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Focus feature: The realities of research in FE

Despite a lack of funds and interest from above, research in FE is being kept alive by grassroots groups of lecturers and dedicated academics. Jess Staufenberg meets the movers and shakers to find out if it’s enough

“There is no, as far as I know, ‘WonkFE’,” Phillip Augar said, from inside a cosy wooden lodge, during a virtual event with higher education think tank Wonkhe on Tuesday.

“If there is anyone out there”, continued Augar, in his talk seen by FE Week, “interested in talking to me about setting up a Further Education Policy Institute,” then could they please be in touch?

On one level, this caused some surprise. Stephen Evans, chief executive of the prolific Learning and Work Institute, tweeted there are “loads of organisations working on policy and practice in FE” (being too modest to say, not least of all his own).

But David Hughes, chief executive at the Association of Colleges, said Augar likely wanted the FE voice “to be stronger and more influential in Whitehall”.

This touches on an interesting set of questions for FE. Who is carrying out research and generating evidence-backed ideas, and how much of this is going on?

And is this research making it back to practitioners, and policymakers in the Department for Education? Perhaps Augar’s lack of awareness of the LWI reveals that problems with the status of FE research run right to the top.

First off, it’s worth looking at what the DfE has funded in schools. In 2011, the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) was set up with a £125 million founding grant to share evidence around attainment. But it’s only for students in schools, not FE.

Then in 2016, the DfE funded the Research Schools Network, with each school getting £200,000 over three years. The next year the DfE gave £5 million to the Chartered College of Teaching, to engage teachers with the latest research.

Again, it’s only for staff in schools, not colleges (and meanwhile, FE lost its think tank dedicated to staff-led research with the closure last year of the Further Education Trust for Leadership).

Despite this, however, scratch the surface and there is lots of research going on in further education.

Kevin Orr, professor of work and learning at the University of Huddersfield, says, “there is a very committed network of researchers who work closely with practitioners.”

I soon find their names across multiple papers: Matt O’Leary at Birmingham City University, Alison Fuller and Lorna Unwin at UCL, Maggie Gregson at the University of Sunderland, Liz Atkins at the University of Derby, Jim Hordern at the University of Bath, Susan James Relly at Oxford University (taking over from Ewart Keep, a long-standing FE researcher, now retired) – and, of course, Alison Wolf at King’s College – to mention a few.

Outside universities, other organisations alongside the LWI include the Gatsby Foundation and Edge Foundation, both of which fund FE research, and EDSK think tank.

Gary Husband, visiting professor of education at the University of Sunderland, asserts, “there isn’t a lack of research in FE, there just isn’t anywhere near as much research as on compulsory education. Meanwhile, HE is really good at running research on itself!”

But Orr and Husband agree that finding big funding for FE research, and then ensuring it has impact, is a real issue.

The main government funding body for large-scale projects is the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), explains Orr.

“That gives very substantial grants, but they haven’t funded much FE research, and that would be really good to see more of,” he tells me. “Just given how mainstream FE is, it should be getting more mainstream funding.”

As a case in point, one of the biggest research projects in FE that is repeatedly mentioned to me dates from 20 years ago. Transforming Learning Cultures was published in 2007 by co-author David James, now a professor of sociology of education at Cardiff University, and is admiringly cited by researchers across the board for its insights into classroom and staffroom practices and how these relate to inspection and funding frameworks.

It was a large-scale project involving four universities and 16 colleges, funded by the ESRC on its £30 million Teaching and Learning Research Programme, which ran from 1999. But the TLRP was scrapped in 2009.

“There is research going on now, but there isn’t that large-scale programmatic funding for independent research, like there was with the TLRP,” James tells me.

In response, an ESRC spokesperson said it had invested £8.6 million in the Centre of Research on Learning and Life Chances for lifelong learning since 2008, and was currently funding a five-year research study, worth £2.2 million, into England’s vocational education and training around school-to-work transitions.

But even where big research does turn up important findings, it can then be difficult to translate these into a change in practice or policy, continues James. He points me to research he published in September on ‘Processes and practices of governing in colleges’.

“Our project supplies a detailed picture of what’s happening in governing boards on the ground, and comes to all sorts of recommendations, but I’m yet to meet a government minister or senior policymaker in England who’s interested,” says James.

I’ve yet to meet a government minister who’s interested

Given that the DfE regularly ignores recommendations from its own commissioned research, such as the Ney Review published in 2020, that’s little wonder, he adds.

Suzanne Straw and Lisa Morrison Coulthard, research directors at the National Foundation for Educational Research, explain that another challenge facing researchers is getting hold of the necessary datasets.

The pair are currently working on a five-year research project funded by the Nuffield Foundation examining the labour market in 2035.

“The dataset that relates to FE is the individualised learner record (ILR), but less research has been done using the ILR than the school equivalent, the national pupil database, because it’s quite complex and difficult to navigate,” explains Straw.

Another key information source is the ‘longitudinal educational outcomes’, or LEO, which shows destinations data over the course of a learner’s education career.

Coulthard warns: “It’s a very useful resource, but the level of information provided isn’t as granular as it could be.”

Olly Newton, executive director, Edge Foundation, confirms that it took his team almost five years to access LEO data for a project.

“You have to get specific access from the DfE and obviously the data security needs to be 100 per cent. It would be reasonable for it to take a couple of months, but not years and years.”

Another issue his team faces is accessing information for international comparisons, as post-Brexit the UK is no longer part of CEDEFOP (the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training).

That’s partly why more research comparing the four home nations should be a priority, says Newton, because “it’s a natural policy laboratory”. The Edge Foundation is currently comparing inspection systems in FE across the home nations with Birmingham University, with a report out later this year.

But the government needs to clearly state it is interested in research on the FE sector, for universities and other funders to fund it properly, says Newton.

“Until that signal is there, I can understand why there wouldn’t be a push for that,” he says, adding: “It would be good to bring back calls for a ‘What Works in FE Centre’.”

It would be good to bring back calls for a ‘What Works in FE Centre’

He’s referring to when the Social Mobility Commission urged government in 2020 to create a “what works” centre for FE, with £20 million over the next five years to “translate the best available evidence” for improving outcomes for poorer students. It sounds like the FE sector’s answer to the EEF.

But when FE Week checked with the DfE, a spokesperson said: “We have no plans to create an FE What Works Centre.”

So with no formal support from government, and difficulties in getting hold of large-scale funding, the sector has been left to get on with the job of research itself.

Multiple organisations have initiatives to support practitioners in classrooms to run research.

For instance in 2014 the Edge Foundation set up an ‘early career researcher network’ to support the next generation of FE-focused PhD and other research students, with 40 on its support programme so far.

Similarly, the AoC launched its Research Further programme this academic year, funding ten FE practitioners on a PhD or masters with awarding organisation NCFE. It has also its first-ever policy manager for research and evidence, showing that research is an increasing priority for the organisation.

Finally, the ETF runs it “practitioner research programme” with about 300 practitioners achieving a masters level qualification through the programme, according to Catherine Manning, national head of mentoring and practitioner research.

It’s a strong example of how to link up academic researchers and FE practitioners, with participants getting tutorials on research methodology and being invited to attend residentials. The ETF disseminates the findings through its publication, Intuition.

But FE Week can exclusively reveal the DfE grant for the practitioner research projects will not be available in 2022-23.

An ETF spokesperson said it is “currently exploring options for these programmes and seeking alternative funding”. FE Week approached the DfE for a response.

It means grassroots research practitioners – and grassroots research colleges – are more important than ever.

As far back as 1997, former FE practitioner Andrew Morris co-founded the Learning and Skills Research Network, which links up university researchers and FE practitioners, and is still going to this day.

The entirely voluntary organisation’s national planning group is now chaired by Jo Fletcher-Saxon, assistant principal at Ashton Sixth Form College in Greater Manchester.

“This is about shining a torchlight quite specifically on an area of your practice, that an academic paper might not be able to,” says Fletcher-Saxon.

“We’ve got everything from people looking at the type of pastoral support to offer students transitioning on to T Levels, to the best teaching techniques for students experiencing social anxiety!”

It sounds brilliant. Morris tells me this kind of initiative has especially gained traction with social media.

Nevertheless, “dissemination is an issue,” continues Fletcher-Saxon. She is currently pursuing a PhD on the “disrupted pipeline” between “research getting churned out” and “being embedded in the culture of colleges”.

To tackle this, she is also now involved with the Research College Group, set up and chaired by FE teacher educator Sam Jones, and which involves staff from nine colleges and sixth forms.

So there is clearly great practice going on in research in FE, which just needs more weighty support. In the leveling-up white paper the DfE has pledged a Unit for Future Skills to “improve the quality and accessibility of data and intelligence on skills and jobs”. Whether it is the kind of WonkFE Augar thinks is needed is yet to be seen.

“It would be marvellous,” concludes Morris, “for the DfE to support research colleges in the same way the EEF supports research schools. That would great.”

‘A terrible way to treat a profession’: ASCL president slams league tables publication plan

Colleges are being “thrown to the wolves” by the government’s decision to publish performance league tables this year, the president of the Association of School and College Leaders will warn today.

Pepe Di’Iasio will urge the Department for Education to rethink the decision at ASCL’s annual conference – insisting that schools and colleges will be unfairly criticised publicly by newspapers.

“How can it be right to compare the performance of one school or college with another when they have been so differently affected by the pandemic over the last two years?” he is expected to say.

Unlike last year, the DfE has ruled that results from GCSEs and post-16 qualifications, such as A-levels, will be used in performance tables.

In its guidance, the department says: “We recognise the uneven impact on schools and colleges of the pandemic and will ensure clear messages are placed on the performance tables to advise caution when drawing conclusions from the 2021 to 2022 data.”

Last year’s GCSE, A-levels and other academic-focused level 3 qualifications were decided by teacher-assessed grades due to the pandemic rather by than traditional exams, which return this summer for the first time in two years.

Adaptations have been made to this summer’s exams to try to make them fairer for students following the disruption caused by Covid, such as advance information on some of the exam content to help them focus their revision.

But an ASCL survey of 13,300 school and college leaders found that about 80 per cent are against the move to publish performance tables based on qualifications being sat by students this summer after two years of upheaval caused by the pandemic.

Backing his president, ASCL general secretary Geoff Barton said: “That’s not because we’re against accountability. It’s because we’re against phony accountability, based on evidence which is not going to allow parents and other people to make fair judgments.”

During his speech Di’Iasio will say: “The government’s answer is to say that it will place a health warning on performance tables and advise caution when considering the data.

“Surely, if the data is unreliable, the obvious answer is not to publish it in the first place.

“This is not a small matter. Careers and reputations are affected by performance tables. Newspapers publish them.

“It feels as though we are being thrown to the wolves by the government’s insistence on going ahead with this misguided and counter-productive policy. That is a pretty terrible way to treat a profession which surely deserves more respect after the last two years.”

DfE sets sail for first shipbuilding skills taskforce captain

The government is on the hunt for a chair to steer the first skills taskforce for the UK’s shipbuilding industry.

A refreshed cross-government National Shipping Strategy was launched on Thursday and includes a commitment for the Department for Education to develop a skills strategy for the sector, which currently support 42,600 jobs.

The taskforce will last for 18 months and aims to build a picture of the industry’s skills needs and provide solutions to skills shortages – particularly those related to new and emerging technologies and zero-emissions shipping.

There are currently 16 apprenticeships available for the maritime industry. There are also a number of level 3 qualifications for the sector, as well as traineeships.

The taskforce will explore what other courses are needed to supplement the existing offer.

Skills minister Alex Burghart said: “We are looking for a chair and members for our new taskforce that will supercharge the shipbuilding industry, bringing together experts who will work together to develop a plan to plug skills gaps and get more people into rewarding jobs.”

The taskforce will work with the Ministry of Defence, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and the Department for Transport to “optimise the available skills funding and opportunities for shipbuilding”, a DfE spokesperson said.

Applications for a chair and members of the taskforce with experience in shipbuilding opened on March 10 and close on April 17.

The chair would be expected to commit three days per month to taskforce activities, and members up to two days per month. The roles are unpaid.

Revealed: Colleges’ moral dilemma over Russian energy contracts

Colleges face “severe financial penalties” if they exit gas contracts with Russian-firm Gazprom, with warnings they face “jumping out of the frying pan into the fire” as energy prices soar.

At least one college and several academy trusts began seeking urgent legal advice this week on whether they can cut ties with the energy firm following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

One council leader said it was “immoral” for public bodies to financially support the Russian “war machine”.

But sector experts warn backing out of contracts is “difficult”. Even if they do, schools and colleges face potentially taking millions of pounds away from education to pay for new deals at much higher prices.

Unions are urging the Department for Education to make “emergency funding” available to cover cancelled contract costs.

Gary Smith, GMB general secretary, said: “Gazprom contracts are morally indefensible. Every pound spent on heating classrooms could end up fuelling Putin’s war machine.”

Colleges face Russian gas moral dilemma

At least one college is attempting to navigate legal quagmires over cutting ties with Gazprom.

Greater Brighton Metropolitan College signed up with Gazprom in November 2021 and is contracted with the firm until 2025.

The college confirmed it is in the process of reviewing its contractual obligations in light of the war in Ukraine.

But a financial penalty for leaving the contract early is one “potential issue” which is being weighed up, a spokesperson told FE Week.

Graham Burns, education partner at law firm Stone King, said the “current situation in Ukraine would not be a lawful reason to terminate contracts”.

Organisations would have to “consider carefully the terms of their contract and any breakage costs which would apply”.

Tim Golding, head of strategic partnerships at Zenergi, which supports 3,000 schools and 25 colleges to find energy deals, said there are particular problems for those on fixed-term contracts.

“In most cases, it is not possible to come out of given the contractual obligations that were agreed at the point the contract was secured.”

Termination charges would run into the thousands, he added. Organisations on flexible contracts have a “higher chance” of being able to cut ties without huge fees.

Golding estimates that around 20 per cent of colleges in England use Gazprom as their energy supplier.

Julian Gravatt, deputy chief executive at the Association of Colleges, said colleges spend 2 per cent of their budgets on energy “so this just adds to a financial problem”.

“But obviously the war in Ukraine and Russian sanctions are at a higher level of seriousness,” he added.

‘Frying pan into the fire’

Chris Felgate, director at Ginger Energy, said cancelling gas contracts in the current market “is like jumping from the frying pan into the fire”.

As well as termination penalties, the price of gas is now “multiple times higher than it was even this time last year” – enough to have a “seriously detrimental financial impacts on any institution”.

Academy trust United Learning told FE Week’s sister publication Schools Week it secured all of its energy for 2021-22 and 50 per cent for 2022-23 and 2023-24 when prices were “vastly lower than they are now”.

The trust said the remainder of this year’s gas contract will likely be £500,000. However, if repurchased at yesterday’s price, it would cost £4.7 million.

“This money would therefore no longer be spent on educationally valuable activity but would instead go back to the oil and gas industry,” a spokesperson said.

“More money would be returned to the Russian state, since the gas we are securing now at a low price would be sold at a much higher price.”

Gazprom supplies 20.8 per cent of non-domestic gas in Great Britain. Golding said they have historical been “very competitive”.

‘Give schools and colleges emergency funding’

Hayley Dunn, business leadership specialist at the Association of Schools and Colleges said, education providers may feel they are “stuck between a rock and a hard place”.

“It is very hard to see how schools and colleges can address this problematic situation on their own and the government needs to step in with sanctions and practical guidance or assistance as soon as possible.”

Gazprom has been banned from raising debt in the UK and accessing its capital markets – but the firm said “nothing has changed” for its customers.

Russian natural gas makes up less than four per cent of the UK’s supply. But business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said he is “exploring options to end this altogether”.

Last week, health secretary Sajid Javid said the NHS in England must stop using energy supplied by Gazprom, PA Media reported.

Additional reporting by Billy Camden

Careers guidance still prioritises university routes over apprenticeships, new research finds

Students are still much more likely to get good quality careers guidance and advice on going to university than they are about apprenticeships according to the Sutton Trust.

In a new report on the state of careers guidance in secondary schools, the social mobility charity has found that only 10 per cent of 17 and 18 year olds surveyed had received a “large amount” of information about apprenticeships, compared to 46 per cent who said they had received the same amount about university routes.

Published today, ‘Paving the Way’ compiles a survey of 3,140 secondary school teachers and 1,083 pupils and students aged between 11 and 18 from schools and colleges.

Researchers were able to compare results received from state and private schools. They found that 39 per cent of pupils in state secondary schools said that they were not confident in their next steps in education and training compared to 29 per cent of pupils in private schools.

This isn’t the Sutton Trust’s first venture in to researching the effectiveness of careers information, advice and guidance in schools and colleges.

Back in 2014, the trust highlighted how there were significant differences in the quality of careers provision that pupils had access to across the country. The report from eight years ago recommended a stronger national strategy and more effective incentives and statutory duties on schools and colleges to provide high quality guidance on vocational education options as well as university routes.

Today’s report makes depressingly similar recommendations but recognises some of the shifts in spending and policy priorities that have, albeit with questionable success, attempted to improve the careers information offer to young people.

For example, researchers found a positive correlation between engagement with the Gatsby Foundation’s careers quality benchmarks and measures around a student’s career readiness.

On the other hand, the report notes that the Department for Education’s attempts at statutory guidance in 2015 and 2021, the Baker Clause and the work of the National Careers Service and Careers and Enterprise Company still leaves major gaps and variations across different types of schools.

Almost a third (32 per cent) of teachers in state schools said that they don’t have enough funding to deliver good quality careers education and guidance, compared to just 6 per cent in private schools. Whereas around half (51 per cent) of teachers in state schools think there isn’t enough staff time to do so, compared to just over a third (34 per cent) in private schools.

The Sutton Trust’s chief executive, James Turner, is using today’s report to argue for a more differentiated approach which recognises the differences in access to good quality advice and guidance found in state compared to private secondary schools:

“As the government looks to make further changes to the qualifications and funding landscape, it is more important than ever that young people have the information, advice and guidance that they need to feel confident in their next steps.

“The government must urgently develop a new national strategy on careers education and all schools, especially those serving the poorest communities, should be supported to offer the highest-quality provision” he said.

As well as differences in the quality of careers advice and guidance on offer, researchers also found that less than a third of sixth form age students – specifically 17 and 18 year olds – had completed work experience activities.

Further, students in private were more likely than students in state schools to have received careers information in their usual curriculum, dedicated careers conversations with teachers and sessions with a careers adviser. Private school pupils were slightly less likely though to have received advice on local job or career opportunities.

Responding to today’s reports, the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) makes the case for career advice as a specialist service undermined by more than a decade of unsuccessful reform and pressures on funding.

ASCL’s general secretary, Geoff Barton, said:

“The main reason that there is variation in careers advice is that the government dismantled the national provision about a decade ago and transferred the responsibility to schools while also squeezing their funding. Since then it has endeavoured to make up for lost ground with only partial success.

“This report draws attention to the need for more information on apprenticeship options, for example, which would certainly be helpful. However, the apprenticeships landscape is complex and difficult to navigate and is a case in point where extensive knowledge of a variety of workplaces and apprenticeship vacancies is needed to deliver this sort of guidance.”

Construction college appoints first female principal

A 60-year-old specialist construction college has appointed its first-ever woman principal.

Nikki Davis was today announced as the next leader of Leeds College of Building, taking the reins from Derek Whitehead at the end of the current academic year.

The announcement coincides with International Women’s Day.

Peter Norris, Leeds College of Building’s chair of governors, said: “The college is passionately committed to inclusivity in construction and promoting diversity in the workforce, and so we look forward to Nikki commencing her role as principal and chief executive.

“Not only will her appointment ensure seamless continuity, but she also has outstanding knowledge of leadership in the further education sector.”

Davis is currently the college’s vice principal for teaching, learning and quality. She was previously a vice principal at York College, head of department at Kirklees College, and programme manager at Leeds City College.

“I’m delighted to be appointed to the role of principal and chief executive at Leeds College of Building and to build on its previous successes and first-rate tradition of delivering exceptional training to learners from across the UK,” she said.

Leeds College of Building, established in 1960, currently has around 5,500 students and offers more than 200 courses related to construction and the built environment. Over half of the learners are on apprenticeships. In 2019, the college was graded ‘good’ by Ofsted.

Whitehead will be retiring after 37 years of working in FE and skills training. He has worked at Leeds College of Building since 2004 and became principal in January 2019.

He said: “I have genuinely enjoyed all 18 years spent at Leeds College of Building. I’m very proud of what we’ve achieved and being involved in leading such a great team of talented, agile, and responsive staff, together with stakeholder and governor support. I’m delighted to be leaving the college in such good shape at the end of a very rewarding career in further education.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Derwen College, West Midlands

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The college’s vintage shop which opened this year

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Meryl Green, chief executive at Derwen College

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Natalie and Nathan, hospitality students at Hotel 751 on campus

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What does she think of Derwen College?

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

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

Horticulture and agriculture students in the greenhouses

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ofsted accused of flawed inspection after provider receives ‘inadequate’

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ofsted’s findings were rejected by QVT.

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

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

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