Education secretary Gavin Williamson has applauded the UK’s ambition to host an upcoming WorldSkills competition – and is encouraging the sector to back a bid.
His remarks come as FE Week launches its ‘Back A Bid’ campaign to prove there is sufficient interest in hosting the competition, affectionately known as the ‘Skills Olympics’, in 2027.
It follows on from WorldSkills UK “exploring” whether to bid to host the competition, as outlined by the organisation’s chief executive Neil Bentley-Gockmann in an interview with FE Week earlier this month.
Williamson said the competition “is a fantastic way to showcase the very best young talent from across the country,” and he “applauds WorldSkills UK’s ambition to host a future WorldSkills competition here in the UK”.
“I look forward to hearing the extent of support for this from the sector.”
FE Week kicked off its campaign with a call by Shane Mann, managing director of FE Week’s publisher Lsect, for the sector to “unite behind reinvesting in WorldSkills UK and a bold vision for their next decade”.
It would be great if we could mount a bid for a city other than London
Mann said holding the international skills tournament here would “be an amazing opportunity for our sector and the UK to play host to the global skills community”.
Shadow FE minister Emma Hardy has offered her full support, as she says the WorldSkills competition “is a wonderful opportunity for young people to highlight their skills and talents on the world stage”.
“I’ve seen the transformation in young people’s confidence and employability after developing skills and being chosen to represent their country.”
The chief executive of the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education Jennifer Coupland said her government quango also “backs the bid”.
She would find it “incredibly exciting” to host WorldSkills 2027, because of the chance to “showcase the fantastic skills we have in this country” and “really energise young people and training providers to hit the highest standards”.
The possibility of hosting has already attracted support from sector organisations like the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, with chief executive Mark Dawe saying “now” is the right time to bring the competition back to the country, after it previously came to London in 2011.
But Dawe, who also sits on the WorldSkills UK board, said this time “it would be great if we could mount a bid for a city other than London”.
“Fantastic” was how Association of Colleges president Steve Frampton described bringing WorldSkills back to the UK “as part of a very strong signal we are serious as a nation about being a world leader”.
“If the UK is to be a world leader in skills at all levels, this is exactly the sort of thing, alongside wider plans, that will be key to tackling the employment challenges of the future”.
It is not just sector organisations which can back the bid: FE Week readers are being encouraged to show their support at FEWeek.co.uk/BackABid and on social media using #BackABid.
An FE Week investigation into T-level cold-spots has found six out of eight college principals in Lincolnshire appear to have turned their backs on the opportunity, with one telling FE Week the mandatory industry placement requirement in the region was “really, really difficult”.
We also found no colleges or training providers in London would be offering the construction T-level from September this year, something the Mayor of London said he is “concerned” about.
Lincolnshire colleges refusing to join the party
The lack of T-level industry placements in Lincolnshire appears to have been acknowledged by the Department for Education, with a series of meetings lined up so they can speak to the college principals, FE Week understands.
But officials declined to comment on the problem beyond repeating a previous statement concerning a “phased approach to the introduction of T-levels so they can grow in a managed way”.
It remains unclear how the lack of industry placements opportunities in the Lincolnshire area will be resolved.
Of the eight grade one and two colleges in the Greater Lincolnshire area, only Grimsby Institute of Further and Higher Education will be running the digital and education routes in wave one this year, and DN Colleges Group, which includes North Lindsey College and will be running all four routes in wave two from next year.
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This means learners will have to put in the miles if they want to take T-levels: students at New College Stamford, for example, would have to travel out of the county to Derby College, a journey estimated to take an hour and a half by car.
Boston College principal Jo Maher said they are “carefully considering and reviewing” the expression of interest requirements for wave three, and will be looking at the work placement requirements and local demand to ensure any expression “set learners up to succeed with local demand”.
She explained that her college had not gone for T-levels due to problems around the industry placement, which the college found “a challenge for rural areas”.
Also, at the time of applying for the early pathways, she said “we did not feel that there was enough course detail to market to prospective students and to develop the content”.
Franklin College is “reviewing the situation as more information comes from the pilot centres and are considering our options for the next wave at this time,” a spokesperson said.
One college which will not be going for wave three is New College Stamford after it was rejected for wave two; though its decision is also because of the demands of an ongoing merger with Peterborough Regional College.
Principal Janet Meenaghan said her college had also faced challenges around industry placements, the 315-hour work experience requirement for T-levels which partly caused education secretary Gavin Williamson’s alma mater Scarborough Sixth Form to drop out of the T-level programme in October.
Williamson said at the time that his old college took the “right decision” by pulling out and promised to convene business leaders to thrash out a solution.
New College Stamford has been part of the capacity and delivery fund piloting industry placements: they met their target of putting 74 learners on placements last ear; but Meenaghan believes that while well over 100 will be placed this year, they will struggle to meet their target of around 142.
“The challenges of making it work are really, really difficult in this location,” she said, because 98 per cent of Lincolnshire’s businesses are small or micro businesses, and a lot are just one or two people.
“You have to supervise and give a student something meaningful when they are there. How do you do that when you’re a tiny business? You haven’t got the capacity.”
And her learners have to travel to placements using “poor” public transport and road infrastructure, when some take more than an hour and half to reach the college as is.
The college has told the Department for Education they do not think they will be able to hit the placement target this year.
Meenaghan said she thinks the placements are a good idea and T-levels, as a whole, are “fantastic”: “I wish I had this as a young student. I would have loved it.”
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has said he his “concerned” that the T-level in construction will not be offered by any providers in capital in the next academic year, or any in south London from 2021.
He believes the government “must to do more to address this gap in provision”.
Of London providers starting this year, just one is a college (Harrow and Uxbridge) and none of them are running the construction T-level, so London learners will have to travel out to providers like East Sussex College Group, Chichester College Group or Havant and South Down College.
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The three London-based providers of the construction route from 2021 – Barking and Dagenham College, Newham Sixth Form College, and United Colleges Group – are all based north of the river.
There was one provider delivering the construction T-level south of the river that year, Richmond-upon- Thames College.
But a spokesperson left the door open to running the qualifications in the future, saying it could introduce them “at a later stage, rather than in 2021”.
They were also scheduled to deliver the digital, education and childcare, and health and science routes.
Construction skills have taken on added importance under Khan as he has led the Greater London Authority to set up a construction academy and bestow a quality mark upon providers recognised as delivering high-quality construction skills training in the capital.
So far, 24 providers have received the quality mark, including Barking and Dagenham College and United College Group, and applications for it are due to reopen this year.
The FE Commissioner has almost doubled the number of national leaders of further education (NLFEs) and national leaders of governance (NLGs), after new appointments were announced today.
Richard Atkins announced that five more college leaders will become NLFEs, and that there will be four new NLGs, bringing the total number to 19.
The national network has already supported more than 60 colleges where governance and leadership needs to improve since being set up in 2018, according to the Department for Education.
Education minister Lord Agnew said: “Good governance and leadership are the backbone of any well-run college.”
He claimed the programmes have made “a real difference” helping to “ensure our colleges have better leaders and governors so more people have the opportunity to access high quality education and training”.
“I welcome the appointment of these experienced college leaders and governors. They will play an important role in supporting colleges, so more people can gain the skills they need to progress,” Agnew added.
NLFEs are serving college leaders with “a strong track record of delivering improvement – both at their own colleges and in working with others”.
They are also tasked with providing strategic mentoring and support to other colleges.
The new NLFEs are: Phil Cook (Stockton Riverside College – Education Training Collective), Angela Williams (Huddersfield New College), Sam Parrett (London South East Colleges), Amanda Melton (Nelson and Colne College) and Colin Booth (Leeds City College – Luminate Education Group).
They join existing NLFEs Lindsey Whiterod (Tyne Coast College), Peter McGhee (St John Rigby College), Gill Alton (Grimsby Institute of Further & Higher Education), David Gleed (North Kent College), Graham Razey (EKC Group) and Paul Phillips (Weston College).
Experienced college governors and clerks with “a strong record of supporting college improvement” are chosen to be NLGs.
Their remit is to provide strategic mentoring and support to governance boards.
The new NLGs are: Jennifer Foote (clerk, LTE Group), Elton D’Souza (chair, West Suffolk College), Sandra Prail (chair, Brighton, Hove and Sussex Sixth Form College) and Rob Lawson (chair, Education Partnership North East) are the new NLG appointments.
The rest of the NLG team is made up of Shirley Collier (governor, York College), Heather Cross (clerk, Wiltshire College), Carole Drury (clerk, Kendal College) and Simon Perryman (governor, Barnsley College).
Atkins said the additions would help the office “support more colleges” and share “best practice”.
He added: “My team and I look forward to working alongside these outstanding college leaders, governors and clerks in ensuring that colleges are in a strong and sustainable position to provide an outstanding quality of education.”
The aim of the programmes is to proactively help tackle issues in colleges before they become a major problem and reduce the need for formal intervention across the sector.
Pictured from left: New NLFEs Amanda Melton, Angela Williams, Phil Cook, Sam Parrett and Colin Booth
The new boss of the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education is “excited to step out of the confines” of the Department for Education and have “more of an independent voice”.
Civil servant veteran Jennifer Coupland made the admission during her first sit down interview with FE Week today.
She pledged to instil “collaboration” into the institute’s operation, after she replaced Sir Gerry Berragan at the helm of government quango in November.
“In terms of my leadership style I have a track record in apprenticeship and technical education policy and working with the sector, colleges, the Association of Colleges, the Association of Employment and Learning Providers and others in a really collaboratively way.
“I think I recognise that you need to have people on board to deliver significant change and if you don’t do that then that change doesn’t get routed into the system. I will be looking at how we embed that more into the way the institute works in a collaborative way going forward.”
This was a big step-change to what she has been allowed to say in public in her roles at the Department for Education.
Asked if she felt liberated by leaving the department, she said: “One of the reasons I was interested in the job was I thought it would be an exciting move for me to step out of the confines of the department if you like and have a more independent voice in the system.”
Reflecting on her predecessor’s time at the institute, Coupland said Berragan “did a fantastic job in his two years here”.
“We doubled in size and he brought a degree of order and systematised the whole operation in terms of standard approvals,” she added.
“Looking ahead over the next five years my priorities are really going to be around making sure that we are operating as efficiently as we can, making sure we are as collaborative as we possibly can be, but also using the fact that we have this unique suite of employers.
“We’re working with 6,000 employers on an annual basis, it gives us a degree of authority I think in the system to speak on behalf of employers about the things they’re telling us that matter for apprenticeships and technical education going forward.”
She said the IfATE has an “exciting year ahead” and revealed they will launch two consultations in the spring: one of funding and the other on external quality assurance.
“Of course we are launching the new T-levels in September so I think it is going to be a really exciting time for the institute and I’m really looking forward to 2020,” she added.
Coupland was formerly the director of professional and technical education in the Education and Skills Funding Agency, and was previously acting chief executive of the Standards Testing Agency.
Prior to that Coupland spent three years as the deputy director of the Apprenticeships Unit.
Bonuses paid to men working at the Department for Education were on average 3.8 per cent larger than those paid to women last year.
Although the overall gender pay gap at the department continues to decrease, new figures show that in 2019, men received larger bonuses than women for the first time since records began.
The bonus gap was previously 2 per cent in favour of women in 2018, and there was no gap at all in 2017, the first year public bodies had to report on gender pay.
The median gender pay gap at the department has gone from 5.9 per cent in favour of men in 2017 to 5.3 per cent in 2019.
The latest figures also show that the proportion of highest-paid employees who are women has fallen, from 53 per cent in 2017 and 2018 to 50 per cent in 2019.
This is despite women making up 53.4 per cent of the department’s workforce, down from 57 per cent in 2018.
The DfE said it had undertaken “a number of activities to focus on closing the gender pay gap” and continues to “review and refresh all activites on an annual basis”.
Ofsted has also revealed it no longer has a median gender pay gap. The gap was previously 19.8 per cent in favour of men in 2018 and 2.3 per cent in 2017.
The bonus gap at Ofsted also fell from 25 per cent in 2018 to 7.7 per cent in 2019.
Nerd note: Although organisations report on both their mean and median pay gap, we report on the median as this is less likely to be distorted by outliers.
Jess Staufenberg meets Stuart Rimmer, whose entrepreneurial streak has helped guide his leadership of East Coast College
Hanging above Stuart Rimmer’s head is a portrait of an austere woman with a wide-brimmed hat and lace collar.
She’s looking sideways, face half in shadow, into the office of the East Coast College principal. The Suffolk institution is her old stomping ground, explains Rimmer. The inscription below reads “Miss Grace Musson, Principal, 1923-1946”.
“I’ve read lots of her old letters. Do you know what’s mad? She’s talking about exactly the same thing we are today. She’s talking about raising the participation age, setting up courses to teach navigation for sailors, and literacy for adults. Fast forward, and we’re still wrestling with participation, we’ve just set up a maritime centre and we’re trying to improve numeracy and literacy. Her wisdom continues through.”
Two things are striking about Rimmer. Firstly, you get a sense he deeply values the influential people he has encountered during his career. Secondly, he swings sharply between political despair and personal love for the FE sector. Is it a bad thing that not much has changed? I ask, nodding to Miss Musson.
Can you believe she was in her job for 20 years?
“In my dark moments about the FE landscape, I think we’re staring into the abyss. In my lighter moments, I see students in corridors who are ambitious and authoring their world and I find that fascinating. The institutions we work in have been around for 100 years, so it says something that society needs them and it will be ever thus.”
It’s a typically philosophical answer from an FE leader who has long warned policymakers to end an obsession with grades and instead focus on staff and student wellbeing. In a TEDx talk online, you can watch him read his “love letter to education” in which he says “our relationship hasn’t been going well lately, and it’s because you’ve changed”.
The portrait of Miss Grace Musson, principal of Lowestoft Technical College, 1923 – 1946, which hangs in Rimmer’s office
Putting his money where his mouth is, Rimmer sits on the Department for Education’s advisory panel on teacher wellbeing and has helped compile a mental health charter for the Association of Colleges, now signed up to by 150 colleges.
His frustration stems from FE being treated as a place “where we solve industrial shortages by pumping people full of skills… Education is much more sophisticated than that. The intent of curricula should also be to help people with their social and emotional development.” The problems in the system are causing staff burnout, Rimmer adds.
He looks up at Grace Musson and laughs drily. “Can you believe she was in her job for 20 years? Can you imagine a principal lasting that long now?”
Despite serious doubts about the “hero leadership” model of improving FE (“it’s too egotistical”) Rimmer clearly holds deep respect for inspirational people he has met along the way. He admires the work ethic of his parents, who lived in the basement of a block of flats in Lancashire which, over time, they bought and rented out. Most of the tenants were power station workers, so Rimmer says he was “always surrounded by people who worked. I learnt you had to put in effort to do OK.”
Authority was a problem for him at school, being what he describes as “slightly over-aggressive and reasonably bright”, and he left at 16 for a factory job. “For some people, that was where ambition went to die. But for me, it was working with an entrepreneur who clocked that I taught some of the men how to read.” This factory owner, called Ron Nisbitt, was a “patriarchal tough guy” who said “don’t bring me problems, bring me solutions”. Once Rimmer thought it made business sense to order 250,000 baseball caps from China to sell on in Liverpool. “We had to rent out space to house them and we lost money on it! He let me make mistakes.”
After a few years, Rimmer decided to study three A-levels during night classes at Lancaster & Morecambe College. He never turned up for his sociology exam because he was at a factory meeting, but two A-levels got him into Teesside University, nevertheless. First he studied Politics, Philosophy and Economics, displaying an academic interest in the way society runs, then a more practical masters in enterprise management. But big bucks soon bored him: “My first job in insurance in Manchester was soulless.” He did a PGCE in Sunderland, yet found “the linearity of school didn’t connect with me, it was too proscribed. FE felt a bit edgier and more interesting.”
Oil rig-like structures are being set up for students to practise on
That was when he landed a job as a business lecturer for then-principal Jackie Fisher at Newcastle College, which Rimmer describes as “like signing for Man United but not realising. Jackie had this huge reputation, and people say she was fierce and aggressive and she was, but she was hugely values-based. She’s produced more principals than anyone else and she did that through clear and strategic thinking.”
After a couple of years he moved back to Lancaster & Morecambe College, where, under principal David Wood, it was “less of a Darwinian existence” and he learned “more compassion and not to rush – there’s more than one way of getting to ‘good’”. By 39, he was principal at Great Yarmouth College. He spearheaded the merger with Lowestoft College in 2017 and again with Lowestoft Sixth Form College last year, to form East Coast College.
Now all three sites stand in a quad that’s still got work going on, such as the new £11.7 million Energy Centre specialising in offshore energy vocations. Rimmer’s entrepreneurial streak is evident in having secured most of the cash from the local enterprise partnership, and I’m shown around a jaw-dropping studio which simulates navigating a ship out of port from its cabin bridge, packed with exciting-looking bleeping controls, as well as under towering rig-like structures.
As we walk, Rimmer drops another strong entrepreneurial idea. “I would encourage FE to get a closer relationship with clinical commissioning groups (CCG), like we have, because they have money.” The college’s counselling service has been partly funded by Norfolk and Waveney CCG. It seems obvious once he’s said it.
But having been inspired by so many leaders along the way, one gets the sense Rimmer is now at a point where, like many others in FE, he is looking up the chain of command and seeing little that inspires him. I push him tentatively on East Coast College being graded ‘requires improvement’ in May 2018. “What I’m probably more interested in is our
corporation going through a proper ten-year planning cycle, regardless of Ofsted grades, which will come and go. As long as our purpose is clear and our mission is noble, and if we can look at ourselves honestly in the mirror and say we did a good job.”
Rimmer at the helm in the college’s new ship bridge simulator
I query that the 2018 report said “too much teaching is undemanding”. “I always think we can do better for our students. Yes, I’d like to see more students pass every year.” For Rimmer, the major obstacle to better quality is the working conditions of his staff – “the high pressure, stress and workload”.
What can be done? I ask, expecting the usual answer about smarter marking strategies. But Rimmer aims straight for the heart.
“I think some of the representative bodies have become lapdogs of the Westminster bubble, and as such we just do the bidding of Whitehall. There’s an urgency for the FE sector to become more political, as opposed to just talking about cuts – to become more radical and politically alive.”
How? “The only way FE will find its voice long-term again is if it rediscovers its socialist ideals, in that it’s there to support its communities and to make their lives better. This idea that people around here don’t have high aspirations really hacks me off. They do, they just don’t know how to navigate a system not designed for them.”
In the absence of inspiring policymaking, I suggest to Rimmer he should go for it himself. “At some point I might consider a more national job,” he muses. “But there’s a job to be done here. I believe in staying somewhere to live with your mistakes.”
One gets the feeling Miss Musson, with her steely look, approves.
More than 2,500 apprentices and adult learners have been left in the lurch after their provider immediately exited the training market following a grade four Ofsted report.
Progress to Excellence Limited (PtE), an independent learning provider established in 1997, today dropped from ‘good’ to ‘inadequate’.
The education watchdog reported that leaders’ and governors’ growth strategy to expand the curriculum “has had a negative impact on the quality of education and training that apprentices and learners receive”.
Leaders “failed” to recruit enough high-quality staff to meet the increased range of vocational programmes on offer.
“Too many” apprentices and learners have experienced “disruption to their learning because of staffing issues”, who told inspectors that they “are having a poor experience”.
Following publication of the report today, Katy Lennon, acting chief executive officer of PtE, said: “Progress to Excellence Ltd will be exiting the apprenticeship market, with immediate effect. We will also stop offering funding for courses via advanced learner loans.
“All employers and learners are being notified of this situation, and where necessary, they will be supported by ourselves and the Education and Skills Funding Agency to find suitable alternative training to support their professional development.”
It is not known if the ESFA terminated PtE’s contracts, which is typical when a private provider is rated ‘inadequate’ by Ofsted.
The firm declined to comment on whether it would shut down completely or if there would be any job losses. Its financial accounts showed there were 140 employees for the year ended 31 March 2018.
At the time of inspection in December, there were 2,008 apprentices, 609 adult learners and “a very small number of learners on traineeship programmes” at the Wirral-based provider.
PtE subcontracted out around 250 apprentices to four subcontractors.
Apprenticeship programmes included health and care, business and engineering and manufacturing at levels 2 to 5 while adult learners, who all used advanced learner loans to pay for their courses, studied hairdressing, beauty and fitness at level 3 and 4.
According to Ofsted, apprentices and learners were “frustrated” by how poor PtE staff “keep them informed”, and they complained that they have had “many different training and assessment officers”.
Students did “not benefit from a challenging and broad curriculum”.
While adult learners, most of whom are non-working parents, unemployed or ex-offenders, were reported as being “proud of the improvements they make and the skills they develop”, apprentices were found to be making “slow progress”.
Inspectors said apprentices and learners “are not prepared well enough for their next steps” because the advice on offer is “not impartial”. Careers advice was not “aspirational enough”.
Despite action being taken by the new chief executive after she identified a decline in quality, “too many apprentices” told Ofsted they were having “a poor experience” and about one fifth of current apprentices were beyond their planned end dates.
In 2017/18, over one third of apprentices did not achieve their apprenticeship.
The inspectorate said governors failed to hold previous senior leaders to account, apprentices were routinely not placed on the right apprenticeship and training and assessment officers do not ensure that all learners are on the correct programme.
The latter did offer developmental feedback to most learners but it was reported that they did “not support apprentices who have additional learning needs well enough.”
However, safeguarding arrangements at the provider were praised for being effective.
Apprenticeships at a major airline have been heavily criticised by Ofsted, which found “disorganisation” and “inconsistency” meant too many employees “did not see the value of being an apprentice”.
British Airways, an employer provider which is drawing down government apprenticeship funding for over 500 of its own staff, was found to have made ‘insufficient progress’ in one area and ‘reasonable progress’ in two others in an early monitoring report.
Apprenticeship providers that make ‘insufficient progress’ are typically suspended from taking on and training their own new apprentices by the Education and Skills Funding Agency.
A BA spokesperson said they do not believe the report was a “fair” assessment of its provision and claimed that inspectors only spoke to three per cent of apprentices.
They also pointed out that Ofsted’s inspection only looked at the apprenticeship programme that BA delivers itself – the level 3 cabin crew standard.
The airline also has apprentices in a number of other areas, such as engineering, customer service, head office, and cargo, which were not subject to the inspection as they are delivered by other providers.
While apprentices on the level 3 cabin crew standard are “proud” to work for the employer provider, Ofsted found they are “frustrated by the disorganisation and inconsistent approach they experience in their apprenticeship”.
As a result, many of the ones inspectors spoke to “do not see the value of being an apprentice”.
Inspectors said they are not “sufficiently aware” they are even on an apprenticeship when they are recruited.
The arrangements that have been put in place with a subcontractor to ensure apprentices gain English and maths qualifications are not effective, the report reads, and too many learners failed their maths exams.
Leaders and managers do not ensure staff are giving apprentices clear information about what to expect in their end-point assessment.
This has meant apprentices do not know enough about what the assessment will involve when they come to that point in their programme.
Trainers are also not granted sufficient time before they start their sessions to take prior knowledge into account, so they cannot alter the delivery to meet apprentices’ needs sufficiently.
And while BA was found to have made ‘reasonable progress’ in safeguarding, managers have recognised an issue around apprentices feeling “patronised” and instances of “intimidating behaviour while flying”.
Inspectors reported actions taken in response to this “have not had sufficient impact in improving the experience for a few apprentices”.
A spokesperson for the airline said they “do not believe the report offers a fair assessment” of their cabin crew scheme and Ofsted’s findings are “at odds with the positive feedback we receive from the vast majority of our apprentices”.
They added that BA “remains committed to investing in our people” and will continue to work closely with Ofsted following the monitoring visit.
Apprentices do receive appropriate training, inspectors found, and thanks to the training they become “competent and compliant” cabin crew members who can work safely, in a short period of time.
This is because they benefit from learning in “high-quality” training facilities which reflect their on-board experience “exactly” and trainers utilise their expert knowledge to teach legislative requirements and health and safety regulations.
For example, they teach apprentices to understand the ‘ditching’ process – where a plane has to land in water in an emergency – and practical activities are used to check learners know how to open and close doors securely.
Ofsted’s chief inspector, Amanda Spielman, used yesterday’s annual report speech to repeat her criticism first aired in 2018 that a minority of colleges simply try to “fill their rolls and attract funding”, whether or not the programmes they offer “open doors for the students that take them”. She added that some colleges were “flooding” local job markets “with young people with say low-level arts and media qualifications”. David Hughes tackles the criticism and whether, as suggested by the chief inspector, the government should step in
Unsurprisingly, the launch of Ofsted’s annual report has sparked many conversations; it always does because everyone becomes engrossed in debating whether Ofsted is getting it ‘right’ or ‘wrong’. For colleges this year discussion has centred on whether courses offered to young people help them into jobs.
The relationship between course subject and employment outcomes is a complex one at all levels and in all types of education. It is broadly accepted that a degree in any subject is good preparation for the world of work. So singling out courses at lower levels is wrong and unfair. When employers recruit a graduate they expect a suite of skills, abilities and behaviours that allow someone to flourish in their organisation. The job-specific skills are achieved on the job; but are learned best by people with transferable skills. You don’t need a degree to have those skills; colleges students achieve them on courses at every level, and in every subject.
Colleges strive to make the best decisions for their students and the wider economy
We also know that for many students, they learn as much or perhaps even more from enrichment and extra-curricular activities. I cannot remember the last time I asked a candidate at interview about their qualifications, but I often ask about other activities which show the breadth of skills we are looking for.
It would also be short-sighted to suggest that every course can be matched directly to a job, not least because the labour market changes rapidly. When the best employers recruit, they are not looking to recruit people who are 100 per cent ready to do a specific job, but rather those with the potential to grow and develop, to learn and adapt. College courses develop student potential; they also build the confidence which unleashes it.
One of the accusations thrown at colleges is that they are not honest with potential students about the destinations and outcomes of a course. I’ve not seen evidence of that, but if it exists then I am confident that Ofsted will unearth it and report back through inspection reports. My experience, backed up by Ofsted in its inspections under the new framework, is that colleges strive to make the best decisions for their students and the wider economy. They do set out progression pathways and offer good IAG. Results are pretty good with the vast majority progressing onto study at higher levels or using their transferable skills in a whole range of sectors and roles.
Ofsted’s new inspection framework speaks to this with deeper dives into the intent and impact of courses. It’s right to take a more developmental approach so that colleges can really focus on outcomes and positive destinations of students. But we need to understand those outcomes better and understand that most people do not have linear routes into work and through their careers. Careers are often messy, with initial qualifications counting for little and experience and broader skills and abilities mattering far more.
Over four years ago we found that the average college worked with over 600 employers. When I meet these employers, they enthusiastically talk about how their success depends on colleges supporting the development of their workforce for immediate and long-term skills needs. Investing in colleges to provide more advice to SMEs would result in more relationships like this – good for productivity as well as for student prospects.
I’m sceptical about anyone who believes they can determine what courses are needed to make the labour market more efficient. There are simply too many variables to make those sorts of direct links, particularly given that most of the 2030 workforce is already in work. That’s not to say that colleges should not look at labour market information, they do. Along with working with their local economic development team, the Local Enterprise Partnership, employer bodies and large and small employers.
Ultimately, colleges are expert at offering people the chance to succeed, no matter their circumstance or background. They do this by helping people find their passion and gain the transferable skills employers are crying out for. Employers working with colleges have high satisfaction levels, as do students and outcomes are very good too. Any intervention must not come at the expense of this.
New College Stamford has been part of the capacity and delivery fund piloting industry placements: they met their target of putting 74 learners on placements last ear; but Meenaghan believes that while well over 100 will be placed this year, they will struggle to meet their target of around 142.
