Student wellbeing is as important as financial management and the curriculum, says Nathalie Richards. She outlines seven support strategies

A key aim of last week’s FE white paper is to help every young person gain the skills they need for life-long employment.

But there is no mention of student wellbeing and no new plans to support students’ emotional development in the months and years ahead.

If there’s one thing we have learned from the experience of the pandemic, it’s that emotional wellbeing and resilience – often referred to as “soft” skills – are critical as young people make choices for their futures against the backdrop of the crisis.

Colleges have a key role in helping their students to develop the skills to cope with whatever life has in store, long after Covid-19.

Here are seven strategies for supporting the wellbeing of FE students:

1. Push wellbeing up the agenda

Wellbeing has to become as essential as financial management, recruitment and curriculum planning – and must be prioritised from the top.

Launch an initiative to upskill tutors and staff so they can spot the signs that a student could be struggling emotionally and step in to help.

A tutor who can identify when a student is going through a difficult emotional period or is finding it hard to stay on track with their learning might prevent an issue from becoming a crisis.

2. Walk the talk

Take steps to create a culture of open conversation across your college when it comes to emotional wellbeing and mental health – including staff.

If they are happy to, encourage staff to talk openly with young people about the challenges they have faced and how they have overcome them.

This can break the stigma of mental health issues, strengthen relationships between students and tutors and inspire learners to find new ways to tackle their difficulties.

3. Reduce isolation

Live online sessions can be opened up early so young people have an opportunity to talk through issues they might be having learning from home.

Spending time with their peers, in person or online, can ease pressure and help students find effective strategies for juggling college and home life.

4. Build students’ resilience

Young people need resilience to be able to tackle the difficulties life throws at them, so make time in the curriculum for it.

Whether you run an online workshop to promote mindfulness, launch an exercise group or promote the benefits of writing a journal, you’ll be helping young people to develop a valuable toolkit to manage the challenges they face, inside and outside their studies.

5. Get clarity on wellbeing issues

Run a short survey each week or month to get a clear understanding of how students are feeling. Digital tools such as apps can help to make surveys easily manageable with fast results.

Run a short survey each week or month to get a clear understanding of how students are feeling

Knowing that issues such as anxiety and self-harm are on the rise in your college allows you to make informed decisions about what support to put in place and act quickly to get vulnerable students the help they need.

6. Keep support services in the spotlight

Not every student will have read the relevant area of the website or induction pack that outlines the specialist services on offer to support their pastoral and academic progress.

Kick off a new campaign to raise awareness of this support on social media and other channels, and keep wellbeing at the forefront of students’ minds throughout the academic year.

7. Reach out to parents

While some students can make great progress learning remotely, others can find the experience isolating and can quickly disengage.

Parents and carers can still be an important source of support, even as students mature. So, strengthen home-college links with regular contact by phone or video conferencing and set up an online group where parents can support each other, share learning resources and keep young people motivated.

 

The Department for Education must put more faith in local leaders rather than employers if it wants the skills white paper to work, writes Andy Norman

Having just launched the long-awaited FE white paper, skills minister Gillian Keegan was asked to name its biggest reform.

Her answer – embedding employers at the heart of the system – was telling. The white paper is confirmation of what has long been clear, which is that the government is building an employer-led skills system.

Involving employers is sensible. Courses that do not cultivate relevant skills help neither learners nor businesses.

But an over-reliance on businesses will not build the system we need as we emerge from Covid-19 and look to level up the country. For that, we need empowered local leaders.

There is much to like in the skills policy agenda put forward by the white paper. Much of what the Centre for Progressive Policy has been calling for has been adopted by the government, including an extension in level 3 funding eligibility and a boost to online and blended learning.

And although there are things missing, the Lifetime Skills Guarantee is the kind of national level ambition the sector needs.

However, the white paper continues a worrying shift of power away from local leaders and towards employers. Instead of skills advisory panels led by Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) and Mayoral Combined Authorities, we have Local Skills Improvement Plans, with only a passing promise to “consult” MCAs.

Having devolved the Adult Education Budget to MCAs in 2019, Whitehall is stepping back from any further devolution, preferring instead to empower employers.

For example, the Department for Education has set which level 3 courses will be eligible for funding nationally under the National Skills Fund, with courses chosen according to prevailing business demand.

Whitehall is stepping back from any further devolution, preferring instead to empower employers

With many parts of the country stuck in a low-skill, low-wage trap, businesses alone will not shift the dial.

We know that businesses tend to underinvest in training relative to the optimal level for society because the benefits that accrue to individual businesses are less than those that accrue to wider society.

There is evidence that this is a particular problem for UK businesses. According to the latest data, firms in the UK spend less than half as much on training as the average for countries in the EU-27. Danish firms, for example, outspend their UK equivalents by a ratio of five to one.

Depressingly, the Employer Skills Survey shows that, between 2015 and 2019, training expenditure by UK businesses fell by an average of £200 per employee.

Nor should we assume that the goals that society has for the skills system will match neatly the goals of individual businesses. Recent reforms that forced businesses to engage with the apprenticeship system saw rebadging of existing training and those from deprived communities being squeezed out of higher-level courses.

So, if we build a system that is driven by the skills needs of businesses, where should the strategic direction come from?

A different approach is needed, one which encourages business involvement in course design but where local leaders can align FE with wider strategic economic objectives.

In this approach, mapped out in a Centre for Progressive Policy report from December, skills are an integral part of devolving industrial policy to MCAs.

With further devolution unlikely, what can be done under the current proposals? Firstly, the DfE should allow for local flexibility in level 3 funding, taking into account input from MCAs and LEPs.

Secondly, the move towards outcomes-based funding should target good work. While the white paper is entitled “Skills for Jobs”, what local areas really need is “skills for good jobs”.

The skills system must now aim to break local areas out of their low-skill traps and move people into better jobs, boosting economic resilience in the process.

We finally have a government that recognises the importance of further education to economic prosperity. But, for the skills system to level up the country and help struggling communities, Whitehall cannot rely too heavily on businesses. Instead, it must have a little more faith in local leaders.