DfE launches ‘Skills Toolkit’ to signpost to free online courses

The Department for Education has launched a web page that signposts people to free courses that can develop their digital and numeracy skills during lockdown.

‘The Skills Toolkit’ directs visitors to a suite of programmes such as Everyday Maths and Learn to Code for Data Analysis run by the Open University, and Get Certified in the Fundamentals of Digital Marketing by the Google Digital Garage.

Thirteen free courses are listed from the various organisations that created them over the past few years (full list below).

The DfE said the courses develop the skills which are “highly valued” by employers and are ideal for use by workers placed on furlough during the coronavirus pandemic.

Education secretary Gavin Williamson said the free courses “will help those whose jobs have been affected by the [Covid-19] outbreak, and people looking to boost their skills while they are staying at home, protecting the NHS and saving lives.

“I want businesses to encourage their furloughed employees to use The Skills Toolkit to improve their knowledge, build their confidence and support their mental health so they have skills they need to succeed after the coronavirus outbreak.”

Digital secretary Oliver Dowden added that technology is “going to play a hugely important role in our economic recovery” and the courses “will help ensure everyone is able to improve their digital skills and take advantage of the opportunities ahead”.

Matthew Fell, chief UK policy director at the Confederation of British Industry, agreed that online learning is a “great way for people to upgrade their skills at any time, but never more so than during a lockdown”.

“The toolkit’s heavy emphasis on the skills that businesses need are welcome,” he added.

First minister Nicola Sturgeon announced a similar tool yesterday for those in Scotland. Their new library of online courses includes offers from 12 providers and can be found on Skills Development Scotland’s My World of Work site.

Sturgeon said: “In the coming weeks and months we’ll expand the number of courses available by working with colleges and universities.”

 

The 13 free online courses on The Skills Toolkit

     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

 

     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

In conversation with… Kirstie Donnelly, CEO, City and Guilds

FE Week talks to the new City & Guilds CEO about leadership in crisis and her vision for the future of the organisation and the sector amid a transformative technological shift

Anyone can lead when the plan is working. The test of a leader is what they do when the plan falls apart.

For Kirstie Donnelly, who stepped up to the role of CEO of City & Guilds in January after 8 years as managing director of its biggest arm, the test has come early and it has come hard. As if a new government with a new focus on further education and a Brexit bill putting national pressure on the skills agenda weren’t enough, the coronavirus is rewriting all the rules of what is possible across society.

“And a new shadow government too,” she reminds me. “That’s another nuance.”

Perhaps working from home particularly suits Donnelly, or perhaps she’s already acing the test. Throughout our interview her demeanor is calm and assured and her leadership vision is untroubled.

“A lot of the things I’m now having to rethink, I would have probably wanted to start to turn my attention to. The difference is speed. And focus.”

In fact, what for many is an existential crisis, to Donnelly is an “existential opportunity”. She was awarded an MBE in 2011 – the same year she joined City & Guilds from a defunct LearnDirect – for services to e-learning. If anything, the rapid move to digitalise education in response to lockdown closures is long overdue as far as she’s concerned.

Which isn’t to say it’s been plain sailing. “It’s definitely diverted me for a short period while we had to deal with what I would call the crisis of the crisis. How do you furlough? How do you mobilise remotely your 12 to 13 hundred staff worldwide safely? But in the past week, I’ve started then to think much more about our rendezvous with the future. I believe all the things we’re talking about in a COVID context are all the things as a sector, and as an organisation in that sector, we would have had to tackle anyway. We’re just having to do it with more pace and more commitment. So it’s not about moving fast and getting it wrong. It’s more commitment to the agenda.”

But the agenda, for Donnelly, is about much more than updating tools and practices. It’s about resetting the very ethos and structures of the sector. “If you think about the sorts of businesses that are likely to come out of post COVID, there are likely to be all sorts of models that will impact on education and skills and how it’s delivered. If we don’t seize on these opportunities to adapt the sorts of organisations we are, someone completely new will come into the space, because they will be unshackled by the dominant logics we all have.”

We all want to be successful, and to find new models you have to go to a blank sheet

And the organisation Donnelly is now leading from the front is no exception. City & Guilds is 142 years old, the world’s largest vocational awarding body, and a prime example of an organisation with a ‘dominant logic’. A deeply embedded one too. “It can’t not because of where it’s come from. Introducing digital credentials may not sound dramatically different, but ultimately I think digital credentials could overtake the requirement for having a traditional qualification. Well, actually saying that is quite radical because that’s treading on the toes of that dominant logic about what awarding and assessment actually means and needs to look like. But I think we all want to be successful, and to find those new models you have to go to a blank sheet.”

Donnelly has been steeped in e-learning and digital education for a couple of decades now, and her success in becoming City & Guilds’s first female chief executive owes as much to her vision as it does to her perseverance. No techno-evangelist, she has clearly processed the decades of edtech promises and false starts into an optimism tempered with a healthy dose of realism. To realise technology’s potential, a number of other factors have to fall into place – factors the current crisis is bringing to the fore.

“It’s a fairly simple value chain cycle. We recruit, we diagnose, we train, we assess, we certify.  Whether they are an apprentice or a full-time learner, ultimately, that’s what we’re trying to do. If you work out what role you want to play in that value chain, and how you can digitally enable and blend some of that, and how that fits in the broader ecostystem, that’s your blank sheet.”

I’d like to shift the pendulum and say online assessment becomes our hundred percent goal

But the blank sheet approach carries risk, not least of which is the threat of forgetting where you’ve come from, and your purpose. For Donnelly, it’s a question of imagining “that you are an organisation that doen’t exist today but wants to exist tomorrow. What is it you would create? Then somehow you’ve got to retrofit in the good things about the fact you’ve got DNA, and you’ve got a history and you’ve got capabilities and skills, but not let that overtake the new thinking that you’re going to want to enable.”

Another is the possible disruption of the sector by new players, “unshackled” not only from dominant organisational logics and perhaps even from its dominant ethical ones too.

“A piece of work carried out in 2015/16 came up with a quote that the largest the largest internet business in the world by 2030 will be education. I’ve been coming back to that quote in my head recently, because I think post-COVID that is actually even more likely to happen. It’s not likely to be one single player, although it could be if you think of the Googles of this world and the dominance they have. We all need to be very cognizant of that.”

It’s clear from our conversation that Donnelly’s leadership will be characterised by much more than gaining a competitive edge over rivals. To beat back the risks associated with the necessary aspects of digital disruption and to safeguard its “DNA”, her view is that the sector’s response to this critical period must be defined by collaboration.

“I’d like to shift the pendulum and say [online assessment and proctoring] ultimately becomes our hundred percent goal. Not in a year, but I want to push very, very hard on that. But I want to try and share some of that with the market as well. It’s about wanting to put back into the ecosystem.”

The word ecosystem is one she returns to time and again, and it’s a view that also shapes her wider policy agenda. What the government should be focusing on is healing the divides of a fractured system, and rebalancing the equilibrium between local and national decision making.

“I think it’s particularly acute in FE. The government pick us off, because they see it as sort of a gap to drive through the middle something they want to happen that isn’t necessarily in the interest of the sector.”

She’s far from the first to suggest it, but Donnelly thinks the sector needs less of the political pendulum swings and more stability. For her, that comes through longer-term spending commitments, but also through reimagining central government’s role, not at the top of the ecosystem, but as another player in it.

There’s a schizophrenia at the moment

“There’s a schizophrenia at the moment. They seem to be saying – and Boris himself as PM and given this backdrop as mayor has always had that sense – that more should be happening at the devolved, regional and local levels. But the reality is that policies still aren’t there to enable that to happen. We need central government to become much more as a supporting enabler, to identify the really good practice that we need to bring up to a national level or to make sure it gets flushed back out to other regions.”

Of all the shocks rattling FE and skills, our conversation hasn’t even touched on the climate crisis. In a sense though, Donnelly isn’t a leader in a technological or industrial revolution, but an ecological one. Sustainability pervades her thinking.

“You could never take on becoming a CEO in the skills sector without having a high degree of wanting to create a better place, and a better sense of the purpose that you hold. Here we are. 142 years old, in our fourth industrial revolution and probably marching to our fifth. For me, it’s about creating the legacy of the CEO who enabled the change to happen so that someone asking about this crisis in another hundred years’ time can say ‘Good. They made that change at that moment’.”

It’s perhaps cliché, but not less true for it, that we are living history. With leaders like this, the future of the sector seems brighter, and the darkness of the moment less oppressive.

Ofsted’s 1,700 staff ‘considerably under occupied’ admits chief inspector, but available to volunteer

A “considerable number” of Ofsted’s 1,700 staff are under occupied despite offering themselves up as Covid-19 response volunteers, the chief inspector has admitted.

Amanda Spielman told the education select committee this morning that nearly all of the watchdog’s workers have “expressed willingness” to help with “suitable alternative options” that fit with their skillset.

But while they are “absolutely open and responsive to all initiatives”, the “general reaction” from schools and education providers at the moment is that there is “not a perceived need for additional capacity” as less than 1 per cent of students are currently attending.

She then admitted: “We have a considerable number of people who are less than fully occupied at the moment and we are absolutely open to volunteering.”

Spielman did not provide figures for how many of her staff are currently not in work. Ofsted chief operating officer Matthew Coffey said that a total of 56 staff have reported Covid-19 symptoms to date, but all but five of them were back to work as of Friday.

Ofsted’s rolling blog for their response to coronavirus states that more than 50 councils have asked for the watchdog’s help with tasks like mapping and supporting vulnerable children, developing safeguarding processes and communicating with education leaders.

It also says they have agreed for “suitably qualified” colleagues to work in children’s homes, and others to staff advice lines for parents and schools.

And a number of the watchdog’s people are being redeployed to other government departments to support the wider civil service response.

Spielman stressed that the watchdog’s “default assumption” is that “everybody who is not required for the business as usual work or for redeployment to other government departments is available for wider work”.

She said a “number of pieces of work have already been lined up” but stopped short of naming them apart from a project with recruitment first the London London Gold Group.

Ofsted told FE Week a project team of 16 staff is working to create a “new flow of candidates into the care workforce, particularly home and domiciliary care, across the London boroughs, by mobilising the Proud to Care London recruitment portal”.

The watchdog’s staff are “contacting those who have applied through the portal to help establish their suitability and get them trained, speeding up the usual recruitment process and getting people into vital care roles across London in a matter of days”.

Earlier in the accountability session, the chief inspector confirmed that there were no “definite” plans to restart routine inspections, adding that this decision would be largely based on when schools and colleges return to normal operation.

But she made clear they are “not expecting to be asked to resume full routine inspections before the end of the summer term”.

The Association of Colleges has previously called for inspections to be delayed until 2021.

 

All systems go: the virtual open day has arrived

FE Week spoke to a handful of colleges that have cancelled their traditional summer open days and already started to advertise an online alternative

’Tis the season for the traditional college open day, a chance for prospective students to visit campuses, chat with lecturers and ultimately choose their place of study for the next academic year.

But the unprecedented nationwide lockdown because of the Covid-19 outbreak has seen nearly all open days postponed until further notice.

Colleges have, as a result, got creative to ensure these vital events go ahead in some form or other.

Software and social media, such as Zoom, Facebook and Microsoft Teams, are all being utilised to conduct the open days virtually.

Live video tours of campuses, one-to-one chats via messengers with lecturers, and telephone enrolments are all replacing physical visits.

City College Plymouth told FE Week it has opted for the Zoom video platform to host around 150 students aged 15 to 18 in real-time on April 25, from 10am to 5.15pm.

Head of marketing Louise Greenleaf said even though their campus is closed for visitors due to the lockdown, “we know that this is still a critical time for year 11s and their parents to consider post-16 options, so it’s crucial that we enable them to find out about the courses on offer and check out our facilities”.

Those who sign up will be able to choose from ten 30-minute sessions tailored for a range of courses, including apprenticeships, from hair and beauty to construction.

Once they choose a session they will be met with a two-minute intro from the session’s “host” – a member of staff working in that area – who will talk through the college’s key stats.

A 15-minute faculty talk will follow, which will be conducted while a member of the marketing team tours around campus to show the facilities on another livestream viewed on the same Zoom window.

Relevant employers, including representatives from engineering firms, the local police and NHS Trust, will then give a three-minute talk before finishing with a ten-minute Q&A.

Around 60 staff will be “speakers” throughout the event.

Meanwhile, at South Devon College during the week commencing May 4, 16 webinars will be broadcast using the Microsoft Teams platform, which students can join securely via a link and use to ask questions live.

The individual 30-minute sessions, each led by two members of curriculum staff, will include all the different subject areas available, how to apply for a course, finance, travel and learning support that is on offer.

They will all be recorded and available to watch back on the college website for students who can’t tune in at the time.

Laurence Frewin, principal of South Devon College, told FE Week that the webinar experience will involve “course-specific information talked through by our experienced and knowledgeable tutors”.

“This will include some visual elements – images and videos – to give participants an idea of the college campus and facilities as well as what college life is like, while they are unable to visit in person,” he explained.

“Our Helpzone Team will then cover some of the important questions asked at our open days, including what support is available for students both with their learning, their finances and their pastoral care.”

Prospective students taking part in the sessions at City College Plymouth and South Devon College will be given the option of signing up to a course on the day via phone, or given the details of their admissions teams to contact at a later date.

Bath College is set to hold its first virtual open day on May 14, and will use bespoke software currently being created by its developers on its website.

Students who sign up will be invited to click on a link that logs them on to the system, where they can listen to a choice of seven pre-recorded webinars and talks, based on topics that include welfare, apprenticeships and higher education and are each around three to four minutes long.

Students can alternatively go to live webchats with the lecturing team for a specific course to ask questions.

Jon Domaille, assistant principal for learner journey and customer relations at Bath College, described open events as “massively critical” and said it is “really vital” to keep them going in some form during lockdown.

“It is an incredibly uncertain time for students at the moment, so this is about us being able to show them that no matter what is happening, we are there for them,” he told FE Week.

“Primarily, over the past few weeks everyone has been using technology to work, speak to family and friends, so from our perspective why shouldn’t technology be used to connect and inspire prospective students?

“They need to build up a picture as to what the subjects are about, what the environment is and who they potentially will be working with. A web or paper prospectus wouldn’t do that alone.”

While the college is embarking into “unknown territory”, if the May 14 virtual open event proves a success, it could be something that the college runs even when it goes back to work properly.

East Riding College has opted to make use of Facebook as the home of its online open events and is hosting a number this month and in June, each lasting around three hours.

Students will be able to take virtual tours of the campus, view 360-degree photos of the teaching rooms, workshops and other facilities and watch video messages from key staff.

In addition, tutors will be online to answer any questions via the social network’s messenger service.

Neil Waterhouse, executive director for commercial and finance at East Riding College, explained: “Often the most useful part of their visit is getting the chance to speak to teaching staff on a one-to-one basis, and that opportunity can be provided online instead of face to face.

“In place of campus tours, visitors can take virtual tours of parts of the campus, and view 360-degree photos of the facilities. The team are also on hand to answer queries about other support available, such as free bus travel and student finance.”

Just like at a real-life event, the marketing team will be on hand to direct “visitors” to the right member of staff.

Sunderland College, Northumberland College and Hartlepool Sixth Form, which together form the Education Partnership North East (NPNE), are offering similar virtual open days to East Riding, but they will direct prospective students to a dedicated page on their website that will offer live chats, instead of using Facebook.

They also include 360-degree video tours of campuses, while those interested in securing their place on the day will be able to do so instantly via an application fast-track service.

Staff will ring visitors if they would prefer to speak over the phone.

Ellen Thinnesen, chief executive of NPNE, said the events are aimed to “enable prospective students to engage with the college when a physical event was not possible”.

“The marketing team operate a live chat ‘switchboard’ to manage and transfer chats to key curriculum areas and specialist support staff,” she explained.

“Curriculum staff are available throughout the event to log into Live Chat and pick up transferred chats from marketing.”

Thinnesen told FE Week the first took place at Northumberland College on March 31, where almost 250 students participated, followed by one at Hartlepool Sixth Form on April 2, which generated 81 visitors.

DfE reveals provider criteria for accessing supplier relief

Training providers must have a qualification achievement rate for 2018/19 of above 40 per cent to be eligible for the Department for Education’s supplier relief support.

They must have also submitted their latest financial accounts to the Education and Skills Fundiing Agency “on time” and not been judged by Ofsted as making ‘insufficient progress’ as a result of a new provider monitoring visit.

And if a provider wants to receive the supplier relief but has already furloughed staff, they must unfurlough them to be eligible.

The criteria was revealed by the DfE this afternoon. They have given providers just six days to submit their applications, with a closing date of 30 April.

Apprenticeships and skills minister Gillian Keegan said: “We recognise the significant challenge continuing to deliver training at this time presents.

“Our provider relief scheme will offer additional financial support so we can continue to deliver the best education and training possible. I would urge all eligible providers to apply.”

To be eligible to receive support from the scheme providers must hold a direct contract that was procured as a service under Public Contract Regulations 2015, the department said.

This applies to apprenticeship contracts for services that commenced in January 2018, for delivery to non-levy employers, and adult education budget contracts for services that commenced in November 2017.

As revealed by FE Week on Tuesday, over 1,000 providers that only train levy-funded apprentices are not eligible.

Any non-levy apprenticeships funded through the government’s digital system are also barred from the support.

The DfE said it is “not yet able to confirm our position around providing support for learning funded through European Social Fund co-financing contracts” as this is a “domestic” funding stream and “we therefore need to agree our approach with the ESF Managing Authority”.

The department will calculate a “funding cap” for each provider requesting support from the scheme, which will be “applied to the amount requested by the provider”.

The cap will be based on a three-month average using their individualised learner record submission for January, February and March 2020.

Existing maximum contract values (MCV) continue to apply and the providers funding cap “cannot exceed 25 per cent of the MCV even where the average earnings exceed this”.

The relief scheme will apply to activity undertaken in April, May and June and paid in the subsequent month.

Funding through this scheme will be paid “on top of the regular payment claimed via the ILR and the “total of the two payments will not exceed the provider’s funding cap”.

Providers will need to demonstrate that they have a “need for the funding requested in order to maintain capacity within their organisations to support learners and respond to the economic recovery”.

If successful, they will need to provide a “summary of how the support funding has been used, and you must retain evidence for audit purposes that this has been used for eligible costs” and the DfE “reserves the right to recover unused funds or funds used inappropriately”.

Here is the other criteria that providers will need to meet to be eligible in full:

  • 2018 to 2019 qualification achievement rates which are above 40 per cent. However, providers with rates below that can submit an exceptional case that they are a critical supplier delivering niche provision
  • submitted their latest financial accounts to ESFA on time
  • not been judged by Ofsted as making insufficient progress as a result of a new provider monitoring visit
  • delivered under the contract prior to April 2020
  • plan to deliver learning under the contract in May and June 2020
  • not furloughed the staff required to deliver the contract (or they intend to bring furloughed staff back into work and can evidence this)
  • not received a notice of termination from the ESFA

There are 66 providers with a national achievement rate for apprenticeships of below 40 per cent for 2018/19, according to DfE data.

A further 27 have untrustworthy achievement rates, according to the department’s transparency data. The DfE told FE Week that these providers can still apply for supplier relief.

Association of Employment and Learning Providers chief executive Mark Dawe said the announcement is an “important step in the right direction but we’re not even halfway there if this is about protecting the livelihoods of existing apprentices and disadvantaged young people on traineeships and study programmes”.

“Today’s announcement, while welcome, does not offer financial support for independent training providers and colleges training over half of the 628,000 apprentices who were on an apprenticeship programme when the pandemic started, he added.

“This is because the Department for Education is claiming that the Cabinet Office supplier relief guidance doesn’t apply in respect of apprentices who are employed by organisations paying the apprenticeship levy. 

“Our initial legal advice is that this claim is discriminatory against the apprentices outside the scope of today’s package and there are strong grounds for a challenge, but AELP shouldn’t have to be going down this route.”

Dawe concluded: “While we don’t have an issue with the specific quality thresholds included in today’s package, the approach so far has reinforced the suspicions of AELP members that the DfE was originally seeking to use the pandemic as an excuse to reduce through a lack of financial support the number of independent training providers operating in the apprenticeship market.”

Can providers furlough staff and receive ESFA supplier relief?

Staff that have been furloughed by training providers must return to work if they want to receive supplier relief from the Department for Education.

Guidance released this afternoon confirmed that providers are not eligible for the support if they are using the government’s coronavirus job retention scheme, as this would be double funding.

The DfE has said that providers can however apply to their relief scheme if it is “your intention to  take staff off furlough to deliver the contract”.

The guidance says: “When a furloughed employee returns to work, they must be taken off furlough. For the purposes of the relief scheme this means that any employee who will be involved in the delivery of activity described in your application and which you include as an eligible cost must be withdrawn from any claim for furlough when they return to work.

“All employees engaged in the delivery of the activity covered by the relief scheme must be paid by you in accordance with their agreed contract of employment.”

The DfE added that it “reserves the right” to check a provider’s records submitted to HMRC and “recover any funds for staff costs where those employees have been reported as being furloughed”.

Cabinet Office rules for its job retention scheme makes clear that providers aren’t meant to put staff on furlough in areas getting supplier relief.

“Suppliers cannot be paid in full under the contract and claim for some or all of the same employees working on the contract under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS),” it states.

“This is not only a double funding issue, but staff being recompensed under the CJRS would not be able to work.

“Suppliers must ensure that all of the parts of the workforce identified to deliver the contract in full are not furloughed during this period (under CJRS) because the supplier is receiving the continuity and retention payment.”

The deadline for the DfE’s relief scheme is 30 April – which gives providers just six days to apply.

Revealed: Government list of apprenticeships given green light for online assessment

A list of 70 apprenticeship standards where permission has been granted to carry out end-point assessments remotely during the coronavirus pandemic has been released.

It includes the likes the level 3 bus and coach engineering technician, the level 3 gas network craftsperson and the level 5 marine pilot (in full below).

The Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education, which published the list, said “temporary discretions or other flexibilities” have been agreed for the standards by its own officials or external quality assurance providers.

It does not detail what the flexibilities include, but writing in FE Week last week, the institute’s chief operating officer Rob Nitsch said: “Our guidance provides considerable flexibility that enables end-point assessment organisations to deliver end-point assessment more innovatively – for example, using technology to conduct observations or professional discussions remotely; and increasingly using remote proctoring technology to invigilate tests remotely.

“It is also possible to reorder assessment methods so that written tests or professional discussions can be taken now and the observation delivered later. This is, for example, the approach that has been agreed for the motor vehicle service and maintenance technician standard.”

The IfATE said it is continuing to work with EQA providers to confirm where other standards require such measures, and as these are confirmed “we will update this table to reflect the latest position”.

 

Full list of standards where EPA flexibilities have been agreed so far:

Accountancy/taxation professional

Actuarial technician

Associate project manager

Animal care and welfare assistant

Business administrator

Bus and coach engineering technician

Chartered manager (degree)

Commercial procurement and supply (formerly Public sector commercial professional)

Community sport and health officer

Custody and detention officer

Cyber intrusion analyst

Cyber security technologist

Data analyst

Digital marketer

Digital support technician

Electrical / electronic technical support engineer (degree)

Emergency services contact handler

Engineering construction pipefitter

Engineering design and draughtsperson

Equine groom

Express delivery operative

Financial adviser

Financial services customer adviser

Financial services professional

Furniture manufacturer

Gas network craftsperson

Healthcare science practitioner (degree)

Healthcare support worker

Heavy vehicle service and maintenance technician

Hospitality manager

Improvement practitioner

Infrastructure technician

Insurance practitioner

Insurance professional

IS Business Analyst

Junior estate agent

Land-based service engineer

Leisure duty manager

Maintenance and operations engineering technician

Marine pilot

Marketing executive

Marketing manager

Metal recycling operative

Motor vehicle service and maintenance technician (light vehicle)

Nursing associate

Operations departmental manager

Product design and development engineer (degree)

Professional accounting/taxation technician

Property maintenance operative

Public service operational delivery officer

Recruitment Consultant

Recruitment Resourcer

Registered nurse

Relationship Manager (Banking)

Retail manager

Retail team leader

Senior compliance / risk specialist

Senior equine groom

Senior healthcare support worker

Senior investment / commercial banking professional

Software developer

Stockperson (beef, pigs, sheep, dairy)

Supply chain practioner

Teacher

Team leader / supervisor

Travel consultant

Utilities Engineering Technicians

Unified communications technician

Water process technician

Workplace pensions

DfE scraps annual FE learner satisfaction survey

The annual FE learner satisfaction survey has been axed for 2019/20 due to the Covid-19 outbreak.

The decision was taken by the Department for Education mid-survey – as providers began gathering views (predominantly via an online survey) from 9 March and had until 26 June.

“As the demand increases for statistics and data to measure the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Department for Education has had to change its data gathering and release practices, focussing efforts on priority analysis and statistics,” it said in a statement about their FE Choices learner satisfaction survey.

“The department considers it an ethical imperative to reduce the impact and burden on the public during this crisis, notwithstanding the increased likelihood of shifting priorities, reduced response rates, and potentially skewed outcomes.”

A total of 345,174 learners took part in the survey last year.

The announcement comes after the annual employer satisfaction survey was also cancelled – a decision which was taken in December.

There was no reason given for scrapping the employer survey. The DfE only said that FE providers who provide apprenticeships should “encourage their employer partners to complete the real time ‘provide feedback’ when they receive an invite from the apprenticeship service”.

The DfE said that it will inform providers of the launch of the learner satisfaction survey for 2020/21 “when a new date has been agreed”.

There’s a new breed of college in town, as we learn to adapt

The pandemic is forcing us to adopt new ways of working, and if we remain flexible, we have much to learn from the emergency procedures we have had to put in place, writes Paul Phillips.

A great tidal wave of change is leaving no part of our sector untouched, and those who are found to be too unyielding will snap. Like so many reeds in its path, the key to success is flexibility. For example, I always thought I was an accessible principal, but my newly acquired skills in digital communication have opened up new avenues.

Meanwhile, my staff have gone above and beyond looking for new openings every time a door closes.

Life’s entrepreneurs are emerging from all areas of the college, and the best testament to that is that learners from local academies want to join our online provision.

Weston College is relatively unique in its composition, so we spin a lot of plates. Frankly, it makes life difficult from a training offer perspective, but it is a good insurance if one plate breaks, which is sadly inevitable.

Our planning uses a multifactorial set of indices, including an almost pick-and-mix approach for learners and employers. That’s why, on top of transforming and sustaining our provision, we are also able to deliver vital training and resources to help the NHS, and why many of our staff and learners (many of them young apprentices) are able to be on the frontline delivering desperately needed health and social care support.

As a sector, we are more than used to managing crises

The question on everyone’s minds is what we’re going to do when we reopen. We are already on to that, and we have gone back to grassroots to plan. There is inevitable change ahead, and while the current period is no walk in the park, the near future will not be a time for the fainthearted.

Before my career in colleges, I ran hotels, NHS research and businesses, and I have learned that planning strategically is always about starting with a blank sheet of paper, analysing the benchmark issues and making your desired destination explicit. For now, planning through the impacts of Covid-19 is more reminiscent of those cookery programmes where you are given a couple of ingredients and asked to concoct something special in record time. But the stakes are high, and we shouldn’t underestimate the mental health impacts, both of our immediate situation and as we return and readapt to a new era for FE.

As a sector, we are more than used to managing crises, delivering against all odds and taking calculated risks. That’s why I am sure we will survive this.

But Covid-19 is not an excuse for finding ourselves in a difficult situation: it is the catalyst for change. Of course, there will be a tendency to blame the pandemic for not achieving some targets.

For example, I don’t think we will hit target on 16-to-19 this year, simply because our NEET and traineeship provision has been hit.

But equally, our adult provision is doing very well out of the expansion of distance learning, and we’ve already noticed healthy green shoots of success in our digital mindshift. Moreover, recognition of the potential of a new digital college is impacting other key issues: minimising bureaucracy, producing succinct remote solutions for teaching and learning, and a more in-depth questioning of work-life balance.

Could this lateral thinking also engender change with funding and quality regimes?

When I first came to the college, self-belief was at a low ebb. A few years later, one of my team commented that I had instituted change by “dragging them into a new era”. This time, all together, we are riding a tsunami of change. Of course there is trepidation and excitement in response, but if you take the time to notice it, a lot of creativity too.

When the wave rolls back, we will find there’s a whole new breed of digital college in town – more flexible and more robust, more community-centred and more self-assured. Because nothing, least of all a virus, should threaten our responsibility to deliver outstanding teaching and learning.