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AoC warns there is still ‘not enough detail’ for colleges to plan new level 3 adult offer

The head of the Association of Colleges is “worried” there will be a slow start to the new flagship level 3 adult offer despite pleas from the education secretary for his members to embrace it.

David Hughes has warned that colleges “still don’t have enough detail” to fully plan their offer, even though it is due to start in a matter of weeks under the lifetime skills guarantee.

He is also concerned about eligibility issues – such as the rule that it can only be taken by individuals who do not already hold a level 3 qualification – which may scupper demand.

He made the comments to FE Week following Gavin Williamson’s speech at this week’s AoC conference. The education secretary told delegates they would be “absolutely key” to the programme’s success and “strongly encouraged” them to get involved.

FE Week recently highlighted the plight of the fully funded level 3 offer for 24-year-old and above learners for independent training providers, who are being given just a four-month window to start and complete the substantial courses, many of which can take a year or more to complete.

The issue stems from the scheme being funded by the new national skills fund but routed through adult education budget allocations from April, the contracts of which run out for private providers in July.

Colleges are funded differently through “grants” and will continue to receive funding for the level 3 offer in the next academic year.

The government has set aside £95 million to fund the “entitlement” during the next financial year from April 2021 to March 2022. When FE Week asked the Department for Education how much had been allocated for the 2020/21 academic year, which ends in July, a spokesperson said this information would be released in “due course”.

Nobody should be under the impression that the timing is ideal

During his conference speech, Williamson thanked colleges for “all the hard work you’ve already put in to scale up this offer ahead of April”.

But Hughes has warned Williamson not to expect large numbers of adults taking up the offer in colleges from the get-go.

He told FE Week: “Nobody should be under the impression that the timing is ideal. We have said from the start that there is a lead-in time to expanding numbers, and colleges still don’t have enough detail to fully plan their offer, which is due to start in a matter of weeks.

“The publication of the eligible qualifications was helpful and officials are working hard to get the details and allocations out, but with the lockdown still with us, I am worried that numbers will be low in the first few months of the summer term.”

Hughes said that September will see a “big increase in numbers in colleges and I just hope that everybody recognises that as a realistic ambition”.

level 3 adult offer — READ MORE: Williamson ‘strongly encourages’ colleges to embrace lifetime skills guarantee level 3 offer

He added that there are also “wider issues which may limit demand, such as benefit claimants not being able to learn full-time and the entitlement only covering the first level 3 qualification, which means those needing re-training might not be eligible”.

Hughes pledged to “continue to press” for solutions to both of these and to allow modules to be delivered that “fit better with some needs from adults wanting training to move quickly into work”.

The Education and Skills Funding Agency will administer allocations for the offer for national training providers. Mayoral combined authorities with devolved AEB will be given their own allocations to fund the offer through their providers.

However, the allocations for devolved mayoral authorities have still not been signed off as they await further guidance from central government.

A DfE spokesperson said: “We have updated the funding rules for academic year 2020 to 2021, which provides full details of the level 3 adult offer for FE providers.

“We recognise that providers will want to know their individual funding amounts, this information will be shared with FE providers shortly along with updated technical guidance on gov.uk.”

International students: Why college income is in freefall

With the income colleges make from international students plummeting, FE Week spoke with college and sector leaders to understand why this is happening, why foreign students are so important and what can be done to keep them coming.

Income from international students studying at UK universities and other higher education institutions is up two-thirds since 2010, hitting a whopping £15.9 billion in 2018. Yet the same official income figures for non-EU international student studying at FE colleges show a 64 per cent fall from £920 million in 2010 to just £330 million in 2018.

Why the dramatic fall in college income?

Government policy has been largely to blame for the fall in student numbers, according to the Association of Colleges’ international director, Emma Meredith.

The UK’s points-based immigration system, originally introduced in 2008, has “made it harder over time for FE colleges to recruit international students,” she says, particularly in countries with a higher demand for vocational skills courses.

The system has also proven problematic due to the “gradual” introduction of rules, including removing part-time working rights for students in 2015.

Colleges holding ‘tier 4 sponsor licences’ – a Home Office requirement when enrolling non-EU students – have been required to be rated either ‘outstanding’ or ‘good’ by Ofsted since 2011.

Highbury College, for example, lost their licence after receiving an Ofsted grade three in June 2018, and their financial accounts show a subsequent decline in international student income.

In addition, a number of “bogus” institutions had been filtered out the system, Meredith said, which has led to a reduction in numbers.

Then there is the red tape. One college with a tier 4 licence, Dudley College, has found recruiting non-EU students “increasingly challenging” due to the “increasing regulation of visa applications”. So much so, “we have planned for a decrease in this income stream in recent years”, a spokesperson said.

Dudley’s financial statements show its overall international student fee income has declined by over half between 2016 and 2020, falling from £1.172 million to £550,000.

Barnet and Southgate College has seen its international student fees income drop by 89 per cent, from £112,000 in 2016 to £12,000 in 2019.

The Ofsted grade three Bournemouth and Poole College, which does not hold a tier 4 licence, saw its income fall from £1.049 million in 2016, to £749,000 in 2019 – a 28 per cent drop.

Matt Butcher, commercial director of Bournemouth & Poole College, called it “a common trend that other colleges across the country have experienced when working with international students over the past few years,” and recent times “have been incredibly challenging”.

Why is it important for colleges to teach international students?

Meredith says colleges are a pathway into the already-booming higher education sector, where education-related exports rose by 67 per cent between 2010 and 2018, from £9.5 billion to £15.9 billion.

Also, such recruitment, especially where international students fill up classes, is a “good revenue and expertise base from which colleges can consider engaging in other forms of international activity”.

Oxford-based Activate Learning started a multi-million-pound, six-year contract to train China’s national youth rowing team in September 2019, in partnership with Oxford Brookes University.

Speaking to FE Week, Activate’s director of international, Niko Phillips, said the college group uses its commercial divisions to “help subsidise the income that we get from our domestic learners”.

So it was “pretty impressive for an FE college” to be able to score a contract with the Chinese government.

Yet once Covid lockdowns started coming in across the world in March, the Chinese students headed home, and until they return “we don’t see that money,” Phillips said.

“With luck and vaccinations, we should be able to start the project again,” he hopes.

What can be done?

The government does place prominence on the benefits of education providers making money from international students and acting overseas.

Last year, the University of Exeter’s vice chancellor, Steve Smith, was announced as the UK’s international education champion, to complete two ten-year goals in the UK’s newly updated international education strategy: to increase education exports to £35 billion per year, and to increase the number of higher education students learning in the UK to 600,000 per year.

The lack of a similar commitment for FE students does reinforce one point Meredith raised, that “colleges have not had much encouragement to take their offer internationally, and the FE international offer has not always been well understood nor promoted”.

The government also has an Education Sector Advisory Group, which meets three times a year and includes Department for International Trade and Department for Education ministers, where colleges and training providers are represented by the UK Skills Partnership, a grouping of sector organisations including the Association of Colleges and WorldSkills UK.

According to its GOV.UK page, the group “aims to increase UK education exports by overcoming sector challenges and exploiting opportunities”.

The government has also launched its new Turing Scheme, to replace the European Union’s Erasmus+, which will fund students and apprentices to study and work abroad from September this year.

This, the government says, will allow colleges, schools and universities “to build reciprocal relationships on a truly global basis”.

But the policy that led to the Turing scheme, Britain’s exit from the European Union, may stifle FE’s international student numbers, with Meredith warning the end of free movement from Europe means EU students will need visas to study courses longer than six months.

And from August 2021, EU students will no longer be eligible for ‘home’ tuition fees, which are charged at a lower rate than ‘overseas’ fees.

“The way the UK partners with the EU will need to adapt,” she said, “but the key concerns are to maintain the important partnerships colleges have built up in the EU over the years and assess where any new opportunities may lie”.

Federation of Awarding Bodies chief executive Tom Bewick (a former parliamentary candidate for the Brexit Party who has worked in ten countries on technical and vocational education systems) does not believe Brexit “will be a factor at all” on colleges’ international activity due to the breadth of nations with historical and cultural ties to the UK.

Bewick highlighted data from the International Monetary Fund, which predicted 90 per cent of all future growth in the world’s gross domestic product will be from outside the EU, “so that gives you a sense of importance of developing countries in Africa, many of which are quite well developed, with large populations with large middle classes ̶ same in India and South Asia”.

Meredith has called on the government to “better include” FE colleges in international campaigns that promote UK education, particularly in those countries with demand for skills education. Otherwise, she says, “international FE numbers will continue to decline”.

“Risk will always – and rightly so – be a concern. Colleges are keen to collaborate on international opportunities and more steps can be taken to facilitate this,” she added.

The Department for Education was approached for comment.

Ofsted parks new provider monitoring visits

New provider monitoring visits have been delayed indefinitely by Ofsted.

The inspectorate previously said it would restart the visits from January face-to-face but later announced they would be conducted remotely until at least the February half-term in light of the third national lockdown.

The virtual monitoring visits to providers that are new to delivering apprenticeships were set to get under way on January 25, but Ofsted has now told FE Week these will not be going ahead.

There is also no set date for when they will recommence.

A spokesperson said: “During the national lockdown, we have had to pause new provider monitoring visits (NPMVs) because these visits require inspectors to carry out in-person inspection so that we can fairly judge the progress made, including safeguarding. However, we hope to return to NPMVs as soon as it is possible to do so.

“Currently, we are conducting remote inspections of those that most need it, but we will undertake onsite work where we have serious concerns, which could include new providers.”

FE Week understands the Education and Skills Funding Agency is becoming increasingly concerned about new apprenticeship providers that are going for prolonged periods without oversight from the watchdog following the pause to normal inspection activity since March 2020 amid Covid-19.

Last week, FE Week revealed how a freight company had become an approved apprenticeship provider in March 2020 and over the next eight months recruited more than 1,100 apprentices – more than any other provider in that period – mostly in the care sector.

The firm, called Logistics.com (UK), is now under investigation by the ESFA and faces liquidation.

According to Ofsted’s latest operational note for FE providers, published on February 12, after half term the watchdog will only conduct “progress monitoring visits” to “providers judged to require improvement for overall effectiveness that have not yet received a monitoring visit since their last full inspection”.

The same visits will be made to providers “judged inadequate for overall effectiveness that have not yet received a monitoring visit since their last full inspection, or that are due their second re-inspection monitoring visit (if they continue to be publicly funded)”.

While new providers awating their first Ofsted visit are still not in line, the guidance states that progess monitoring visits will be undertaken at “new providers that are due a full inspection and have received a new provider monitoring visit two years ago or more (subject to a provider’s individual circumstances)”.

Covid-related death of college lecturer investigated

The death of a college lecturer who died after contracting Covid-19 is being investigated by the government’s agency that polices workplace safety.

Donna Coleman, who worked with vulnerable students at Burnley College according to the University and College Union of which she was a member, passed away last month aged 42.

In a press release to the media today, the UCU said it was “investigating the circumstances that led to Donna’s death, including whether she contracted Covid through her work at Burnley College”. The union claims that prior to Coleman’s death they had “rejected the college’s risk assessments because of their poor Covid controls”.

The union says it also raised its health and safety concerns with the government’s Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and has lodged a formal complaint with the agency since Coleman’s death.

HSE told FE Week that it has been “working with the college regarding Covid measures on campus and safety with regard to events such as open evenings” and will now be “liaising further with the college in relation to this fatality and will make further enquiries”.

Burnley College has not responded to requests for comment.

The UCU confirmed this was the first time it has publicly raised concerns about a college staff member’s death.

According to the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics, 10 “further education teaching professionals” have died from Covid-19 to date.

Donna’s death is an appalling tragedy

UCU general secretary Jo Grady said: “We are all angry and devastated about the loss of Donna. Her passing will be deeply felt by her family, her students and her wider community.

“Too many workers, including those in post-16 education, have lost their lives to Covid. These deaths are not inevitable. UCU will continue to fight to keep our members safe, and for employers and the government to protect their health and safety.”

UCU regional official Martyn Moss added: “Donna’s death is an appalling tragedy and we are supporting her family at this difficult time.

“UCU is investigating the circumstances that led to Donna’s death, including whether she contracted Covid through her work at Burnley College.

“Unfortunately, the college is refusing to disclose whether it knows if it has had any Covid outbreaks. Prior to Donna’s death we had rejected the college’s risk assessments because of their poor Covid controls.

“We have also raised our health and safety concerns with the college and with the Health and Safety Executive, the government body that polices workplace safety.”

Apprenticeships are a crucial vehicle for tackling worsening Covid inequalities

We need to be creating a seamless pipeline towards higher-level apprenticeships, writes Cindy Rampersaud

Recognising National Apprenticeship Week is more important than ever before this year. As we begin to look towards reopening both the economy and society, we need to consider how we will offer opportunities to those who have been most impacted by the pandemic.

We need to ensure people have access to programmes to build fulfilling careers, contributing to the recovery of the UK and also mitigating a widening inequality gap.

Even before the pandemic, policymakers were prioritising reskilling to tackle the rapidly evolving jobs market.

In 2019, the government’s UK Skills Mismatch 2030 paper had predicted that seven million additional workers could be ill equipped for their job requirements by 2030. That’s about 20 per cent of the labour market.

So one of the biggest draws of apprenticeship is that they offer the opportunity to gain skills on the job while earning ̶ particularly attractive if you’re reskilling later in life.

Vocational learning is also a route to higher education that is more appealing to those who do not wish to pursue a career through academia.

Worsening inequalities

But the pandemic is worsening existing inequalities, impacting women, the BAME community, those with disabilities, the LGBTQ community, young people and those from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds.

For many women, Covid has brought additional pressures in the form of increased caring responsibilities and higher unemployment, as 2.5 million women work in heavily impacted sectors.

The BAME community has seen a 47 per cent drop in household income compared to the national average of 28 per cent over the past year, with 15 per cent reporting losing their jobs, compared to a national average of eight per cent.

Research by the charity Turn2us found that 58 per cent of BAME workers have had their employment affected since the start of the pandemic, compared to 47 per cent of white workers.

There is currently an under-representation of BAME apprentices across all levels in our economy and it is no coincidence that there has been a notable reduction in participation rates in education, too.

Post-Covid, apprenticeships provide a real opportunity to bridge some of the inequality gaps

In the post-Covid era, apprenticeships provide a real opportunity to bridge some of the inequality gaps and mitigate the effects by providing access to retrain, upskill and access careers.

A more inclusive route

Apprenticeships are a crucial vehicle for those looking to return to the workforce. They also provide a more inclusive route to upskilling for those of all backgrounds.

The Social Mobility Commission found that learners from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds benefit more from apprenticeships than those from non-disadvantaged backgrounds. The boost to their earnings post-apprenticeship is greater than for their non-disadvantaged peers.

However, we should also think about the ways people can undertake apprenticeships. Providing technical and occupational learning to 16- to 18-year-olds has been notoriously difficult in the past. The pandemic has only exacerbated that challenge.

Seamless pipeline needed

T Levels have a fundamental role to play in upskilling future generations and are a welcome initiative to sit alongside existing pathways.

But we must now look ahead to create a seamless pipeline to higher-level apprenticeships and work with employers to make that a reality.

To create inclusive opportunities for all, there must be choice between routes that suit those starting out in their career or looking to develop new skills.

If the options available are limited, you close off opportunities for millions of people.

Apprenticeships form an incredibly important part of that mix, especially for the 60 per cent of over-16s who choose a vocational or work-based pathway.

As we look ahead to the post-Covid world, ensuring structures are in place to offer opportunities to all in our society so they can thrive in their careers will be vital to the success of our recovery.

So apprenticeships really matter more now than ever.

The theme of this year’s National Apprenticeship Week is ‘Build the Future’. But if we are to do that, we must open opportunities for everyone and address the gaps now.

Combined and local authorities must have a role in the government’s skills plan

The skills white paper must create a coherent system but local authorities are needed to provide the links and oversight, write Ruth Lupton and Stephanie Thomson

Andy Norman was right. At the end of January the research analyst at the Centre for Progressive Policy argued in these pages it’s “risky business to have an employer-dominated skills system”.

In confirming that devolution has no part in government plans to transform post-16 education and training, last month’s FE white paper missed a crucial opportunity.

It was an opportunity to build a more coherent system, fit to serve the needs of individuals as well as employers.

Holes in progression routes

The impact that a poorly coordinated post-16 system is having on the 40 per cent of young people without at least a grade 4 in both English and maths was explored in our recently published research for the Nuffield Foundation called ‘Moving on from GCSE “failure”’

The structure and nature of provision is part of the problem. Every local area has a different mix of academic, vocational and apprenticeship provision and institutional arrangements. Some provision is clearly linked to local labour market needs – for example, where a large local employer or growth sector stimulates demand for skills.

But employer demand waxes and wanes and financial pressures, competition and incentives mean that local provision can be volatile. This creates holes in progression routes that young people (and adults) find difficult to climb out of.

Greater coordination between employers and providers is needed, but it is hard to see how the linkage to the local labour market promised by the white paper will work if strategic authorities responsible for industrial strategy, planning and transport are not involved.

To do this, combined and local authorities need to be centrally involved in provision planning and given capacity to commission specific provision (in the 16- to 18-age phase as well as for adults) where this aligns with local priorities.

Lack of local oversight

But making the system work better isn’t just about getting provision right and expecting learners to make informed choices. Our research revealed many blockages to progress, including transport links.

However, the two key issues were local practices around entry requirements and inadequate guidance and support.

Most geographic areas in our study had a vast array of provision, but once GCSE-based entry requirements were taken into account, this narrowed dramatically, giving some young people limited choice about what they did after school.

For those who did not move straight to A-levels, the rush to identify suitable courses or apprenticeships following GCSE results created too many risks of drop-out or direction change.

Many GCSE “lower attainers” were not ready to make career decisions and reported that advice and support had been minimal. Yet no one locally has an oversight of these linkages between the pre- and post-16 phases, nor the authority to intervene.

Capacity to map provision needed

To improve the way the system works, the local state, whether combined or local authorities, needs the analytical capacity to map the provision that exists and, crucially, the associated entry requirements.

This way, gaps in provision could be properly identified and action taken with providers to make sure entry requirements are appropriate and do not block progress.

This capacity would underpin the building of progression pathways and foster collaboration and information flows across pre- and post-16 phases.

It would identify young people at risk of dropping out. It would form the basis of a wraparound support service starting in year 11 and continuing through to 19 to help young people construct a career pathway that recognises they might need to take sideways moves.

Supporting post-16 progression demands not just better employer-provider collaboration but strategic oversight and practical intervention in education and training sub-systems, from school to adult learning.

If we are to persist with a centrally funded and regulated market approach, we need to find much better ways to make it work locally.

This means trusting local leaders to ensure that the white paper’s proposals don’t just create a new set of cracks for young people (and adults) to fall through.

Former FE lecturer turned MP appointed new Apprenticeship Diversity Champions Network chair

A Conservative MP who worked as a further education lecturer for 20 years has been appointed chair of the government’s Apprenticeship Diversity Champions Network during National Apprenticeships Week.

Lia Nici, who represents Great Grimsby, will take responsibility for shaping objectives for the network of 88 companies, with the Education and Skills Funding Agency.

Nici, who previously worked at Grimsby College, said she was “delighted” to have been invited to the role, as working with the “brilliant” employers in the network “will go a long way” to ensuring apprenticeships are open and accessible to all.

“We need this richness of diversity in our talent in order to stay competitive and to level the country up,” she said.

It comes after FE Week found last October the proportion of black, Asian and minority ethnic 16- to 18-year-old apprentices made up just 7.7 per cent of starts in the first three-quarters of 2019/20.

The network was founded during National Apprenticeship Week 2017 and now includes companies such as Channel 4, Siemens Plc, Lloyds Banking Group, a number of NHS Trusts, as well as small-to-medium enterprises.

Their aim is to encourage more people from underrepresented groups including those with disabilities, women and members of the Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities, to consider apprenticeships.

Apprenticeships and skills minister Gillian Keegan announced Nici’s appointment at a meeting of the network this week. FE Week reported in October they had not met since last February, as meetings were paused by the pandemic.

Keegan said the government “wants to make sure everyone, no matter where they live or their experience, can gain the skills they need to get ahead”.

The minister also said Nici, who previously led multiple media organisations such as Estuary TV, a TV station run by the Grimsby Institute, has a “wealth of experience and will play a key role in making sure we level up by developing talent from all parts of the country”.

All apprenticeship providers told to reapply to RoATP yet again

All providers on the government’s register of apprenticeship training providers (RoATP) will need to reapply yet again over the course of the next year as plans for another “refresh” are unveiled.

The Education and Skills Funding Agency published further details today about the next phase of register which has been closed to new applicants since April 2020.

The agency says it has a “new set of application criteria” that every provider will be required to meet. This means each provider already on the register will need to reapply from May 2021 through a “phased reapplication process”.

It has been barely two years since the ESFA’s last refresh which required reapplications from providers as they agency sought to “strengthen” it.

The ESFA also announced today that providers currently on the register that have not delivered training over the most recent six months will be considered for removal, starting from May 2021.

As announced last April, any levy-paying employers delivering services critical to the Covid-19 response are currently able to apply to the register if they are able to provide the apprenticeship training their organisation needs, via the ‘employer’ application route.

The agency said today that it is now extending this so employer providers can apply through both the ‘main’ and ‘supporting’ routes to the register also. This will take effect from 1 March 2021.

But any providers who have been successful through this exceptions policy since its inception in April 2020 will still be subject to the refresh planned from May.

The agency is also widening the “current set of targeted entry conditions” to the register to allow more training providers to enter “through the additional ‘main’ or ‘supporting’ routes, where applicants can demonstrate they are catering to critical workers and have a linked employer’s endorsement”.

The new guidance adds providers with a grade four Ofsted rating will be temporarily eligible to reapply to the apprenticeships register with a re-inspection monitoring visit outcome showing that either ‘reasonable’ or ‘significant’ progress has been made.

It reads: “Covid-19 has caused significant delays to Ofsted’s ability to undertake full inspections. Providers that were previously graded ‘inadequate’ by Ofsted but are overdue a full re-inspection, which has been delayed because of Covid-19, will be temporarily eligible to reapply to the register of apprenticeship training providers with a re-inspection monitoring visit outcome showing that either ‘reasonable’ or ‘significant’ progress has been made.

“Any eligible providers will be able to apply in line with the widening of the register’s entry conditions effective from 1 March 2021, as detailed above. This exception is temporary while inspection activity is limited due to Covid-19 and we will provide an update when this arrangement will cease to apply and Ofsted returns to conducting full inspections.”

Last month’s FE white paper revealed that the government would undertake a “full refresh” of the register, commencing in April 2021 and will adopt “more stringent entry criteria for both new and existing providers, to better determine whether providers have the capability and capacity to be able to deliver these higher-quality apprenticeships”.

This will be the second time the register has been “refreshed”, after it was first launched in March 2017, relaunched in January 2019, only to be closed to most new applications since April 2020.

Introducing…Steve Kelly

Whether it’s teaching in prisons or walking on hot coals, Steve Kelly, principal at Keighley College near Bradford, says the biggest lesson in life is to trust

Steve Kelly was trusted early on in his teaching career. There he was, sat in a PGCE class at Charles Keene College in Leicester as a slightly older student, having pledged to avoid becoming a “traditional teacher”. His trainer, David Grayson, put an acetate slide on the projector and turned to the class.

“I distinctly remember that first lesson with David,” Kelly tells me. “He put this image on the screen and it was the crappiest picture of a cartoon student, with a cap on, scruffy jeans, not looking great. The activity was to take this picture and tell me everything we need to do to help this student learn.” The lesson was not to focus just on qualifications, but on helping somebody become themselves in every direction possible – a lesson that “really stuck with me”.

After just a few months Grayson, who became Kelly’s mentor, offered to pay him to teach the special educational needs module of the course, given his degree in youth and social work and experience working with young people with autism at camps in America and as a qualified youth worker in Leicester. “That’s what was amazing about David. He saw in me an ability to fix things ̶ this part of the course was poor and he allowed me to do that. He trusted me. What I learned from David was to trust your staff.”

Kelly and his grandfather

Kelly himself has come from an environment in which he was well trusted. He calls himself a “slow reader and a reluctant student” whose mum, a bright woman who had to leave school early to work in Liverpool’s factories, made him sit at the dinner table for a certain amount of time to improve his reading. His father and grandfather were both dockers, and together with his mum taught him a strong work ethic. But along with the discipline came a clear message, says Johnson, that “’whatever you want to do, we’ll support you in those decisions’”. He “did miserably” in his A-levels and began to volunteer aged 18 at a residential home for young people with learning difficulties. It looked like a career towards teaching, but at that point “I wasn’t very teachery in my head”.

But the result of such a trusting home environment was the confidence to make bold decisions for himself. While at Northampton University, and supposed to be studying a degree in psychology and performance, Kelly set up a theatre production company that soon began to take on big events. Two-and-a-half years into his degree he quit, literally moments before sitting an exam. “I realised I knew nothing about what I was going to write about. I was either going to go into the exam room, or walk away, and I walked away.” It’s a bold move, and not one everyone would bounce back from. But Kelly was making money, driven by a growing capacity to spot gaps and think up solutions.

I was either going to go into the exam room, or walk away, and I walked away

One of the biggest gigs his production company landed was launching the infamous ‘Nemesis’ ride at Alton Towers. Kelly surely must be the only principal in FE whose voice has introduced a heart-stopping themepark ride to thousands of overexcited people. “We did all the lights, smoke and stuff like that. It was brilliant.” I can just imagine his Scouse twang hiking up the octane levels several times over on the speakers, with an appropriate amount of drama and fun raging around. Like many of the most trusting people, Kelly seems comfortable in allowing fun – and even a certain amount of rule-bending – to play a big role in his leadership style.

Kelly on summer camps

It’s partly why Kelly became known for “ripping up lesson plans” halfway through a session and prioritising student experience. “I was good at saying, this isn’t working, let’s just scrap it. People didn’t always know what to say to me in lessons – they’d say, you changed the lesson halfway through. And I’d say, did they learn? Did they progress? Did they enjoy it? And they’d say yes, so I’d say, what are you moaning about?” He laughs infectiously – you can imagine that staff meetings with Kelly are a riot.

I was good at saying, this isn’t working, let’s just scrap it

It’s the kind of energetic, flexible approach that will have likely stood him in good stead working in some of the toughest FE environments around. Shortly after qualifying as a teacher, he taught at HM Prison Glen Parva in Leicestershire with responsibility for all learners with special educational needs for almost three years. Talk about the deep end. Since then, he’s held roles overseeing the learner experience and vulnerable students at Leicester College, Chesterfield College and The Sheffield College. He even did a stint as an education consultant, just to try it out.

Perhaps the more unusual quality about Kelly is that he doesn’t just trust himself to take risks but appears to trust others too. “One of the strategies I’ve done at the college is basically devolve lots of authority from me. I ultimately am in charge of the college, of course I am. But I have no authority whatsoever. My heads of department have the budget, the staff responsibility, the curriculum, in their hands.” Mischievous staff reading this should take note, to see how wild a suggestion they can make that Kelly might be willing to pilot. “My answer will always be yes, to whatever you’re asking to do, unless I can really see a good enough reason to say no.”

Kelly on results day at Keighley College

His key performance indicators in staff meetings also sound fairly unorthodox. “I’ll say, I’m not bothered about your registers, all those tick boxes. Are the students engaged? Are they having fun?”. One member of staff replied to him, “Yes, but you’ll be worried if sign-up rates dip”, to which Kelly replied, “Well, they won’t, because you’re in charge”.

The all-trusting, it-should-be-enjoyable approach extends to learners too. As we speak, a student of Kelly’s is waiting to find out whether he will be allowed to stay at the college following a fairly serious behaviour incident. There is no decision to be weighed in Kelly’s mind: of course he’ll be kept on. “He probably would have been excluded from most colleges. But he’s going to volunteer some time with student services, tell other students why his behaviour was not appropriate, eat some humble pie. If I can work in a restorative way, he can learn to be respectful.” He looks at me seriously. “Why should I, in a nice lovely office, ruin a kid’s life?”

Much of this thinking – which the literature often terms “servant leadership” – has been developed in Kelly over a lifetime of reading self-development and people-management books. He’s writing one himself at the moment, and reels off his top three recommendations: Good to Great by Jim Collins, How to be Brilliant by Michael Heppell and Start with Why by Simon Sinek. The approach may be partly inspired by his summer stints in America, where self-development and self-belief are perhaps a bigger part of the culture than in Britain.

In another off-the-wall anecdote, Kelly tells me he attended one personal development training exercise at which Oprah herself was present. But that’s not the most extraordinary bit: the exercise involved all the participants walking on hot coals. Really? I repeat, trying not to sound too incredulous. “Yes, hot coals. You don’t wreck your feet. You walk that fast.”

Kelly in a TV interview

Perhaps what Kelly understands best of all, as a former drama type, is that most people want to feel significant ̶ to have a small stage on which their voice is heard. It’s why he thinks it’s a good idea for the misbehaving student to sit on the college’s student voice committee. “We’ve trusted him, he wants to change his behaviour and we can also show that by giving him this authority. The word is ‘significance’. He doesn’t feel significant at the moment. It’s about certainty and significance.” As a former prison teacher, he’s seen it before. “That’s why people join a gang. There’s certainty in it, and there’s significance, because you’re important.”

Being an enabler, one imagines Kelly will, like many leaders, want to look around for new challenges once his institution is up and flying. He jokes that he’s done so many roles he “sounds about 90 years old”; but he has stayed the course in several places, including eight years at Leicester College and five years at Chester College. And challenges remain: Keighley College is still establishing itself after breaking away as a separate institution from Leeds City College in 2018, within the also rebranded Luminate Education Group, formerly the Leeds City College Group. But when he took the principal post in 2019, a ‘good’ Ofsted grade was already in the bag from the year before, and the report gave a particular nod to the ‘outstanding progress’ made by the two specific groups he was responsible for before he became a principal: 14-to-16 and SEND learners. So far, so solved. So what keeps him ticking? I ask.

“I’m devoted to students, but I’m equally devoted to staff,” he replies straight off. “I’ve always been really interested in teaching leaders. So I’m here to look after them but also to let them get on with it. They can make decisions. They’re big boys and girls.”