Edtech specialist puts expertise to good use to support sector through COVID-19 pandemic

Since 2005, Skills Forward has been pioneering new ways of working for the education and skills sector; enabling digital delivery of skills assessments for colleges, training providers and organisations, and supporting the sector through periods of great change.

As the business celebrates its 15th anniversary in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, Skills Forward is putting its years of expertise and innovative range of edtech solutions to good use to support learners and apprentices during this challenging time.

Whilst the long-term implications of COVID-19 on the sector and the wider economy are as yet unclear, Skills Forward is supporting education providers in the short term with its eLearning solutions.

With face to face delivery next to impossible in the present climate, many training providers are worried about their funding and the future of their apprenticeship programmes and apprentices. 

Skills Forward, which operates as part of the not-for-profit NCFE Group, has been supporting its customers to stay online and on track by scaling up their eLearning activities. Using software such Skills Portfolio, an e-portfolio application to support and evidence online delivery, apprentices have been able to continue their training remotely.

“We have always aimed to respond to the needs of the sector and stay ahead of the curve, diversifying our offer wherever necessary as part of our commitment to our core purpose to promote and advance learning,” said Dan Howard, Managing Director at Skills Forward.

Managing Director, Dan Howard (front centre) with the Skills Forward team at their Mansfield headquarters.

“We are all collectively facing the new challenge of coronavirus, and now is the time to pull together and support each other as a sector and ensure the futures of the learners who will be impacted. Where we can use our expertise as an eLearning provider to help learners stay on track and providers to stay afloat, we’re more than happy to do so.”

One such customer is SD Consultancy, a training provider based in the Scottish Borders which has been adapting to the new requirements of the coronavirus pandemic with the support of Skills Forward.

Sarah Dalrymple, Director at SDConsultancy commented: “We have been using Skills Portfolio for a few years now and the more we work with the software, the more we appreciate its value and importance in the work that we do. It is easily accessible, easy to use and is fit for purpose.

“As we went into lockdown for COVID-19, it was really important to us to continue to support our apprentices and candidates and we were delighted to be able to continue to work with them using Skills Portfolio. A lot of work can be done remotely and we have worked closely with a large number of our candidates to ensure their progress is supported and their learning and development continues.

“We are delighted with how it works for us and our candidates, and although we definitely cannot say that it is ‘business as usual’, we can most certainly say that we are offering comprehensive support through Skills Portfolio.”

“In everything that we do at Skills Forward, our learners come first. We are driven by the individual successes of the people who use our learning platforms and access our curriculum and feel incredibly privileged that we get to play a part, however small, in shaping a person’s future,” Dan added.

“Ensuring that apprentices can continue to receive teaching means that we are supporting training providers to access their funding to remain operative. Training providers are a vital part of the skills system and will be integral, alongside apprentices, as we rebuild our economy. We’re especially proud to champion eLearning and the capabilities of online delivery.”

Skills Forward has come a long way in the last 15 years. Launched in 2005 as ‘For Skills’, the company has grown exponentially and now employs over 30 people at its offices in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire and Houghton-le-Spring near Sunderland.

With a customer base spanning FE colleges, private training providers and some of the UK’s biggest employers including British Airways, Tesco and the Royal Navy, in the last year alone, Skills Forward provided over 2.9 million assessments to the post-16 employability and skills sector and daily sees over 18,000 learners logging in to its systems.

To find out more, visit www.skillsforward.co.uk.

Minister explains ‘anomaly’ leaving majority of apprenticeships ineligible for ESFA supplier relief

The majority of apprenticeship providers are not eligible for supplier relief from the Department for Education because of the Cabinet Office’s “very specific” policy notice, according to Gillian Keegan.

The apprenticeships and skills minister described the support as an “anomaly” and said her team worked closely with Treasury to see what parts of the FE sector could use the coronavirus supplier relief scheme.

When asked during an FE Week webcast yesterday why apprenticeships funded through the DfE’s digital system, mostly those with large levy-paying employers, are excluded, she said: “The only exception [to support from the coronavirus business interruption and job retention schemes] has been, and I suppose this is an anomaly, the Cabinet Office notice – where there are direct government relations for critical suppliers, that there is a little bit more flexibility added to those people that qualify for that.

“I will be honest it did take us a little bit of time to come out with this. That was because the original purpose of that Cabinet Office notice was actually more for critical suppliers to government in terms of direct services to government, so people maybe operating prison services and all that kind of thing.

“So we had to work with Cabinet Office and Treasury to see if it related to this sector and that is what resulted in that guidance on Friday. It really is only for those covered under that very specific Cabinet Office notice PPN 02/20.

“You need to look at this as quite specific, quite special under this Cabinet Office notice that has allowed a bit of extra support that goes to those where it has more of an impact, on small and medium sized business apprenticeships and providers.”

In a letter to all MPs reported by FE Week earlier this month, Keegan had said the supplier relief “does not apply in relation to apprenticeships funded from employer digital accounts” because “the contractual relationship is between the employer and the provider.”

Keegan stopped short on the webcast of expanding on the contractual issue, which many in the sector have queried and the Association of Employment and Learning Providers is seeking legal advice over.

FE Week analysis shows that of the 198,632 apprenticeship starts in the first six months of 2019/20, around two thirds of the provision would be ineligible for supplier relief.

The minister said the “only thing we could have done to include everybody the same was to leave it as it was and to have no supplier relief scheme”.

“That would be in line with every other business across the country,” she added.

“Saying we will come up for an exception for this sector which means they have all their income protected over and above what they are not delivering is not actually very fair to the rest of the businesses in the economy, is probably what the Treasury would say to us.

“This is something this sector is getting over and above most other sectors in the country.”

Keegan explained that she has spent a lot of time talking to other businesses that have had their income “completely turned off 100 per cent overnight” and they are “understandably looking for some kind of additional help because we have in many cases put a handbrake on sectors of our economy”.

She said the FE sector “is not really in that position” and there “is a way to continue to earn money if you can continue to deliver the services online to apprentices”.

“In a way there is some extra relief being afford to this sector that hasn’t been afforded to other sectors. They have access to 100 per cent of revenue if they can provide 100 per cent online.”

Keegan claimed to have spoken to many different providers and she has “not actually spoken to one that has said they have not been able to switch anything online”.

“I am sure they exist but there is not many of them.”

She admitted her “biggest worry” is the recruitment of new apprentices and “how to keep the whole pipeline going with all this uncertainty”.

Young people’s skills vital to recovering from the post-COVID-19 recession

The forecast recession looks likely to hit young people the hardest, but investing in their skills is key to recovery. Neil Bentley-Gockmann sets out three ways his organisation is leading the charge

It is an understatement to say that these are tough and uncertain times for us all. And for young people looking to get their first step on the career ladder, the outlook is particularly challenging. Many have had their education and training unavoidably disrupted at a point in their lives when they should be finding their feet, working out what to do next and thinking about their career direction.

However, we know that crucial to rebuilding the UK economy will be highly skilled, motivated young people. That is why, alongside working to attract more inward investment by tackling slow productivity growth, adopting new technology and plugging our skills gaps, we must stay focused on supporting the next generation so that they can play an active role in our economic recovery and see a better future.  

We should reset the dialogue on the importance of skills for the recovery

The government is working hard to protect employment against the COVID-19 crisis, but a recession is forecast and research reports this month from The Learning and Work Institute, The Resolution Foundation and Youth Futures Foundation have shown that its impacts will affect young people disproportionately. This analysis has helped us focus on three ways that we can best help to support nearly 200,000 young women and men in the coming months.

Firstly, we are increasing our online support for thousands of young people who are going through our national and international skills competitions’ training programmes. We will continue to develop their skillset and mindset to the highest possible levels so they can build their confidence and potential. Working with our National Competition partners, we will deliver online assessments to help students and apprentices compete virtually in our skills competitions to enhance their current training.  We are delivering remote training to our Squad UK members who are preparing for international competition.  By delivering our training programmes online, we are ensuring young people can continue to develop their skillset and mindset to the highest possible levels so they can build their confidence and potential.   

Secondly, we are increasing our online careers advice and guidance for thousands of young people not yet in work – who are in school or college – to help them make more informed choices about their next steps.  We are aiming to engage 35,000 students through our toolkits and will be targeting resources at schools and colleges in disadvantaged areas to ensure we are engaging those who are hardest to reach. By deploying more online careers advice models – our alumni network of highly skilled individuals, who have achieved success in their careers, we will be increasing our efforts to encourage young women and men to make career choices that challenge gender stereotypes, and support more young people who are BAME, identify as LGBT+ or have a learning disability to take up apprenticeships and technical career routes. 

Thirdly, we are drawing on the expertise of our established network of 1900 partners across the UK – including hundreds of colleges, training providers and employers, sector skills bodies and organisations like NCFE, National Careers Service, Youth Employment UK, Education and Employers and the Careers & Enterprise Company – to ensure our outreach has maximum impact. And together we will continue to explore ways to power the development of a world-leading technical education sector through global benchmarking and bringing international best practice back to the UK. Through the new WorldSkills UK Centre of Excellence, in partnership with NCFE, we will work with college partners to help mainstream world-class standards in skills development to help thousands of young people achieve higher standards and boost their potential.

As the public health and economic context evolves, we will work with our partners to prepare for a skills-led recovery and the development of a “skills economy” which rightly values high-quality apprenticeships and technical education routes for all young people. The significance of workers in public and other essential services – many of whom are trained in our skills system – is shining a bright light on the value of skilled work. And as we all adapt to new ways of living and working, we should hit the control-alt-delete buttons to help us reset the dialogue on the importance of skills for the recovery, the country and the future of the next generation.

The young people we support today with advice, knowledge and skills, will be the workforce of tomorrow helping employers lead the charge towards recovery and economic growth for the prosperity of all. That’s why investing in young people now is crucial. Because when young people succeed, we all succeed.

‘Staggering’: DfE to stop the monthly publication of apprenticeship starts

The Department for Education has been criticised for its “staggering” decision to scrap all in-year apprenticeship data releases.

Officials announced today that they will stop publishing their monthly apprenticeship starts figures from May until further notice.

It means that the sector will be temporarily prevented from seeing the impact the Covid-19 outbreak is having on recruitment numbers, which are expected to fall sharply.

This looks to me like an attempt to bury bad news

The DfE said it still expects to publish the end of year release to show these figures in November.

Toby Perkins, Labour’s new shadow minister for apprenticeships and skills, told FE Week it is “alarming that the Education and Skills Funding Agency is suggesting that the means of monitoring the impact on apprenticeship numbers will be removed”.

He was also baffled as to why the government’s announcement says the decision to axe the data releases have been made, only to then go on to say they are “consulting on it”.

Perkins said he will now be contacting the DfE to understand what current difficulties prevent them from continuing to publish this information.

He will also be “urging” them to “seek ways to ensure that this important information continues to be available so that government can properly target any measures they take to address any shortfalls”.

Mark Dawe, the chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, described the DfE’s decision as “staggering”.

“How can informed decisions be made if the government is not being transparent about the data?” he said.

“The DfE says that it is focusing on ‘priority analysis and statistics’ but apparently apprenticeship starts falling off a cliff aren’t a priority.”

Dawe pointed out that the department sees the level of levy-funded starts on the digital apprenticeship service in real time, and questioned why they can’t share those.

“They also routinely collect data from providers for all apprenticeship starts and completions and therefore we can’t imagine why it is hard to at least publish the headline totals for these,” he added.

“We all know that the situation is very serious, but if this an attempt to hide how bad it is, then it will further erode trust with the sector.”

The DfE’s move has also attracted criticism from a former deputy director of the then Skills Funding Agency.

Tony Allen, who is now the owner of consultancy firm Allen Apprenticeships and Skills, told FE Week the system to produce apprenticeships starts data is “very automated, so I do not see why it could not continue from a use of personnel viewpoint”.

He added that this looks to him like an “attempt to bury bad news, and I wonder if it is linked to the paucity of support from the government for apprenticeship training providers”.

“Is there a concern, over the next three or four months in particular, that they are worried that by producing data that shows especially that new starts have dropped significantly (as opposed to those still on the programme), pressure will mount for more financial support, especially for levy funded providers?” Allen said.

“What better way of hiding the real position than by turning off the reporting of data?”

The DfE’s only reason for cancelling the data releases was this: “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.”

Their announcement said they will publish the end of year releases normally published in November, “but we are cancelling the remaining in year dates which will enable us to provide an additional release with more relevant information to cover the period affected by the pandemic at some point during the year”.

Toby Perkins

The DfE confirmed that April’s apprenticeship stats release, due on Thursday, is still going ahead but will only include starts up to the end of February.

Despite making it clear that future stats releases have already been canned, the DfE has asked for views on the decision to be emailed to FE.OFFICIALSTATISTICS@education.gov.uk.

A DfE spokesperson insisted that it is “simply wrong to suggest we have cancelled the publication of apprenticeship figures”.

“We will continue to publish headline statistics, including on apprenticeship starts, just not on the previously advertised dates,” she added.

“This is a temporary measure in response to the coronavirus pandemic, and during this period we will continue to publish the end-of-year releases as normal, allowing a fuller picture of the period affected by the pandemic.”

The spokesperson added that the department “recognises the importance of this data” but the “impact of the coronavirus creates challenges in quality assurance, particularly while colleges are largely closed and we have left collections open on a voluntary basis to reduce burden”.

“Temporarily pausing the scheduled in-year release dates allows us more time to quality assure data, and to ensure that information published remains high quality and includes any additional information that will help to monitor and explain what has happened to apprenticeship numbers during this unprecedented time.”

Free recording: In conversation with apprenticeships minister Gillian Keegan

FE Week was joined by apprenticeships minister Gillian Keegan this afternoon for our latest webinar on the response to the coronavirus pandemic for the FE and skills sector.

Editor Nick Linford quizzed her on the Department for Education’s supplier relief support and discussed other hot topics such as Ofqual’s latest guidance on grading vocational and technical qualifications this summer.

Peter Mucklow, the director of further education at the Education and Skills Funding Agency, also spoke during the session.

You can watch it back for free by clicking here and download the slides here.

These webcasts will take place every Monday at 14:00-15:30 for the next six weeks. Register for them here.

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.