The outgoing FE Commissioner Richard Atkins has been knighted in the 2021 Queen’s New Year Honours.

Around 30 people from the further education and skills sector have been recognised, including various top college leaders, a former chair of the Association of Colleges and a vice chair of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers.

Atkins (pictured) is stepping down from the role he has held for two consecutive two-year terms in March, after his second term was extended from last October. He previously served as principal of Exeter College.

He told FE Week he was “honoured” to receive the knighthood, which “recognises the importance and success of all further education colleges as well as my own contributions.

“Today I am thinking about all of the staff and governors who have supported my professional and personal development, as well as about the huge challenges which colleges face this coming term.”

A damehood has been awarded to Department for Education non-executive director Irene Lucas Hays, who also chairs Hays Travel Group.

She said the honour was “really” for Hays Travel’s apprentices, “who have been part of our business lives over the past 41 years”.

Exeter College principal John Laramy has been made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to education, for which he was “thrilled, delighted and honoured,” adding: “I am fortunate that I work in a sector that exists to try and make everyone’s tomorrow better than today.” 

Education Partnership North East (EPNE) college group is celebrating after chief executive Ellen Thinnesen and chair Rob Lawson were both made Officers of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to education, and for services to education in Sunderland, respectively.

Thinnesen said she felt “incredibly humbled” by the honour, and paid tribute to the “inspirational” people she works with, including her “brilliant” leadership team, wider college staff, and the national, regional and local partners and supporters.

Lawson said of his own award: “It was a real shock to receive the email about the honour and I was amazed to have been put forward.”

Oldham College principal Alun Francis has also been made an OBE for services to education, having run the college for ten years.

“This award isn’t something I would ever have sought or expected – but I’m delighted to accept it on behalf of Oldham College,” he said.

Another long-serving principal, David Walrond, who retired from Truro and Penwith College in August, has been made an OBE for services to further education, saying it was “wonderful” to be honoured for his work as principal and as Callywith College’s chair.

“What is being recognised of course is the vital work for Cornwall of two remarkable institutions and the many outstanding colleagues who have made them what they are.”

Herefordshire, Ludlow and North Shropshire College’s principal Ian Peake and Sally Challis-Manning, principal of Brinsbury College, have been made Members of the Order of the British Empire (MBE).

Adult education has also been recognised, with an OBE for Sutton College principal and HOLEX board member Dipa Ganguli, for services to adult education in London.

Ganguli told FE Week she felt “honoured” to receive her honour, as well as “really humbled” her work has been recognised, after 25 years in the sector.

Rosalyn Parker, principal of Southend Adult Community College, and Dawn Hall, an adult, family and community learning manager in Doncaster, also received OBEs.

Bath College chair and non-executive director of Ofsted Carole Stott has also been made an OBE for services to education

Stott, who was already made an MBE in 2012, said she was “pleased” her honour recognised her work as former chair of the Association of Colleges and WorldSkills as “it kind of feels like it’s for the whole sector, as both those organisations work for the whole sector”.

The Education and Skills Funding Agency’s (ESFA) head of NEET (Not in Education, Employment, or Training) and youth engagement Carolyn Savage has been made an OBE for services to apprenticeships and skills, and is “absolutely thrilled, amazed and humbled to be receiving this honour”.

“I keep having to pinch myself to make sure that it is really happening.”

The agency’s former director of employer and employee engagement, Sue Husband, has also been made an OBE; as has Susan McVeigh, who leads on tax apprenticeships for HM Revenue and Customs.

Husband said she owed her honour “to everyone who has inspired and motivated me along the way,” including WorldSkills UK competitors, from when she was the UK’s official designate at the international WorldSkills competition in Russia last year.

The chair of the ESFA’s audit and risk committee, Hunada Nouss, has also been made an OBE, for public service.

A number of figures from the apprenticeships and skills sector have been made MBEs, including Nichola Hay, chief operating officer of apprenticeship provider Estio Training, vice chair of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers board, and member of the Greater London Authority’s Skills for Londoners Board.

She said she could not have been made an MBE “without all the help and support of my colleagues, past, and present and partner organisations who help improve the lives and career prospects of young people to build better futures.”

Specialist provision has also been recognised, with the principal of Aurora Foxes Academy in Somerset, Emma Cobley, receiving an MBE for service for young people with special educational needs and disabilities.

She said: “I am privileged to lead a dedicated team at Aurora Foxes Academy which is giving students with learning disabilities the skills and opportunities that they deserve to become work and life ready.”

MBEs have also been bestowed upon Sharon Robbie, managing director of Devon and Cornwall Training Providers Network; Sue Tipton, managing director and owner of Birmingham-based Protocol Consultancy Services; Gerard Donnelly, who leads the apprenticeship team at the Department for Work and Pensions; York College’s former chair Shirley Collier; John Godden, chief executive of Salutem Care and Education; David Crosby, chair of Hugh Baird College; Dr Katherine Hewlett, a glass tutor at Working Men’s College; and Neil Weller, chairman of the London Apprenticeship Ambassador Network.

The programme coordinator for science at South Devon College, Janet Ellis, and Richard Ashman, library co-ordinator for City College Southampton, have both been awarded British Empire Medals.

Education secretary Gavin Williamson congratulated all the recipients, saying their work is “so inspiring and deserving of recognition”.

New Year Honours List 2021 – Recipients from FE and skills

Knighthood

Richard Atkins, Further Education Commissioner. For services to Further Education

Damehood

Irene Lucas-Hays, Non-executive board member, Department for Education, For services to Training, to Education and to young people

CBE

John Laramy, Principal, Exeter College. For services to Education

OBE

Susan Husband, Director, Business in the Community, Cymru and lately Director, employer and employee engagement, Education and Skills Funding Agency. For services to Education

Ellen Thinnesen, Chief executive, Education Partnership North East. For services to Education

Carole Stott, Lately Chair, Association of Colleges and Find a Future. For services to Education

Dipanwita Ganguli, Principal, Sutton College. For services to Adult Education in London

Robert Lawson, Chair of Governors, Education Partnership North East. For services to Education in Sunderland

Alun Francis, Principal and Chief Executive Officer, Oldham College. For services to Education

Rosalyn Parker, Principal, Southend Adult Community College. For services to Adult Education and to the community in Southend, Essex

Dawn Hall, Adult, family and community learning Manager, Doncaster. For services to Further Education in South Yorkshire

David Walrond, Principal and chair, Truro and Penwith College and Callywith College. For services to Further Education in
Cornwall

Susan Jessica McVeigh, Head, tax apprenticeship employer-provider, HM Revenue and Customs. For services to Tax and
Compliance apprenticeships

Carolyn Savage, Head, Apprentice Engagement, Education and Skills Funding Agency. For services to Apprenticeships and
Skills

Hunada Nouss, Chair, Audit and Risk Committee, Education and Skills Funding Agency. For public service

MBE

Gerard Donnelly, Team Leader, Apprenticeship Team, People and Capability Group, Department for Work and Pensions. For
services to Social Mobility

Emma Cobley, Principal, Foxes Academy Residential SEN College. For services to Young People with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities

Sally Challis-Manning, Principal, Brinsbury College, Pulborough. For services to Further Education in West Sussex

Shirley Collier, Lately Chair of Governors, York College. For services to Further Education

John Godden, Chief Executive Officer, Salutem Care and Education. For services to the vulnerable, particularly during the Covid-19 response

David Crosby, Chair of the Corporation, Hugh Baird College. For services to Further  Education in Merseyside

Katherine Hewlett, Glass tutor, Working Men’s College. For services to Further Education and to Charity in London

Nichola Hay, Chief Operating Officer, Estio Training. For services to Apprenticeships and to Charity

Sharron Robbie, Managing Director, Devon and Cornwall Training Providers Network. For services to Apprenticeships and to Skills

Sue Tipton, Managing Director, Protocol Consultancy Services. For services to Apprenticeships and to Charity in the West Midlands

Neil Weller, Chairman, London Apprenticeship Ambassador Network. For services to Education and to Skills

Ian Peake, Principal and Chief Executive, Herefordshire, Ludlow and North Shropshire College. For services to Education

BEM

Janet Ellis, Programme Co-ordinator, Science, South Devon College. For services to Education

Richard Ashman, Library Co-ordinator, City College Southampton. For services to Further Education

The government told the media last night that the military will be “on standby”  to support secondary schools and colleges with Covid-19 testing from next week.

Details on how to request the support has not yet been published.

What FE Week has been told is a deal has been agreed by the Ministry of Defence to make 1,500 armed forces personnel available to support the Department for Education and Department for Health and Social Care through the Military Aid to Civil Authorities (MACA) process.

A DfE spokesperson said: “The majority of personnel will form local response teams, providing support and phone advice to institutions needing guidance on the testing process and set-up of the testing facilities.

“This will be done predominantly through webinars and individual meetings, but teams will also be on standby to deploy at short notice to provide in-person support to resolve any issues in the situations where testing would otherwise not be able to go ahead. Schools and colleges will shortly be provided with further information on how to request additional support if needed.

“A small team of planners is embedded in the Department for Health and Social care who are supporting the Department for Education to help coordinate the support. The majority of personnel will be on task from this week as they start to conduct training.”

Education Secretary Gavin Williamson added:  “It is a true cross-government effort to make sure secondary schools and colleges have the support, guidance, materials and funding they need to offer rapid testing to their staff and students from the start of term.

“I am grateful to the armed forces personnel, and all the school and college staff, leaders and volunteers working to put testing in place. This will help break chains of transmission, fight the virus, and help deliver the national priority of keeping education open for all.”

Last week the government announced that £78 million will be made available for the rollout of rapid mass Covid-19 testing of secondary school and college students from January 4.

The government has pushed FE student return dates back by an extra week – but BTEC and other vocational exams will go ahead as planned in January.

Under revised plans announced this afternoon by education secretary Gavin Williamson, providers will open for onsite teaching to only vulnerable students and children of critical workers next week.

Students preparing for exams in 2021 will study remotely and return to campus the week beginning 11 January, with remaining learners studying online until the following week.

Vocational exams, of which there are around 130,000 scheduled to start from the week of 4 January according to the Association of Colleges, will still go ahead.

The new plans are said to give college leaders more time to rollout mass testing. The testing scheme is only currently available to colleges and schools – not other FE provider types.

It comes two weeks after the government announced plans for exam year students to start onsite teaching from 4 January, with face-to-face education starting for all from 11 January.

Today’s changes have been made to tackle spiralling cases of Covid-19.

Meanwhile, primary schools in a “small number” of tier 4 areas with the highest infection rates will be closed to all but vulnerable and key workers’ children (click here for the list of areas this applies to).

You can read Williamson’s speech in full here.

Bill Watkin, chief executive of the Sixth Form Colleges Association, said: “Exam groups in college, tested and learning face-to-face, after one week? That’s about 1,500 students in an average size sixth form college.

“The delay is welcome, but the revised plan is still a huge ask.

“The plan to delay the start of the January term and focus on online lessons for many young people makes sense and will not faze colleges.”

A spokesperson for awarding body Pearson, which runs BTECs, said: “We will continue to work closely with you to support learners as they undertake their assessments. Our existing guidance on the BTEC approach to adaptation to delivery and assessment in 2020/2021 on our dedicated webpage is available here and an assessment summary is available here (PDF).”

The government will make £78 million available for the rollout of rapid mass Covid-19 testing of students from January 4.

A handbook has today been published by the Department for Education for secondary schools and colleges to use to prepare for the scheme set to launch in just 11 days’ time.

It states that the amount of funding available to a school or college will depend on its size as this will “impact the number of additional staff required to conduct testing”.

A “ready reckoner” has been provided which provides illustrative workforce requirements and associated funding. For colleges it gives the example that a further education college outside London, with 3,000 students and staff will need 30 people working on mass testing and will each receive approximately £35,000.

Schools are likely to receive between £9,000 and £28,000 each.

They will be able to use the funding to cover relevant staffing costs and personal protective equipment will also be directly provided on January 4.

The handbook explains that colleges will need to determine how many staff they need and where those staff will come from, for example existing staff and/or volunteers or agency workers.

There are seven roles that will need to be filled: team leader; test assistant; processor; Covid-19 coordinator; registration assistant; results recorder; and cleaner.

The DfE says military support “will be made available and is designed to make sure that those schools and colleges that require additional help can access it”.

The tests to be administered will be the lateral flow tests – which provide results within 30 minutes. They will be used despite concerns they can miss large numbers of positive cases.

Students will be offered two lateral flow tests spaced three to five days apart, while staff will be offered one test in the first week and weekly thereafter as part of the longer-term routine testing programme.

Anyone with a positive result will need to leave college, take a confirmatory Polymerase Chain Reaction test and follow the self-isolation guidelines – which currently span 10 days.

The handbook includes examples of what a testing site should look like (see image below).

As previously announced, secondary schools and FE providers are currently set for a staggered return to on-site learning for non-exam students after Christmas.

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said today’s updated guidance “doesn’t take us much further forward because it ignores the fact that this plan and timescale are totally unrealistic”.  

“It is frankly ludicrous to think that schools and colleges will be able to recruit and train the workforce needed to carry out this testing programme in the 11 days before term is due to begin on January 4, particularly as it is the Christmas holiday period,” he added.

“The guidance gives an illustrative example of a secondary school with 1,000 pupils and staff needing 13 people working on mass testing. How on earth are schools and colleges supposed to have such workforces in place by the first week of the new term?”

Barton continued: “The government seems to be stuck in some sort of parallel universe in which it cannot grasp the huge scale of the task it is asking schools and colleges to carry out.

“Schools and colleges are very keen for rapid Covid tests to be available to staff and students, but the government’s half-baked plan is simply not deliverable.”

Influential MPs have added their voices to calls for the return of individual learning accounts to help reverse the decline in adult education.

The Commons’ Education Select Committee has today published a report following an inquiry into lifelong learning, in which they learned participation in adult education has dropped to its lowest level in 23 years, while funding fell by almost half between 2008-09 and 2018-19.

One solution the MPs have put forward to “kickstart participation and play a key role in enhancing the employment prospects of adults affected by the Covid-19 pandemic” is the introduction of individual learning accounts (ILAs), despite recognising the idea has become “political kryptonite”.

This makes the MPs the latest in a chorus of voices calling for a return of the accounts – FE Week reported last month how further education and skills sector leaders, as well as policymakers and government advisers, have come round to the idea of handing learners a bank of funding to spend on education and training throughout their lives.

The committee believes ILAs, which they say would be funded through the government’s £2.5 billion National Skills Fund due for roll-out next April, should initially be aimed at groups with low engagement in lifelong learning, including those on low incomes, in a pilot phase.

But ILAs should eventually expand, the report envisions, to a system where all adults receive a one-off grant, then two to three top-up investments throughout their working life, in order to “put purchasing power into the hands of the individual, enabling adults to take control over their learning and skills pathway”.

The great spectre hanging over any introduction of ILAs, however, is their expensive and failed introduction under the Labour government in 2000.

Then-education secretary Estelle Morris pulled the plug on the scheme just a year later after abuse by unscrupulous providers led to a reported £67 million fraud.

“The failures of this scheme have meant that ILAs remain political kryptonite for English policymaking,” today’s report notes. “Yet twenty years on, particularly with advances in technology and digital security, this need no longer be the case.”

The model has since been put into practice in others parts of the UK: including in Scotland, where there are grants of up to £200 for individuals who are looking for work or looking to progress in work to spend on training; and in Wales, where a pilot scheme launched in 2019 targeted priority groups, such as adults in employment earning under £26,000.

Other recommendations from today’s report, titled ‘A plan for an adult skills and lifelong learning revolution’, include a community learning centre in every town, as the providers of such training are the “the jewel in the crown of the nation’s adult education landscape”.

The committee said the Department for Education does not “fully grasp the value and purpose of community learning,” after skills minister Gillian Keegan showed at a hearing an “inability to set out a specific strategy and ambition for community learning”.

So the report calls on department to work out an “ambitious” plan for the centres, which could be set up at “colleges, church halls and libraries,” and must also push for a three-year funding settlement for community learning at the next government spending review, after its budget had been “arbitrarily” capped for ten years.

Skills tax credits, similar to an existing credit for research and development, have also been proposed by the committee for employers who invest in training for employees. The tax credits should be tapered so is more generous to employers who provide training for those with lower prior qualifications.

Like ILAs, skills tax credits are also a favoured policy of the prime minister’s skills and workforce policy advisor Alison Wolf, who told the committee the credits would be a “a very good idea,” if a way of doing it could be figured out which was not “open to massive fraud”.

The three recommendations, along with the introduction of grants for disadvantaged learners to study more part-time higher education courses, make up the committee’s ‘four pillars’ approach, which committee chair Robert Halfon MP (pictured left) says: “Would lay the foundation for a coherent long-term adult education strategy that goes some way to fostering a national culture of lifelong learning and allowing everyone the chance to climb the ladder of opportunity.”

Learning and Work Institute chief executive Stephen Evans, who contributed to the committee inquiry which led to this report, said the recommendations in the “excellent report” could make a “real difference”.

“We’ve long called for a personal learning account to help people retrain and upskill throughout their lives.”

A Department for Education spokesperson, in response to the report, said they will “continue to work with the FE sector to ensure more adults can retrain and upskill so we can unlock even more potential and level up opportunities across the country.

“Our Lifetime Skills Guarantee will make sure everyone has the opportunity to learn and develop the skills they need to succeed at any age,” including through its offer of a free, first, full level 3 qualification for any adult without one. As well as a lifelong loan entitlement “that will make it easier for adults and young people to study more flexibly, which can be used over their lifetime and for modules of a course, as well as full years

The spokesperson continued: “We are investing £1.34 billion in education and skills training for adults through the adult education budget and The Skills Toolkit offers free online courses to help boost digital and numeracy skills that are highly desired by employers.”

 

FE students who are not preparing for exams in 2021 must learn at home for the first week of the next term in January, the Department for Education has said.

But those who are preparing for exams or need access to specialised equipment, as well as vulnerable learners and children of critical workers, should all attend campus in person as planned.

Face-to-face education will begin for all learners starting on 11 January. Full guidance for the FE sector can be read here.

Ministers have also confirmed that vocational exams scheduled for the week of 4 January will go ahead as planned.

David Hughes, chief executive of the Association of Colleges, said the government needs to “recognise that it cannot keep making monumental announcements at the last minute, which add additional responsibility and stresses on leaders and staff without the full guidance or resources to fulfil their demands”.

“Things are moving fast on the virus, requiring government to make difficult decisions, and rapidly. But those decisions need to be realistic and pragmatic,” he added.

“The over-ambitious start date of 4 January is unfair on school and college leaders and staff – just one more unrealistic burden and additional stress after what has already been the most difficult nine months imaginable.”

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders union, added that it “beggars belief that this announcement is being made now, right at the end of term”.

Ministers have also announced that all secondary schools and colleges will be given a “free round of testing” from the first week of January, which will be supported by the armed forces.

This is in addition to the government’s recent announcement that every secondary school and college in England will have access to rapid testing from next month.

Guidance will “shortly be provided” to schools and colleges on how to set up and staff the testing site, and officials reiterated that “reasonable workforce costs” will be reimbursed. 

Education secretary Gavin Williamson said: “This targeted testing round will clamp down on the virus as students return from the Christmas break and help stop the spread of Covid-19 in the wider community.

“Building on the fantastic actions that schools and colleges have already taken to be as safe as possible, this additional testing will catch those who have the virus but are not showing symptoms to help schools and colleges stay in control of the virus throughout the spring term.”

Health secretary Matt Hancock added: “Testing in schools is crucial for us to break the chains of transmission and keep students, staff and their loved ones safe. That’s why we’re supporting schools and colleges in England to offer testing at the start of January.”

DfE guidance for college testing in the first week of January states: “You will need to contribute some members of staff to support the asymptomatic testing programme – ideally non-teaching staff.

“Identify one or two staff to support the recruitment of volunteers and agency staff and act as liaison with the military and test and trace so that testing can commence from 4 January. Volunteers and other test support staff will not need to have been trained in advance.

“The remaining testing workforce will be made up of volunteers and agency staff brought in for this purpose. Reasonable workforce costs will be reimbursed. Armed forces personnel will support directly through planning with colleges.”