The finalists for the FE Week and AELP AAC Apprenticeship Awards 2021 will be revealed at a virtual celebration event tonight – and you’ve been invited to watch the announcement live.
Presentation host, Rory Bremner.
Hosted by comedian and impressionist Rory Bremner, the ceremony, being held in partnership with Innovate Awarding, will be shown on the FE Week News YouTube channel from 18:15 – 19:15.
On your smart TV, go the YouTube app and search for the FE Week News Channel, you’ll then be able to find the broadcast listing.
Or alternatively, watch below.
Following tonight’s announcement, the winners of the 2021 AAC Apprenticeship Awards will be named at a glamorous gala dinner in Birmingham on Thursday 8 July.
FE Week’s Annual Apprenticeship Conference has been running this week, starting on Monday and set to finish on Friday, providing key policy updates and important views from top government officials and sector leaders.
The Further Education Trust for Leadership think tank will close this year. Should the model be replicated? Jess Staufenberg finds out
“Do we need an independent think tank for further education?” That’s the question that will be posed in a webinar next week by perhaps the only organisation that could claim to be exactly that.
It’s been seven-and-a-half years since the think tank set up with £5.6 million in the bank, handing out the public funds for some quite extraordinary projects.
Unlike the Education and Training Foundation (ETF), it has not been closely associated with the government and has enjoyed a huge degree of freedom over its chosen projects.
And unlike think tanks such as The Edge Foundation or EDSK, it focused on leaders – not the broader skills or education landscape.
So does FE need a replacement for FETL? If so, what exactly is being replaced?
‘None of the minister’s business’
FETL’s beginnings are as gutsy – and slightly surreal – as its founding force, Dame Ruth Silver, a former child psychologist and principal of Lewisham College in south London for 17 years.
Silver, who retired from the college in 2011, had been chair of the government-funded Learning and Skills Improvement Service (LSIS) since it was set up in 2008.
But in 2013 the coalition government cut ties with LSIS, moving monies to the ETF.
Silver was “furious”, she says, and, quite unbelievably, succeeded in hanging on to about £2 million (£2,099,743, to be precise) still in the LSIS kitty, along with £2.7 million from the Inspire Leadership group, a staff development organisation, and £811,000 from Lifelong Learning UK, another professional development body.
Ruth Silver
“Normally, you’d turn to the government and say, ‘take the money back’, but we were semi-independent, and as long as we respected the charitable objects [of LSIS], we decided we could set something else up,” she says, adding that “a lot of people came after” the money.
But she held firm and asked the sector what it wanted. When she proposed a think tank to civil servants, they said “the minister won’t like it”, to which she says she responded, “well that’s sad, but it’s none of his business”.
With the intention to run until the money ran out, FETL was born.
The founding trustees included some big names, including Sean Larkins, a deputy director of communications in the Prime Minister’s Office, Toni Pearce, the first FE student to lead the National Union of Students, and Ayub Khan, a former local authorities strategist in London.
Other sector specialists such as Jill Westerman, the former chief executive at the Northern College, and Denise Brown, now principal at Stoke on Trent College, remain on the board, alongside FETL chair and a former trustee at LSIS, Ricky McMenemy, who runs the famous Rules restaurant in Covent Garden, London.
The organisation held a board meeting this week, and FE Week understands an unconfirmed “dowry” left in the kitty will be bequeathed to a deserving organisation.
A surplus of £560,000 was carried into 2020-21, according to the latest accounts. The question now is whether FETL’s inheritor should seek to replicate its model – or do something different.
‘Give the sector time to reflect’
FETL’s strapline is “to foster and support the leadership of thinking”. Silver unpacks this with the equally rich explanation: “It’s about the leader in the system, and the system in the leader.”
The remit seems to draw on Silver’s own experiences. As a principal, she was given a sabbatical at the University of Cambridge.
McMenemy says: “Ruth had that wonderful opportunity and she said it had completely invigorated her. So that’s what we were trying to do at the start.”
The idea was to fund FE practitioners to take time out to do research. “We felt the sector didn’t have enough time to breathe, to see what was necessary to carry itself forward and improve its status,” he adds.
Ricky McMenemy
But he and Silver are honest the initial model didn’t quite work.
“That just wasn’t fit for purpose,” Silver says. “FE doesn’t have the practice of a sabbatical. People couldn’t get the time off.”
She’s equally frank about problems with another idea: to fund the first “professor of leadership in FE and skills” at UCL Institute of Education.
Martin Doel was appointed, a former chief executive of the Association of Colleges who had come up through the Royal Air Force.
“It put someone with an intimate knowledge of FE inside the world’s leading research institute,” Doel says.
In his four-day week he ran multiple seminars and produced essays, including “Rethinking Place and Purpose: Provocations on the Future of FE”, which pulled together roundtable responses from colleges.
But would a professorship have been better spent on a hard-hitting research project?
“I’m quite pleased I didn’t get wound up in quantitative research, because that could have been quite narrow. I’m proud of keeping my focus on broader, conceptual issues in further education, and drawing people’s attention to these.”
The essays were “closer to a polemic, than highly referenced and deeply researched”.
This approach meant “there was a bit of tension early on about whether we should be getting published in academic journals”, he says.
Martin Doel
“FETL quite properly concluded the target wasn’t to get published in journals, but to affect the thinking of people working now”.
UCL did keep Doel on as a visiting professor after his three-year post came to an end.
However Silver is clear the professorship didn’t quite work, in part because FETL was at risk of “mimicry” by prioritising access to higher education rather than “practitioners in the field”.
Silver moved onto contract
The decision to move away from formal research towards “provocations” – polemic thought-pieces – would become the cornerstone of FETL’s approach, turbo-charged by Silver as leader.
Its first chief executive, Mark Ravenhall, formerly from the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education, had stepped down in 2015 as had its second, Khan, in 2017.
The board now moved to pay Silver as a consultant from late 2018, on £800 a day for up to three days a week.
McMenemy explains what could be regarded as the controversial decision not to appoint another chief executive, and instead pay the president on contract.
“We thought, we will do without a chief executive. The person who had FETL in her DNA was Ruth, she understood more about it than any of us. We spoke to her about an ‘honorarium’ payment where she would start to manage all the projects.”
‘Allowed for intellectual curiosity’
The organisation has funded an extraordinary amount of work: 42 project grants, 82 publications, 84 videos, nine webinars and 12 larger-scale symposiums.
It supported the Independent College of the Future report, the Centenary Commission on Adult Education and a four nations report by the Institute for Public Policy Research.
It asked questions no one had asked before – papers such as “What’s Oedipus got to do with it?” looked at the “problem of triangular relationships” in senior leadership teams.
Another considered “how psychoanalysis and systems theory” can contribute to FE, reminding leaders to examine their own “internal drivers”.
Like Doel’s work, many publications are polemics, freed from the constraints of formal academic research.
Instead, the trustee board’s entry requirements were more intuitive.
“We said no to people wanting to do research projects with a qualification at the end – this was not about passing exams. And we said no to things we’d looked at before,” Silver says.
“We said to the sector, come to us with your ideas,” McMenemy explains. FETL funded eight fellowships, which allowed FE staff to pursue a line of inquiry.
For instance Stuart Rimmer, the principal of East Coast College in Suffolk, delved into distress in leadership, speaking to nearly 100 practitioners for his “Voices from the tightrope” paper.
Here FETL’s unique selling point can really be seen.
“It’s allowed individuals to pursue intellectual curiosity,” says Rimmer. “We ended up finding really interesting things, sometimes in marginal topics, that wouldn’t otherwise attract big research funding.”
Other projects were thought up by the board itself, McMenemy says. This year the “Honorable Histories” report surveyed 30 years of FE policy and its impact.
Meanwhile the New Local, an organisation for councils, was funded to examine the “piecemeal nature of English devolution” while a report called “The Way We Work” looked at the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.
The very toughest topics have been tackled: the public “shaming” of college leaders, and the way national media overlooks further education.
Hard-hitting enough?
In a way, the risk of being overlooked has been perhaps FETL’s main weakness.
The nature of its work hasn’t always generated the national media headlines, or impacted Whitehall policy, in the way it might have.
Doel describes FETL as “more of a reflection and intellectual engine than a think tank – by the sector about the sector”.
But did FETL impact outside FE? Should it have focused more on funding and findings?
Rimmer says FE didn’t need a “proliferation of data” but instead a “proliferation of thinking” – an intellectual backdrop for future research.
Now the British Library and UCL want to add FETL’s materials to their archives. Doel says: “There’s already such a rich literature on schools, which gives them a framework in which to work. We needed FETL to come first.”
When it’s wound up in December, FETL says it will know how much cash it has left and will decide where to bequeath it.
A think tank that can combine FETL’s rich, anthropological groundwork, with hard-hitting, outward-facing recommendations, could be a powerhouse replacement.
Rimmer says: “It’s been a worthy vehicle. I would like to see a continuation.”
“One man has been detained at the scene. Staff and students are being evacuated from the college.
“Two people have suffered injuries, but these are not believed to be serious.
“Please stay away from the area.”
In a separate statement, the college said it was “aware of the incident” and they are “awaiting further information from the police”.
“At this time, we are not aware of any serious injuries,” a spokesperson added.
“Our priority remains the safety of students and staff.”
Crawley College is part of the Chichester College Group and teaches 16 to 19 study programmes, adult learners and apprenticeships.
UPDATE 27/04/2021:
The police has confirmed that two staff members were treated for minor injuries. These were not gunshot wounds but a firearm and knife were seized.
An 18-year-old man from Crawley has been detained and police are not looking for anyone else in connection with the incident. It is not being treated as a terrorist incident.
Crawley College has announced it will be closed to students on Tuesday (26 April) while police enquiries continue.
Principal Vicki Illingworth said: “Our college community was shaken by the actions that occurred yesterday afternoon.
“I cannot praise the courage, resilience and support shown by our staff enough. They have been incredible and the care and compassion they shared with our students and with each other continues to fill me with admiration.
“We can confirm two members of our staff did sustain some minor injuries, which were not gunshot wounds.
“Their heroic actions – and the rapid response of emergency services – helped to protect our college community. They are both at home, resting, and we ask members of the media to respect their privacy at this time.
“Our priority is and remains the safety and wellbeing of our students and staff. Counselling services are available for all students and staff.
“We are grateful to have received so many messages of support from parents and local residents, as well as colleagues across the FE sector, local authorities and individuals close to the college. We would like to thank everyone for keeping us in their thoughts and extend our thanks to the Police and the emergency services.
“We know many of our students are keen to resume their studies in their normal college environment. We will be providing updates as soon as we are able. But we look forward to being together again, on campus, soon.
“Thank you for your continued support, patience and understanding.”
Official government data published in March showed that just 60.2 per cent of apprentices training on new-style standards stayed on their programme until the end in 2019/20. This figure sat at 48.3 per cent the year before.
The retention rate on the old-style frameworks has stayed consistent at 69 per cent.
Minister Gillian Keegan was quizzed on the numbers this morning by FE Week editor Nick Linford on the first day of the Annual Apprenticeship Conference, and revealed she has asked the Department for Education to “look into this” after being left “astonished”.
She pledged that she “won’t stop” until the completion rate is “much, much higher”.
Keegan said she “couldn’t understand” why this is happening as apprenticeships were seen as the “golden ticket” when she left school and the “last thing you would dream of is not finishing it”.
“Are people being put onto apprenticeships they don’t know they’re on? Are people not being given the right support to finish? Are people going onto apprenticeships and then deciding it is not for them and then giving up and starting some other pathway in life?”
Keegan admitted there could be a variety of reasons for low retention, but early indications point part of the reason towards new apprenticeships being disjointed.
She explained that apprentices will often drop out if they achieve a qualification that proves their professional competency much before they are due to sit their end-point assessment, such as nursing.
Keegan described this as creating an “artificial end-point” that “needs to be more logically placed as part of the apprenticeship”.
She explained: “I have a suspicion that we need to make sure that all of the parts of the apprenticeship work intuitively.
“I have seen some examples where qualifications or certification may be separate from the end-point assessment by quite a long way. That doesn’t make much sense, so we need to make sure that the apprenticeship doesn’t have the end-point a long time after either the individual or business thinks they are at the qualification level.”
Keegan said this problem first came to light at the start of the pandemic when she was asked to sign off a group of nurses that hadn’t finished their end-point assessment but had completed their nursing and midwifery accreditation and wanted to be on the frontline.
“When I looked into it actually, they had completed their nursing and midwifery accreditation but the end-point assessment was a completely separate thing and came a long time afterwards,” she told delegates.
“I said that makes no sense and they should be together. You know, when is a nurse a nurse? The Nursing and Midwifery Council accreditation is the most logical point so I couldn’t understand.
“It is kind of like an artificial end-point and it needs to be more logically part of the apprenticeship.”
The issue that Keegan describes is already being acted upon by the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education. In October 2020, the quango announced plans to “simplify and strengthen” apprenticeships that have a “statutory regulator” and an “established professional competency test”.
It would mean that in situations where an apprentice has met a statutory regulator’s requirements to practice, this will be counted as that apprentice’s end-point assessment in the future.
Currently, just 28 standards out of a possible 500 that are approved for delivery could be impacted, most of which are in the healthcare sector.
Teaching sustainability will increase student employment prospects – but we’re still not doing it properly, writes Dora Martínez Carbonell
Sustainability has certainly become the buzzword of the 21st century. From reusable coffee cups claiming to make our coffee break ethical and green, to fashion brands making T-shirts from recycled plastics, to airlines offsetting flights so we can have “eco-holidays” – everyone is using it.
At the same time, the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are gaining visibility and public attention. They highlight the interconnectedness of the critical issues affecting our planet.
We even have the 2030 SDGs official card game now, which explores how we can achieve the Sustainable Development Goals through different “real world” scenarios!
Today, companies and consumers recognise that sustainability is important. But are we doing enough in FE?
‘Values are established in classrooms’
Philippe Joubert, chief executive at Earth on Board, uses a very bold statement when advising his corporate clients: “Business as usual is dead”.
Millions of pounds spent in downstream corrective measures is not the answer. Instead, a different system is.
And while it may be in the boardroom where big decisions are made, it is in the classroom where a society establishes and transmits its values. And yet sustainability is insufficiently discussed in our FE centres.
How future leaders understand and envision the system determines the shape and form our societies take.
The Deloitte Global Millennial Survey 2020 found that young people (the next generation of customers, employees and CEOs) are highly concerned about environmental sustainability and social justice. They see beyond the immediate demands of the Covid pandemic.
They envision a better place, with fairer systems and a healthier environment. So we must give them the skills to bring that world into reality.
Sustainability is not a subject in and of itself. Rather, it is a discipline that feeds from many others and cuts across sectors, departments and industries.
The Guide for Sustainability in Further Education produced by the Alliance for Sustainability Leadership in Education makes clear why we need to embed it in FE. It is “to provide learners with the knowledge, skills and values that are needed to mitigate the effects of climate change.
“Students with the skills and competences gained through education in sustainability will have increased employment prospects and greater potential for career progression.”
It adds that colleges have an important role to play in supporting local businesses and the wider community in their “journey towards a more sustainable way of living”.
‘Bring expert voices onboard’
The need is real. The Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment has found that only 13 per cent of companies are confident that they can compete in a sustainable economy. Over half report that it is difficult to recruit candidates with sufficient expertise.
So to achieve the prime minister’s post-Covid-19 recovery plan for a ‘green industrial revolution’ and our legal commitment to zero greenhouse gas emissions in less than 30 years, significant reskilling and training is needed. For that, we must develop strategies that bring all stakeholders together.
In FE, we must bring sustainability expert voices onboard to advise course directors on how best to embed sustainability into their programmes.
This starts with ensuring our college leaders and course tutors understand the issues at play, and it’s important that they’re given recognised training that’s backed up by science and data.
This is why West Suffolk College teaches courses from the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment. Only then can we share credible stories and case studies with our students.
Involving local businesses is also enormously helpful. There are some excellent advances being made in technology, processes and business strategy around sustainability that colleges can explore.
For the first time in history, we understand the drivers of the climate crisis and are beginning to suffer the effects of that crisis. But we also now have the knowledge, technology and means to start doing things differently.
It is a matter of transforming our systems, by resetting our mindsets.
As educators, we have the key in our hands to transform the wider system.
Transition from school to college in particular needs to be improved for students with autism, writes Jeannie Christina
Many of our learners have struggled during the pandemic, and for those with autism, this has been a particularly challenging time.
Since Covid struck many of my autistic learners have experienced increased anxieties, stresses and worry about social interaction, travelling and communicating.
Learners with autism focus on routines and rituals, and when that’s disrupted, their sense of support is obliterated too. Lockdown has presented many difficulties that has impacted on their independence and confidence.
So, there’s been an increase in mental health difficulties for many students, but for those with autism it’s been that much more prevalent.
‘Usual worries exacerbated’
Not having advance notice of the many changes that have come in has affected them, so that the world at the moment has become like an alien environment.
“Simple” things like joining a class remotely, which most learners won’t ever have done before, mean they have to adapt and that can be very difficult.
Some learners with autism chose to keep coming into college, because we have always stayed open for vulnerable students.
Then it’s about being aware of how they might be feeling. The way I describe it to colleagues is: imagine they are arriving in college with a big backpack on their back.
In the backpack are lots of worries, like “will my class be running on time?”, “will I be okay today?”, “will I get the virus?”.
It’s about understanding their usual worries may all be exacerbated, and what we can do to alleviate some of those concerns and anxieties.
I’m really proud of what our college has done to support our learners with autism. There’s also a lot we can learn from this period.
‘Communicating at the right time’
Personal contact with our learners with autism and their families has become more important than ever.
Our welfare and student services team ask what’s going well and what the learner would find most helpful.
We say “tell us what works for you”, rather than expecting them to do things around us.
We’ve shown learners step-by-step how to join classes online, and helped them develop essential IT skills, so they are comfortable with this before it happens.
It’s taught us that if there was a fourth lockdown or another pandemic in the future, super close communication with learners and their families is absolutely key.
You need to know exactly when the communication is needed and how it’s needed.
That includes even before learners with additional needs come to college.
‘Smoother transition needed’
We need a bigger focus on better communication from schools about the students’ needs, their Education Health and Care plan, and what support has worked for them previously.
Better communication around transition is the biggest lesson from lockdown.
It’s about having those early conversations with the school or previous provider. Have they passed over everything you need to ensure their learner journey gets off to a successful start?
It’s about having those early conversations with the school or previous provider
That’s massively important for any student but especially those with autism. They should be able to do trips to the campus so they know what to expect before they arrive.
Sometimes they arrive and we don’t even know they’ve got an autism diagnosis until they tell us, because the school has not provided that information. That means it could be six to eight weeks before they get right support.
‘Resources too tight’
We also need better funding. We know that college funding hasn’t been increased for many years, which has a huge knock-on impact on our ability to provide what learners need. It must be increased.
There are more than 8,000 people in Birmingham with autism or an autism spectrum disorder. Across the UK, one in 100 people have an autism diagnosis.
On our college campus alone, there are about 350 learners with an additional need, of which about 115 have an autism diagnosis.
What we want is for them not to be faced with further difficulties, but for this part of them to be their superpower.
If we focus on transition, communication, and better funding, they have a strong chance of believing they have the potential to succeed.
The Commission on Race has many shortcomings but there are interesting suggestions in the section on education and training, write Jeff Greenidge and David Hughes
The recent report from the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities prompted strong backlash from many people and organisations.
The report is selective in its use of evidence, overlooking many important facts that illustrate how racism leads to gross inequalities and outcomes, and has little to say about further education.
Disappointingly, there is also no reflection in the report of the good work that colleges are doing now to address issues of race and exclusion. On their own, the recommendations are unlikely to address the underlying issues that cause unequal outcomes.
Perhaps even more worryingly, it seems in places to blame individuals and families without any recognition of the situation, culture and racism they experience and how that all leads to wider socio-economic disadvantages.
Despite these frustrations, the report’s publication gives us an opportunity to engage in a challenging conversation about race in this country, and in particular in our sector.
We will focus on the education and training section, and how to address the issues, rather than getting embroiled in the report’s shortcomings elsewhere.
Proposals that don’t go far enough
That section pays attention to schools, universities and apprenticeships, but doesn’t look at the whole education and training system and the place of FE.
Different outcomes in terms of employment, wages and life chances are also overlooked. This is a missed opportunity, which we are determined won’t deter us from addressing racism in FE.
However, the proposal for a ‘highly-targeted apprenticeships campaign’ is welcome – but does not go far enough.
The proposal for a ‘highly-targeted apprenticeships campaign’ is welcome – but does not go far enough
We want to see integrated college-level career and advice services supporting young people who currently face discrimination and cannot access the full range of career pathways.
Like many others, Bolton College is doing fantastic work in this area. Staff are raising the aspirations of learners to go on to higher education, apprenticeships or set up their own businesses.
Initiatives like this need to be recognised and built on at a national level.
Panel and review are interesting ideas
Meanwhile, the report’s call for government to work with a panel of academics and practitioners to “develop resources and evidence-based approaches of what does work to advance fairness in the workplace” is interesting. So is the “support for families” review.
The Department for Education could follow this up by bringing together practitioners and stakeholders in FE to do the same.
Practical resources and evidence-based approaches could be developed that advance inclusivity in the curriculum, workplace and community.
It could also give strength to the push for a richer history in the national curriculum. We should share initiatives like the one at West Suffolk College, where black history is being taught throughout the year with a curriculum co-designed with the students.
There is also something to be said for the themes in the report’s recommendations: Build Trust; Promote Fairness, Create Agency; Achieve Inclusivity. They are good ambitions, and it is always useful to ‘test’ your own plans against other reports.
Discussion around report is useful
AoC’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity steering group has a set of actions aimed at increasing the numbers of black and minority ethnic leaders and governors, which are vital if we are to have a truly inclusive and trusted culture in FE.
Meanwhile, our work on improving data and research will help us better understand how different minority ethnic students achieve in FE.
We are also working with partners on an inclusive curriculum as well as training programmes for governing bodies, leaders and emerging ethnic minority leaders.
While the report itself may be a missed opportunity, the conversation and awareness generated around it is no bad thing.
Colleges, the AoC, Education and Training Foundation and the rest of the sector should seize this moment.
We must turn that awareness and attention into change. We can do without more reports, as long as we get more concerted action.
Newcastle College upped its digital skills capabilities by partnering with an edtech specialist, Code Institute, on the creation and delivery of a Level 5 Diploma in Web Application Development – meeting a critical skills need for employers and learners.
Ironically, this story began pre-pandemic in October 2020. Like many FE colleges Newcastle were in a bind: they recognised the demand for a qualification to skill or re-skill people for employment in tech roles — and do so within a relatively short space of time — but lacked the resources to create and support the delivery of such a course.
Newcastle College saw a path through this following an introduction to Code Institute and Gateway Qualifications. Together they had developed an out-of-the-box solution for FE Colleges with supported online or blended delivery. The qualification, a Level 5 Diploma in Web Application Development, satisfied Newcastle’s requirements. The extensive support package, online content, 24/7 on-demand tutor support, instructor onboarding and career services ticked all the boxes and facilitated an immediate launch.
Now enrolling its third cohort of learners, the College along with Code Institute and Gateway Qualifications co-authored a White Paper to provide a roadmap for other colleges who are considering this delivery model. Other FE Colleges to have joined Newcastle’s ranks include Harlow, Halesowen, City of Bristol and University Centre Newbury and several others are preparing to launch their first cohorts this September.
Agile Delivery
The non-negotiables for Newcastle College were that the course be delivered flexibly to fit in with the complex real lives in its local communities, that it offered learners an opportunity to turn their lives around quickly, within a year, and that funding was readily accessible.
Code Institute has a consistent employment track record of 90% and is widely recognised by business and the IT industry; both are instrumental in shaping the course content, keeping it relevant to the demands of employers.
For Andrew Nicholson, Head of Digital Technologies at Newcastle College working with an online delivery expert, Code Institute and Gateway Qualifications gave Newcastle College the agility to launch quickly, “The ability to get it off the ground now far outweighs the potential advantages of creating a qualification like this under our own steam, as the resources needed and the time frame involved in developing the platform would be very considerable.
Employment Outcomes
“We had an agenda to broaden opportunity before Covid-19, but Covid-19 has made this more urgent, the pandemic squarely presented to people who were either unsure about their chosen career path or students weighing the options for their future that the digital economy offered them by far the best opportunities. What’s more, the new qualification makes those opportunities accessible to them within a year — and that is all a piece with our objective to unlock the full potential of our local communities.”
The North East is one of the UK’s most dynamic digital hubs, with companies such as Amazon Web Services, DXN (formerly known as Hewlett Packard), Accenture and IT consultants Waterstons in active dialogue with institutions such as Newcastle College about the talent pool they wish to see created in the region — and actively recruiting from that pool.
“The idea that graduates from the North East had to come to London to find work is a hangover from the 1980s or 1990s,” says Nicholson. “There are jobs here, especially in the digital economy. How we best deliver the talent to step into those jobs is another matter.”
Funding Model
Nicholson’s inclusivity agenda meant that the course, any course, however effective, had to be eligible for funding. “Once the Gateway qualification was approved that then opened the doors to attach funding to it which is where our interest really came in.”
Students aged 19 or over can apply for an Advanced Learner Loan of up to £5,421 for the Gateway Qualifications Level 5 Diploma for Web Application Development. Repayment of the loan is phased in once graduates are earning in excess of £26,000.
Although Code Institute provides the content, LMS and Learner support, it is “branded and delivered” by Newcastle College, and Advanced Learner Loan funds are paid directly to the college which also puts its own stamp on the learning through regular tutorial encounters.
“Students can set their own pace,” Nicholson says, “but we’ve said that for the full 35 weeks of the course, we enhance it with some learning development. We’ll give you a weekly workshop where you can speak to a teacher from Newcastle College either face to face or remotely depending on where we find ourselves.”
Sustainable Partnership
Ensuring that the partnership was sustainable and successful was central to all the participants. Newcastle College needs a reliable partner with appropriate expertise in handling learners and a qualification that delivers employment outcomes. From Gateway Qualifications’ and Code Institute’s perspectives working with an education partner who is proactive, has a vision and appetite for change is the key to success.
“The working relationship has been reassuringly straightforward and collaborative, according to Lee Lindsay, Transformation Consultant with Code Institute. “We were able to address and overcome any obstacles very quickly and the integration has been seamless. The fact that we’re all working towards a common goal, each bringing distinct components, makes the collaboration satisfying and rewarding.”
