GE2019: A chance to transform colleges

This election comes at a critical time for further education, writes Ian Pretty. We must press for a commitment to transform the sector that goes well beyond simple funding promises.

There is little doubt that this general election promises to be among the most unpredictable in modern history. We cannot with any degree of certainty predict what the result will be, but it is evident from the pronouncements of the major political parties that significant public sector investment is on the table.

Increased investment across public services is no doubt welcome, but amongst all the commitments and spending pledges, it will be crucial not to overlook further education. There have been positive developments in recent months with the announcement that the Government would increase the 16-18 base rate, but there is little doubt that the further education sector needs a period of significant and sustained investment that goes beyond these welcome, but modest, increases. FE has had to confront many challenges in its recent history, and yet has continued to provide life-changing opportunities to people across the UK.

This general election is a chance to remind politicians and policymakers about the vast contribution that colleges make to the economy, but we believe that there are four critical areas where change is needed, which we will be addressing during this general election campaign. These issues include:

  • Ensuring lifelong learning is available to all
  • Promoting pathways and progression route for all young people
  • Colleges equipped with state-of-the-art facilities
  • Widening access to apprenticeships

We will articulate further education’s relevance to a broader set of concerns

What we observe is that the changes needed in the sector do involve financial investment, but there are also a significant number of non-monetary changes that could be just as important. The challenges that are being faced by colleges relate as much to the regulatory environment and the rigidity of some aspects of the current system as they do to the well-documented problems of systemic underfunding.

This is undoubtedly a crucial time for our country, but it is also a critical time for further education. Throughout the general election campaign, we will be expanding on some of the policy changes that we think need to occur to ensure that further education can build and expand on the underpinning role it plays in supporting people across the UK. For colleges to be adequately supported we need to rebalance the apprenticeship system to ensure that apprenticeships are available to all; we need to ensure there are more opportunities for adults to access education and training; and we need to ensure that colleges have the funds to invest in the latest buildings, equipment and facilities.

But in addition to talking about where things need to change, we also want to highlight and celebrate the impact that colleges are having by serving communities. During the campaign, we will publish a document highlighting the fantastic partnerships that colleges have developed with employers and how they are working to raise the aspirations of individuals, as well as supporting employers to get access to the talent and skills that they need. We will also aim to articulate further education’s relevance to a broader set of issues and concerns, such as the underpinning role that colleges play in improving social mobility and how FE powers the workforce of major industries including construction, healthcare and digital.

We hope to use this general election campaign to showcase the great work that is created in colleges and how they can be empowered to facilitate opportunities across all parts of the UK.

Workers told to repay thousands for construction course they ‘did not take’

Grzegorz Bogdanski is being forced by the government to repay a £5,421 loan for an FE course he claimed he never started, or even realised that he had signed up for.

The 34-year-old construction worker said that all those involved have “washed their hands” of his case and described the Department for Education (DfE) as “the biggest disappointment” in the saga because of its lack of oversight over training providers.

Bogdanski is not alone. An investigation by FE Week has found that alleged victims of an advanced learner loans scandal are still being told that they must repay their debts, despite new regulations which give the education secretary power to clear them when their provider goes bust.

In June, in the wake of FE Week’s #SaveOurAdultEducation campaign, the DfE announced new legislation that would allow the government to cancel all or part of an advanced learner loan for those left in debt if their provider folded. This was to take effect from 1 July 2019.

However, the Student Loans Company (SLC) has confirmed that Bogdanski is still liable to pay his loan back as “records show that the learning provider confirmed his attendance on the course”.

FE Week has spoken to 12 other Southampton-based Polish building and construction workers who also claim that they have loans due for courses they did not complete with Edudo Ltd, which later collapsed. They said they plan to hire a lawyer and go to court over the payments.

Edudo Ltd was paid as a subcontractor by West London College, which held the contract with the Education and Skills Funding Agency.

Many of the victims claim that they had been sent “in circles” by authorities after receiving repeated requests to contact other institutions. 

“There was something wrong… it doesn’t feel right”

Several also question how it was so easy for Edudo to receive funding and to claim to have delivered their courses.

Bogdanski attended an information session hosted by Edudo and a construction agency, named by other alleged victims as their employer AB South Construction Ltd, which is now also dissolved, in March 2015.

Some of the other members of the group, including Blazej Zielinski, 33, and Radoslaw Michalowski, 42, also claimed that they went to one or two initial meetings with the provider and later received letters notifying them of their obligation to repay loans.

They said they were told to sign multiple forms during the sessions but Bogdanski denies personally submitting them to the SLC or authorising Edudo to do so.

“After a while I said there was something wrong with it, it doesn’t feel right. I had my intuition but it was too late,” he added. “We were really tricked.”

Zielinski told FE Week that he was suffering from stress because he has to pay back almost £6,000 “for nothing” and Michalowski also confirmed that he never attended, or was offered, any training.

“I’ve got three kids and a wife and that money is a big problem for me. Everyone [is] just closing eyes and their ears,” he added.

Meanwhile Pawel Klak, 41, claims that he had received assurances from Edudo that they would cancel his loan application after he asked to pull out shortly after attending two meetings.

Klak, who said he has already paid back almost two-thirds of his loan, described the process of trying to contact Edudo, West London College and the SLC as being “like tennis… [sent from] one side to another”.

But Tomasz Lentkiewicz, 38, told FE Week that he had never attended any meetings or had any contact about the course with the provider or the employment agency with which he was registered.

“I think that was some fraud. Probably they use[d] my details to get a loan in my name,” he said.

Bogdanski went on to criticise the government, West London College and the monitoring of subcontractors like Edudo.

“Everyone is just closing their eyes and their ears”

“I don’t understand why the government or the Student Loans Company didn’t check them correctly because this is some kind of scam,” he said.

“They grab the money… and just disappeared without supplying the service they were supposed to.”

The ESFA has now banned the subcontracting of advanced learner loans, but this came too late for the alleged victims of Eduado.

After Bogdanski attended a six-hour meeting in March 2015, during which he completed paperwork, he sent his passport to the SLC, under the impression that he was just checking he would qualify for the loan.

Bogdanski then received a letter detailing the summary of his loan for an NVQ in Wood Occupations in April 2015; a total of £5,421, the maximum for the course as set by the government, had been requested.

It listed West London College (at the time called Ealing, Hammersmith and West London College) as the training organisation and stated that his course would start later that month and end in July, but Bogdanski claims that he did not attend it.

A spokesperson from the SLC said: “SLC processes applications for student loans in accordance with the DfE’s policy and on information provided by customers and verified by learning providers.

“In this case Mr Bogdanski applied for funding on 28 March 2015 and we received a signed declaration form from him on 31 March 2015.”

The SLC was not able to comment on all of the other learners at the time of going to press. However, a spokesperson said it was “satisfied” that some of the alleged victims’ attendance had previously been confirmed.

West London College confirmed that it “had a subcontracting relationship with Edudo for a short period of time between March and July 2015”. The subcontract was “not renewed beyond that date”.

Hampshire-based Edudo Ltd, which was allocated £500,500 in advanced learner loans, sold its “assets and business” to Learning Republic Group Ltd in November 2016 and entered voluntary liquidation.

Former Edudo boss Ronan Smith is currently the only director listed at Companies House for Learning Republic Group.

Bogdanski claims that he kept calling Edudo before it collapsed but the firm just “seem[ed] to just dodge” his attempts to talk to Smith.

Learning Republic Group has not responded to requests for comment from FE Week.

A spokesperson from the SLC said: “SLC has advised Mr Bogdanski that any dispute over his attendance should be raised with the learning provider and the ESFA, who regulate the education and training sector and are accountable for the funding paid to FE institutions.”

Bogdanski and many of the other alleged victims claim to have contacted West London College and the ESFA many times over the past four years.

Bogdanski described being left without any help or alternatives to sort out the situation as “very shameful” and “frustrating”.

“Life was good… and wasn’t so good after”

He added: “It is just like banging your head against the wall to try to do something. Everybody just turns their backs and says sorry we can’t help you.”

Another alleged victim, Marcin Tryka, 38, claimed to have knowingly signed up for the loan after being offered a gold CSCS card (for which level 3 NVQs are required) through his employer AB South Construction, but Tryka alleged that contact from Edudo was cut off after one site visit.

He said it “looked dodgy” from the beginning after the representative of Edudo spoke to a group meeting through a translator and therefore must have known “even if [they] go through the whole process [most people] wouldn’t get it [the gold card] if they can’t speak two words of English”.

Tryka said the ordeal put him “in a stupid loop where I couldn’t get enough money to think about getting a card”, impacting on his employment opportunities.

“It has been four years…, I [still] can’t believe it happened. Life was good and wasn’t so good after.”

Lukasz Pacuk, 36, echoed Tryka’s claims but said an Edudo assessor told him that no more site visits were needed after the first and that he would receive his certificate.

He had originally been enrolled on the Level 2 NVQ in Wood Occupations (Site Carpentry Pathway) in 2014 before being changed to Level 3 NVQ in the same subject.

“Everything [was] very, very strange. They played a game with everyone.”

FE Week has seen copies of correspondence from Edudo confirming Pacuk’s enrolment on both courses from November 2014 and June 2016 respectively, as well as a partially filled-in Edudo course book and other paperwork.

After Edudo collapsed, Pacuk claimed that he called Learning Republic and the company sent him his portfolio in the post but told him that he would not be able to continue the course and would have to take out another loan.

FE Week was also contacted by six other people who also claim to have been “cheated” by Edudo: Rafal Wojcik, Hubert Kot, Dariusz Kowalczyk, Jacek Major, Roman Trela and Damian Nowak.

College fails to say if subcontractor was monitored

West London College, previously known as Ealing, Hammersmith and West London College, entered into a subcontracting relationship with Hampshire-based Edudo Ltd “for a short period of time between March and July 2015”.

The college received the advanced learner funding directly from the Student Loans Company, before charging a management fee to Edudo, the subcontractor, and then paying them to deliver the course.

Many of the victims were not aware that West London College was their prime training provider.

The then Skills Funding Agency’s Funding Rules 2014 to 2015 stated that “a regular and substantial programme of quality-assurance checks” must be carried out on subcontractors.

West London College did not comment on whether Edudo was monitored during the period of training provision.

In 2016 the SFA announced that subcontracting within the advanced learner loans programme would be banned for all providers from the start of the 2017 to include the 2018 funding year.

Karen Redhead, who took over as principal at West London College in September 2018, said: “We welcome the FE Week campaign to highlight the plight of learners that have been left with debt but without qualifications, due to training providers going into liquidation.”

After being provided with the details of several other victims who alleged they had contacted the college and were turned away, Redhead admitted she was aware of three former students who had contacted the college recently and that, due to the “wholesale and multiple turnover of managers at West London College since 2015”, staff are now “piecing together evidence”.

She added: “We have been in touch with the Student Loans Company to obtain further information to help us understand the situation and to consider the best resolution for affected learners.”

Redhead maintained that the college was “absolutely committed to working with relevant agencies and individuals to resolve all outstanding issues as swiftly as we can.

“I would therefore urge those affected to contact the principal’s office directly so we can look into their specific circumstances and achieve satisfactory and timely resolution.”

West London College previously also had a subcontracting arrangement for adult education budget funding with SCL Security Ltd, a firm later suspended from delivering new apprenticeship starts, in a deal worth £1.7 million in 2018/19.

At the time Redhead confirmed that the college did not subcontract to SCL Security for apprenticeships but had terminated the relationship as a result of FE Week’s investigation.

This week Ofsted announced that it will launch research into FE subcontracting, after Eileen Milner, chief executive of the Education and Skills Funding Agency, sent a sector-wide letter last month warning that the agency was still investigating cases where subcontracted provision was not “appropriately controlled, overseen or managed by the lead provider”.

Changes to subcontracting contracts, to be phased in from 1 August and 1 December 2019, also for the first time require a “list of individually itemised, specific costs for managing the subcontractor”.

TIMELINE OF EVENTS

March 2015: Grzegorz Bogdanski attended a meeting hosted by Edudo Ltd, after which he was signed up to an advanced learner loan allegedly without his consent.

January 2017: FE Week reported on 500 advance learner loans students being affected by John Frank Training going into liquidation in November 2016. The firm left no assets despite recording a profit of £1.3 million in the first half of 2016.

February 2017: FE Week launched the #SaveOurAdultEducation campaign in Parliament after speaking to many victims with thousands of pounds worth of debt but no qualifications after their training providers collapsed. FE Week also revealed Edudo Ltd went into voluntary liquidation this month.

April 2017: The Department for Education asked the SLC to defer loan repayments for affected learners during the April 2017 to March 2018 tax year.

April 2018: Repayments were deferred again for the 2018/2019 tax year.

July 2019: The DfE told FE Week that the government would be able to clear learners’ advanced learner loan debt when their provider goes bust from 1 July 2019. Individuals are assessed on a case-by-case basis and past students should not be required to make repayments while their cases are being considered. Students who may be in scope of the new policy should be contacted by DfE or the SLC.

October 2019: Asim Shaheen, an ex-learner at John Frank Training who could not complete his training after the firm went into liquidation in 2016, told FE Week he had received no communication regarding the write-off, nor has Bogdanski.

November 2019: FE Week reveals how loans learners are still being told to repay their loans despite never completing the course or achieving their qualification.

Ofsted watch: Inspectors find learners unaware they are on an apprenticeship

A new provider that has learners on its programme who did not even know they were apprentices overshadowed a ‘good’ week for FE, especially colleges.

Welcome Skills Limited received three ‘insufficient progress’ grades in an early monitoring report, with inspectors finding leaders do not “design or plan” programmes that enable its 329 apprentices to make good progress or gain substantial new skills and knowledge.

The provider became a prime contractor in June 2017 and began recruiting its first apprentices in January 2018 after previously offering hospitality training to the Asian restaurant sector as a subcontractor. It now offers the level 2 hospitality team member and production chef standards.

Ofsted said more experienced apprentices, such as restaurant owners, “complete the same programme over the same time as those newer to the industry”.

Not all apprentices were “aware” that they are on an apprenticeship programme. Others “do not know when their end-point assessments will take place or that they can achieve high grades”.

Ofsted noted that no apprentice had completed an apprenticeship so far at the London-based provider, even though the programme should last 12 months.

However, Welcome Skills Limited was praised for a “strong commitment” to reach young people from the Bangladeshi community who have low educational attainment and “redressing staff shortages and helping to professionalise the sector”.

In contrast, Gateway Sixth Form College was graded ‘good’ in every category this week following a full inspection after previously being rated ‘requires improvement’.

The Leicestershire college offers programmes from level 1 to level 3 to 1,214 students.

The inspectorate reported the large majority of students were “very happy” with the education they receive and many said staff “go beyond their expectations and provide extra help and support”.

It also stated a high proportion of students participate in useful work experience.

Teachers understand what students are likely to do after college, and they “help them to develop their study skills alongside relevant subject knowledge”.

Warrington and Vale Royal College also moved up to grade two from grade three, receiving ‘good’ in every theme assessed except apprenticeships, for which it was graded ‘requires improvement’.

The general further education college formed following a merger in August 2017.

It has 1,440 learners on education programmes for young people, 1,634 on adult learning programmes, 75 learners who have high needs and 743 apprentices.

The report said the range of courses on offer at the college meets “local and regional needs very well”.

Inspectors found an “inclusive learning environment,” with learners and apprentices benefiting from using industry-standard equipment and those with high or special educational needs or disabilities receiving “early help and individual support”.

Most learners and apprentices “quickly develop” new knowledge, skills and behaviours, which prepares them “well” for further study, employment or promotion at work.

Chadsgrove Educational Trust Learning Centre, an Independent Specialist College which was previously graded ‘requires improvement’, made ‘significant progress’ in one assessed theme in its monitoring visit and ‘reasonable progress’ in the other three.

The Bromsgrove-based centre, which opened to provide provision for young people with a physical disability and/or complex medical need, currently has 10 students on programme working at pre-entry level to level 1.

The education watchdog found managers and tutors ensure that learners make “positive progress in terms of their readiness to participate in the community and their own healthcare, developing independence and moving into adulthood” and have “clear and personalised targets” for improvement.

The report stated most learners are now motivated and engaged in learning but that tutors do not focus sufficiently on the development of literacy for adulthood.

Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council, an Adult and Community Learning provider, maintained its grade two rating following a full inspection.

Inspectors said the adults studying courses “delight” in learning new knowledge and skills.

“They are enthusiastic about their courses and how they are improving their chances of getting a job.”

All of the other providers that received early monitoring reports this week scored ‘reasonable progress’ across the board.

These were: Harriet Ellis Training Solutions, Learnmore Network Limited, One To One Support Services Limited, Springfield Training Limited and The MTC – Advanced Manufacturing Training Centre Limited.

Independent Learning Providers Inspected Published Grade Previous grade
Harriet Ellis Training Solutions 26/09/2019 04/11/2019 M N/A
Learnmore Network Limited 16/10/2019 04/11/2019 M N/A
One To One Support Services Limited 03/10/2019 08/11/2019 M N/A
Springfield Training Limited 03/10/2019 06/11/2019 M N/A
The MTC – Advanced Manufacturing
Training Centre Limited		 09/10/2019 05/11/2019 M N/A
Welcome Skills Limited 02/10/2019 08/11/2019 M N/A

 

Sixth Form Colleges (inc 16-19 academies) Inspected Published Grade Previous grade
Gateway Sixth Form College 11/10/2019 04/11/2019 2 3

 

Adult and Community Learning Inspected Published Grade Previous grade
Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council 11/10/2019 05/11/2019 2 2

 

Specialist colleges Inspected Published Grade Previous grade
Chadsgrove Educational Trust Learning Centre 16/10/2019 06/11/2019 M 3

 

General FE colleges Inspected Published Grade Previous grade
Warrington and Vale Royal College 11/10/2019 08/11/2019 2 3

Troubled Manchester sixth form college in merger rescue talks

Cheadle and Marple Sixth Form College is looking to merge with the Trafford College Group, after the former’s leaders were told it could not survive as a stand-alone.

The move, announced this afternoon, comes three days after a report by FE Commissioner Richard Atkins was published and said the sixth form college’s finances were now “terminal”.

It had already transferred half their apprentices to Trafford College by June.

Chair of Cheadle’s board Alison Hewitt said: “Our proximity to Trafford as well as the complementary provision means a potential merger would be extremely beneficial to students.”

The FE Commissioner’s report found Cheadle and Marple had generated “substantial” deficits since 2013/14, and said it was “unlikely” the college could continue alone.

Merging Trafford College Group and Cheadle and Marple Sixth Form College would create a single college group working across the existing college sites.

Trafford College already merged with Stockport College in April 2018, a move which required a £30 million bailout from the Department for Education.

Chair of Trafford’s board Graham Luccock said he was “delighted” to see how Cheadle and Trafford could work together.

According to him, initial discussions have already taken place.

Profile: Zamzam Ibrahim

Zamzam Ibrahim took over at the National Union of Students in turbulent times. But the new president is far from a stereotypical drum-banging student leader

Zamzam Ibrahim is burning the candle at both ends and illness forces her to cancel our first interview. But she valiantly battles through by phone from a London café a few days later – with the background noise and a crackly phone line doing little to dim her character and conviction in a startling 50-minute conversation.

It’s been a turbulent time for the National Union of Students, which Ibrahim has led since April. Faced with the union’s looming £3 million deficit, Shakira Martin, the former president, wrote a Facebook post saying she didn’t give “two s**ts” about local unions critical of her cost-cutting decisions and they could “f**k off” (the post has since been deleted).  Martin had taken over from Malia Bouattia, who left after calling her university a “Zionist outpost”. Both women were dogged by racist and sexist abuse on social media during their terms in office, Ibrahim watching it all during five years at the union, most recently as vice-president of society and citizenship. Further education needs all the champions it can get, so have students chosen the right leader to navigate the choppy political waters?

“We need to do much more about access to courses”

As we move through my questions, it seems they may have made a shrewd choice. I start off lightly, asking what her priorities are.

“We need to re-think education – the way we talk about education and the ability of students to progress into different schemes, to train and re-train. The way we access further education has been the same for a very long time. There aren’t that many provisions available. So we need to do much more about access to courses.”

For this reason she supports a national education service with its emphasis on lifelong learning. Her own experiences of post-16 education in Bolton have also made Ibrahim an advocate for parity of esteem of FE colleges with sixth forms. “Where I lived if you passed your GCSEs you went to the sixth-form college, like I did. If you failed your GCSEs, you went to Bolton College. They were next door to each other, but if you went to one it was like you’d failed. There’s this cultural shame around some FE. That needs to change.”

Ibrahim is also determined to take politicians to task over FE funding. “The budget has been hugely cut over years, but the expectation of a ‘world-class service’ hasn’t gone away. They’re on a shoestring budget. It’s ridiculous.” Also in her line of fire, as it was for her predecessor, is the removal of the education maintenance allowance by the coalition government in 2010. I ask her if she had needed it. “Honestly, the difference EMA made to me when I was at college! It was £30 a week and it paid for my travel. But I would walk if the weather was all right, so then I could eat. To think that option isn’t available anymore is terrifying.”

It becomes clear that Ibrahim has identified her priorities as things she wants to improve, not lingering for a moment on what she hates or what she wants to do to The NUS. This, it turns out, is a deliberate strategy.

“The reason I ran for president is I was thinking, ‘why aren’t we campaigning for things like better education and more funding?’ We were spending so much time saying, ‘this shouldn’t happen’, we were fighting things all the time and not offering a vision.”

She does not say that too much time was spent in-fighting, but she could. “We’d stopped being about what was important, and it was more what we were against.”

Even when I ask her how she’s going to campaign for all these changes with a much-reduced budget, she manages to keep things positive and praise her membership. “It’s going to be a balancing act. We might have to go back to being a grassroots organisation. But we have 550 student unions, so we can have huge impact without having to move too much money around. Yes, I’m the face of the organisation. But it’s the unions doing the work. They’re incredible.”

“We were fighting all the time and not offering a vision”

This determined, upbeat approach is working. Ibrahim has been in No 10 and says conversations with Chris Skidmore, the higher education minister, have been particularly good. She says he supported her when she pulled out of the Conservative Party conference about a month ago. Reports had emerged that a panel debate hosted by Policy Exchange on September 29 called Challenging “Islamophobia” included jokes and a lack of proper engagement with the issue (as the title rather gives away). When she withdrew she says Skidmore said he “understood and respected” her decision. It’s all about carefully deciding where to draw a line, she tells me.

“I’m always willing to stand up and fight the case. But sometimes I think it comes down to the principles of the NUS and what we stand for. These people were making jokes at our very life experiences. For me, it was ‘what are the lines here?’ I got solidarity from all the students.”

Where has she learnt to balance passion with perspective? The answer becomes clear, and, at times, desperately moving.

“Coming from a working-class background, and my parents being migrants, they taught us education was everything.” Ibrahim was born in Sweden to a Somali family, with four brothers and a sister; her parents moved to England when she was in year 5. “My mother taught me resilience. Whenever I came to her with a problem, she said, ‘what’s your solution?’ And my dad was the biggest advocate of education I’ve ever known in my life. He said ‘your knowledge is the only thing they can’t take away from you. If you want to get anywhere in life, you have to educate yourself. If there are issues, you need to be in that room’.” Admiration creeps into Ibrahim’s voice. I tell her that it sounds like her dad is an important person to her. There is a long pause and it takes me a moment to realise she’s holding herself together.

“My dad passed away two months ago. He was such a champion for learning. When I was being taught English as a kid, there was a refugee family near by, and he would make me go and teach them what I had learnt. What’s a noun, what’s an adjective, what’s an adverb. His thing on education was, ‘pass it on’. I remember when I started college he’d say to me, ‘tell me what you’re learning in science’. When I was studying for my GCSEs, I bought revision CDs for all my subjects. My dad spent all night making copies of them and he gave them out free to all the people who couldn’t afford them. For him it was about, give back to the person who doesn’t have what you have. Even when we had so little, I was constantly reminded we had so much.

“He knew what I was doing with the NUS. The last time I saw him, I was running for president. He would always call me and say, what part of the world are you in today? He would google me and send me anything with my name in case I hadn’t seen it.”

Ibrahim’s parents appear to have nurtured in their daughter a passion for change that comes not just from indignation, but humility too. It strikes me as a promising recipe for leadership.

“After my dad passed away, it came back to me again and again about education.

“Yes I’ve had institutional barriers, but I have got here. Now I have a lot of work to do to help people who think they can’t.”

MOVERS AND SHAKERS: EDITION 296

Your weekly guide to who’s new and who’s leaving.

Andy Forbes: Principal, City of Bristol College

Start date: November 2019

Previous job: Principal, City & Islington College

Interesting fact: He worked for two years as a psychiatric nursing assistant before deciding to go into teaching.

Barbara Van der Eecken: Vice chair of the Society for Education and Training management board

Start date: October 2019

Concurrent job: Director of quality and service standards, Babington

Interesting fact: French is her mother tongue but she is also fluent in English, Italian and Spanish and has studied Dutch and Portuguese.

Jim Crompton: Chair of the Society for Education and Training management board

Start date: October 2019

Concurrent job: Second-in-command at the British Army’s Staff Leadership School

Interesting fact: He is a judo black belt and is the Secretary of Army Judo.

Upskilling our workforce means upskilling our teachers first

If we are to embed the increasing digital skills that industry demands in our teaching staff, colleges and businesses need to collaborate with a much more flexible and supportive approach.

I see first-hand, day-to-day how the world of work is changing. As executive chair at Weber Shandwick, I advise organisations from large international FTSE100s to small regional start-ups – and the vast majority are transforming, with increased automation and greater use of digital technology.

To embrace the opportunities and overcome the challenges these changes present, we need to overhaul our education system, embedding digital into tertiary education so we can train people with the skills that industry demands.

To do this, of course, we need students to gain digital skills, but if teaching staff cannot identify or do not have the right knowledge to impart, it is difficult to see how anyone will progress.

According to a survey of more than 6,500 of its teacher members published this week by Jisc (a not-for-profit organisation for digital services and solutions in the education sector), fewer than 15 per cent get time to innovate or are recognised for developing digital skills. Worse, just 14 per cent of those in further education agree that they receive reward or recognition when they develop digital aspects of their role.

This is a problem, not least because an equivalent Jisc survey exploring the digital experiences of students tells us that those in tertiary education look first to their teachers. Of the 13,389 FE students that responded, 48 per cent said their most likely source of digital support was the teachers on their course – much higher than fellow students, friends and family or online resources. How can staff meet that need if they are not given time, support and recognition for developing their own digital capabilities?

Work-based learning has to be embedded into the curriculum

I have long been in favour of closer collaboration between teaching staff and industry to ensure that what is being taught is relevant and up to date. Part of the challenge is that, by the time students get into work, the knowledge they have gained at college is redundant because technology has moved on.

Work-based learning has to be embedded into the curriculum. That goes for teaching staff as well as students. But that change is perpetual, and we need to look further ahead. Compared with successful OECD countries, UK investment in training is poor. We consistently underinvest in upskilling our workforce, which has led to a significant drop in productivity.

At Weber Shandwick, we tracked our investment in training over five years. It was no surprise to see that profitability and productivity increased in line with spend.

UK businesses cannot stand on the sidelines. They have to engage with the skills system to ensure that we embed digital within colleges and the workplace. If we want students to transition to employment “fully formed”, and workforces that keep up with developments, teaching staff must have up-to-date knowledge.

That is why the Independent Commission on the College of the Future is asking what we want and need from our colleges in ten years’ time. It is about ensuring we have the expertise across the college workforce and a comprehensive system of continuing professional development.

Introducing a greater focus on work-based learning models for students and teachers is a priority, and it requires industry to step up to the challenge. Systems-change, leadership and collaboration have been key themes identified across all of our investigations, and nowhere more so than in respect of digital.

Our whole education system has to change. What was right a decade ago is not right today, and what is right today won’t work ten years from now.

That is why we want to hear about what is, and isn’t, working. We need to think long-term and about sustainability. Ultimately, that means colleges and businesses adopting a much more flexible and supportive approach to teaching staff.

We are all responsible for acting on sustainability

Colleges must put sustainability at the heart of their teaching – and that means far more than tweaking the curriculum, says Cerian Ayres

Recent protests around the world demonstrate that communities are unifying on the need for sustainability in how we interact with our environment. But how should education respond, and what does this mean for technical and vocational education?

Sustainability is more than just the latest hot topic and far more than a simple question of tweaking curriculum. It needs to be considered holistically, societally and educationally. This is the lesson of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), an increasingly important domain of educational thinking and practice.

The term brings an immediate response relating to environmental challenges and concerns, particularly human-induced climate change. This response is often directed by emotion, from well-intentioned knee-jerk reaction to fear-induced paralysis.

This is one area where we all probably agree we have achieved a reasonable degree of scientific literacy, so it is ironic that it has so far failed to galvanise any sustained action. The headlines in the media probably don’t help. Graphic imagery and frightful statistics from worst-case scenarios communicate unavoidable facts and press the idea of an environmental emergency. This may be necessary, but it can be dangerous.

Education is a prime ingredient in sustainability

We need to be made aware of key issues without feeling fearful and anxious. If the desired outcome is action, then we must be respectful of the wellbeing of potential actors to empower them. Where better to demonstrate this kind of knowledge-sharing and knowledge-creation than where it is already modelled daily? In our colleges.

It is becoming a cliché to say our students will be addressing UK and global sustainability challenges in the workplace. The trades and crafts they are learning will indeed be reshaped by that necessity. In fact, they will be reshaping them. But if we are to overcome this tendency to defer action, and to put the responsibility on young people themselves, we must ask ourselves: Who is responsible for civic leadership and the prioritisation of education for sustainable development?

The answer is both simple and complex: It is each and every one of us in the sector – lecturers, students, learning support assistants, college leaders, providers, apprentices, site staff and kitchen staff.

Education is a prime ingredient in sustainability; in challenging what is happening now and in establishing new ways of thinking and behaving that will stem from that. Central to Education for Sustainable Development are the principles of engagement, empowerment and ownership. We must accept the challenge, believe we can make a difference, and take action.

Progress is already being made within further education provider organisations through joint practice development and collaborative partnerships. Educators are working with employers to understand current industry practices. Staff and learners are working with a sense of agency. Leaders and managers are clearly sharing their vision, empowering others to act, and to taking ownership of experimental initiatives.

But this action is disjointed and piecemeal. “Think local, act global” is a recurring theme of ESD, but there is a difference between planned localism and fragmentation. Some guiding principles emerge in every college that begins on this journey, a sign that a common framework is already emerging.

That framework revolves around four Cs. Most colleges start with a curricular response, but quickly find that they cannot change curriculum in isolation. Quickly, it becomes evident that they must also reconsider campus, community and culture. What we learn can’t be separated from where, who with and how.

A fundamental attribute to each of these is respect. The new Ofsted framework leads us to consider curriculum. That is a fantastic opportunity for colleges to put sustainability at the heart of their teaching. The same framework highlights the importance of developing learners who have respectful behaviours. What better way to do that than to model that respect, by responding to their call for better care of our planet?

Ofsted praise environment in new inspection reports

“Two acres of peaceful gardens create a calm environment and help them relax, enabling all to concentrate fully on their studies.”

That might sound like a line of prose or a review for a relaxing country retreat – but it is in fact an excerpt from an Ofsted report under the new inspection framework.

Language has been one of the most significant changes to reports since the framework was rolled out in September.

Inspectors are more prominently noting the setting of the provider and what opportunities learners get outside the campus, alongside judgements on how well providers embed “knowledge” and set learners up for their next steps.

An Ofsted spokesperson explained that the new-style reports were intended to give a better “flavour” of what it was like for students at the provider.

In addition to the above example from People Solutions Training, Bedford College’s report observes how “community learning centres provide adult learners with a calm and purposeful learning environment”.

And the report for Walsall Studio School describes it as a “harmonious community”.

Similar language can also be seen in reports for schools, with one for Boldon School in the North East telling how “pupils get on well with one another and share a joke with their teachers”.

And in Lyme Community Primary School’s report, inspectors said: “One of the children gave me a ticket in the outdoor area used by nursery and reception children. The ticket allowed me to sit on a milk crate at the back of a makeshift bus. From this vantage point, I could see that the youngest children are happy at school.”

According to the new framework, lecturers “need to create an environment that allows the learner to focus on learning”.

Consequently, inspectors are bringing up the learning environment recommendations for how providers can improve, with Coventry College’s report pushing staff to  collaborate to “create a harmonious and calm working environment, inside and outside the college campuses”.

The National Union of Students welcomed Ofsted’s language changes.

“Student learning environments are changing spaces, gone are the four white walls and rows and rows of militantly-placed chairs,” said Juliana Mohammed Noor, the union’s vice president for FE.

“Enhancing learning environments can only bring a positive experience and colleges can be well placed to deliver provision innovatively.”

According to the new framework, inspectors will also be evaluating the extent to which the curriculum extends beyond the academic, technical or vocational.

Tyne Coast College was one provider to be commended after inspectors noted how learners and apprentices on maritime programmes have a uniform they wear “proudly” and call their lecturers’ “captain” to simulate life aboard a ship. 

And Coventry’s report logged how adults studying English as a second or foreign language had the chance to visit the local pantomime to become more confident in speaking and listening.

But its report added that apprentices “did not receive high-quality tutorial support to help them develop resilience, confidence and an in-depth understanding of how to prepare to be citizens of modern Britain”.

The new reports also reflect a greater emphasis on knowledge – a word used around 10 times in each report – and how learners use it to “succeed in life”, in line with the new inspection framework.

Inspection teams have written positively about two providers which run discussions on topics such as female success in male-dominated industries, euthanasia and cannabis.

Meanwhile CQM Training was told that it needed to improve how apprentices “recall topics and improve the storage and retrieval of their new knowledge”.

Ofsted’s changes will help parents to choose a college when their children leave school, according to John Jolly, chief executive of parent-teacher organisation Parentkind, who said: “We believe that it will help parents to get a broader understanding of the ethos of the college and highlight the ways in which this attribute can be achieved.”

Commenting on the language changes, an Ofsted spokesperson said: “We’ve made our inspection reports shorter and clearer, so that they can be more easily accessed and understood by different groups of people.

“As well as giving an independent view of how well a provider is performing, the new-style reports give a better flavour of what it’s like for learners.”