One college principal told me: “The alcohol, lobster, executive transport, any form of first class travel. The list goes on. It’s inexcusable. It needed to be exposed.
“Signed off or not, it’s an inappropriate use of public funds. Particularly when you think the college is in difficulty.”
But they had been told: “Being vocal might be bad for my career.”
Another principal took a very different view and in the FE Week comments section wrote: “Very good journalism, factually accurate after dogged pursuit.”
But, they also said I was wrong in this editorial column to call for the principal to consider resigning as there was “no breach of rules” and “no suggestion of impropriety/malpractice and the college has confirmed it was all properly authorised”.
Highbury College governors did restrict the use of the corporate card and first class travel in May, but there remain other colleges that will, and have, defended a policy permitting the principal to travel first class at full price.
For a highly respected college principal to conclude “no breach of rules” and so defend the use of a college card on a cocktail-fuelled lobster dinner and £434 headphones should
concern everyone.
So, if college principals cannot agree amongst themselves what is appropriate behaviour and expenditure, let’s try and agree through self-regulation.
And let’s move quickly, before the new FE college oversight minister, Lord Agnew, rewrites the rules and or Conditions of Funding Agreement between the Secretary of State and
colleges.
College leaders from across England should work together to agree, for example, if full cost first class travel is appropriate and as a minimum whether there should be greater transparency of expenditure.
A code of ethics, or ethics charter, could be drafted and then adopted.
This might include, for example, a commitment to publish the details of certain spending as a matter of course.
The media will always try to expose the inappropriate use of public funds – so let’s work together to agree where the line is drawn.
Principals interested in joining a task and finish group to develop such an ethics code or charter can get in touch with me at nick.linford@lsect.com
Thousands of students, staff and people who love colleges across the country signed pledge cards and handed them to their local MP to mark this year’s Colleges Week.
Members of Parliament were asked to commit to writing to the chancellor to ask him to include a long-term funding plan for colleges in the next comprehensive spending review, ask a question in the Commons about FE funding, and to go and “see the life changing work that colleges do every day”.
Now in its second year and organised by the Association of Colleges, the week of activity is part of the Love Our Colleges campaign. It is used to demonstrate why investment in the sector must be sustainable.
A march on parliament was the centre-piece of the inaugural campaign in 2018 and appeared to make a difference after the Treasury announced a £400 million funding boost in August.
Social media was where support for the campaign was most visible this year, with multiple ministers expressing their support, and colleges sharing their achievements.
On Monday, the Department for Education tweeted a video of education secretary Gavin Williamson from his visit to Exeter College the week before.
“It’s really important that we celebrate everything that’s done in our colleges,” he said.
“Not just about what the students are doing there, but of course also the teachers and the lecturers and all those who make our colleges such an amazing success.”
Many Twitter users responded to a call out to #makeasongFE.
Rhian Short, marketing and communications manager at the Learning and Work Institute, started the trend off with ‘Oh what a night school’.
Other suggestions included the reimaging of Robyn’s ‘Dancing on my (adult learning) loan,’ Stevie Wonder classic ‘Isn’t FE Lovely’ and the Spice Girls’ ‘2 Become 1’ being proposed in reference to area reviews.
Trade union UNISON also joined in the fun with an adaptation of Rage Against the Machine’s Christmas number one ‘Skilling In The Name Of.’
AoC chief executive David Hughes said: “Colleges Week 2019 has been another great example of colleges proudly showing the impact they have on our society.
“I’m really pleased with how the week has gone – following the hashtag alone has introduced me to hundreds of student stories, staff passionately describing the work they do, events with employers and students signing pledge cards.
“The key message behind the week is that colleges are vital to every community, to millions of people, to communities and to the labour market.
They need to be supported and invested in, and now that we have raised the profile I am sure that will happen.”
Charlotte Bosworth is quite happy to be known as the “end-point assessment woman”. Jess Staufenberg meets the very determined champion of apprenticeships
The managing director of the small apprenticeship assessment body, Innovate Awarding, has the ear of the Department for Education. How? She has a history of turning up when no one tells her to, and it’s got her a long way.
Charlotte Bosworth’s extraordinary career begins from a council estate in the West Midlands to a top role at the examination board OCR, before joining Innovate more than two years ago to focus on apprenticeship assessment. Under her watch, revenue has increased fourfold and the number of permanent staff has more than tripled.
Her staff numbers are nothing of the size of the big assessment players such as Pearson, but apprenticeships are the name of the game for the DfE, and it knows it needs help. A chat with the bubbly Bosworth, 46, reveals that she is becoming its “end-point assessment woman” – and today she’s got straight-talking words for the department.
A determination to be taken seriously started young. A self-confessed “ginger geek”, at 10 she was already worried about her prospects at the local comprehensive in Coventry – so she decided to try for a selective school two bus rides away. “My family didn’t really have a large amount of money and educational ambition wasn’t a thing. But I’d gone to a library and read about this school. So I pushed myself so I could go.”
I didn’t want anyone to know I was the poor kid
Her parents couldn’t understand why she didn’t want to go to the local comp, but she was determined. She was interviewed and accepted at her chosen school and made the one-and-a-half hour journey there and back every day until she was 16. Many years later, when working on assessments for the same school, the same headteacher told her: “You are the only child we ever interviewed who arrived without their parents.”
A young Bosworth also realised she wouldn’t be able to join school skiing trips if she didn’t take things into her own hands. At13 she began working in a hardware store every Saturday. She saved her pay and was able to visit France with her fellow pupils. “I was desperate to go, I’d never been to another country. But I didn’t want anyone to know I was the poor kid. There was an element of not wanting to share that.” Her favourite subjects were English and drama, and she talks glowingly of a teacher, Mrs Chadwick, who “absolutely inspired me throughout”.
But Bosworth’s personal outlook has not become that of the fanatical grammar-school advocate who promotes a classical education. She is too aware of the pull for paid employment, which led her to eschew sixth form for secretarial training. “I wanted to earn money for some of the reasons I’ve laid out,” she says. And so she entered a “youth training scheme” that she jokingly calls “apprenticeships for old people”.
Placed in a law firm, her boss decided after three months she should be trained as a legal executive instead, briefing barristers before court. She also took two jobs in pubs. By the time she was 18, she had her legal qualifications and a mortgage on a 1930s terraced house.
But despite benefiting from an apprenticeship-style education, Bosworth’s commitment to a career in apprenticeships was an accident. Aged 22 she was working as a legal executive for a big plant hire company, flying to the US and back, when she discovered she was pregnant with her son. International travel out the window, she returned home to Coventry and became an administrator because the 2-10pm shift fitted in with childcare. Where was the job? At RSA, or, as it became known in 1998 following a merger, the OCR examinations board.
There were so many development opportunities and I just sucked it all up
“There were so many staff development opportunities and I just sucked it all up,” Bosworth says, who was juggling single parenthood at the same time. “I kept getting more qualifications along the way!” In three months she was the manager for her shift team, and by 30 she was a senior manager. From 2013 she was director of skills and employment, responsible for vocational qualifications. Her husband – she met him at OCR – still works there as director of operations.
By the time of her departure in May 2017, Bosworth “realised that vocational education brings out the passion in me – maybe based on my own story”. She’s been a governor at Walsall College in the West Midlands for a year, and a board trustee for Career Colleges for three years. The FE sector was becoming her new home. You can see why: having fought so hard to work and qualify in the face of disadvantage and single parenthood, the sector’s embrace of employment and learning must resonate.
“I wanted to be working with employers to improve education. Ultimately, everyone is in education to one day get a job.” Bosworth felt too “constrained” in her OCR role to try out new ideas, and so leapt at the chance to lead Innovate Awarding. She explains, for instance, that routine work with the transport company Stagecoach led her awarding body to create new end-point assessments in passenger transport.
Innovate approves 39 apprenticeship standards across hospitality, retail, adult care, health care and more, including my personal favourite, mixology, or cocktail-making. Bosworth’s team has grown in just over two years from 26 to 87 full-time staff, plus 98 temporary workers. You were a good appointment, I tell her. “It seems so,” she says with a smile.
But for someone who has made a success out of arriving keenly and unprompted, Bosworth is now facing the opposite problem from the apprentices she works to help. Of all the end-point assessments booked with Innovate, an astonishing 60 per cent were rescheduled or cancelled this year.
The government has been in hot water about not sorting end-point assessments quickly enough. But Bosworth says the DfE is “not on top of” the fact that even where end-point assessments are ready, the logistical challenges mean many are not happening – a huge waste of time and money.
Apprenticeships are where you can have real impact
“If I had a wishlist for the DfE and Institute for Apprenticeships (IfA), it would be for them to fully understand the infrastructure and logistical issues of end-point assessment. You’ve got to get three people – the employer, the apprentice and our examiner – in the same place at the same time. But then if that employer suddenly has a huge barrage of additional sales, the apprentice is being put on other shifts and the assessment is cancelled.”
She also ticks off apprenticeship providers, who she says are abandoning their charges as soon as the apprentice decides he or she is ready to be assessed. “Providers often act like they’ve got nothing to do with them anymore. They should be checking projects are submitted on time and the apprentice actually turns up to the assessment.”
One suggested solution is new vocabulary. She wants “end-point assessment” to be called “end-point examination”, so apprentices understand the importance of turning up. “It’s not about putting the fear of God into people. It’s about saying, you’ve done all this hard work, and this examination is to show that.”
She’s in the position to push the change. She chairs the end-point assessment group at the Federation of Awarding Bodies, and the end-point assessment group for the Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP).
Such influence gets noticed. Bosworth has got “massive engagement from the DfE” and meets regularly with the Education and Skills Funding Agency and the IfA. I ask if she is the “end-point assessment woman”.
“That’s where I’m trying to get myself to. It particularly interests me because the apprenticeship space is where you can have real impact. It doesn’t matter what your starting point is, it doesn’t matter what your background is, apprenticeships can really unleash talent in people you didn’t know they had.”
If Gavin Williamson seriously wants the UK to match the technical and vocational education opportunities offered by Germany by 2029, he needs to address the persisting stigmatisation and stereotyping of apprentices, says Niamh Mulhall
As an apprentice I am all too aware of the perceptions and misconceptions surrounding apprenticeships. Young people are not just active consumers browsing the education and training supermarket and making choices based on price, quality and value; their decisions are influenced by a multitude of socio-structural constraints and, not least, by their family, friends and teachers.
Many professions could be almost exclusively apprenticeships if it weren’t for the marketisation of higher education that has turned degrees into lucrative courses for universities to sell. The fact that Gavin Williamson, the education secretary, refers to the “forgotten 50 per cent” – the half of young people who don’t go to university – reinforces a divide between academically-inclined students who go to university and the “others” who presumably will be trained to fill the jobs which his new skills and productivity board will tell him are needed for the modern economy.
In his first appearance in the Commons as prime minister, Boris Johnson, replying to a question from the former skills minister, Anne Milton, said: “The other kids should acquire the skills they need which can be just as valuable, can lead to just as fantastic careers.”
The other kids?
Last week, education minister Lord Agnew met engineering apprentices at Sunderland College. It says something about the lack of imagination of the government’s communications department that these publicity stunts always call for a hi-vis jacket and goggles – a far remove from the uniform the minister wore as a Rugby School pupil.
We must challenge the image of overalls and wrenches
Research by the charity Education and Employers and others consistently find careers advice, information and guidance in schools is scarce when it comes to apprenticeships. Most teachers have limited knowledge of them and don’t feel confident enough to suggest them to students. Factor in a school’s interest in retaining students into sixth form, and the default position is bias towards A-levels and university, something that I felt pressured to do.
Nearly two years ago, the Baker clause attempted to reset the balance, but just two in five schools are compliant and many training providers say it has had no impact in getting them access to schools.
We need to ensure that young people are aware of all the options. Having quality engagement with a breadth of employers and professionals throughout school life not only expands horizons, but can help to challenge stereotypical images of overalls and wrenches. This is just as true about gender where received perceptions of boys as doctors and girls as nurses are formed before the age of five and become ingrained; the job choices of seven-year-olds mirror those of 17-year olds.
Our research at The Apprentice Voice recently revealed that two-thirds (67.5 per cent) of apprentices still face stigmatisation or stereotyping, with 58 per cent saying the stigma came from colleagues and peers.
Williamson went to university, perhaps itself a testimony to the socially transformative effect of higher education advocated by Michael Gove and others all the way back to Tony Blair’s ambition for the “first” 50 per cent. Sadly, the reality for many is a university degree that doesn’t make them industry-ready, does not open the doors they hoped for and takes a long time to pay off.
Yes, we need quality apprenticeships above quantity and we need better careers education in schools so young people can make informed choices. But the fundamental difference between our vocational and technical education provision and Germany’s is that choosing an apprenticeship there is seen as a positive, not the second-best option that it is often perceived to be in the UK.
Until our policymakers model that attitudinal shift, the “other kids” will remain our ‘othered’ young people, and the chance to beat Germany will be lost to an own goal.
Ofsted’s new-style inspections have been much publicised, but some AELP members have been surprised by the new format. Simon Ashworth sets out what providers should expect and how to prepare.
The Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) has been hearing from its members that inspections under Ofsted’s new framework (EIF) was not what they expected and differed to what they had previously seen. Their comments echo those of Woodspeen Training in FE Week that the EIF represents “a pretty significant shift in focus”. So what are the main changes and how can providers be ready for them?
First, far less of the inspection process will be channelled through the nominee. The inspection team will instead work with the key individuals responsible for “curriculum areas”, which we believe is a really positive change.
Second, Ofsted will review the provider’s curriculum – and that doesn’t simply mean programme content or materials. Inspectors now want to look at the whole end-to-end process of the provider’s programmes; hence the importance of having strong curriculum leads who are prepared for the new process.
Effective “curriculum sequencing” will be inspected to ensure that the provider’s programme has been designed, structured and delivered coherently and logically. This becomes even more important for programmes where there is now more teaching and less assessment.
A good example to consider is how providers who deliver training to level 2 apprentices plan for and deliver not only the level 1 functional skills, but also the current requirement to work towards and at least take the level 2 functional skills test. The short answer is that it should not be an afterthought bolted on at the end.
Curriculum doesn’t simply mean programme content or materials
“Deep dive” inspections have now been added to the sector’s unrivalled liking for jargon. Much of the previous inspection activity was sometimes seen as operating in silos; for example inspectors would observe a class or hold a focus group with learners and report back on, say, teaching effectiveness. Under the deep dive regime, they may follow the journey of different learners all the way through their entire experience with the provider from recruitment to the preparation for end-point assessment.
Data is less important, but from our discussions with Ofsted, providers should still be able to explain the reasons for their performance. With apprenticeships specifically, there is little comparable performance data for standards because of the move away from frameworks, so this is a sensible change.
Nevertheless, one area of focus on is progression and destination data. A provider might have low achievement rates that look relatively poor on paper, but what is the story behind that? In the case of traineeships, qualification achievement rates might be low, because the learners left early as they got a job (one of the main aims of the programme) and didn’t have time to complete their maths and English qualifications as a result. Being able to articulate examples such as this is key to showing inspectors the whole picture.
On recognition of prior learning and off-the-job training, AELP is hearing reports of providers being misled and incorrectly advised to rip up their self-assessment reports (SARs) and quality improvement plans (QIPs) and rewrite these against the new EIF. Ofsted does not require this.
As providers move through their individual self-assessment cycle, they will naturally self-assess against the new framework. In the interim, it is worth considering the use of a positioning statement to sit alongside the SAR and QIP to help articulate to inspectors the transitional process and journey they are on.
Remember that the SAR and the QIP are for the benefit of the provider and not a paper exercise to simply provide to Ofsted for inspection. Commensurately, Ofsted will place less emphasis on the accuracy of a SAR, but more on how effectively the provider uses the SAR and QIP to drive improvements.
By understanding and preparing for these changes, a “deep dive” inspection should be limited to a few ripples rather than whipping up waves for providers.
Each year more than two million adults and young people at college develop the knowledge and skills they need for work and wider life. Among them are tens of thousands of young adult carers – young people who care and support loved ones, but who, as a result, face significant disadvantage in learning and in work.
There are about 300,000 young adult carers in England. They are aged 16-24 and regularly provide unpaid care, usually for a family member. This is equivalent to about one in 20 young people, so the odds are there is at least one carer in your average college class.
It is estimated that young adult carers provide £5.5 billion worth of unpaid care each year. To put it in context, this is nearly double the adult education budget. Yet, despite their immeasurable contribution to society, they often face significant challenges in pursuing their aspirations and achieving their potential.
On average young adult carers achieve the equivalent of nine lower GCSE grades than their peers. They are three times more likely not to be in education, employment or training (NEET) and – despite the best efforts of teachers and support staff – are four times more likely to drop out of college.
Perhaps we should not be surprised. Young adult carers often miss days at college or have their study time disrupted as a result of caring, and 45 per cent say that their caring responsibilities negatively impact their mental health.
We should be outraged by their plight
But if we are not surprised, we should still be outraged by their plight. All young adult carers deserve the chance to realise their dreams and should be given the very best support to help them to succeed.
That’s why, building on our extensive track record of working with young adult carers, the Learning and Work Institute is delighted to be launching Driving Change, an ambitious new programme to narrow the gap in outcomes between young adult carers and their peers.
Supported by the National Lottery Community Fund, and working with the Carers Federation, the programme will offer free advice and intensive one-to-one support to colleges who wish to improve their support for young adult carers.
Based on a new Quality Standard in the Carers Support framework, participating colleges will be supported to review their current provision for young adult carers, to collaboratively identify and implement improvements, and to evaluate the impact of these changes.
We know the programme makes a difference. Colleges involved in the pilot reported a range of positive outcomes: from increased retention and attainment of young adult carers to stronger relationships with local carers’ services, from increased staff confidence in supporting young adult carers to improved job satisfaction.
And all of this makes a profound difference to the educational outcomes and life chances of young adult carers, such as Emily. Emily left school with few GCSEs, having had to balance schoolwork with caring for her mother, who is bipolar, since she was 11. With support from York College, she went on to gain English, maths and childcare qualifications before progressing on to an access diploma in social care and guidance several years later. Emily now works with young carers to ensure they too have the support they need to succeed.
One of the most inspiring features of Colleges Week has been the use of #loveourcolleges to recognise and celebrate the difference FE makes to individuals, employers and communities.
What better way to mark the celebration of the sector than to re-commit to some of its most vulnerable learners? We want to recruit 12 colleges from across England and Wales to join the programme. It is a fantastic opportunity to improve outcomes for young adult carers and ensure there are even more reasons to #LoveOurColleges!
A record high proportion of Ofsted-inspected colleges are now rated ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’, FE Week can reveal.
Our analysis of inspection grades shows an impressive 78 per cent of all general FE colleges have been placed in the top two categories as of August 31, 2019, up from 76 per cent in 2017/18.
It is the highest proportion since comparable records began in 2015 and brings colleges within just three percentage points of the FE and skills sector average of 81 per cent.
Gavin Williamson
The achievement is set to feature in Ofsted’s chief inspector’s annual report in December, and has been praised by the education secretary.
“I am very pleased to see that the standards of our colleges are continuing to rise,” Gavin Williamson said after being shown FE Week’s analysis.
He described FE as a “vital” part of the education system and expressed his thanks to all lecturers, leaders and support staff for their hard work.
FE Week’s analysis shows that colleges have bounced back from a low of 69 per cent in 2017, after 71 per cent were graded ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted in 2016.
A total of 77 per cent of colleges were found to be in the inspectorate’s top two categories in 2015, when the current methodology started to be used to calculate the percentage of providers judged ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’.
There are currently no general FE colleges with Ofsted’s lowest grade of ‘inadequate,’ matching the 0 per cent score of grade four ratings last year.
However, part of the reason for this is the mergers of poorly-rated colleges which have been carried out over the past two years. When two colleges merge, both have their Ofsted grades wiped.
Between September 2015 and March 2019 the Department for Education carried out post-16 area reviews, which resulted in 57 mergers by April 1, 2019.
Interestingly, a quarter of all colleges (42 out of 171) currently have no Ofsted grade because of these mergers, up from 38 last year.
Ofsted said merged colleges are “treated as new entities, and we inspect them within three years of the merger”.
“This explains why there are a proportion of general further education colleges that have not yet received their full inspection in each year,” a spokesperson added.
“This in turn reflects the historically high number of college mergers that have taken place since 2016.
“However, a number of newly-merged colleges that have not yet had their full inspection have received a monitoring visit (which is an interim type of inspection), especially those that had predecessor colleges that were previously judged ‘inadequate’ or ‘requires improvement’.”
FE Week’s analysis shows just two colleges fell out of the top ‘outstanding’ category last year, with Eastleigh College receiving a grade two and Swindon College dropping to grade three.
Nelson and Colne College also lost its grade one after a merger with Accrington and Rossendale College, which was previously rated ‘good’.
Fourteen colleges moved up to grade two in 2019. Six colleges dropped down from ‘good’ to ‘requires improvement’ between 2018 and 2019.
David Corke, director of education and skills policy at the Association of Colleges, said: “The excellent work and support provided by teachers and staff means colleges up and down the country are some of the best places to study and train.”
Williamson said the Department for Education has worked closely with Ofsted in developing its new inspection framework, which was rolled out in September.
“We are fully united in our drive to ensure all young people can benefit from a high standard of education,” he added.
“We recently announced a funding boost of £400 million for our sixth forms and colleges – the biggest injection of new money into 16 to 19 education in a single year since 2010 – so that we can continue to develop world-class education and skills, as well as the supply and quality of the FE workforce.”
Declining Ofsted oversight
The number of Ofsted inspections to general FE colleges almost halved last year.
Only 19 per cent of all colleges were visited by the education watchdog in 2018/19 compared to 36 per cent the year before.
This equates to oversight of 33 out of 171 colleges in 2018/19, following 64 out of 178 colleges being inspected in 2017/18 – a 48 per cent drop.
Overall oversight across the whole FE and skills sector dropped from 19 per cent being inspected in 2017/18 to 12 per cent last year.
A spokesperson from Ofsted told FE Week: “Ofsted inspects colleges, and all further education and skills providers, in a risk proportionate way and in accordance with the timeframes detailed in the inspection handbook.
“We do not inspect providers simply for the sake of doing so.”
One of the likely reasons for this decline in oversight is funding cuts to the inspectorate.
Ofsted is in line to lose £15 million between 2016/17 and 2019/20 from its inspection budget, which is predicted to fall by 10 per cent from £141,685,000 to £127,100,000.
Another cause for the reduction in inspections could be the number of college mergers after the Department for Education carried out post-16 area reviews.
After August 2017, colleges classed as ‘new’ because of mergers will receive a full inspection within three years of their creation.
And from August 31, 2018, a policy change was introduced to extend short inspection cycles from three to five years.
However, Ofsted did not agree with the premise that area reviews and the number of mergers may have prevented it from carrying out more inspections.
“We inspect as we find: if a college is providing further education, then it is subject to inspection,” a spokesperson said.
David Corke
“It’s not relevant to think of area reviews or mergers as somehow blocking inspection. They continue to happen just as Ofsted continues to inspect colleges.”
David Corke, director of education and skills policy at the Association of Colleges, provided further explanation of the decline in oversight: “As the new inspection framework is rolled out, it isn’t uncommon to see a dip in inspections under the current framework, which is in its last year.
“Several inspections within the new EIF have taken place recently, with early reports suggesting it is more authentic and developmental.”
FE Week’s findings follow greater emphasis on oversight of FE colleges, with both the Education and Skills Funding Agency and the National Audit Office launching their own investigations.
The government announced Dame Mary Ney would lead a review into the way the Department for Education monitors college finances and financial management at the end of August, with college leaders later being asked to submit their views on ESFA oversight.
Earlier that month the National Audit Office said it was also preparing to launch a value-for-money review on the management of colleges’ financial sustainability.
And in September Ofsted announced plans to publish financial ratings as part of inspection reports in the future.
The move will not be part of the watchdog’s new inspection framework, which launched in the same month, as a spokesperson told FE Week it is something for a “longer-term piece of work with the government”.
A ‘Diversity in Leadership Programme’ is to be launched, following analysis published by FE Week which found just 7 per cent of college principals are Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic (BAME).
The Education and Training Foundation is aiming to roll out the scheme by Christmas.
It will have four strands: unconscious bias workshops; one-to-one coaching for aspiring leaders; a diversity charter for the whole FE sector to sign up to; and new toolkits.
“People from diverse backgrounds will naturally bring in different perspective”
The programme, which will be offered free of charge, comes hot on the heels of an FE Week investigation from July that found the number of colleges led by a non-white principal has fallen to a low of 7 per cent.
And analysis of staff individualised record data compiled by the ETF, published last year, indicated that just 6.8 per cent of senior and middle managers in FE colleges hail from a BAME background.
Ali Hadawi, principal at Central Bedfordshire College, welcomed the ETF’s scheme, especially if it adopts a “two-pronged approach”.
“If it has one on practitioners to support and nurture and another which has a targeted strand of work on governing bodies especially in colleges that are about to recruit a new chief executive or deputy, to work with governors (and especially chairs), then it would be a good approach,” he told FE Week.
Kirsti Lord, the Association of Colleges’ deputy chief executive, said the number of diverse FE leaders is “worryingly low” and her organisation will work closely with the ETF “to increase the numbers of BAME leaders so staff in further education reflect the communities they serve”.
Mark Wright, the ETF’s head of leadership development, added that the diversity scheme is needed because “people from diverse backgrounds will naturally bring in thoughts and different perspectives which helps break out of the groupthinking that some colleges have fallen into in the past”.
A series of groups aimed at increasing the number of ethnic minority college bosses have ended in recent times.
This includes the disbanding of the AoC’s BAME Principals’ Group in 2017, the failed attempt to revive the Network for Black and Asian Professionals in 2016, and in 2015 the closure of the Black Leadership Initiative, which was launched in 2002.
An equality and diversity steering group has been set up by the AoC in recent months to reverse this trend.
Lord said the group is “beginning to take shape” and its first meeting took place in May. The AoC could not say who the members of the group are at this stage.
A £130,000 tender seeking a partner to implement and help design the Diversity in Leadership programme was launched by the ETF last week.
“The aim of this programme is to challenge bias, remove obstacles to achieving leadership roles and to use tools such as coaching to motivate and build confidence in aspiring leaders across the sector so they can develop sufficient leadership capacity to achieve senior leadership roles,” it said.
Wright told FE Week that the unconscious bias workshops were trialled earlier this year and will involve one-day sessions aimed at team leaders, governors and senior HR practitioners in FE.
Ali Hadawi
“It is about getting the right people in the room who can make a difference because they are the decision makers across the organisation,” he explained.
The one-to-one mentoring side of the programme will include around seven coaching sessions over a number of months in which candidates will be trained to identify “some of their own internal blocks to wanting to take steps forward”.
“Often, people from diverse backgrounds feel the weight of society saying they shouldn’t be taking those positions and that gets internalised – so it is partly unpicking that, building up their leadership skills to make them feel confident to want to go forward,” Wright said.
He added that the diversity charter will be a significant part of the programme, which will be co-created with the whole FE sector.
“FE doesn’t have one as such, although it is something that is quite well developed in HE and in schools. Although colleges are mindful of diversity there is not really that head of steam that would be created by a diversity charter.”
Wright was keen to stress that the Diversity in Leadership programme is not limited to people from BAME backgrounds. People of all genders, sexuality and physical ability can sign up.
A new provider that trains nearly 500 apprentices for a “world leading” security company has been rapped by Ofsted.
Inspectors listed a catalogue of issues with the training delivered by EGS Nationwide Limited, which was found making ‘insufficient progress’ in two areas of an early monitoring report.
The sole employer it works with is G4S Care & Justice Services (UK) Ltd, which was itself branded ‘inadequate’ across the board by the education watchdog in an inspection it had in 2013. It later had its own government skills contracts terminated.
“Too few apprentices develop significant new knowledge, skills and behaviours”
It appears that G4S is continuing to let its trainees down, after Ofsted reported in today’s report that leaders at EGS “do not take enough steps to ensure that the employer fulfils its obligation to apprentices”.
“The employer does not adequately release apprentices to complete off-the-job training or provide apprentices with a workplace supervisor,” inspectors said.
“Therefore, too few apprentices develop significant new knowledge, skills and behaviours.”
Supervisors are “too often based in different locations” meaning the majority of apprentices “do not receive first-hand feedback on their progress in the workplace and cannot access the support that they need to achieve their goals”.
Ofsted also found that around a fifth of apprentices should have completed their programme by now but cannot progress to their end-point assessment because of leaders’ poor arrangements.
Inspectors said that leaders “do not have adequate oversight of apprenticeship provision” and they “do not measure progress to identify the necessary steps for apprentices to complete their programme on time”.
“Of the apprentices who are past their planned end date, most of those who need to achieve functional skills qualifications in English and maths have not done so,” they added.
At the time of the monitoring visit, EGS trained 499 apprentices based in locations around the country for G4S.
Over two thirds of the apprentices are studying the level 2 customer service standard, while just over a quarter are studying the level 3 team leader. The remainder are studying the level 3 business administrator standard.
A spokesperson for EGS said the organisation “remains committed” to delivering apprenticeships and is “working with both Ofsted and employers to ensure findings are addressed”.
Head of Apprenticeships for G4S in the UK, Tony Summers, said the employer works “hard” to ensure staff get the “internal support they need to further develop their skills and we have processes in place to make sure programmes are delivered to our own high standards”.
“We are working closely with EGS to support them in acting on the recommendations made by this inspection,” he added.
Ofsted did praise EGS leaders for using their “knowledge of the security industry to plan the curriculum to meet the employer’s training needs”.
Trainers also support apprentices “well” to develop their English and math skills, which develops their confidence and benefits their work in the workplace.
EGS was found making ‘reasonable progress’ in safeguarding, an area which Ofsted said is given a “high priority”.
“They implement and apply a suite of policies effectively to provide high levels of support for staff and apprentices in difficult situations,” inspectors added.
Any provider found making ‘insufficient progress’ in an early monitoring report is usually suspended from recruiting apprentices, until it improves to at least ‘requires improvement’ in a full Ofsted inspection.
