Traineeships tender finally launched but with short deadline

Training providers have been given less than three weeks to bid in the government’s much-anticipated tender for 19 to 24 traineeship funding.

The Education and Skills Funding Agency yesterday launched an “accelerated” bidding process worth an initial £65 million to expand the provider-base for adult traineeships.

A deadline of 28 October has been set for applications. The ESFA intends to award contracts in January 2021.

The initial funding period will be from 1 February until 31 July 2021 – the deadline chancellor Rishi Sunak has set for tripling the number of traineeships to help boost the economy after Covid-19.

The ESFA’s tender documents, seen by FE Week, state that the total funding to be allocated to successful contractors for the initial period will be £65 million across nine regions in England (see table below).

This funding is expected to deliver “a total of circa 20,000 traineeship starts by eligible learners between 1 February 2021 and 31 July 2021”.

The total procurement has contracts worth £233.5 million up until 31 July 2023, and there will be options to extend the funding up to £380.5 million.

The ESFA said this will be a “very competitive exercise” and so to mitigate significant oversubscription and “speculative” bidding, the agency has set tender caps that “take into account the experience and potential capacity of potential contractors”.

Caps will be set at £1 million for brand new providers, £2 million for current subcontractors, and £3 million for existing providers.

In order for their bid to be successful, potential contractors will need to “demonstrate how they can quickly establish strong relationships with employers, Jobcentres, the National Careers Service, Local Enterprise Partnerships and other local partners to recruit learners, including through referrals from Jobcentres, and to tailor the traineeship programme to real-time needs of the Learner and local labour market”.

The procurement was supposed to run over the summer but was delayed owing to a “significant amount of due diligence” that needed to be taken, the ESFA previously said.

Association of Employment and Learning Providers chief policy officer Simon Ashworth said: “The delay and short procurement window are frustrating, but the ESFA has probably struck the right balance between the total initial awards and holding funding back for existing contractors and new entrants who perform well during the 30-month period.

“As the agency says, the ITT is going to be very competitive and so it should definitely be looking at the track record of providers and colleges in delivering traineeships, apprenticeships and AEB before choosing the winning bids.”   

The ESFA said it is using an “accelerated timetable” for this procurement to support Sunak’s Plan for Jobs. The agency’s previous adult education budget tender, launched in January 2017, had a deadline of a month.

Other AEB tenders, such as the devolved procurement run by the Greater London Authority in 2018, had a two-month deadline.

Initial funding period budgets for each of the nine regions in England

     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

Former Ofqual director planning new FE membership body

A former technical qualifications director at the exams watchdog has signalled intention to establish another end-point assessment organisation (EPAO) membership body.

Phil Beach, who left Ofqual last month to become chief executive of the Energy and Utility Skills Group – which itself is an EPAO, is sounding out interest for a group “run by EPAOs for EPAOs”.

In an email sent to all apprenticeship assessment organisations yesterday, seen by FE Week, Beach says an EPAO-led forum where “we share areas of common interest, best practice or develop a common voice on the issues we face” is the “missing piece” of the EPAO “jigsaw”.

With a working title of the ‘Association of Apprenticeship Assessment Organisations (AAAO)’, Beach adds that his “initial aim” would be to establish a no-cost organisation with membership open to all EPAOs. If the group achieves “critical mass” it could “provide us with the opportunity to engage at senior levels across government agencies”.

On the face of it the group would inevitably rival existing membership organisations that are the currently voice of the majority of EPAOs, such as the Federation of Awarding Bodies.

But speaking to FE Week, Beach said it is “absolutely not my intent” to cut across other bodies such as FAB.

“What I want to establish, as part of my understanding and journey in this new role, is the degree to which there is any appetite for a relatively informal gathering of EPAOs as we all face our journey together,” he added.

“It is a really early scoping email to see what the appetite is.”

EPAOs have been established ever since apprenticeship standards were introduced in 2014, which replaced the old-style frameworks and now include an end-point assessment.

An independent organisation must be involved in the end-point assessment of each apprentice so that “all apprentices following the same standard are assessed consistently”, according to rules set by the Education and Skills Funding Agency.

There are currently 306 EPAOs, according the ESFA’s regsiter of EPAOs at the time of going to press.

Before joining the Energy and Utility Skills Group – a membership body for the utility workforce – Beach worked for four years as the executive director for vocational and technical qualifications at Ofqual.

The regulator will soon become the external quality assurance body for nearly all EPAOs, requiring all assessment organisations to gain Ofqual “recognition”.

In his capacity at Ofqual, Beach designed, developed and delivered Ofqual’s approach to external quality assurance. 

His email to EPAOs said: “Having worked in Ofqual, and now operating as the chief executive of an EPAO, I think there is a piece of the jigsaw missing.

“I think we lack an EPAO-led forum where we share areas of common interest, best practice or develop a common voice on the issues we face.

“Of course, some membership organisations have apprenticeship working groups as part of their wider offer. And the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education and Ofqual will sometimes convene EPAO meetings. But that doesn’t feel the same as a group run by EPAOs for EPAOs.”

Beach has asked EPAOs for an “indication of whether your organisation would be willing to participate” and if he gathers enough interest, he will “pull together a meeting to discuss terms of reference and the like”.

“Ideally, I would like to make early inroads, recognising that Ofqual recognition is just around the corner for some,” he added.

Young people hit hardest in full-year apprenticeship figures

Apprenticeship starts for the whole of 2019/20 fell 18 per cent on the previous academic year, new figures show.

Provisional data published this morning by the Department for Education has revealed there were a total of 319,200 starts last year compared to 389,000 in 2018/19.

A drop was to be expected owing to impact that lockdown had on apprenticeship recruitment following the outbreak of Covid-19.

FE Week analysis shows that just one month (September) out of the 12 in 2019/20 saw starts increase on the year before.

Apprenticeships for young people aged 16 to 18 were the hardest hit overall, dropping by 22 per cent. Starts for 16 to 18s in July were down a huge 64 per cent.

Between 23 March – when lockdown hit – and 31 July 2020, there have been 58,160 apprenticeship starts, fewer than the 107,750 reported for this period at this point last year, a decrease of 46 per cent.

The DfE points out that final data will not become available until later in the year, therefore at this point it is “unclear what the true number of starts in the affected period was or if the level of reporting at this point in the year has been affected by the lockdown”.

A DfE spokesperson said: “We recognise this is a difficult time for employers, apprentices and people thinking about their next steps, but we remain committed to making sure people across the country can access high-quality apprenticeship opportunities.

“Apprenticeships will continue to play a vital role in growing our economy and as we build back better after the pandemic, making sure people get the skills they need to get ahead and businesses have the talented workforce they need.

“It is encouraging to see that even during these challenging times, employers of all sizes still recognise the value apprenticeships can bring to their businesses.”

Association of Employment and Learning Providers managing director Jane Hickie said: “The government has taken some welcome steps recently to support apprentices who have been made redundant but as the furlough scheme unwinds, we are sadly hearing of more apprentices becoming unemployed especially in sectors like hospitality.

“To help create new opportunities on the programme, ministers need to replicate the Kickstart scheme and start subsidising the wages of new young apprentices.

“They also need to do more to protect the jobs of tens of thousands of existing apprentices who can’t complete their programmes right now because of bureaucracy preventing them from being properly assessed while the covid restrictions remain.”

IPS Ltd supporting Further Education technologies move into the 21st Century

Established for over 11 years, IPS Ltd has provided tailored integrated solutions for a range of industry sectors including Further Education.

Our technology has enabled FE to support Safeguarding policies and procedures, minimise the workload of college staff, especially those who work in Reception, IT, Estates, Student Services, MIS, Finance and even teaching staff.

Robert Powell, Managing Director of IPS Ltd said “I, like you, value the face-to-face delivery of courses and the teaching methodology that you employ, to see students succeed and often excel, even sometimes in impossible circumstances.

To complement the teaching practices that you deliver, our systems enable students to get what you need, without effort, during their journey through college.

We have worked heavily with contactless ID cards, which of course, removes cash handling. We have already developed self-service kiosks, that uses facial recognition, so staff and students can reset passwords or print replacement cards. We can create and delete user accounts as an automatic process for door systems, computer systems, payment systems and our register management system that applies live register marks against MIS systems.”

The methodology of IPS Ltd is to create systems, not for the sake of doing so, but to listen to our FE customers to gain an understanding of what they need from our software and work with them to design and produce efficient and effective systems that are going to enable them to move their technologies into the 21st Century. 

Our development team are continually working to improve our systems and to create new ones. Providing FREE upgrades to our current customers and making them aware of the new systems, including: –

i-Asset an asset management system that allows you to manage your resources by utilising tracking by rfid tags to identify what assets you currently have, where they are, what resources are booked out, and what should have been returned. 

i-Go our brand-new GPS coach system that enables you to safeguard your students whilst they are travelling to and from college premises. It makes sure that they are on the correct coach and identifies when they have got off, meaning that you are extending your track and trace operations.  

 

See for yourself

On Thursday 22nd October 2020, IPS Ltd is holding a webinar and we would be delighted if you could attend. This webinar has been created to enable you to understand the benefits of our systems for FE; how they can improve your technology and to give you the opportunity to speak with our current customers.  

To find out more about our webinar and to reserve places for you and your colleagues, click here.

 

See what our customers say

We have already said that we listen to our customers and value their feedback, now you can see what Hugh Baird College, North Kent College and Windsor Forest Colleges Group say about IPS Ltd and the systems that they have in place.

 

Hugh Baird College is a college and university centre situated in Liverpool, Merseyside. Comprising of four campuses, it is one of the largest providers of education and training in the area.

John Billington, Director of Faculties and Technical Services said “We have been using a range of IPS Ltd systems for over two years now. They consist of i-Card, i-Pay, i-Access, i-Kiosk and i-Till.

The systems have been integrated to our MIS system, Pro Solution, so that they extract the data from it. Our MIS system is now heart of the College.

The benefits from this has meant that no person is able to enter College premises without being on a current course, meaning they will not be able to access the college building if their course date has expired or they have previously withdrawn from the course.

As all the IPS Ltd systems are synchronised with each other, our students receive a variety of key benefits in using these systems. They can top-up their ID Cards to pay for items in the catering outlets, either online or using our facial recognition kiosks and can even use their ID Cards in the College libraries.

Having self-service systems in place has meant that queue time is reduced for a range of departments, including; catering, reception and student services, meaning with the current pandemic there is no need for large amounts of students to be in one area.

Our staff find them easy to use and they can function around the systems in no time at all. Catering Managers are able to add on new items and meal deals without having to be at a till; the till Operators are able serve the customers and see what money they have on their ID Cards and also see their photo to ensure that the right person is using the right card. Most importantly our Finance department can see the overview of all revenue and individual reports for our catering departments, our external catering outlets and even our kiosks.

For my own perspective I have been heavily involved with many IPS Ltd activities, from being a guest speaker at their User Groups and showcasing the IPS Ltd products to representatives from other colleges.

Overall, IPS Ltd continues to provide our college with new innovative technology to enforce our policies and procedures to a much stronger level, giving us the reassurance and confidence to be able to focus our attentions at a higher level of capability.”

 

North Kent College has been using the IPS Ltd systems for many years.

North Kent College on 15th August 2020, formally agreed to the transfer of Hadlow College and the Tonbridge Campus of West Kent and Ashford College, and as a result the wider College family have all now been assigned the IPS Ltd systems.

Sean McCormick, Executive Director of Facilities and Resources said “The IPS Ltd systems are streamlined; providing us with an automated process through the i-Card system. The products are used for a wide range of departments and processes, these include enrolment, catering, security and finance.

We have gained many advantages with the IPS Ltd systems, they are flexible, scalable, modern and web-based, meaning that the software is available everywhere and as a manager I don’t need to be at a desk to look at information or reports, which is an effective and well received change.

With the help of these systems, we make sure that our enrolment process is smooth and efficient for our four sites. We make sure that new students are enrolled in a short space of time and they receive their ID Card before they leave.

As part of the enrolment process new students can apply for Free School Meals (FSM). Once the College has acknowledged that they are eligible; the IPS systems automatically provides payments that go directly onto their cards so that they can pay for food at our catering outlets, I have never found another company who is able to achieve this.

Our student perspective, it’s all about getting into the College. Some of our sites have turnstiles and a student can scan their ID Card against them to allow access. We can get a bus load of students through them in no time at all and at the same time the system is able to check if students are not withdrawn or the course date hasn’t expired, meaning that we can keep our student safe and we can see who is onsite, who has used our catering outlets, libraries and even buses.

Overall, the simplistic systems are easy to use, the IPS Ltd staff are friendly and the support we receive is second to none.”

The Windsor Forest Colleges Group has been an IPS Ltd customer for many years. They have used a range of our systems, including; i-Card, i-Till and i-Access.

Group Director of Information and Business Systems for the group, Roberts Disbury-Mockett said, “We have a strong relationship with IPS Ltd and provide feedback to them on their products which they take into consideration when they come to develop their systems, we then reap the benefits with FREE system upgrades.

I have personally attended their Customer User Groups which are tailored for customers to provide their opinions and IPS Ltd invite guest speakers who have an FE background to speak on behalf of the attendees.

Out of all the systems, my preference is the i-Card system because of its flexibility. The opportunities with it mean that it is not just a standard card-based system. It is web-based and works with network printers, meaning that it is easy to use, and we can send prints directly to the nearest printer.

It also facilitates bulk printing, which we use during our enrolments, helping to reduce processing times. This year we were able to print off between 800 to 1000 ID Cards per day, sorting both by course and alphabetical by surname. All we need to do is monitor it and top-up the cards when needed, meaning that a staff member could continue to do their day-to-day work at the same time.

The reports that we receive from i-Till are also extremely beneficial, we see an overview revenue figure and an individual report for our online shop, external catering company and a college catering department.

IPS Ltd can easily integrate into FE systems and we provide them with an SQL link table, then they can use it in a variety of ways, including automating student bursary payments. This means we can ensure students who are eligible for bursaries can purchase food while on the College premises and they are topped straight onto the student’s ID Cards. Not only does this automation reduce staff workloads, it also supports our equality and diversity policy, because all our students use their ID Cards to pay for purchases, but there is also no way of identifying any difference.

From a student perspective, it’s all about getting into college. Some of our sites have turnstiles and a student can scan their ID Cards against them to allow them access. We can easily get students through them in no time at all and at the same time the system is able to check if students are not withdrawn or the course date hasn’t expired, meaning that we can keep our students safe and we know who is onsite.

Overall, the systems are easy to use, give a positive experience to our students and help us to implement our Safeguarding Policies.”

 

IPS Ltd does not just value our systems and what they do for FE, we continually ensure that our service is covered through a variety of avenues, as a customer you receive: –

  • An Account Manager who contacts and visits you regularly.
  • A Prince2 certified Operations Team that provides regular updates during any installation process.
  • Our Support Team who you can speak directly to.
  • Login and password for our Customer Portal

You also receive regular emails and newsletters to keep you on track with new software and new system update opportunities.

If you would like to talk us about any of our software you can contact us 01202 006 677, or you can take a look at our website www.ips.software

DfE broke student data protection laws, damning ICO audit reveals

The Department for Education broke data protection laws in the way it handles student data, the information watchdog has ruled, following an investigation that revealed widespread failures.

The Information Commissioner’s Office has concluded that the DfE failed to meet several articles of the general data protection regulations (GDPR), which govern the management and use of data across Europe.

The audit, carried out in February and March, was prompted by complaints from human rights groups Liberty and DefendDigitalMe about the national pupil database, which holds information on millions of past and present school pupils. It found that data protection “was not being prioritised” and this had “severely impacted the DfE’s ability to comply with the UK’s data protection laws”.

The ICO extended the audit to include the learning records service database in November 2019 following revelations that it had been accessed by data intelligence firm GB Group – whose clients include 32Red and Betfair among other gambling companies. FE Week revealed in January that the founder of the training provider that wrongly shared the data was subject to a previous government investigation.

The audit found that data protection was not being prioritised and this had severely impacted the DfE’s ability to comply with the UK’s data protection laws

The audit also follows a series of investigations by FE Week’s sister title Schools Week which revealed how the government tried to collect pupil nationality and country of birth data to share with the Home Office for immigration control purposes. The coverage and a high-profile campaign by children’s rights groups resulted in a widespread boycott of the collection, which was subsequently scrapped.

FE Week revealed last November that the DfE was facing potential action over “wide ranging and serious concerns” about its data sharing activities. Today, the ICO’s audit has shed fresh light on the extent to which data protection laws were breached more broadly at the DfE.

The watchdog issued 139 recommendations for improvement, with over 60 per cent classified as “urgent or high priority”. The DfE said it has since reviewed “all processes for the use of personal data”.

The ICO looked into how the NPD, learning records service and “internally held databases” at the DfE were managed, and found there was “no formal proactive oversight of any function of information governance, including data protection, records management, risk management, data sharing and information security”.

This, along with a lack of formal documentation, meant the department “cannot demonstrate accountability to the GDPR”.

The audit found that “internal cultural barriers and attitudes” were preventing the implementation of an “effective system of information governance”, and that the role of the DfE’s data protection officer was not meeting all the requirements of the GDPR.

The DfE also has “no policy framework or document control” in place, and policies that do exist “demonstrate no version control and are not subject to any formal review procedures meaning that many are out of date and ineffective”, the ICO found.

There is also “no clear picture of what data is held by the DfE”, and as a result no record of processing activity in place, which is a direct breach of Article 30 of the GDPR. Without this it is “difficult for the DfE to fulfil their other obligations such as privacy information, retention and security arrangements”, the ICO said.

The sharing of data from the NPD with external organisations has been a subject of controversy for some years, and children’s rights groups have called for it to be halted, despite their victory over the nationality and country of birth data collection.

Under its data-sharing process, the DfE releases anonymised sections of the NPD to organisations that request them. However, the ICO found the reasons for doing so were not always justified.

Instead there was an “over reliance” on using “public task” as the lawful basis for sharing data, which was “not always appropriate and supported by identified legislation”.

“Legitimate interest” has also been used as a lawful basis in some applications, but there is “limited understanding of the requirements of legitimate interest and to assess the application and legalities of it prior to sharing taking place”, the ICO warned.

“In 400 applications, only approximately 12 were rejected due to an approach which is designed to find a legal gateway to ‘fit’ the application rather than an assessment of the application against a set of robust measures designed to provide assurance and accountability that the sharing is lawful in line with statutory requirements.”

A DfE spokesperson said the department treated the handling of personal data “very seriously”, and said since the audit it had taken “a number of steps to address the findings and recommendations, including a review of all processes for the use of personal data and significantly increasing the number of staff dedicated to the effective management of it”.

Limited training and mismanagement of risks

The DfE was also found to be not providing sufficient privacy information to data subjects as required under the GDPR. The ICO also pointed to “confusion” within the DfE and its executive agencies “about when they are a controller, joint controller or processor and whether as a controller this is at the point of collection or as a recipient of personal data”.

There is also “no certainty” whether organisations who receive data from the DfE are acting as controllers or processors on their behalf.

As a result, there is “no clarity” as to what information is required to be provided.

“The DfE are reliant on third parties to provide privacy information on their behalf however, this often results in insufficient information being provided and in some cases none at all which means that the DfE are not fulfilling the first principle of the GDPR, outlined in Article 5(1)(a), that data shall be processed lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner.”

The DfE provides “very limited training” to staff on issues such as information governance, records management, risk management, data-sharing, information security and individual rights. In some cases, there is “no assurance that staff are receiving any training whatsoever”.

The ICO also found information risks were “not managed in an informed or consistent manner”, and that the commercial department did not have “appropriate controls” in place to protect personal data being processed on behalf of the DfE by data processors.

This means there is “no assurance that it is being processed in line with statutory requirements particularly where processing contracts are of low enough value to not be subject to formal procurement procedures”.

EuroSkills 2020 postponed ‘indefinitely’ due to Covid-19

The EuroSkills 2020 competition, in which the UK was due to compete in January, has been postponed indefinitely due to the “worsening Covid-19 situation in Europe”.

Having originally been scheduled to take place in the Austrian city of Graz last month, EuroSkills was pushed back to January 2021 while the Austrian authorities re-organised to mitigate against the spread of the virus.

But WorldSkills UK chief executive Neil Bentley Gockmann said that his organisation has, this morning, been informed by WorldSkills Europe and the board of EuroSkills Graz 2020 that the decision has been taken to cancel the event again.

He added that WorldSkills UK was “saddened” by the “very difficult decision,” but “fully” understands it.

“We had been working closely with our colleagues in Graz to develop a comprehensive Covid-19 prevention concept but without being able to guarantee the safety of all delegates it is not viable to hold an event at this time.”

He thanked all of the Team UK members and training staff who have been working “tirelessly  to prepare for this competition”, and confirmed that training will continue for WorldSkills Shanghai, set to take place next September.

A statement posted on the competition website says the worsening Covid-19 situation and the stepping up of restrictions has “created enormous challenges” for event licensor WorldSkills Europe and the organisers EuroSkills 2020 GmbH.

Supervisory board chairman of EuroSkills 2020 GmbH Josef Herk stressed that while they had “no choice” but to postpone, the event is “not abandoned”: “We definitely intend to make the European Skills Championships happen at a later date.

“We are currently in close discussion with the international decision-making bodies.”

Speaking to FE Week last month, when announcing the team of 14 young skilled people who would represent the UK in Graz, WorldSkills UK deputy chief executive Ben Blackledge said it would be “fairly naïve” to say there was no chance EuroSkills would be postponed or cancelled.

The competition organisers had been looking at holding the opening and closing ceremonies with fewer people, and having members of the public taken on guided tours of the competition, rather than being allowed to move freely around the competition area.

WorldSkills UK’s own LIVE event was called off earlier this year, and will now take place virtually during November.

F1 in Schools zoom to success with innovative 2020 UK National Finals event

For the first time in the 20-year history of F1 in Schools National Finals events, teams vying to become National Champions were unable to compete together at a live event. F1 in Schools however, were determined not to shatter the dreams of so many students and created an exciting livestreamed finals to meet the demands of the new environment we are all living in. With the 34 teams racing live and over 5000 students watching online Britannia Red from Robert May’s School, Odiham, Hampshire, took the 2020 F1 in Schools National Champions crown in a thrilling climax to this year’s competition.

In March 2020 this leading global STEM challenge, had completed its 12 UK Regional Finals and was set for an April UK F1 in Schools National Finals live event with 34 teams competing for the coveted UK Champions title and university scholarships. As with so many events, the finals had to be postponed, with lockdown, school closures and social distancing three major challenges to making it happen at all this year.

F1 in Schools were determined that the students could see the fruition of their hard work, but had to take a different approach to replace their annual 2-day live event. An innovative hybrid event was created, combining live racing with video presentations, written submissions and distanced car scrutineering, all assessed remotely by a panel of expert judges.

The highly professional livestreamed event was hosted by Tom Deacon, from Formula 1’s Esports series, with Georgina Edwards, an alumni of the competition as pundit, and Sophie Harker, an aerodynamics and performance engineer at BAE Systems and winner of the IET’s Young Women Engineer of the Year Award 2018, providing expert car analysis.

The trio of presenters presided over the racing, ensuring all the teams could watch the performance of their cars on the F1 in Schools race track. The track action was accompanied by video conference team interviews and messages of support from F1 drivers. Lenovo UK provided the technical infrastructure to enable the event which culminated in a livestreamed awards presentation with the hosts announcing category winners and the top three podium winners.

Andrew Denford, Founder and Chairman, F1 in Schools, said of this F1 in Schools UK 2020 competition, “It’s been a roller coaster of a year for all the teams. They wanted to complete their journey and compete nationally, with many having spent quite a few years participating and desperately wanting to win a place in the World Finals, so we wanted to make it happen. Today’s event was a very accomplished ‘plan B’ and although the teams couldn’t all be together, they were able to compete and share in the excitement of the competition.

“I congratulate all the teams for their perseverance and resilience. Today has proved that they can overcome the challenges that they are faced with and succeed. I’m sure all the students have bright futures ahead of them, I know they will all have learnt so many skills from F1 in Schools that will benefit them in their careers ahead.”

Britannia Red, with team members: Amelia Dorward, 15, Ted Hodgson, 16, Zach Taylor 16, Abi Bessant 15, Caoimhe Thomas, 15, and Callum Green, 15, celebrated their victory with confetti, albeit on their own at school and not on the top step of the podium with all the teams celebrating. They will receive the receive the impressive National Champions trophy a visit to a future FORMULA 1 BRITISH GRAND PRIX courtesy of Silverstone with an F1 team garage tour and exclusive behind the scenes paddock tour courtesy of Formula 1, as well as winning an F1 team factory tour and valuable UCL Mechanical Engineering bursaries. On route to overall victory Britannia Red also won the Best Engineered Car Award.

Team Manager, Amelia says of winning, “It’s fantastic that we took the National Champions title, but it was very different to be competing at an event that we couldn’t attend. We’ve been used to sitting round a table to share ideas and work together, but we’ve had lots of online meetings, and lockdown actually gave us more time to work on F1 in Schools. We’re all really passionate about it, so we’ve really enjoyed doing the competition, it’s very rewarding, opening up lots of opportunities, for example, presenting to sponsors, as well as enriching our lives – although it’s pretty stressful too”.

The F1 in Schools National Finals events are usually one of the biggest live celebrations of the UK’s young STEM talent, drawing together teams from across the UK who have won through from regional finals. The teams compete in a two-day event, with over 500 students showcasing their miniature Formula 1 cars. Not only do the students have to design, build and test a fast car, they also need to demonstrate their engineering understanding with a verbal presentation to a judging panel of industry experts, present their work with a pit display and portfolio and have their model car scrutineered to meet with strict rules and regulations.

The F1 in Schools National Finals 2020 took place with the support of Formula 1, Denford, the IET, Lenovo, Autodesk, the Project Management Institute Educational Foundation, UCL Engineering, FIA Women in Motorsport FE Week and FE Week.

Full results of the F1 in Schools UK National Finals 2020:

Award

  

Winners

Professional Class

    

UK National Champions Supported by Lenovo

  

Britannia Red, Robert May’s School

2nd Place Supported by IET

  

Electron, St. Olave’s Grammar School

3rd Place Supported by IET

  

Eclipse, Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School

Scotland Champions Supported by EIM

  

Genesis, Linlithgow Academy

Wales Champions Supported by EIM

  

Nemesis Inferno, Pencoed Comprehensive School

Fastest Car Supported by Denford

  

Aquila Racing, Aylsham High School

Best Engineered Car Supported by Autodesk

  

Britannia Red, Robert May’s School

Research & Development  Supported by Lenovo

  

Aquila Racing, Aylsham High School

Presentation  Award

  

Britannia Red, Robert May’s School

Portfolio  Supported by PMIEF

  

Genesis, Linlithgow Academy

Pit Display  Supported by Gratnells

  

Eclipse, Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School

Sponsorship & Marketing Supported by Nissan

  

Slidesports Entity, Hanson School

Team Identity  Supported by Technology Supplies

  

Optimum Racing, Whitley Bay High School

Digital Media  Supported by ID PR

  

Nemesis Inferno, Pencoed Comprehensive School

 

    

Development Class

    

National Champions Supported by Lenovo

  

IQ, North London Collegiate

2nd Place Supported by IET

  

Nova Racing, Kimbolton School

3rd Place Supported by IET

  

Dynamic Racing, Monifieth High School

Fastest Car Supported by Denford

  

IQ, North London Collegiate

Best Engineered Car Supported by Autodesk

  

Nova Racing, Kimbolton School

Research & Development  Supported by Lenovo

  

Peregrine Racing, Broughton High School

Sponsorship & Marketing Supported by Nissan

  

EMERUS, Simon Langton Grammar School for Boys

Team Identity  Supported by Technology Supplies

  

SuffraJETS, Whitley Bay High School

Presentation  Award

  

IQ, North London Collegiate

Pit Display  Supported by Gratnells

  

BLACKOUT, St John’s College Cardiff

Portfolio  Supported by PMIEF

  

Dynamic Racing, Monifieth High School

Digital Media  Supported by ID PR

  

CHSPEED, Cheadle Hulme School

Judges Choice Supported by Denford

  

Enhance Racing by McL&H, Linlithgow Academy

 

About F1 in Schools

Andrew Denford, an entrepreneurial engineer working within the education sector, founded the F1 in Schools STEM Challenge in the UK in 2000. He implemented a STEM programme that uses the high profile, glamorous and high-tech world of fast cars and Formula 1 to engage and inspire students, introducing them to engineering in a compelling and unique educational competition. Today this world-leading global educational initiative operates in 48 countries worldwide. 

 Researching, designing, making and racing an F1 car of the future is at its core. Teams then race each other head-to-head on the F1 in Schools 20 metre racetrack. The challenge can be used as an education tool or hook to engage students in STEM subjects. This gives students the opportunity to develop key skills such as communication, presenting and teamwork, while forming the foundation for any career path they choose to follow. 

The students assess their performance against other schools at a series of regional finals around the country. The best teams at each regional final compete at their National Finals and success at this level earns them a place at the World Finals. 

The world champions win scholarships for City, University London and UCL Engineering and the coveted Formula 1 F1 in Schools World Champions trophy.

This Formula 1 supported global STEM programme is also a proven route to motorsport and automotive careers with former participants working in Formula 1 teams, engine manufacturers, sports agencies and many more allied companies.

For further information about F1 in Schools visit www.F1inSchools.co.uk and follow us on social media.

One government department failed to recruit a single apprentice in 2019-20

Not a single apprentice started work at the Department for International Development in 2019-20.

That’s according to the latest data on how the government is progressing towards the public sector target of employing at least 2.3 per cent of their total staff as new apprentices between 2018 and 2021.

The Department for International Development’s failure to start any apprentices last year comes despite the department employing around 3,600 staff.

In the same year, the Department for Education managed 2.8 per cent of its headcount, with 188 starts, falling just shy of 2018-19’s record of 2.9 per cent.

In 2017-18, the first year of the 2.3 per cent target, 2.5 per cent of the DfE’s workforce were new apprentice starts.

Of the big three government departments, the Treasury had 2.4 per cent of starts as a total of headcount last year; the Foreign Office had 2 per cent; and the Home Office had 1.1 per cent.

HMRC came top of the table for 2019-20, employing 3,038 new apprentices (5.8 per cent of its workforce).

The Department for Exiting the European Union also didn’t recruit any apprentices in 2019-20, but this shouldn’t come as a surprise as it closed in January 2020.

The Civil Service overall is still working towards the target: the data shows its percentage of apprenticeship starts as a proportion of headcount in 2019-20 was 2.1 per cent.

The public-sector apprenticeship target covers the period April 1 to March 31 each year.

It is run as an average target across the years 2017-18 to 2020-21 to “give flexibility to organisations to manage peaks and troughs in recruitment,” the government has said.

Departments who missed the 2.3 per cent target this year have been given an adjusted target to ensure they meet the 2.3 per cent average by March 2021, the Cabinet Office said with this latest release.

Public bodies have until 30 September to submit their progress towards the target each year.

For more analysis and reaction see this week’s edition of FE Week, to be published on Friday.

Profile: Jenna Wrathall Bailey

JL Dutaut meets a high-performance skills coach whose experience shines a light on the challenges facing the necessary education revolution

What does it mean to prepare someone for the modern world of work? What does it take to retain skilled staff in an economy increasingly defined by transience? On many levels – whether it’s about tying in with local and national industrial strategies, mapping a broad and balanced curriculum or recruiting and retaining staff or students – these questions are central to the sector.

More than that, they are professionally relevant whether you are in the boardroom, the staffroom or the common room. Perhaps that’s in part why Boris Johnson this week chose an audience of students and staff at Exeter College to announce his plans for a new ‘Lifetime Skills Guarantee’. As the Prime Minister himself said, “the British economy is in the process of huge and rapid change”, and “the [Covid] crisis has compressed that revolution”.

In this tumultuous context, meeting Jenna Wrathall Bailey for the first time was surprising on many fronts. To be sure, WorldSkills UK’s high-performance skills coach has held her fair share of posts, from lecturer at Preston’s College, through curriculum leader at Ashton Community College, to quality assessment coordinator at Myerscough College; and nationally from external quality assurer for awarding body VTCT to private consultant. So far, so modern.

At school I was plodding along but this put fire in my belly

But a thread runs through her career – one that has already resulted in being awarded an MBE for services to vocational skills. Throughout it all, almost from the moment she passed the A levels everyone else wanted her to do and made her way onto the college course she’d always aspired to, Wrathall Bailey has been involved with WorldSkills. It is in that long-term partnership, how it began and its impact not only on her but on so many leaders, teachers and students she has worked with, that policy makers, not least the Prime Minister, might find some fruitful ideas about navigating the economic straits ahead.

FE Week readers will be familiar with WorldSkills. The international organisation coordinates the efforts of 79 member countries and regions and is best known for its bi-annual skills championships, last held in Kazan, Russia in 2019 and next due to be held in Shanghai in 2021. But in between the showcase events, it does much more than that, and in her new role for WorldSkills UK, Wrathall Bailey is central to that here.

As high-performance skills coach, her role at the heart of the organisation’s new Centre for Excellence programme, launched this month, is two-fold. First, it is to support colleges, working mainly with lecturers and curriculum leads, “taking everything that we have learned globally, and supporting them and saying, we’ve learned this information, these are the standards we’re seeing, these are the techniques we use, the mindsets, methodologies, and this might be useful to embed within your sessions.” Second is “sitting on various boards and reviewing national occupational standards” across a variety of sectors.

Initially, the Centre for Excellence will work with 20 centres, selected from 55 applicants. The application process means all involved have elected to be there, but Wrathall Bailey doesn’t take their engagement for granted. “We’re just educators,” she says. She is evidently conscious as only a classroom practitioner can be of the barriers the profession sometimes erects to protect itself from external influences that too often border on criticism. “Educators who just had an amazing opportunity to go to WorldSkills and are just basically bringing back what we’ve learned, and hopefully our passion and our drive will break down barriers and get them hooked as much as we are.”

With Wrathall Bailey, that drive and passion are authentic. As is her professional identity as an educator. Though she is no longer practising in the classroom in her role at Myerscough College, she taught altogether 14 years. But Wrathall Bailey is not simply an educator who went to WorldSkills. She is just as much a WorldSkills competitor who went into education.

You can work towards excellence and you can do well in any career

Aged 16, Wrathall Bailey wanted nothing more than to study beauty therapy. She’d done so since a neighbour – a beauty therapy lecturer – had taken her to work to be a model for the day. “And I just thought ‘oh my God, I really want to do this’. I think I’d be good at it. And I think that’s the difference: at school I was plodding along, but this put fire in my belly.”

That early contact, not just with beauty therapy but with the teaching of it, was crucial for her, as it is for so many at that age. Much has been said about the disadvantage this year’s GCSE cohort are at because of the pandemic, but very little has been focused on the fact that many will have missed out on work experience. Too few have Wrathall Bailey’s luck of knowing someone passionate about a profession, and placements play an important part in creating that opportunity. This group’s severely disrupted year 10 will have robbed many of it with potentially important consequences, made worse if under-appreciated in mitigating the crisis for them.

But luck isn’t enough. Having discovered that passion, she was put off the idea by a careers interview at school. “The careers advisor told me ‘no don’t go and do beauty therapy. Your grades will be too high for that’. So I got shuffled into going to do my A levels and I really did not enjoy it.”

That experience, unfortunately, remains far from atypical for any student who is remotely high-performing. The Prime Minister’s first job will have to be to tackle the various incentives that perpetuate it if he is ever to deliver on this week’s bold promise “to fix a problem that has plagued this country for decades […] the pointless, snooty, and frankly vacuous distinction between the practical and the academic”.

For Wrathall Bailey, the distinction seemed vacuous anyway. Her grades from Blackpool Sixth Form could have secured her a place at university but instead, she chose her passion. “At age 18, you can start obviously thinking for yourself, and I thought ‘no, beauty therapy is what I want to do’. You can work towards excellence and you can do well in any career. So I went there.”

I’m just glad that I’m part of the movement that’s trying to change perceptions

And it was there that lecturers picked up on her passion and potential and introduced her to WordSkills for the first time, beginning a relationship that has so far lasted 21 years. “Those tutors must have seen something in me, a few attributes that made them think ‘she’s suitable for going off and representing the college’. So I did and I was lucky enough to win it.”

Following her gold medal at the national beauty therapy competition, she was selected to represent Team UK for the WorldSkills global competition in Montreal in 1999. She took second place in her category. The following year, WorldSkills awarded her for her ‘outstanding performance’ at the skill Olympics.

After that, her focus was on developing her career in education. “Aspirations grow only because you can see what’s open to you,” she tells me, and WorldSkills had opened her eyes, so it wasn’t long befoe she struck up the partnership again. By 2006, she was a regional judge and in 2007 a mentor for the Team UK competitors in Japan. In various roles, she has supported Team UK in Calgary, Sao Paulo and Kazan too and worked as a training manager for the EuroSkills division too.

All in all, it’s quite a journey for the girl from Poulton-le-Fylde with the “really lovely childhood”, the butcher’s daughter who in so many parallel stories ends up at university to fulfil a socially constructed notion of aspiration and success. “I don’t blame that careers advisor,” she tells me. “I’m just glad that I’m part of the movement that’s trying to change perceptions.”

The longevity of her involvement speaks volumes to the overplayed notion of the gig economy. Here too, Wrathall Bailey thinks there’s a problem with perception. “For employers, I think it’s about being brave enough to invest in their employees. I’ve seen it with my competitors. They get chosen for WorldSkills UK, and then the employer thinks ‘they are going to leave me so I’m not going to invest’.”

If this is indeed the case, then it’s little surprise the Prime Minister’s Lifetime Skills Guarantee pitch is aimed at adults who want to retrain altogether rather than those who want to get on. All well and good for a changing economy, but focusing on sideways movement and subsidising training does little to encourage employers to take responsibility or to help employees and the economy level up.

On that front too, Wrathall Bailey has been lucky. WorldSkills have demonstrated precisely the opposite approach, and one that is perfectly consistent with their aims and values.

When the letter arrived to inform her of her MBE, Wrathall Bailey thought she was opening a parking ticket. Her husband thought she was having him on. Yet so far she has led Team UK beauty therapy competitors to 4 gold medals, a silver, a medallion of excellence, two best-of-nation awards and an Albert Vidal Award. In any Olympic sport, she might even be a household name.

If WorldSkills had anything to do with it, she would be.

The prime minister’s plan to “close the gap with other countries that have had the edge on us when it comes to skills and technical education” may very well depend on that kind of revolution.