Latest news from FE Week

£30k starting salaries is good news for school teachers, but bad news for colleges

With more pressures on college costs and teacher starting salaries set to rise to £30k in schools, the gulf between staff pay in schools and colleges will only get wider without DfE intervention, writes David Hughes.

Last week we published a report on the unprecedented challenges facing colleges in recruiting and retaining staff. We did that because college leaders have been telling us that this is their top challenge, hindering their capacity to meet learner needs and to develop their offerings on government priorities such as higher technical qualifications, T Levels, apprenticeships and the lifetime skills guarantee.

Our report highlighted the pay gap between school teachers and college lecturers of over £9,000 as well as the wider gaps in some sectors with industry pay – digital, construction, engineering and health are particularly difficult. The report also set out how student support and other college staff roles are now central to the challenge, with many people leaving good college jobs for higher pay in other sectors such as retail and warehousing.

With inflation now over 5 per cent and pay in some sectors exceeding that, we were concerned that the challenges would get even tougher this year and next.

That was before we started to hear about the eye-watering increases in energy costs that colleges are facing – one college is looking at a threefold increase in gas costs from £106k to over £330k this coming year.

With costs soaring, it is sobering to reflect that college income is likely to modestly increase from August. The spending review last autumn did increase 16 to 18 funding rates by around 8 per cent, but that needs to pay for a 7 per cent increase in hours.

Around half of college income; for adults, HE and apprenticeships, has no funding rate increase at all.

All of that puts colleges once again between a rock and hard place. They know that pay needs to increase, but they also know that the government has not invested enough and at the same time is hawkish on college financial viability. It is a brave college leader who sets a deficit budget, even in such trying times.

That all summarises where our thinking was when we pressed the button to launch our report last week.

Then we saw the DfE’s own submission to the School Teacher’s Review Body (STRB) and we realised that the challenge was even bigger than we had envisaged. In a very detailed and evidenced report, the DfE has asked the STRB to set a new starting salary for school teachers of £30,000, honouring the Conservative Party election manifesto commitment from 2019.

To do that, it expects the STRB to increase pay for new entrants to teaching by 8.9% in 2022/23, followed by a further 7.1% increase in 2023/24 to reach £30,000 within two years. Those sorts of increases are far out of reach for colleges, where starting salaries already are way behind the totemic £30,000 figure.

I’ve written to the Secretary of State asking for a similar analysis of college pay and for a discussion with him to set a similarly ambitious path for college staff. I’ve said that the absence of a mirroring ambition for colleges will hinder the deliver of the Government’s ambitions on skills and levelling up. I’ve also made it clear that it will be increasingly difficult to show college staff that they are valued as much as their counterparts in schools.

None of this is rocket science. The DfE’s own submission to the STRB puts it succinctly: “….targeting pay awards at early career teachers through the £30,000 starting salary commitment therefore remains the best opportunity for supporting recruitment and retention overall.”

I couldn’t agree more; and what is good for schools and school staff surely has to be good for colleges and their staff?

Derwen College, West Midlands

A multi-award winning college on the remote border with Wales has flung its doors open to the public in every possible way. Jess Staufenberg explores the grounds

It would be easy to see Derwen College as a hidden-away, far-flung provider which even its own locals might forget was there.

First off, it’s by far the most remote FE provider I’ve ever visited. I actually have to travel through another country – Wales – on the train, before crossing back into England and finally reaching my destination village, the amazingly named Gobowen. I’m disoriented enough to wonder vaguely why the train conductor keeps translating everything into a mystery language, before realising how far west I’ve come and that it is, of course, Welsh.

In fact the journey is so long (and the wifi so unenthusiastic) that my languages app has me practically fluent by the time I arrive (“rwy’n ar goll”, should you ever need it, means “I am lost”).

Then the route to the college itself is a good 20-minute walk along a stretch of road to reach a modest gate announcing ‘Derwen College’. Residential housing has ended, and only the occasional car shoots past.

But the special educational needs provider benefits hugely from its remote location. Step through the gates, and it becomes clear the college has vast amounts of space: 52 acres in total.

On a tour I go past orchards, a walled garden, commercial greenhouses, a garden centre, a period drama-esque building plus restaurant, a “nurture centre” for learners with profound and multiple learning difficulties, huge games pitches and a fully functioning hotel. Yes, a hotel. Oh, and a vintage shop.

The college’s vintage shop which opened this year

It’s more like arriving at a self-sufficient village than a college. Of the 150 students, 75 are residential, arriving from all over the country (and 22 learners are from Wales, according to Ofsted inspectors in 2021).

Learners achieve well, with a 100 per cent pass rate on average for those on accredited courses, according to the college data team.

Currently 83 per cent of learners are doing an accredited award in one of the college’s four specialisms: horticulture, hospitality and food, retail, and performing arts.

Other learners are on study programmes to develop independence. Three learners with the highest needs attend the specially equipped nurture centre, which opened in September.

The institution itself was founded 95 years ago by Agnes Hunt, later to become a dame for setting up the college and a nearby hospital. Back then, using the language of the day, it was called ‘Derwen Cripples’ Training College’.

Offensive terminology aside, Hunt was determined that disability should be no barrier to opportunity: she herself had brutal personal experience of it, living in terrible pain from a condition called osteomyelitis (inflammation of the bones).

But that history is hidden away on the college website, just as the college is hidden away geographically; and the provider could have chosen to remain closed in on itself, self-sufficient and self-contained.

Yet the staff team, led by principal Meryl Green, has been seriously putting Derwen on the map. Last year it won ‘specialist provider of the year’, it’s currently shortlisted in the Association of Colleges’ Beacon Awards for 2021/22, and its sports and leisure coordinator, Steve Evans, recently won Pearson’s ‘excellence in special needs education’ award.

Meryl Green, chief executive at Derwen College

I sit down to lunch opposite Green, who exudes a powerful and reassuring college matriarch vibe. Just as in the garden centre, it is students who are serving us in the Walled Garden café, overseen by catering staff.

It’s at this point I realise what’s been unusual so far: I’ve yet to see anyone sat behind a desk (bar the receptionist).

“The way we deliver, we have very few classrooms. You’re sitting in one,” nods Green, gesturing around us. “Our classrooms are our vocational areas. It has evolved like this over time.”

During lockdowns, when many organisations were just trying to keep afloat, Derwen College managed to open two more of its “classrooms” – The Vintage Advantage Charity Shop and a food takeaway service.

“Lots of our external work experience placements had to close, and we had to close the Orangery too,” continues Green, referring to the college’s restaurant which, like the café, shop, hotel and garden centre, are all open to the public.

“So we set up an on-site takeaway!” Students designed the menu, emailed it out to staff, staff said what they wanted, and students prepared the food. “It was a very neat way of still giving them those skills development opportunities.”

The same issue was facing the college’s retail students, and so the vintage shop was launched. Reader, I can only say that if it was in north London, it would be gutted in a single day.

Two more warehouses on site are filled with donations, a staff member tells me. FE Week can confirm the quality was so good, it bought itself a dress.

“Everyone at home during lockdown was having a sort out, so it was the right timing, too,” smiles Green. The college plans to open another vintage shop if possible, with all proceeds going to teaching and learning.

It even turns out that the café in the waiting room at Gobowen train station, where I arrived earlier, is run by Derwen College students.

“It’s very good training for students – it’s all rush, and then it’s all quiet,” explains Green. “We will always look for a creative solution to a problem if we can, and see everything as an opportunity.”

The public-facing approach is perhaps most impressively demonstrated by Hotel 751, which has three bedrooms and was set up in partnership with Premier Inn about seven years ago (it takes its name from being the 751^st in the chain).

Natalie and Nathan, hospitality students at Hotel 751 on campus

Even more ingeniously, the college has co-developed a video app that can take students through every step of their jobs.

This enables them to gain independence while training, rather than losing confidence and having to continually ask for help, explains teacher Katie Roberts.

One video, for instance, shows somebody knocking on a bedroom door and saying “housekeeping”, before going through the next steps, with verbal instructions overlaid. It’s a simple, brilliant idea.

Building self-esteem is central to Steve Evans’s work as sports and leisure coordinator at the college, who now oversees about 20 sports and activities at the provider. Back in 2014 he piloted the Duke of Edinburgh scheme with 11 students.

“We’d never done anything like that before. They’d never been away from college overnight, and I guess because of additional needs and medical conditions, it could have been a daunting prospect,” he tells me.

Some parents challenged him on whether he should be “taking my child canoeing down the River Severn,” he says. He gradually won them over, and today 60 students are doing the DofE award.

A more recent innovation has been to offer students a variety of activities to start their day at 9am, he continues. These range from high-intensity training to more gentle swimming, depending on whether they would benefit from “becoming more energised or feeling calmer” ahead of study.

It’s a hackneyed phrase, but for Evans there’s evidently no limit on what’s possible. The activities he hopes students can try are often out of the comfort zone of most able-bodied, neurotypical people, for instance.

“We’re looking at a climbing wall, and I’m looking at open water swimming, too. I like breaking down barriers. It is incredibly inspiring seeing what they can achieve.”

Orla, a hospitality student, at check in for Hotel 751

This message is led on by the students themselves. I’m back in reception, and Amy, a performing arts student, dances through the double doors (she most recently played the lead role of Belle in Derwen College’s production of Beauty and the Beast.

By the way, the college also has a signed dance group, and a ‘DC Narrators’ group – students who deliver storytelling in schools).

Amy, who is partially sighted, is clearly pleased at having got her DofE gold award, and brilliantly blunt about the bits she’d have happily skipped: “I came home smelling like the woods,” she grins. “But I’m happy, because now all my relatives are fighting to take me to Buckingham Palace.”

What does she think of Derwen College?

“My primary school was horrible. In high school I never really developed my confidence, and my other two colleges ̶ they were good but there wasn’t enough drama.

Here, there’s lots of drama, and I really like being residential.” Her next project at college is a play dealing with ‘acceptance’. “Just because we’re different, it doesn’t define us.”

Horticulture and agriculture students in the greenhouses

Through its huge efforts, Derwen College is helping prepare more students with additional needs for properly independent lives.

Last year 28 per cent of students went on to get jobs, both paid and voluntary, and 28 per cent went to their local college or training programme, including supported internships.

Meanwhile, 44 per cent went into other settings outside their family home, such as supported living.

They’re good outcomes, but it shows the world has a long way to go in offering these students full roles in society. Only at Derwen have I been perfectly served lunch or shown into a hotel room by someone with Down Syndrome. Why never before?

To bring that better world into being, Derwen College is modelling it here. That’s why its huge emphasis on bringing the public into its spaces matters so much.

Amy concludes for me with a grin. “Derwen has been the final and most craziest chapter of my childhood I can remember.”

Ofsted accused of flawed inspection after provider receives ‘inadequate’

A training provider that received an ‘inadequate’ rating in its latest Ofsted inspection has accused the regulator of conducting a “procedurally flawed” inspection and a report that contains “factual inaccuracies”.

Quest Vocational Training Limited (QVT) was inspected by Ofsted on November 9, 2021. Inspectors published their findings last week, saying that the provider was inadequate in three out of five areas.

Ofsted said that leaders at QVT had not made sure that all apprentices received their entitlement to off-the-job training and that in some cases, apprentices had to complete their studies in their own time, contrary to funding rules.

Inspectors also found that “far too many QVT apprentices, particularly the majority who work in adult care settings, are not making good progress at learning enough new knowledge or participating wholeheartedly in their programmes of learning”.

However, the provider has hit back, saying it will challenge the findings of the report as it faces being kicked out of the apprenticeships market under government rules.

“We are currently engaging with the formal processes set out by Ofsted with regards to challenging this report, the contents of which we vehemently dispute,” a spokesperson for QVT told FE Week.

“We are disappointed with the comments made within the report, the factual inaccuracies contained within along with a disproportionate emphasis on matters which were beyond our control through the pandemic.”

QVT is a training provider based in Ferndown in Dorset. It provides training for apprentices employed in health and social care, residential care, early years practitioner and, most recently, information technology technical sales (IT technical sales).

At the time of the inspection, QVT had 675 apprentices, around two thirds of whom were studying an adult care programme at level 2 to 5.

Some 148 apprentices had self-declared learning difficulties or disabilities and almost all apprentices were adults over 18 years of age.

Ofsted said that too many QVT apprentices are not making good progress with their learning.

“For example, apprentices are not consistently improving their English and mathematics skills, largely because they do not have enough direct support from trainers to enable them to use the online learning system effectively,” the report said.

Ofsted inspectors claimed that apprentices’ knowledge of fundamental British values, and the risks associated with radicalisation and exploitation are not routinely revisited by trainers during the apprenticeship.

“This means apprentices do not always remember or understand fully, such knowledge. Young apprentices have an insufficient knowledge of what sexual harm is and what constitutes a healthy relationship. Apprentices do not recall being provided with information, advice and guidance about their career paths during their programme.”

Inspectors found that leaders at QVT do not ensure that they meet the principles and requirements of an apprenticeship.

“They have not made sure that all apprentices receive their entitlement to off-the-job training. In some cases, apprentices must complete their studies in their own time, contrary to funding rules,” the report said.

According to the report, leaders have not ensured that the training for adult care apprentices is good enough.

“While QVT staff are passionate about the adult care sector and understand well the challenges faced by apprentices and employers due to Covid 19, they have not planned, adjusted, or implemented the curriculum well enough,” the report added.

Ofsted said that training for care apprentices is “based too much on training them to pass units of their qualification, rather than developing new knowledge, skills and behaviours over time”.

“Too many apprentices who already have extensive experience of the care sector are not learning anything new,” inspectors said.

One issue identified in the report was that most care apprentices do not enjoy learning online, which is their main form of teaching.

The report added that trainers provide apprentices with online learning because employers are not providing them with sufficient time off work to participate in face-to face learning sessions.

Ofsted’s findings were rejected by QVT.

“The report follows an inspection that we consider was procedurally flawed and on that basis the report is an inaccurate and unfair reflection of the services that we provide,” the QVT spokesperson told FE Week.

“Our staff and the employers we work with will not recognise us from the comments made within the report. We will continue to challenge the report through the appropriate legal mechanisms and until such time as the challenges have been satisfactorily concluded, we are not in position to comment further.”

An Ofsted spokesperson told FE Week: “We do not comment on individual complaints, but we take all complaints received seriously and carefully consider whether any action is required before we publish our inspection report.”

MOVERS AND SHAKERS: EDITION 381

Louise Holland

Director of Teaching, Learning and Quality Improvement, Basingstoke College of Technology

Start date: January 2022

Previous Job: Learning, Development & Quality Lead (Apprenticeships), Fareham College

Interesting fact: Louise is a qualified wedding celebrant and gained a love for travel and culture after living in Italy and Australia

Cheri Ashby

Deputy Chief Executive, Activate Learning

Start date: March 2022

Previous Job: Group Executive Director, Activate Learning

Interesting fact: Cheri spent her childhood in the land-locked country of Zimbabwe dreaming of life on the ocean. She is now a qualified sailor, though prefers fair-weather salining and spending winter months on dry land

Karen Carroll

Operations Manager, 1st for EPA

Start date: February 2022

Previous Job: Head of Quality and Assessment, GBS Apprenticeships

Interesting fact: Karen is a reflexologist and loves to upcycle furniture

Adam Goldstein

Chief Operating Officer, NCFE

Start date: February 2022

Previous Job: Chief operating officer, Astrea Academy Trust

Interesting fact: Adam is a huge supporter of volunteering and he is currently the chair of Barnet and Southgate College and a trustee for the learning disability charity, Macintyre

Ray Olive

Chair, T Level Ambassador Network

Start date: February 2022

Concurrent Job: Assistant Director of People and OD, University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust

Interesting fact: Ray is a qualified sailing instructor and has sailed in every ocean on the planet

Education and Skills Funding Agency advertise for new CEO

The Education and Skills Funding Agency are searching for a new chief executive, according to a post on the Civil Service Jobs website.

The ESFA is an executive agency of the Department for Education and is responsible for funding education and skills for children, young people and adults.

They said they are looking for somebody to lead what they called “one of the most high-profile and high-performing agencies in government”.

The job pays £125,000, and whoever takes the role will be able to do flexible working, full-time or a job share, and will be able to work from a number of locations across the UK.

“This high-profile and high-impact role requires someone who is visionary, inventive and rigorous,” the job advert said.

“You must not be afraid to advocate ideas and exploit new opportunities; and will have the ability to build trusted relationships to secure practical change.”

Whoever takes on the role will be personally accountable to parliament for safeguarding public funds and ensuring value for money for the taxpayer.

“As Accounting Officer, the CEO supports the permanent secretary at the Public Accounts Committee and engages directly with the National Audit Office,” the job advert said.

Other key responsibilities include leading the establishment of the new agency following the recent review of the ESFA and the Future DfE reorganisation of the department.

The new chief executive will be expected to develop a commitment to a “renewed vision for the ESFA” and harness the “strong pride that ESFA staff exhibit in their work”.

It was recently announced that the DfE is taking back policy responsibilities from the ESFA.

The DfE said that it will absorb post-16 policy and delivery functions from the agency from April 1, 2022.

The recent review of the EFSA said that the agency should focus on it’s “core funding role” and that that the DfE should form a single “consolidated” unit for all post-16 skills policy.

The new chief executive will replace John Edwards who was appointed interim chief executive and accounting officer of the agency in July 2021.

He was appointed to the role after the then chief executive, Eileen Milner, stood down in June 2021.

When Milner left, she sent a letter to staff saying there was an “important role for me to undertake in the area that I call home and that feels important to do, to try and make a contribution, most especially in the context of recovery from the pandemic”.

She had joined the ESFA from the Care Quality Commission, where she was an executive director.

Ukraine invasion sees Turing placements cancelled

College students are having their Turing and Erasmus international placements cancelled in the wake of the crisis in Ukraine, FE Week has learnt.

The British Council told FE Week that trips to Ukraine, Russia and Belarus are suspended for the time being and wouldn’t be eligible for funding. Trips planned to the broader region have also been affected.

FE Week spoke to one college who said they have cancelled Turing trips for 12 students, who were travelling to the Czech Republic, due to parents’ fears about safety.

However, the exact number of cancellations across international placement schemes is uncertain, and the Association of Colleges stressed it is too early to say whether there will be widespread mobility cancellation as a result of the crisis.

Emma Meredith, international director at AoC, told FE Week that some planned trips are not going ahead, and that others will “no doubt need to be cancelled – particularly to the broader region”.

“It is a concern for colleges trying to plan visits about whether they can go ahead. In many cases, they may decide to postpone or cancel trips, if they feel it’s too risky for that to go ahead, because they wouldn’t want to compromise student safety.

“It’s about being mindful of what the partners on the ground are saying as well. They may say, ‘Look, even if we are 1,000 miles from the border, it’s not a good time’.”

Meredith stressed that colleges should follow Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office travel advice when making decisions on whether trips should go ahead.

She noted that some mobility trips may be scheduled for later in the spring or summer and not necessarily due to take place immediately.

She also said that FCDO travel advice can change quickly and colleges will adapt accordingly.

At the time of publication, FCDO advice was that travellers should not visit Ukraine, Russia or Belarus.

“We advise against all travel to Ukraine and that British nationals should leave Ukraine immediately if they judge it is safe to do so,” a spokesperson from the FCDO told FE Week.

The Department for Education told FE Week that all Turing Scheme participants should comply with FCDO travel advice.

The British Council, which currently helps runs the Turing scheme, told FE Week that the scheme is the UK government’s programme and so the delivery partner will always follow their guidance on such issues.

The delivery partner’s guidance to participating organisations states that FCDO travel advice must be adhered to.

This will mean that Turing Scheme trips to the Ukraine, Russia and Belarus are suspended for the time being and wouldn’t be eligible for funding.

FE Week asked the DfE for data about how many placements would be cancelled as a result. They said they were unable to provide this information, in part due to the sensitive nature of the situation.

Trips to the broader region cancelled

The Turing scheme is a student exchange programme established by the DfE in 2021 as a replacement for the European Union’s Erasmus Programme following Brexit. Last year, when it opened, 110 colleges and training providers were awarded funding under the scheme.

Greater Brighton Metropolitan College confirmed they had taken the decision to cancel an upcoming trip to Prague through the Turing Scheme in response to concerns from students’ parents about their safety. This affected 12 students on travel and tourism and business courses.

“In terms of Erasmus, we have a two-year transnational project with a college in the Czech Republic and one in Finland. In collaboration with the principals of these two colleges, we are assessing whether we should delay the remaining activities for this academic year to next year,” a spokesperson for the college said.

Other colleges said they are keeping a close eye on the situation and prioritising student safety.

“Oldham College has plans for a group of digital students to visit Aachen in Germany as part of the Turing Scheme,” a spokesperson from Oldham College in Greater Manchester, told FE Week.

“We are not planning to cancel anything at this time as our learners are not due to visit until June. However, we are watching the situation closely as their safety is our top priority.”

Sheffield College said it had two Turing Scheme trips planned to the Netherlands and Portugal which are due to take place this summer.

“We will continue to monitor the wider situation. The safety of our students and staff is our utmost priority,” they said.

The Turing Scheme recently opened registrations for schools, colleges and universities for the second year of the scheme.

The opening of registrations for the 2022/23 academic year, enables organisations to begin planning their applications to secure funding that enables students, learners and pupils, including those from disadvantaged and non-traditional backgrounds, to undertake study or work placements around the world.

London launches VIP adult education quality mark

A new quality mark for London’s adult education providers could give them the edge in future bids for capital and education funding.

On Wednesday, the Greater London Authority (GLA) launched its own quality mark designed to recognise high-quality courses in the mayor’s six priority sectors.

The Mayor’s Academies Quality Mark is now open for applications for all types of education and training providers that deliver publicly funded courses to Londoners. The GLA hopes that the new scheme will incentivise high-quality provision and make it easier for employers and learners to find the best courses.

Quality marks will be awarded at sector level, so providers can apply for more than one if they meet strict criteria. The sectors that have been chosen for the scheme are creative industries, digital, green, health and social care, hospitality, and construction.

Most London colleges and training organisations eligible to apply for the quality mark will have already achieved the required grade two or above Ofsted inspection judgment. However, GLA-appointed assessors will be looking for a wealth of evidence to satisfy the criteria spanning 25 application questions.

To be successful, providers will have to submit evidence that proves courses in their selected sectors are of high quality, support under-represented groups, are well supported by employers and embed key principles around fair pay and good work, net-zero, and diversity and inclusion.

London’s deputy mayor for planning, regeneration and skills, Jules Pipe, described the quality mark as “an important step in recognising and showcasing good practice, allowing Londoners and employers to access the best training London has to offer”.

The quality mark builds on a similar existing scheme in the capital, the Mayor’s Construction Academy Quality Mark, which has been awarded to 25 providers that are listed publicly in a dedicated course directory on the GLA’s website.

The new quality mark could be more than just a badge of recognition.

The scheme’s application guidance indicates the GLA’s intention to prioritise providers that have been awarded one or more quality marks in future funding rounds for capital and programme pots.

According to the guidance, “going forward, the quality mark and its wider principles will be reflected in the application process for other GLA employment and skills programmes, such as skills bootcamps”.

It also states that “the mayor expects to launch an opportunity to access funding for investment in estate, facilities and equipment for providers that hold the quality mark”.

London appears to be the first authority with a devolved adult education budget to introduce its own quality mark scheme of this kind.

In addition to possible VIP treatment in future funding rounds, holders of the quality mark will be appointed to networks to “tackle sector-wide challenges” to collaborate more with employers.

The GLA also plans to host an awards ceremony to promote adult, further and higher education in London as part of its efforts to celebrate excellence and promote learning opportunities through its recognised provider base.

Providers have until April 14, 2022 to apply, with successful bidders set to be announced in May.

We desperately need parents to control student device use at night

Parents want us to help their struggling child – but worrying habits at home are the biggest problem, writes Emma Boulton Roe

We are fighting a losing battle.

Another student of mine is struggling. Lethargic, desperately trying to focus and depressed. Not meeting his potential. In fact, he is far from being the best version of himself.

I try hard to find ways to help this student, with regular one-to-ones, a support plan, counselling referrals and trying out different techniques to engage him in sessions.

It turns out that there is a very easy fix for these issues.

The student in question is a gamer. He doesn’t sleep until 4am and his diet consists of junk food and energy drinks.

This, unfortunately, is not an isolated incident. I have multiple students who seem to be surprised that the reason they are tired, feeling depressed and struggling with their workload is that they are not getting enough sleep.

The reason that they have headaches and can’t focus is that they are exhausted and have a poor diet. We have water fountains across the college yet they seem to be relying on fizzy drinks and high-caffeine energy drinks.

When I asked one of my groups what limits they had imposed on their use of tech at home they all said none. The consensus was that they are responsible for managing their own time, and the consequences are theirs to deal with.

It seems that technology develops faster than most of us can keep up with. Parents may not be aware of the types of challenges their children are facing.

Today’s devices are more advanced than the ones we grew up with.

Internet safety, blue light disruption of the circadian rhythm, melatonin suppression, hours spent scrolling aimlessly through a multitude of social media apps, connection online to other gamers at all hours.

These are real and potentially damaging problems.

The parent or guardian’s job, which is to set a regular bedtime and good sleep hygiene, is easier to implement with younger children.

The difficulty arises when you have young adults (16 years upwards) who work and are supposed to be independent learners in charge of their own timetable.

These students can eat chips and sweets for lunch every day if they like. They can spend their money on giant cans of energy drinks bought from the local shop. They might not listen to their parents ̶ they are nearly adults, after all.

Teachers are faced with many challenges when trying to engage learners in sessions. We spend precious time trying to negate the fallout from these bad habits.

Often, the full picture doesn’t come to light until further down the road.

Parents have complained to me that we aren’t supporting their child enough, yet I can have absolutely no control over what happens in their home.

The pandemic has had a lasting effect on our students, not least on their mental health. Teachers have been similarly impacted, yet the push for progress and high grades is ever present.

I am single-handedly waging a war on energy drinks

Families face rising living costs and may be working extra hours, relying on their college-age kids to help out at home and take on more responsibility for themselves.

Perhaps the best place to implement healthy change would be within the tutorial programme.

Advice for parents on limiting screen time could be delivered in tandem with sessions for students, going back to basics on diet and sleep. (Perversely, there are apps for this very purpose.)

I advise on healthy eating. We talk about good bedtime routines. I am single-handedly waging a war on energy drinks. My team is in a unique position where we can combat some of the physical impacts of poor posture with warm-ups and yoga.

We try, at least, to instil a positive routine and work ethic into those we teach.

But until parents monitor their children’s device use, embed healthy sleep and food patterns, we are fighting a losing battle.

The government must act quickly if targets for electrical vehicles are to be met

We are on countdown to 2030, when no more new petrol and diesel cars will be allowed – but apprenticeships are lagging, writes Sue Pittock

At the conclusion of the Commons passage of the skills bill, the government said the new “future skills” unit within the Department for Education will give schools data to show the opportunities apprenticeships can offer to students.

The bill also gives statutory backing to the local skills improvement plans (LSIPs).

These will be additional recipients of the apprenticeships data and we can confidently predict that green apprenticeships will feature strongly in nearly all areas’ plans.

That’s despite there being currently, and wrongly, no formal requirements in the bill for LSIPs to consult the independent providers that offer them.

However well-intentioned these measures are, I felt a little sceptical about their real value, as I showed shadow skills minister Toby Perkins and local MP Dame Margaret Beckett around Remit’s two automotive academies in Derby this week.

Many of our 1,900 apprentices are now being trained in our academies to help fill the huge skills gap in electrical vehicle (EV) maintenance for cars, vans and trucks, in addition to their core light- and heavy-vehicle programmes.

The reason for my scepticism is that we don’t need to be told by government that in six to 12 months’ time there will be huge demand for qualified EV technicians – we already know!

Local and national sector skills forecasts have been available from commercial suppliers for many years.

Global brands, especially truck manufacturers, are knocking on Remit’s door now for support.

Some are investing heavily in their own training to keep trucks and vans on the road, and Britain supplied with the food and goods it needs.

According to the Institute of the Motor Industry, only six per cent of the current 250,000 technicians in the automotive sector are EV qualified.

But the country needs 90,000 qualified by 2030, when no more new petrol and diesel vehicles will be allowed on the country’s roads.

On the face of it, this might appear to be good news for us as a provider wanting to keep our academies full.

But the government really needs to wake up to the implications of all this for apprenticeships.

The government really needs to wake up to the implications of this target

Many leading car and truck manufacturers would prefer to see more apprenticeships as the solution to filling the EV skills gap.

However, a lack of urgency in the government’s response to the issue means that training providers and employers are choosing to train with alternative EV qualifications instead.

Faster action is therefore required to introduce apprenticeship standards that are much more tailored to meet the demand for EV technicians. This is particularly needed for heavy vehicles.

The incomplete funding band review for apprenticeships by the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education is already two years old.

The spectre of high inflation means that government must act now to lift funding rates to cover significantly increased operating costs.

These costs include higher salaries for automotive tutors when demand for their experience and expertise is soaring.

Independent training providers in the automotive sector do not receive any capital funding from government to support the substantial investment needed for state-of-the-art training academies – even further education colleges are struggling to make training for the sector sustainable.

More investment in facilities and up-to-date equipment will dry up if operating and eligible costs are not addressed properly by the funding rates.

In short, £4,000 for each apprentice per year simply is not enough to meet running costs and make the required capital investment.

Why does this matter? Remit could scale down its automotive apprenticeship programmes and concentrate instead on commercial training.

Just as Toby Perkins said during the skills bill debate, we believe that apprenticeships are “the gold standard”.

Our vehicle manufacturer customers want the choice of their technicians gaining the knowledge, skills and behaviours within a high-quality apprenticeship programme.

So, if the government is serious about green apprenticeships, it needs to worry less about plans and future skills forecasts and act on what really matters.

Otherwise, if ministers are happy to simply rely on commercial training, the 2030 EV target poses a considerable risk to keeping vehicles roadworthy.