Awarding giant Pearson has been contracted to develop the legal services T Level, the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education announced today.
The announcement now means that the institute has a full-house of awarding organisations to develop all 23 of the government’s flagship level 3 qualifications.
It also means that Pearson has the complete set of T Levels under the legal, finance and accounting route. A total of 35 providers are currently preparing to deliver the finance and accounting T Levels from this September. Delivery of the legal services qualification begins in September 2023.
The value of Pearson’s contract totals £3.44 million.
Pearson’s head of technical products Suzanne Hall said “We are delighted to be delivering the legal services T Level technical qualification. We look forward to using our expertise to support students as they begin their programmes of study and playing our part in developing talent in this vital industry.”
Pearson, along with NCFE, was one of the first awarding organisations to receive contracts to develop T Levels. The very first cohorts of students on its T Levels in digital production, design and development and design, surveying and planning began their studies in 2020 and are due to become some of the first T Level graduates in the country later this year.
A spokesperson for the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education said the delay was because there were no successful bidders in the main procurement round for the subject which concluded in summer 2021.
But a further procurement took place in the autumn after more interest was received. The spokesperson confirmed the T Level will be delivered in the same timescales as the other contracts in wave four.
Employers and the institute have said that the legal services T Level will improve social mobility by attracting people from more diverse backgrounds into legal professions.
Cassie Williams, a barrister from Bedford Row Chambers, said: “Justice is served when lawyers and people working across legal services come from all walks of life. This T Level will provide the opportunity for this to become a reality.”
Jennifer Coupland, chief executive at the institute, said she “couldn’t wait” to see the T Level rolled out in classrooms and that it will “help open out the profession to people who may want to follow a more direct training route into work”.
This will include, Coupland added, being “an important stepping stone to degree apprenticeships and more conventional degrees.”
The government plans to encourage schools, colleges and training providers to trawl the social media of would-be employees and beef up training requirements for governors under proposed changes to safeguarding rules.
The Department for Education also wants child-on-child abuse guidance, which has been published separately since 2017, withdrawn and “incorporated throughout” its main statutory document for education providers.
A consultation was launched yesterday on changes to the statutory keeping children safe in education (KCSIE) guidance, which now applies to independent training providers as well as colleges. If approved, the changes would come into effect in September this year.
The consultation also seeks views on some changes enacted in 2021 and whether they have worked.
Many of the proposals are technical and involve moving guidance around the document itself.
But there are also several substantive changes proposed that will affect the way education settings operate. Here’s what you need to know.
1. Consider ‘online search’ on shortlisted candidates
The DfE’s new draft guidance says that as part of the shortlisting process for new staff, colleges and providers “should consider carrying out an online search (including social media) as part of their due diligence on the shortlisted candidates”.
This “may help identify any incidents or issues that have happened, and are publicly available online, which the school or college might want to explore with the applicant at interview”, the draft guidance states.
2. Ensure governors receive safeguarding training
Although the DfE said that evidence suggests the “majority of governors and trustees” already undertake “some form” of safeguarding training, they intend to make the need for it more explicit.
The new draft guidance states that governing bodies and provider proprietors “should ensure that all governors and trustees receive appropriate safeguarding and child protection training at induction”.
This training “should be regularly updated”.
The consultation document states that training is “essential to ensure new governors/trustees understand their roles and responsibilities, particular in them taking a strategic rather than an operational approach”.
3. Child-on-child abuse guidance to become statutory
The DfE said making it “incorporated throughout KCSIE” would “give the issue the prominence it deserves in statutory guidance”.
This will also “remove duplication”, as “much of the content in the standalone advice was already in part five of KCSIE”, the department said.
The guidance will also be updated to use the phrase “child-on-child abuse”, rather than “peer-on-peer abuse”, and to use the terms “victims” and “perpetrators”. The DfE said this was done for “consistency”.
4. Students ‘may not feel ready’ to speak about abuse
In a section on “what school and college staff need to know”, the DfE has added a paragraph that states “all staff should be aware that children may not feel ready or know how to tell someone that they are being abused, exploited, or neglected, and/or they may not recognise their experiences as harmful”.
Mathematical modeling refers to the process of creating a mathematical representation of a real-world scenario to make a prediction or provide insight. There is a distinction between applying a formula and the actual creation of a mathematical relationship. Some graphical illustrations of the modeling process can be seen on this one-page flyer.
Real-world, messy problems can be approached with mathematics, resulting in a range of possible solutions to help guide decision making. Students and teachers are sometimes uncomfortable with the notion of math modeling because it is so open-ended. So much unknown information seems prohibitive. And how do you decide which factors are most relevant? But it is this open-ended nature of real-world problems that leads to building and applying problem solving skills, creativity, and innovation in mathematics.
Math modeling obliterates the question “Why do I need math?” by demonstrating the value and importance of math in approaching big problems found in our communities, regions, and world. Identifying the important variables and quantifying them—even with assumptions and incomplete information—can lead students to insights and understanding that have reason and structure.
It’s a Process
Mathematical modeling can be thought of as an iterative process made up of the following components. (Note that the word “steps” is intentionally avoided: there is no prescribed ordering—some may occur simultaneously, and some may be repeated.)
Identify the Problem—Be specific in defining what you want to find out.
Make Assumptions and Identify Variables—It is impossible to account for all the important factors in a given situation; you must make choices about what to incorporate in your representation of the real world. Making assumptions helps reveal the variables to be considered and reduces their number by deciding not to include everything. Relationships between variables will emerge based on observations, physical laws, or simplifications.
Do the Math—Eventually, a relationship between input and output will allow for a solution to be found.
Analyze and Assess the Solution—Consider the results and insights gained from the model. Does the answer make sense?
Iterate—Usually the model can be refined, and the process can be repeated to improve performance.
Implement the Model and Report Results—Make the model understandable to others.
Pitfalls to Avoid
The biggest pitfall in developing a reasonable model is often time management. When modeling is new to students, it is easy for them to become overwhelmed, and they may spend too much time “in the weeds.” To define a succinct problem statement, students need to brainstorm, and they should be encouraged not to get rid of any ideas. However, there are times when students may get caught up in trying to include variables or relationships in their model that are not tractable or where data is unavailable. If this happens, students should assume and move on, making sure they come back to those assumptions after they have gone through the entire modeling process. Having said that, sometimes students include unneeded assumptions in their documentation that are never explicitly used in the modeling process. This can cause them to lose valuable time and could detract from the presentation of the solution. Students must try not to get off track while creating models, particularly by making choices or assumptions that undermine the quality of the solution.
When students are in a time crunch, apprehension may lead to mathematical relationships that are removed from reality being introduced, even to the point of being nonsense! For example, students may form an additive relationship between the key variables they identified but the units are meaningless (for example, adding dollars to time to get a model for resources). Coefficients are often used in models that also do not reflect units properly or there is no justification as to why they were chosen. Other times, students may have a sound idea for a mathematical relationship, but they overcomplicate it to make the mathematics look more sophisticated than it is (for example, introducing a triple integral when really addition is appropriate). This is another reason leaving time for reflection is critical, so that students can read over their entire solution and ask themselves “Does this make sense?”.
Dealing with data can also be overwhelming. Students may have a brilliant idea for a model but cannot find the data they need to move it forward (again, at this point they should make an assumption and stop wasting time looking). Other times, datasets may be prohibitively large, and students are not equipped with the tools to interpret key trends. Linear regression or high-degree polynomials are often used to fit data without any sound reason and then used as predictors. The connection to the underlying physical problem that instigated the data fitting can get lost, or the quality of the fit is ignored completely due to relief at having done something that seemed to work.
All the above pitfalls (which are by no means an exhaustive list) can be amended if the team reflects on the quality of their work. If an assumption seemed way off base, students could report out the identified weaknesses of their approach and point the way toward improvements, even if they do not have the means or access to the information to do so. Even better, a sensitivity analysis can help a student assess the robustness of their model and make comments on its applicability. Much of this goes back to time management.
An Opportunity for Students to Engage in Math Modeling
MathWorks Math Modeling Challenge (M3 Challenge) is an annual free online contest in which high school juniors and seniors and sixth form students work in teams of 3-5 to solve an open-ended problem about a real-world issue in 14 continuous hours over Challenge weekend. The Challenge problem is completely unknown until teams download it during Challenge weekend. The use of online collaboration tools and resources is encouraged.
Scholarships totaling £75,000+ (will be awarded in 2022. Extra credit awards are available for teams who choose to write or employ outstanding code as part of their solution. The competition has given $1.65 million+ to date.
A program of Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) that is funded by leading technical computing software developer MathWorks, M3 Challenge motivates students to study and pursue careers in applied mathematics, computational science, data science, and technical computing. It has been a virtual competition since its inception in 2006. Past competition topics include issues such as the transition of trucking from diesel to electric, universal internet access, substance abuse, food insecurity, plastic recycling, and car sharing.
From Judges, Coaches, and Past Participants
Submissions are judged by an international panel of 150 primarily Ph.D.-level mathematicians, and almost every team receives specific feedback on their submission from the judges who read their papers during rigorous assessments. “The questions can be approached in a variety of ways depending on students’ skills and experiences,” says problem development committee member and judge Dr. Katie Kavanagh of Clarkson University in Potsdam, New York. “For example, participants may use simulation and programming, probability and statistics, or even algebra and basic math to model aspects of the open-ended problem. We are always eager to see how the students approach the issue,” says Kavanagh. “They offer unique perspectives on what factors are important to consider, particularly at that critical, transitional time in their own lives and influenced by their unique circumstances.”
Joy Qu, a member of a 2021 finalist team from Adlai Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire Illinois, was asked about the secret to the team’s success. “We always give a line of reasoning behind our equations and how we derive them. So I think reasoning is really important because if you can support your model, it increases the validity of your model.”
David Stein is a teacher at Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring, Maryland who has coached multiple finalist teams in M3 Challenge. He believes that teachers can influence students to study and pursue STEM careers and can demonstrate the interdisciplinary nature of the sciences by basing rigorous lessons on real-world issues and problems, focusing students’ attention on communication and writing, and providing opportunities like M3 Challenge for them to showcase their work.
M3 Challenge has had a profound impact on many of its participants, including Dr. Chris Musco, a 2008 M3 Challenge finalist who is now head of the competition’s technical computing judging and a member of the problem development committee. “Being involved in this program as a judge and using my experience and perspective to help shape the problem the students will work on is really exciting,” says Musco, assistant professor in the Tandon School of Engineering at New York University. “M3 Challenge changed the trajectory of my college major and career, and it’s great to play a part in doing that for the students who are participating now.”
“For M3 Challenge, students work together and put forward ideas and models—some teams even include computer code – toward a solution or an approach to the problem presented. Every year we are blown away by the work produced by teams in just 14 hours,” said Dr. Suzanne Weekes, executive director at SIAM. “Problem topics are relevant and meaningful – for example the 2021 topic of reliable access to the internet for all, which became so prominent and important during the pandemic. Students are solving real problems by asking questions, digging for information, making assumptions to get started, getting creative in their approaches, and then providing insight about the issue that can be used to make decisions going forward.”
“Every year without fail, we hear from students who refer to their participation in M3 Challenge as a transformative experience that helped open their eyes to how important, useful, and valuable the application of mathematics can be,” said Michelle Montgomery, M3 Challenge program director at SIAM. “I am confident that this year’s Challenge will do the same.”
Challenge weekend (Friday through Monday): February 25-28, 2022
*Much of the content for this article was written by Katie Kavanagh and Ben Galluzzo of Clarkson University, and is based on ideas presented in GAIMME: Guidelines for Assessment and Instruction in Mathematical Modeling Education, Second Edition, Sol Garfunkel and Michelle Montgomery, editors, COMAP and SIAM, Philadelphia, 2019.
WorldSkills UK has created the Skills Development Hub, a package of free, high-quality, interactive digital resources designed to support colleges and independent training providers teaching young people to acquire high-quality skills aligned with international best-practice.
WorldSkills UK’s highly experienced training managers have developed the content with input from their counterparts across the WorldSkills international network, driving best practice standards in teaching and learning across the globe.
The content of the Hub is drawn from best practice exchanges with their counterparts in overseas countries and states in the WorldSkills network of over 80 members. This upgrading of skills helps to inform curricula development and is driving up standards in teaching and learning in all participating territories.
Since its roll-out in December 2020, 400 FE colleges and independent training providers have accessed the Hub, benefitting more than 1,500 young people across the UK.
The Hub has been designed to help educators to develop students and apprentices into a workforce of young people equipped with the highest standards of technical and soft skills including time-management, problem solving, good communication skills, adaptability, commitment and motivation. The combination of these technical and ‘meta’ skills is essential to UK businesses, to enable them to compete successfully in domestic and overseas markets.
Attracting foreign investment is an important part of the government’s levelling up agenda and the availability of high-quality skills is an important factor for international businesses considering a move to the UK, especially in established internationally traded sectors such as engineering, manufacturing and IT.
The WorldSkills UK report produced in partnership with the Learning and Work Institute called, ‘Disconnected, exploring the digital skills gap’ published in March 2021, shows the need for greater emphasis on digital skills development if UK businesses are to be innovative and productive. The report highlights concern that while 60% of businesses say they will rely more on digital skills over the next five years, the number of young people taking IT as a subject at GCSE has fallen by 40% since 2015. To help address these concerns and attract more young people into the digital sphere, WorldSkills UK themed its latest Spotlight Talks, online careers events for young people, to focus on the digital careers opportunities across a wide range of sectors.
Designed to support and complement existing skills development activities, the Skills Development Hub allows for easy access to seven modules ranging from those for educators’ own development (CPD) to those designed for students to be used in classes or remotely:
Professional development for educators
Coaching learners for high-performanceCPD: Developed in partnership with Grey Matters, this short course draws on approaches used by coaches and teachers across high-performance environments to support and enrich teaching practice using a set of mental and behavioural skills. Users explore how psychology contributes to maintaining and enhancing high performance, examining how the skills and attitudes of elite athletes and performers can be developed in students regardless of the skill being learned.
Transferring global best practice CPD: Based on WorldSkills UK’s award-winning Centre of Excellence programme and endorsed by NCFE, these resources focus on the seven-step developing excellence framework; created and used to train learners to perform at the highest levels. Activities include case studies; videos; animations and downloadable resources.
Embedding skills competitions: This module provides educators with useful information, downloadable guides, templates and checklists to support the embedding of competition activities in the classroom and to run inter-departmental and inter-college events. Many colleges use these as a precursor to entering competitors for the WorldSkills UK Competitions which attract over 3,000 entrants each year. They are designed to stretch and challenge participants, getting them to demonstrate a wide range of technical and transferable skills, including time management, reliability, resilience, and performing under pressure which employers are increasingly looking for as essential characteristics of high-performing employees.
Evidence shows that embedding competitions in the classroom benefits both learners and educators. Using them to create a more dynamic curriculum develops coaching skills and improves levels of engagement for everyone, while educators can meet and work closely with colleagues in their field, enhancing their own personal and professional development.
Student-focused resources
Teachers and trainers will find a suite of resources to use with students and apprentices, supporting the development of technical, mindset and employability skills. All these resources have been developed by trainers who are highly experienced in their vocational areas and renowned experts in performance psychology and organisational behaviour.
Mindset masterclasses: Learners develop and use a set of ten skills called the psychological characteristics of developing excellence, that can be applied to cope with challenges such as working under pressure or learning new techniques. Each masterclass offers an introduction with insights from young people and educators across education, industry, sport, music and dance who share their experiences and applied practice. The masterclasses unpack the ten skills and how these can be used to cope in any situation whether at college, work or everyday life. Educators will be able to inspire and empower students and apprentices to take ownership of their own personal and professional development. Students will also be empowered to develop positive attitudes and behaviours and transferable skills.
Technical skills masterclasses: These are designed for students and apprentices working towards a range of technical and vocational specialisms. They support the development of knowledge, skills, and behaviours necessary to carry out complex tasks to high standards of technical competence and quality. Lean principles are used to showcase the importance in improving efficiency, waste management and work organisation. There is support for practical problem-solving and critical reflection on experience, including learning from mistakes.
The technical skills masterclasses consist of more than 23 practical skills challenges across a range of areas from beauty therapy to digital construction through to joinery, to challenge and stretch students, providing them with opportunities to build their confidence and improve their practical skills at their own pace.
Personal and professional development: Learners will discover how to develop their personal, professional and technical skills, enhancing their capacity to perform under pressure and demonstrating those qualities and attributes highly valued by employers.
Key features include videos, animations and activities for learners to interact with. Each module contains four lessons which take up to an hour each to complete.
Create bespoke learning groups
Overall, the Hub gives educators the option to create learner groups to easily allocate specific learning modules to a group of learners or specific students, set deadlines, reminders for completion of the modules and run reports to check individuals’ progress and assessment results. The way the content is structured also enables educators to send messages, organise events and issue email notifications to learners. Each of these tasks can be done in under a minute.
All modules can be delivered face to face or online. By familiarising themselves with the resources, educators can decide which modules can be used for a whole-class session, as homework, or in one-to-one sessions or tutorials. The modules can also be used on a standalone basis, giving the flexibility to analyse and respond to individual learners’ needs.
Students’ progress can be charted to ensure they have completed a module successfully before moving on to the next.
Latest developments
The Hub is more intuitive, accessible and easier to navigate than ever before. A keyboard-accessible navigation guide is also available for users who don’t use a computer mouse. The main dashboard has been redesigned, to aid recognition and speed navigation with colour-coded categories and new icons. There are descriptors added to all dashboards, so both educators and students know exactly where they are on every step of their journey.
Subject to continual development, the Hub remains an inclusive and valuable free-to-access service at the leading edge of teaching practice, supporting educators to enable learners to fulfil their potential.
Easy to access
A fast new two-step registration process allows immediate access to the Hub’s resources. Simply complete the shortened registration form. receive the welcome email for login and password creation. Then you’re free to explore the resources, work through them and share with students.
The government says at least 585 former teachers have answered its call to arms to return to the classroom and cover Covid staffing issues, but there are questions over the figures.
According to the Department for Education, 485 teachers have signed up with supply agencies following the drive, and a further 100 Teach First alumni have also “expressed an interest in supporting the workforce”.
The department said the data was from just 10 per cent of agencies, and that the total number signed up was “likely to be much larger”. However, it would not say why the sample size was so small, or which agencies had provided figures.
According to government data, there are 93 supply agencies that are part of the Crown Commercial Service’s framework used by the government for its call to arms, meaning the government’s figures for the scheme is based on data provided by around nine organisations.
The DfE has also not said how many of the teachers who had signed up had started work in English schools or colleges, nor when the remainder would make it into the classroom.
Education secretary Nadhim Zahawi said he wanted to “thank all former teachers who have come forward to support the national effort and help keep our children in face-to-face education”.
“I call on all other former teachers who are able to do the same to come forward now.”
But some have questioned the figures provided by the DfE, while others have warned the number coming forward is a “drop in the ocean” compared to what is needed.
The DfE reported earlier today that an estimated 4 per cent of teachers and college leaders were off due to Covid-related reasons nationally.
Adam Sugarman, director of TLTP Education, revealed last week that of 76 ex-teachers who approached his agency, only four were compliant.
He questioned the latest figures from the DfE, and said his agency had not been asked to provide figures.
“The sample data suggests if 10 per cent of agencies are saying they’ve registered 485 ex-teachers, then 100 per cent would equate to nearly 5,000 ex-teachers registered, which is not realistic.”
He also said that if the 10 per cent of agencies that did give a response were larger market leaders, then that might skew the picture.
“If all the biggest, long-lasting agencies make up that 10 per cent then newer agencies with less manpower and smaller databases will not be able to register anywhere near as many ex-teachers.
“If you took the small agencies that make up the 90 per cent I think you would struggle to get anywhere close to 485 ex-teachers registered. I personally do not believe there are more than 1,000 ex-teachers currently registered under this new initiative across the whole of England”
Simone Payne, chief executive of 4myschools, which reported last week hearing from 13 teachers, said her agency had been asked to supply data.
But she said there would “not be many teachers ready for work yet due to vetting, and most do not want to work full time, rather just one to two days a week from our experience”.
The proportion of college leaders, teachers, and support staff absent from work due to Covid-related reasons has doubled in just three weeks.
The Department for Education’s latest attendance survey data, published today, estimates that one in 25, or 4 per cent, of FE college teachers and leaders were off on January 6 due to coronavirus. The figure for support and other staff in colleges sat at 3.4 per cent.
This is up from 1.6 per cent of teachers and leaders and 1.2 per cent of other staff on December 15, increases of 150 per cent and 183 per cent respectively.
Special post-16 providers have seen an even bigger hike in staff absence over the same period.
The DfE said 7.4 per cent of teachers and leaders were absent due to Covid-19 reasons in these institutions on January 5, up from 2.1 per cent on 15 Dec. And 6.2 per cent of teaching assistants and other staff were off work in special post-16 institutions due to the virus, up from 2 per cent over the same period.
It comes after the education secretary Nadhim Zahawi warned staff absences were likely to rise as the impact of the Omicron variant is felt in education settings.
Geoff Barton, leader of the Association of School and College Leaders, said “any hope” the Christmas holidays would act as a firebreak for schools and colleges “have evaporated”.
“The challenges posed by having so many staff absent will continue to put schools and colleges under severe pressure.”
Colleges will be facing particular problems owing to staff absences this month as around 300,000 students studying vocational and technical qualifications will be taking exams.
The DfE did not publish staff attendance data for colleges this time last year so comparison of absence levels in the same period in 2021 is not possible.
Absence rates for independent training providers are not published by the DfE.
Education staff among those most likely to report long Covid
Today’s statistics on workforce absence comes after the Office for National Statistics reported that the education sector had seen the biggest month-by-month increase in the proportion of people reporting that they were suffering the effects of long Covid.
Along with health and social care, teaching and education had the greatest prevalence of reports of long Covid. Women, those aged 35 to 69 and those living in more deprived areas were also more likely to report issues.
Interesting fact: Ann can sing ‘Waltzing Matilda’ in Latin.
Lindsay Pamphilon, Group Principal, Orbital South Colleges
Start date: January 2022
Previous job: Principal, Hadlow College
Interesting fact: She is an open water swimmer and likes to swim throughout the winter.
Jeff Greenidge, Chair of Governors, Bridgend College
Start Date: December 2021
Concurrent job: Director for diversity, ETF & AoC
Interesting fact: Completed the 1270 metres Innsbruck Bobsleigh course a couple of years ago and planning to do the skeleton course as the next challenge.
Providers should be more creative about inspiring students into the labour market, writes Andrew Bernard
Imagine you’re just queuing up for a sandwich and you get a subtle nudge towards becoming a nutritionist.
Or waiting for the bus, you see a sign that piques your interest in architecture, or urban design.
Perhaps while you’re walking up the stairs towards the science block, the steps tell you the HE pathway you need to become a medical professional.
These are examples of “guerrilla careers hotspots”.
What I want to share is how easy and cheap it is to make subtle changes to your college environment to highlight future aspirational pathways – by catching your students off guard.
1. Stop before you start
Before you – a tutor, lecturer, careers leader, or member of the senior leadership team – start trying to do careers advice, just stop and think.
You’re looking for creative and innovative ways of getting careers information into the eyes and minds of the students in your college, aren’t you?
But you’re very busy. Why would you do this, if it’s not actually your job? Creating guerrilla careers hotspots is perfect to set as a student competition or work-experience project.
So if you can secure a budget or sponsorship from a local company or local business group, you can set this project for your students. After all, they know how to appeal to their peers.
2. Make the brief
Create a project brief and work with the design, business and art teaching teams to agree the scope of the project. Don’t make it too complex, and don’t forget it’s supposed to be fun.
Your brief could be linked to college assignments, work experience or an internal project.
Just decide team sizes and then get the competition promoted. Is it compulsory or voluntary, which groups, which subjects, what are the prizes? All the deadlines and details need to be clear.
3. Find local supporters
Get networking. Ask local designers, printers and marketing agencies to support your project. Would they come into the college and talk in person or virtually to share examples and provide inspiration? Could they mentor the winners?
4. Set the challenge
Announce the deadline, sign up teams and issue the competition brief, then wait until the entries come in. (Leave your door and inbox open for questions and send gentle reminders in the run-up to the deadline.)
5. Run pitches
Get your friendly designer back in, a governor and the principal or someone from SLT to listen to the teams’ five-minute pitches and their ideas.
6. Get active
When winners have been chosen, give them the freedom to work on the guerrilla careers installations, and see the impact around the buildings.
7. Run a review
What have students achieved? Hopefully, real-world creativity, feeling trusted in a realistic situation, teamwork experience, some external public relations for the college and partners, and thousands of eyes seeing careers messages in unexpected places.
Finally, I will leave you with some actual guerrilla careers ideas:
Cubicle careers: posters in the loos about becoming a plumber or health professional.
Look UP: stickers at eye level to stop people in rooms and corridors and make them look at posters/prints/projections on ceilings (positioned in areas of the building where it’s not going to be dangerous, of course).
Look DOWN: let’s use this space for careers in engineering, maintenance, interior design, etc.
Posters and stickers in changing rooms about careers in sport as physiotherapists, personal trainers or in coaching roles.
Tray liners in the canteen with information about becoming a chef or nutritionist –this could also work with paper cup printing and cup sleeves.
Digital displays resembling departure boards at airports, promoting careers that use geography and languages.
A college-wide art show, where each exhibit is related to a career. The invitation card could have a QR code that integrates with an apprenticeship, university prospectus, the National Careers Week website, BBC Bitesize Careers or other source of information.
Now, go off and recruit some guerrillas to the cause today!
Collecting data on sex and gender separately is important for tackling inequalities, writes Sarah Hope
Suppose you’re asked to get involved in a project with your students? It champions a marginalised group – you’re keen.
However, there’s a catch. One or two students can’t be recorded correctly. Key information won’t be accurate.
Accurate data is important. FE providers use statistical information to measure everything, from recruitment to achievement. Precision is important, and I would say that means collecting data on both sex and gender.
A recurring difficulty for colleges such as the one I used to work with is the conflation of these terms. FE providers then also face the issue of deeply upsetting their students, whether trans students or non-binary students, when the college wishes to separate the two terms for the purposes of data collection.
Here’s the problem facing colleges: the Office for National Statistics states that ‘sex’ is the biological self, anatomy, chromosomes, and so on.
‘Gender’ is ‘personal, internal perception of oneself’ that may not match natal sex.
It’s not uncommon for the two to be confused. Perhaps even check the internal records of your own provider, and you can see the muddle.
Does this matter?
Let’s look at STEM subjects: science, technology, engineering and mathematics. FE providers have always been at the forefront of initiatives aimed at getting girls into STEM careers, with programmes of visiting mentors and trips to university departments.
However, there’s still a lot to do. According to the group Women in STEM, just 26 per cent of the STEM workforce is female.
In the future, similar projects may include students recently identified into womanhood. This will skew those figures.
It isn’t just a girl issue, though. Boys’ attainment has been a concern throughout the education system. In 2020, boys were seven per cent behind girls at GCSE grade 4 and higher, with those on free school meal data especially at risk.
There’s a lot of work needed to overcome the effects of poverty and family expectation.
So FE providers need to be able to collect both sex and gender information, so that they have as rich and informative a dataset as possible. It will allow them to tackle these kinds of inequalities, many of which start pre-school.
Importantly, this wider dataset would also highlight where trans students are particularly struggling as a group, by identifying which students are trans too.
Another instance is the gender pay gap among staff. Employers, including colleges, are required to report their pay gap and yet there is no clear guidance on how to record sex differences.
Many colleges have pay gaps on a par with the national average of 14 per cent, significant in a sector with a higher percentage of men in better-paid roles.
Should the EFSA follow the Higher Education Statistics Agency approach to data?
HESA uses two data headings, sex and gender, but under ‘sex’ there is a non-binary ‘other’ option, thereby potentially removing students from any sex-based analysis. Or would this have an unintended impact on data around existing sex inequalities?
Perhaps a proposal to register sex as the core demographic and add personal identities as a separate field is a better answer.
However, by following this approach, colleges risk upsetting trans and non-binary students, who can face significant persecution within society and need to feel welcomed and accepted in college life.
So, if my experiences are anything to go by, some FE providers feel confused as to how best to proceed.
I would argue for a distinction between sex and gender, explaining to trans or non-binary students that this is done in the spirit of helping identify challenges for all groups, including themselves.
But the solution should be clearer guidance from the government, rather than leaving it to providers to muddle through.
Editorial note 10/01/2022 – A reference to a campaign group was removed from this article after editors were made aware of transphobic speech linked to the campaign group.
Author name has been changed. Image is a stock image and not of the author
Ann Hardy, Chief Executive – TEC Partnership
