of a mystery to many outside FE. AELP has spent two decades trying to change that.
And with Dunford as chair since 2004, it’s little wonder AELP’s leaders said his departure this week marks “the end of an era”.
Dunford explains that back in about 2000, when he got that fax through, staff in the different providers never met up, let alone had any profile outside the sector.
The fax was from John Hyde, then chief executive of Hospitality Plus, a hospitality and catering training provider (he’s now chair at HIT Training).
“So we went along to this meeting, and we said, ‘What do you do, that’s interesting, this is what I do,” Dunford smiles.
Others in attendance included Stewart Segal, chief executive of Spring Skills, the largest training provider in sectors such as retail and customer services, and Hugh Pitman, who founded vocational and employment training provider JHP Group.
This tentatively interested group then got in touch with another organisation already in existence, the National Training Foundation, run by Neil Bates, who is now chair of The Edge Foundation, and the late Frank McMahon, managing director of YH Training, who would later become AELP’s treasurer.
“We met up with them, and we said, why don’t we create something?” says Dunford. It worked: AELP was launched in 2002.
“We all put some money in to get it going. We started with nothing, no staff, no money, one chief executive and a handful of members.”
We all met up and we said, ‘Why don’t we create something?’
Dunford had been invited to the table because he was managing director of The Training and Business Group, a role he got at just 38 years old in 1995.
He’d grown up on the Wood Farm housing estate, based around factory work in Oxfordshire, and had always set his sights high.
“Everyone who lived on these estates worked at the factories – most of our dads worked there,” says Dunford.
Another child on the same estate as Dunford is a familiar name: Frances O’Grady, now general secretary of the Trades Union Congress.
She attended the local girls’ grammar, just as Dunford went to the boys’ grammar, but they only realised the connection in their backgrounds later on as their profiles increased. Going to grammar school with “Oxford dons’ sons” gave him confidence, but Dunford is clear: “That system is unfair.”
Dunford as a school pupil in 1967
After school, he studied a biological sciences degree at Leicester University, before taking up a teaching job at a “crammer” – a private A-levels college in Oxford. But he wanted to go to London to try to become a general manager or a CEO.
He recalls meeting business leaders later on in life, when studying an MBA at Hendon Business School at Middlesex University. “I’d be meeting the MD of BP, or Saatchi, and you just realise, everyone is the same. It’s just what you want to achieve.”
First off, he took a job selling high-end technology to the pharmaceutical sector in the UK, becoming field sales manager by age 27. He was headhunted to join a biotechnology start-up called Oros Instruments.
Not long after that he studied his MBA and applied for a general manager advert in the Sunday Times at Training Business Ltd. He became managing director, and changed the name. He’d entered FE, and was here to stay.
Dunford’s student railcard in 1974
AELP’s very first chief executive for a decade was Graham Hoyle, who had been on the Gloucestershire training and enterprise council – one of the 72 councils introduced under the Thatcher government. Dunford’s company worked closely with it to deliver provision.
“Graham had been in the civil service, and so he did a great job of getting us on the map. What you have to understand is we didn’t know who each other were!”
As the word got out, to Dunford’s surprise about 40 colleges with their own ITPs as separate companies quickly joined as members.
It was unexpected as they already belonged to the Association of Colleges. “They weren’t anti-AoC but they clearly did think there was a gap.”
Dunford graduating in 1977
This touches on a tension in the early years of AELP, nods Dunford. “It was fairly adversarial with AoC in those days. Or they just ignored us.” He grins, adding: “There’s good co-operation there now.”
Under Dunford, AELP has recruited its chief executives from both ITPs and colleges, with Stewart Segal following Hoyle, then Mark Dawe, who was a college principal and former senior civil servant at the Department for Education.
AELP’s current chief executive, Jane Hickie, is from a training company background and was AELP’s former chief operating officer.
The most “forward-thinking colleges” tend to work closely with AELP, notes Dunford.
Dunford felt it was occasionally a struggle to make the voice of ITPs heard. “It’s changed now, but it was so different back then,” he says.
The attitude towards work-based learning and apprenticeships verged on snobbish sometimes.
Dunford recalls being in a meeting with Charles Clarke and suggesting that the New Labour education secretary get an apprentice.
“You should have seen the jaws drop on the civil servants in the room. I’m not saying they’re all Oxbridge, but there was a whiff of that.”
So AELP began lobbying ̶ and if there is one thing Dunford is proud to leave behind him, it’s a legacy of doing so effectively.
He remembers telling it straight to then-prime minister Tony Blair during a reception at Number 10.
“I said, ‘Your policy is great, but your implementation is achingly slow.’ So he called over his education special adviser and the next day, we were having a meeting with him.
“They learned a lot through engaging with us about what was going on on the ground,” he adds. “They’d say, ‘We love meeting with you, because you tell us what’s going on in our agencies!’”
Dunford meeting the Queen to receive his OBE in 2010
The upshot of engaging closely with government is “we regularly deliver small, incremental policy wins”.
One example is traineeships, says Dunford. “We lobbied and persuaded the government to introduce traineeships.
We didn’t give it that title but that’s what we were recommending.” Dunford’s current company, where he is chief executive, Skills Training UK, delivers traineeships now (he moved over in 2008), and overall, 56 per cent of traineeships are now delivered by ITPs.
“A lot of people box ITPs as apprenticeship providers, but traineeships are largely delivered by us, and we do BTECs through study programmes.”
He adds that Nadhim Zahawi, the relatively new education secretary, is “also encouraging a wider supply of T Levels”, and Dunford thinks “there will be more ITPs [doing T Levels] in future”.
Other areas where AELP have met with lobbying success is the apprenticeship levy, he says. “We didn’t argue for the levy, but for years, we argued for a demand-led system, rather than a contract-led system.”
For years, we argued for a demand-led system, rather than a contract-led system
Another example is prison apprenticeships. “We’ve been lobbying on that, along with other people, since 2016.”
Not quite achieved yet is individual learner accounts. “A really good system of choice, that could include individual skills accounts, with Ofsted-accredited training providers.”
(When they were last introduced in the early 2000s, fraudulent abuse caused them to be ended after just one year). “That’s something we know we’re not going to win in the short term. But we’ll keep lobbying.”
Dunford sums up his view: “It should all be based on who can produce the results.”
Yet there’s still a tendency for ministers, however friendly towards AELP, to slip into the assumption that colleges should be the go-to providers, says Dunford.
He says he can recall former skills minister Nick Boles, whom he respected, “doing a speech at AoC in which he basically said, ‘Don’t let these guys steal your lunch’”, referring to ITPs.
Zahawi, whom again, Dunford is pleased to have in post, has also called for colleges to be doing a larger proportion of apprenticeships.
“And you have to think, well, why? I don’t think it’s necessarily anti-ITP – it’s a clumsy way of encouraging colleges to be more employer-focused.”
But Dunford is clear: ministers should look at what’s working.
“If that’s a college, absolutely fine. If it’s a group of ITPs, they should be encouraging that.”
It points out the 1,200 ITPs are “the most common type of post-16 provider” in the country; that 80 per cent are judged grade 1 or 2 by Ofsted; and more than 50 per cent of all learners who got their functional skills level 2 qualifications in 2019-20 did so with an ITP.
Succeeding Dunford as chair is Nichola Hay: “Nicki is forward-thinking and strong,” grins Dunford. “I’m delighted she’s got the gig.”
He reflects on where AELP has got to under his chairmanship.
“There’s now a decent balance sheet and over 800 members. People assume we’ve been there for ever. But we started from nothing.”
St Petersburg’s fate as the host of EuroSkills 2023 is hanging in the balance – with leaders from WorldSkills Europe currently deciding on how they will respond to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
WorldSkills Europe is planning on releasing a formal statement tomorrow following a meeting of its board.
WorldSkills International is also planning on releasing a statement “early this week” on how the invasion will impact the global competition in Shanghai later this year.
Across the world, sports organisations have banned Russia from taking part in global competitions, as sanctions from the West begin to take their toll.
“WorldSkills Europe is shocked and saddened by the security situation that is unfolding in Ukraine,” a spokesperson for the European wing of the organisation told FE Week.
“Our hearts go out to all residents of Ukraine, and any person affected by the current events, wherever they may be, including our colleagues at WorldSkills Russia, many of whom have family members living in the Ukraine.”
Tensions around the crisis are now clear to see in the organisation’s global community.
WorldSkills UK chief executive Neil Bentley-Gockmann told FE Week that his organisation is ceasing all bilateral relationships with WorldSkills Russia, including the suspension of their international partnership.
“We are working with WorldSkills International and WorldSkills Europe to help secure swift decisions about WorldSkills Russia’s future involvement in international events and where EuroSkills 2023 will take place,” he said.
WorldSkills UK did not confirm whether it would be pushing for EuroSkills 2023 to be moved to another country or whether UK teams would be stopped from participating in the event it is held in St Petersburg.
Other members of the skills community have made their opinions on the issue heard.
In an email to WorldSkills International’s chief executive, David Hoey, Tom Bewick, chief executive of the Federation of Awarding Bodies said that Vladimir Putin is a “dictator, leading a gangster government in Moscow”.
“And by association, every organ of the Russian state, including WorldSkills Russia, is implicated in this unfolding human tragedy,” Bewick said.
“As a member of the international skills community, it is only right, in my view, that Russia is suspended from membership of WorldSkills International, Russia’s competitors should be suspended from taking part in Shanghai later this year; and WorldSkills Europe in St Petersburg should be cancelled, not merely postponed,” he added.
Russia’s decision to invade Ukraine could affect Russian teams training for WorldSkills’ Shanghai 2022.
FE Week understands that the question of Russian competitors’ participation will be decided by Wednesday.
“Our teams have been following the situation carefully and meeting throughout the weekend to discuss our next steps,” a spokesperson from WorldSkills International told FE Week.
“WorldSkills shares the international community’s deep concern that military operations are disrupting the lives and sovereignty within Ukraine.
“We hope for immediate peace and call upon all countries to ensure the security of all those fleeing Ukraine, including students and workers from abroad. Early this week, we will release further details on the impact on WorldSkills Shanghai 2022,” they said.
Across the world Russia is facing mounting pressure, with sports organisations stopping Russians from taking part in global competitions.
FIFA/UEFA have suspended Russian clubs and national teams from all competitions and Formula 1 has cancelled the Russian Grand Prix.
A report from The Mirror said ministers are discussing plans to ban Russian or Belarussian sports teams from UK competitions.
A college is pleading with the government for an urgent merger after the FE Commissioner revealed it would be insolvent without bailout funding.
City College Southampton is surviving on emergency money from the Education and Skills Funding Agency which is due to run out by February 2023.
The college has seen multiple attempts at a merger fall through in recent years due to its perilous financial position.
Leaders are currently waiting out on the outcome of a city-wide review, which got underway in Autumn 2020, of Southampton’s FE provision to find out what other merger options are available.
A report published today by the FE Commissioner solely about City College Southampton warned that the college is “currently financially unsustainable and is unlikely to be able to stand alone, even if significant savings are made”.
However, it should be “eminently possible” to identify and crystallise savings to put the college into a “much stronger position, becoming more attractive to other organisations”.
The college’s principal Sarah Stannard (pictured) criticised the government for its lack of urgency in finding a long-term solution.
She said: “Staff and students have been made to wait too long for a clear way forward. The board of governors is planning for the college to remain standalone until at least the summer of 2023 because based on our experience to date we do not believe a solution will be implemented sooner.
“However, it would really help staff morale, student confidence and local stakeholders to know that this state of limbo is resolved and there is a clear solution with a real date that everyone is committed to working towards. I very much hope that there is a clear recommendation very soon.”
Southampton Itchen MP Royston Smith said: “Frankly, I think the government has not covered itself in glory and we are in danger of being unable to deliver the FE resource that is so vital to the city of Southampton. What we need is a solution, and quickly.”
The ESFA told FE Week it has no date set for the outcome of the city-wide review.
A spokesperson said: “This is an important piece of work. It is vital that we take time to work with providers to understand the current offer, and to develop a solution that works for the Southampton area, and all its stakeholders.”
Bailout funding reaches £8 million
City College Southampton first applied for exceptional financial support from the ESFA in 2017/18 after its financial health rating dropped from ‘satisfactory’ to ‘inadequate’.
Financial issues facing the college include high staff pay and building maintenance costs combined with falling apprenticeship income and declining student numbers across all programmes. It currently teaches less than 4,000 students.
The college received £1.97 million in 2018 as a bailout. During 2019/20, the college received a further £3.46 million emergency funding from the government. This is being treated as a grant but could be turned into a loan in the future.
The college’s first proposed merger was with Southampton Solent University, as recommended in the FE Commissioner’s 2016 area review. However, this was rejected by the DfE in February 2018, because of “concerns about the suggested governance model and value for money”, Stannard said previously.
Following a “rapid” structure and prospects appraisal, supported by the ESFA and the FE Commissioner and concluding in June 2018, City College selected Ofsted grade two Eastleigh College as a merger partner.
The ESFA pulled funding for this move days before it was due to be completed, just as Stannard was preparing to step down in favour of Eastleigh’s then principal, Jan Edrich.
Without the government’s support, Eastleigh withdrew from the merger.
A later proposal to merge with neighbouring Ofsted grade three Itchen Sixth Form was also rejected by the ESFA in September 2020, owing to what it called “too much uncertainty” around the merged college’s financial viability.
Today’s FE Commissioner report said the college’s senior team are working hard to try and address “some very difficult and challenging issues” that have been long embedded in the college.
It added, however, that “more must be done to minimise the financial losses, and the senior team need to bring forward a comprehensive cost reduction plan that will make significant changes to the cost base”.
The report notes that positive changes to the board and committee structure have been recently implemented.
Stannard said: “The college has been challenged to produce a detailed financial efficiency plan, which is in progress. Spending on backlog estate maintenance has been necessary and very high over the last few years to resolve health and safety issues, such as failing roofs on historic buildings. This expenditure will be significantly reduced going forward. We have also taken action to reduce pay costs this year and will continue to do so.
“Positively, applications for September 2022 are 7 per cent up on the previous year.”
Previous Job: Ofsted Her Majesty’s Inspector- Further Education and Skills
Interesting fact: Emma owned a royal python as a pet for over 15 years and appeared on the Big Breakfast and MTV in the 90s
Alex Khan
Vice chair, AELP
Start date: February 2022
Concurrent Job: Chief executive, Lifetime Training
Interesting fact: Alex is an artisan Perry maker, making around 4000 litres a year for some of the best restaurants in England, Wales and Scotland
Nichola Hay
Chair, AELP
Start date: February 2022
Concurrent Job: Chief operating officer, Estio Training
Interesting fact: Nichola once trekked 100km across the Saraha Dessert for charity, sleeping under the stars with no home comofrts or mobile devices
Daivd Eastgate
Corporation chair, London South East Colleges
Start date: February 2022
Previous Job: Vice chair, London South East Colleges and former chief executive, The Hyde Housing Group
Interesting fact: David used to play in a band called The Larks, described by NME as “a punk band wearing a soul overcoat”. Peaking in 1986/87, appearing on the radio, The chart Show and Kids’ TV
Dawn Helsby
Vice chair, T level Ambassador Network
Start date: February 2022
Concurrent Job: Student employability manager, North Warwickshire and South Leicestershire College
Interesting fact: Dawn is a qualified florist and once worked at Britain’s second most haunted house
Daniel Brett
Vice chair, T level Ambassador Network
Start date: February 2022
Concurrent Job: Deputy CEO and principal, York College
Interesting fact: Despite his appearance on his Linkedin Profile picture, Danny has had grey hair since year 10 at school
Collaboration with staff outside of your own FE provider is very empowering, writes Stacey Salt
When I became a teacher I thought you had to be in a position of authority to drive change, and add creativity and innovation to the classroom and staff development.
I have been an FE educator for six years. My subject specialism is business and I currently work as an advanced practitioner. For me, it’s really important that FE is a mutual learning ground for all, staff and students included.
This has never been more true than since the pandemic.
The culture of our colleges was flipped on its head – “the way we do things” suddenly became a moment of panic, disruption and “how are we going to do things now?”
As an advanced practitioner, my role is integral to supporting and developing others, so at this time the move from the classroom to online became a priority.
And wearing my business teacher hat, the question was also – how can I teach effectively to a group of business students?
How can I ensure the skills and knowledge required by industry can be effectively delivered on an alternative platform?
Two years ago I knew I needed to find something to help me through the pandemic, in a highly pressurised sector.
So for the past couple of years I have participated in “external communities” in FE.
These are groups of professionals who have not only informed my educational practice but given me confidence, helped develop my skills and shown me the power of collaboration and community.
I particularly found comfort in two external communities ̶ the ‘JoyFE Collective’ and the ‘AP Connect’ community.
JoyFE connects up educators in order to bring joy in the remaking of education and professional practices. AP Connect is for advanced practitioners to participate in projects that drive change within organisations.
These communities are everywhere and filled with care, hope and compassion. These spaces have given me the courage to think deeper.
They have encouraged me to use my voice and drive change within the classroom.
They have encouraged me to use my voice
I was also inspired recently to co-create a new space for subject specialisms. The community exists so people can come together across the sector to share, collaborate and think together in a protected space.
These external spaces are underpinned by values such as joy, care, trust, equality, empathy. These are what I put first before I take any action or implement change.
During summer 2021 I took the idea of creating communities for subject specialists to an ideas room run by JoyFE.
This is how the “vocational communities of practice” project was born.
The vision for this project was to connect subject specialists across the FE sector to share, learn and collaborate.
For example, sports tutors come together to discuss the issue of students attending practical lessons but not theory lessons.
After months of planning, our first event launched on the third of this month, and gained much interest. The launch itself was a success and we have further events planned.
You don’t have to be in senior leadership to bring in changes
The driving force within this community is that all the organisers work together, everyone is equal and there are no deadlines or pressures associated with it.
I’ve never met some of the people face-to-face that I see on a weekly basis, but we are certainly working together, as activists to drive change in a sector we are passionate about.
Now, I certainly came into the sector to share my industry knowledge with students.
But also, I am on a journey ̶ a willingness to develop and learn from others. Whether you are a student or an educator, lifelong learning is for us all, and FE is our mutual learning ground.
You don’t have to be in senior leadership to bring in changes. We can work together to do this, use your voice, share your ideas and be brave.
Beautiful change can happen and can become something impactful, valuable ̶ and joyful.
So what do we know about how higher education will look in the future?
University applicants are currently facing the stiffest competition in years, with deferrals, grade inflation, and tougher criteria.
A HEPI report published last year predicted a likely demand of up to 380,000 additional HE places by 2035.
Alongside this upsurge in demand, HE also faces a greater reliance on home students rather than international in future, due both to the UK leaving the EU and to the global pandemic.
What are the challenges faced by universities?
The global pandemic has changed the face of academic learning, with many universities now offering blended learning, mixing face-to-face lectures with digital teaching.
And while campus life is slowly returning, things look different to how they used to, with measures put in place to protect both students and staff. These appear likely to stay for the foreseeable.
The government’s “levelling up” agenda has also challenged universities to set new ambitious targets to support students by reducing dropout rates and improving progression.
What are the opportunities for FE colleges?
Policy changes mean that in future it may be more favourable for FE to support any additional demand for higher education.
We will see increased opportunities for HE in FE collaborations, including an increase in accredited degrees. We will also see a rise in non-traditional HE students, such as career changers, late bloomers and upskilling professionals.
We will see a rise in career changers, late bloomers and upskilling professionals
There are two elements to this: attracting a wider variety of HE students and ensuring the infrastructure can retain and support them towards successful outcomes.
According to a recent survey by YouthSight, 73 per cent of prospective students have already chosen their subject by August. But most (74 per cent) are yet to choose their university at that point – so there is everything to play for.
1. Consider your brand purpose
Are you offering what your HE market needs? And does your HE offering reflect your core values – in other words, are you playing to your strengths and offering what you’re best at?
Identifying what is distinctive in what you offer, compared to other colleges, will help you establish the wider and deeper value you offer to HE students, beyond the value of the fees.
2. Keep in mind the overall student experience
A distinctive student experience is a “sticky” campus – one that encourages students to stay beyond their classes and creates a community feel and a sense of belonging.
Consider the standard of the facilities, the overall look and feel of the campus. What work-life balance opportunities are on offer?
3. Encourage a democratic learning environment
Today’s students enjoy having a personalised experience, so maximise your current student data to enhance this and convert in-college progression. Another consideration is offering a co-authored HE curriculum, in which student feedback is part of the design.
4. Improve your internal communications
The challenges on the ground are often around infrastructure, staff engagement and buy-in. So develop an engagement strategy and aim to ensure staff understand HE in FE and the opportunities it presents for development, promotion and growth – both professionally and for the college’s future.
5. Pivot your messaging
Depending on your provision, make a change to promote the overall 16-to-21 journey. Create a compelling story – highlight what’s important to your target audience which encourages buy-in, such as convenience, progression in one place, employment destinations.
Gather testimonials and make use of HE champions, encouraging adult students to continue in education.
6. Lobby for better curriculum planning
Finally, gather and share data on student course enquiries and missed income opportunities to encourage your senior management to engage with the opportunities HE presents – if prioritised.
In today’s education climate the focus for colleges is on student experience, particularly when it comes to HE in FE.
If you can adopt even some of the above, it will be the beginning of offering a much more competitive proposition to an emerging group of discerning students.
