The WorldSkills 2019 opening ceremony starts at 5pm (UK time) today and can be watched live via this link: https://worldskills2019.com/en/live/opening-ceremony/
The ceremony will also be broadcast on SKY 192 and Freesat 161.
FE Week is the exclusive media partner of WorldSkills UK and our reporter Fraser will be tweeting live from Kazan throughout the competition.
Nearly half of the new providers which have had Ofsted reports published this week have made ‘insufficient progress’ in at least one area.
YMCA George Williams College and London School of Commerce & IT Limited are among those to receive the rating for Ofsted’s objectives of ‘successful apprenticeship provision’ and ‘positive outcomes for apprentices’.
The inspectorate found a lack of quality leadership at YMCA George Williams College, deeming its governance “weak”. Trustees were said to have failed to provide leaders with the support and challenge needed to be effective.
The report highlighted the poor implementation of support on the programme, with most apprentices making “slow progress” as a result.
The provider had failed to successfully expand apprentices’ skills, and had high levels of absence and drop-out from the programme. Staff were said to not act quick enough to provide good student outcomes, with some apprentices waiting “too long for written feedback on a unit assessment.”
It concluded that the provider does not efficiently prepare apprentices for their functional skills qualifications and vocational application.
London School of Commerce & IT Limited was criticised for not having “planned to use their funding effectively to help learners”. “Nor do they have strong partnerships with the local job centre”, inspectors added. This was said to provide little opportunity for learners to progress onto the next level upon completion of the course.
Despite the majority of learners achieving functional skills qualifications, they did not adequately develop their English and mathematics skills.
Leaders were accused of not sufficiently measuring the impact of the courses, meaning that ultimately learners’ “individual needs” were not met.
AAA Training and Recruitment and CPC Training Consultants Ltd also received ‘insufficient’ judgements.
However, AAA has criticised Ofsted for handing down the judgement after sampling just a fraction of its apprentices.
Meanwhile CPC Training Consultants Ltd in Oldbury was criticised for not tracking learners’ progress after they had completed the programme. “As a result, managers do not have reliable information to analyse how successful the curriculum is in supporting learners to return to work.”
The investigation drew attention to managers not sufficiently using “the information on learners’ starting points and prior experience to place them on the right level of programme.” This apparently led to students either being over-stretched or under-challenged.
“Tutors do not set precise targets to improve learners’ skills”, Ofsted judged.
Fortunately, ‘reasonable progress’ for ensuring effective safeguarding (the third and final criteria of the report) was said to have been made for all four providers.
There was better news for UKfast.Net Limited in Manchester, which was the only provider this week found making ‘significant progress’.
Ofsted praised UKfast.Net in all areas of its early monitoring report, commenting on the provider’s “culture of high expectations”.
It said that the directors have “established strong links with stakeholders” and have “planned skilfully a challenging curriculum”. Consequently, apprentices make “very good progress” and most achieve distinction grades.
Staff had been recruited “carefully”, and were effective in developing significantly English and mathematical knowledge, as well as providing swift and overall “excellent support”.
Elsewhere, there were four monitoring reports which returned ‘reasonable progress’ scores across the board: Greendale Limited, Waltham International College Limited, Quest Training South East Ltd, Tendean Limited.
| Independent Learning Providers | Inspected | Published | Grade | Previous grade |
| Greendale Limited | 01/08/2019 | 13/08/2019 | M | N/A |
| London School Of Commerce & It Limited | 17/07/2019 | 14/08/2019 | M | N/A |
| Waltham International College Limited | 25/07/2019 | 14/08/2019 | M | N/A |
| YMCA George Williams College | 04/07/2019 | 13/08/2019 | M | N/A |
| Aaa Training Solutions Limited | 11/07/2019 | 15/08/2019 | M | N/A |
| CPC Training Consultants Ltd | 10/07/2019 | 16/08/2019 | M | N/A |
| Quest Training South East Ltd | 17/07/2019 | 16/08/2019 | M | N/A |
| Tendean Limited | 24/07/2019 | 15/08/2019 | M | N/A |
| Ukfast.Net Limited | 09/07/2019 | 15/08/2019 | M | N/A |
A provider has hit out at Ofsted after the inspectorate sampled just a fraction of its apprentices to decide it was making ‘insufficient progress’ in an early monitoring report.
AAA Training and Recruitment is expected to be suspended from recruiting new apprentices by the government after it was given the rating in two of the three categories looked at by the watchdog.
Its report, published yesterday, said the majority of apprentices are “not receiving their full entitlement to off-the-job training” and previous leaders and managers, who have been replaced in recent months, had not ensured that apprentices “acquire substantial new skills and knowledge”.
“AAA has concerns regarding the process Ofsted followed”
AAA started delivering its own apprenticeships in January 2018 and currently has 598 health and social care apprentices all based with one national employer called City & County Healthcare Group.
The training company’s new chief executive, David Grant, said the inspectorate only sampled around 4 per cent of its in-learning apprentices during the inspection.
He has “concerns regarding the process Ofsted followed and subsequent implication on the business” and told FE Week his provider is “considering our options with regards to taking further action and are in discussion with the board and advisers”.
This is the same challenge put forward by the country’s former largest training provider, Learndirect, when it lost a High Court battle with Ofsted to overturn an ‘inadequate’ judgement, which led to its huge government funding contracts being terminated.
It argued in court that the report should have been quashed because the “meagre sample size” – just 0.6 per cent of 70,000 learners – used by inspectors was “ineffectively unreasonable”.
Ofsted claimed there was “a comprehensive evidence base clearly supporting the judgements made”, and the judge sided with the inspectorate.
Grant, who took over at AAA five months ago, said his provider’s inspection “lasted 1.5 days, they made judgements based on a small sample and did not make judgements based on a snapshot of the ‘here and now’ they based judgements on historical issues that had already been rectified by the new team”.
“Furthermore – one inspector tried to include a judgement that related to one learner (we challenged) and it was removed by the lead HMI,” he added. “I am not sure how many other judgements she submitted based on a few learners (she was representing the field based team) and reporting back.”
An Ofsted spokesperson said the sample size will vary for each individual inspection, but could not give a figure for what the typical size is.
“Inspectors make judgements based on a range of evidence – observations of training sessions are just one part of this,” she told FE Week.
“Among other things, inspectors also take into account work scrutiny, discussions with learners and employers, and analysis of provider and learner records.
“The mix of evidence will vary on each inspection, and is down to the inspector’s professional judgement, taking into account the handbook criteria and the specific circumstances of the provider.”
AAA’s report said the majority of apprentices are not making expected progress, and none have yet achieved within their expected finish date. Around a third have left without achieving their qualifications.
Historical issues at the provider included that some apprentices have had their assessors changed several times and experienced long gaps in the delivery of their programmes. Some have had to repeat lost work. “Too many” learning and review sessions are cancelled.
Ofsted did report that AAA’s new leadership team has identified the weaknesses in the provision and has “plans in place to remedy these”.
These plans include implementing a new management information system, an amended enrolment process, and regular meetings to review progress.
New training staff are also being recruited and although it is “too early to see the impact of these changes”, initial feedback from apprentices is “positive”, Ofsted said.
Grant said he was “pleased that recent changes and improvements were commented on during the monitoring visit and within the final report”.
West Kent and Ashford College will apply to enter education administration tomorrow.
The embattled college is expected to follow its sister college Hadlow into insolvency, after the former fell in May, in order to streamline the sale of their various campuses.
It follows on from the FE Commissioner Richard Atkins recommending in July that Hadlow College and West Kent and Ashford College, which are currently part of one group, should have their campuses divided up between North Kent, East Kent and Capel Manor College.
MP for Tonbridge and Malling, Tom Tugendhat said the plan requires West Kent and Ashford College (WKAC) to be “formally broken apart”, and the Education and Skills Funding Agency has confirmed that applying for educational administration is the “most effective way of achieving this complex transaction”.
“It is not a new problem – rather, the beginning of a solution,” Tugendhat explained.
“Though it is concerning when any college applies for educational administration, I am assured by the college and administrators this is a necessary step in order to safeguard the long-term interests of students and staff at West Kent College.”
WKAC chair Martin Doel said that while the college’s finances have been stabilised over recent months, the college is “faced with exceptional outstanding liabilities and would be insolvent without external support”.
Graham Morley, interim principal at the college, reassured staff and parents entering education administration “will not affect the day-to-day operations of the college”.
“All courses will continue as normal and they should still apply to, and enrol with, us for this September,” he added.
Atkins said he believes this is the “beginning of implementing a better future for learners, staff and the wider community in Ashford, Tonbridge and West Kent”.
Education administration would only apply to WKAC itself and not its subsidiary, the Rosemary Shrager’s Cookery School.
A Department for Education spokesperson said: “Following a request from West Kent and Ashford College, we have applied to the court to place the college in education administration. This is now a matter for the court. This process is designed to specifically ensure that learners’ interests are protected and continue their studies with minimal disruption.”
Hadlow College was the first college to fall under the new insolvency regime earlier this year. It was put in the hands of administrators BDO by the High Court in May, after financial irregularities came to light.
The college’s deputy principal Mark Lumsdon-Taylor applied for exceptional financial support from the ESFA, which put the college in scope for intervention by Atkins. West Kent and Ashford (WKAC) was already under a financial health notice of concern.
Atkins found the board of Hadlow and WKAC had failed in their fiduciary duty and the college had run out of money after a request from Hadlow for £24 million from the restructuring fund to merge with the other two colleges had been rejected.
Atkins’ intervention led to the resignation of Lumsdon-Taylor, principal Paul Hannan, Hadlow chair Theresa Bruton, and West Kent and Ashford (WKAC) chair Paul Dubrow.
Graham Morley was made interim principal of Hadlow College and West Kent and Ashford, while ex-Association of Colleges boss Martin Doel and mergers and acquisitions expert Andrew Baird were drafted in as chairs of WKAC and Hadlow, respectively.
A troubled college group that has been run by an interim chief executive for nearly a year has appointed an Ofsted inspector as its new permanent boss.
John Evans (pictured) will take the reins from Dr Elaine McMahon at The Cornwall College Group during the autumn term.
She has held the position in an interim capacity since November, when former head Raoul Humphreys stepped down with immediate effect to “expedite” a government bailout.
Evans has more than 30 years’ experience in FE colleges, and has been principal of Yeovil College since 2014. He took on the additional role as an Ofsted inspector in 2011.
Chair of the TCCG board, Dr Ian Tunbridge, said the college was “thrilled” to secure an “outstanding leader in education”.
“John’s obvious passion and enthusiasm for delivering innovative teaching and learning, and ensuring that all learners have an outstanding experience resonated with everyone,” he said.
“In the meantime, we are fortunate that Dr Elaine McMahon will continue as interim chief executive, ensuring the sustainable long term future of our colleges for the benefit of our communities and the region.”
Cornwall College Group, which is rated ‘requires improvement’ by Ofsted, secured a £30 million government bailout to drive forward its “fresh start” business plan earlier this year, but questions still loom about whether campuses will be sold off.
A local area review conducted by FE Commissioner Richard Atkins had suggested the best way forward for the group may be to merge with Truro and Penwith College, but following the large bailout this prospect was binned.
Cornwall had received £4.5 million emergency funding in 2016/17 and £3.5 million in 2017/18.
Prior to leading Yeovil College, Evans was vice principal for curriculum and quality at Swindon College. He also worked at Bridgwater and South Devon Colleges, as head of motor vehicle, construction and engineering and head of technology respectively.
Of his appointment, McMahon said: “I am passionate about the ability of FE to have a positive socio-economic impact and to widen participation through partnership working, which is why I am so happy this vital college has appointed John.
“His experience and expertise, particularly in terms of quality and student experience, will help TCCG secure a bright future for its learners and the businesses it supports through training and apprenticeships.”
West Kent and Ashford College has been put into education administration, making it the second college to fall under the insolvency regime.
At the High Court today, Insolvency and Companies Court judge Sally Barber granted the petition put forward by the Department for Education at the request of WKAC.
The Ofsted grade three college will now be under the legal control of administrators BDO, who have been appointed to achieve the best results for creditors while minimising disruption to WKAC’s 4,500 students and 463 staff.
The court heard that in 10 of the 13 weeks between 29 July and 27 October the college has had a cashflow deficit. It also owed £1.6 million in debts that were overdue by over three months, and net liabilities of £17.5 million by the 31 May 2019.
In her judgement, Judge Barber said the college is “plainly insolvent” and this is an “appropriate case to grant the order”.
“Learner protection is clearly a very significant factor and the evidence before me suggests that protection is at the forefront of the minds of those putting together the proposal,” she added.
WKAC’s sister college, Hadlow, was the first to be put into education administration in May.
Kent MP Tom Tugendhat said yesterday that, as part of plans to split WKAC between North Kent College and East Kent Colleges Group, the campuses needed to be “formally broken apart”.
He said the Education and Skills Funding Agency confirmed that applying for educational administration is the “most effective way of achieving this complex transaction”.
Tugendhat offered reassurances this is “not a new problem – rather, the beginning of a solution”, and FE Commissioner Richard Atkins said he believes this is the “beginning of implementing a better future for learners, staff and the wider community in Ashford, Tonbridge and West Kent”.
WKAC chair Martin Doel said that while the college’s finances have been stabilised over recent months, the college is “faced with exceptional outstanding liabilities and would be insolvent without external support”.
If the sale goes ahead, this would be the second time the West Kent and Ashford campuses have been split up in ten years – they were adopted by Hadlow following the collapse of K College in 2014.
Graham Morley, interim principal at the college, reassured staff and parents entering education administration “will not affect the day-to-day operations of the college”.
“All courses will continue as normal and they should still apply to, and enrol with, us for this September,” he added.
Government guidance for further education bodies which become insolvent states the administrator must prepare a report on the conduct of all of the governors for the last three years for the business secretary.
The Insolvency Service will then review these reports and decide whether to seek to disqualify any of those governors; however, board members could also face jail sentences if it is found they have committed a statutory offence.
Education administration will only apply to WKAC itself and not its subsidiary, the Rosemary Shrager’s Cookery School.
Both WKAC and Hadlow College, which make up the Hadlow Group, have been subject to intervention from the FE Commissioner Richard Atkins and have been under financial health notices of concern with the ESFA.
A report by Atkins, published in May, revealed how Hadlow Group’s leaders concealed the truth of its financial position until the college needed bailing out, in a “corporate failure of leadership”. “We were genuinely shocked by what we found”, he told FE Week at the time.
The principal, deputy principal and several governors, left their roles at Hadlow and WKAC earlier this year following allegations of financial irregularities.
A Department for Education spokesperson said: “Following a request from West Kent and Ashford College, the college has today been placed into education administration.
“The ESFA will continue to work closely with the administrators and with West Kent and Ashford College to minimise disruption to staff and students, and to deliver a longer term solution to protect the provision of Further Education in Kent.”
FE Week talks medal hopes and teamwork with WorldSkills UK mechatronics competitors Jack Dakin and Danny Slater as the final countdown to Kazan begins.
Reporter Fraser Whieldon travelled to Toyota UK in Derby yesterday to meet the mechatronics duo; both of whom are 24, from Derby, and work at the automotive manufacturer.
The two are no strangers to international competitions, having won a bronze medal for the UK at EuroSkills 2018 in Budapest. What are their hopes of bringing back a silver or gold from WorldSkills next week?
Our aim is to be the highest-ranked European team
“Realistically, there is a lot more competition going from EuroSkills to WorldSkills,” Jack (pictured centre) said. “I think we’ll take it task by task and as long as we come out the other end knowing we have given it our all, we’ll be happy.”
Danny (pictured left) is less coy, saying: “Our aim is to be the highest-ranked European team.”
Their competition will consist of constructing four stations over four days, much of which will be blind tests.
The stations will form a production line which draws on the multiple disciplines of mechatronics, including mechanics, electronics and fluid processes.
For example, a station they had been practising with at Toyota’s on-site academy involved transporting a WorldSkills coin in a pot from one end of the station to another using circuits to power the components and pressurised air to lift the pot around the production line.
Danny explained: “We don’t know what the stations are going to be, how it is going to be laid out, what it’s going to be asking us to do.
“They could throw in new equipment nobody’s seen just to enhance the competition.”
But that’s good for the competition, says Jack, as “everyone’s on the same level, but you’ve never seen it before, so it’s about overcoming those problems”.
Making the playing field more level could play in Danny and Jack’s favour when they are up against some countries like China and Russia, which plough tremendous amounts of time and resources into WorldSkills and compete in a much wider array of events.
While Jack says they are “very lucky” that Toyota invest so much in the competition, going up against countries which prepare so rigidly for this one tournament may prove to be an epic challenge for the pair.
To prepare, the two have been revising the components they know will come up, to hammer down how they will function in the production line.
Another area is speed, trying to perform quicker and more efficiently.
Much like Phoebe MacLavy, Team UK’s hairdressing competitor FE Week spoke to last week, these two have been honing their skills and scouting out the competition at a number of other tournaments.
Other than EuroSkills, Jack and Danny, who completed apprenticeships together at Toyota, have done other competitions in the Netherlands, the UK, and Budapest last week, where they competed against Russia and Hungary – the two teams which bested the UK at EuroSkills – and came second behind Russia.
Danny said: “As we’re working as a pair, we are trying to know each other’s strengths and what we can leave to the other person to save time.”
Helping them along is training manager Calum Knot, who competed in mechatronics at EuroSkills 2014.
There is hardly a better pair of hands for Jack and Danny as, aside from having finished in the top five in 2014, Calum has also worked as an associate lecturer at Middlesex University and goes around the country running training and installing equipment for international technical education company Festo Didactic.
“One of the things about being a training manager is you don’t have to be the quickest person at doing it,” he said.
“The best person at teaching doesn’t have to be the best person at doing it. A football coach doesn’t have to be the star player, just be able to point the star player in the right direction.”
As with other training managers, Calum will stop being a training manager in Kazan and become an expert who must remain neutral and not show favouritism towards their national team.
Of his expert role, Calum said it is very hard to stay “emotionally disconnected” and avoid looking over at what your competitors are doing.
Hopefully he will not have much to worry about, as Jack says: “We are as ready as we can be.”
Team UK will travel to Russia on Monday before four days of intense competition start on 22 August.
FE Week is the exclusive media partner of WorldSkills UK and will be reporting live from Kazan.
A-level results day is here!
Over 200,000 students studying the qualifications up and down the country will today find out whether all their hard work has paid off, and what their next step in life will be.
*** The live blog is now closed. Sorry if your pictures didn’t make it in – we’ve been inundated with stories and there simply hasn’t been time to add them all. We really appreciate you sending them and don’t forget to send them in next year. Congratulations to all the learners who got their results today and best of luck for the future.***
As with previous years, we’ll be sharing some of the success stories from colleges, sixth form colleges and providers from across England on this live blog. Stay tuned!
Jacob Moat, an A-level student at Bede Sixth Form, will be enjoying the best of both worlds after being accepted onto a higher apprenticeship.
18-year-old Jacob (pictured), who achieved a B in media studies, a B in business and a C in economics will be undertaking a level 6 chartered surveyor apprenticeship with PD Ports, which will involve one day a week studying at Northumbria University.
Jacob said he was “ecstatic” about being accepted onto the apprenticeship after partaking in the college’s Logistics Academy programme, which aims to help raise young people’s awareness of the logistics industry by taking part in a series of workshop, masterclasses and site visits.
A student from Barnet and Southgate College has achieved an A* in physics and chemistry and an A in maths, despite only having arrived in the country from Syria three years ago.
Karim Bakkar (pictured left) has secured a place at Birmingham University to study an integrated BSc and Masters degree in nuclear engineering.
The 20-year-old had to complete an ESOL course before enrolling at the college, but said he had had “a unique time here and I have loved every minute”.
The congratulations of FE sector leaders on A-level results day has been tinged with warnings over the future funding for those qualifications and the apprenticeships school leavers may go on to.
The chief executive of the Sixth Form Colleges Association Bill Watkin said his members had delivered another “outstanding” year of A-level results, and large specialist providers of sixth form education were leading the way in delivering a “broad, high-quality education to young people”.
However, he said the decline in entries to English literature and language A-levels was a concern, and it is important the government and regulators develop a much clearer explanation about grade boundaries and how they are set.
The latter comes after FE Week reported yesterday on leaked copies of Edexcel’s and OCR’s grade boundaries, which revealed A-level maths students needed as little as 55 per cent for an A grade.
Watkin and AELP policy officer Simon Ashworth also voiced their worries about funding for A-levels and apprenticeships respectively.
Ashworth said: “Congratulations to all those students who have worked so hard to give themselves a chance to thrive in a very uncertain climate.”
But he added: “AELP’s major concern is that employers would currently like to be offering them up to 25 per cent more apprenticeship opportunities if the funding was available and the shortage is being felt most outside the big cities.”
After Boris Johnson said it was “vital” the government invest more in FE and skills, Ashworth said that extra investment needs to be “pumped in quickly” if the prime minister “doesn’t want thousands of disaffected young people on his hands”.
An Exeter College student is celebrating getting an A*, an A and a B in a year when he had to care for his mother, who has been suffering with aggressive breast cancer.
Jack Smith, who lost his father in 2012, studied A-levels in physics, maths and further maths and will be studying physics at the University of Exeter.
The 17-year-old said: “It has been a tough time for me, but Exeter College have helped me along the way and I’m thrilled to be going to study physics at university.”
A student at Vision West Nottinghamshire College did not let a curved spine stop her achieving A-levels and getting her hands on a scholarship with the University of Sheffield.
With a B in English literature, B in law, C in politics and a B in her EPQ now under her belt, Emily Gay (pictured) is off to study English literature.
The 19-year-old, who has double-curved scoliosis, which causes curvature of the spine, said: “I’ve had 19 years to get used to my health problems, having scoliosis and my legs are different lengths, but I just get on with things and it’s not stopped me achieving.”
While Emily prepares to start her life at university, 18-year-old Phoebe Stirland (pictured left) will be starting in the world of work – with an apprenticeship.
After an “exhausting and demanding” exam period, from which she gained an A in history, B in English language and C in biology, she will start next week at Launay’s Restaurant and Bar as a chef.
“Most of my friends are going to university, but I’m really looking forward to getting into the world of work,” said Phoebe, who also boasted about her skills with lemon meringue.
Christian Marriott (pictured) has become the first ever student from his UTC to secure a place at Oxford.
The 18-year-old from UTC Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park scored an two A* grades and an A in maths, further maths and computer science, ensuring his place at Mansfield College to study maths.
Christian said he “had a great time at the UTC”, as he enjoyed both the academic and technical learning, and the opportunity to taking part in other projects, such as the Vex Robotics competition.
A Harlow College student who did not get the chance to take A-levels on their first time around is “really happy” after opening their results today.
22-year-old Bevan Collins is off to the University of York to study theoretical physics after securing an A in maths, a B in physics, and a C in further maths.
He said: “I didn’t get a chance to sit my A Levels the first time around so I was determined to come back to education to take them now.”
Getting his results, he added, was the “the culmination of a four year journey”.
Fellow Harlow student, 18-year-old Sarah Williams, was “overwhelmed” after receiving an unexpected A in politics, B in psychology and B in history.
“My goal was always to go to Sheffield to study History and now I’m doing it!”
Jack Esson (pictured far left) from Blackburn College is off to study for a degree in maths and computer science after getting the chance to partake in a national maths competition.
He achieved an A*, three As and a B in his A-levels after choosing to study at college for the “more adult environment” which allowed him to become more independent and take responsibility for his own studies, as opposed to a school setting.
While at college, Jack was also given the chance to take part in the UK Mathematics Trust Maths Challenge.
Joining him at Lancaster will be Leah Clare, who will be studying physics, astrophysics and cosmology after achieving three As and a B.
She said she had “thoroughly enjoyed” her course, with the standout moments being when she was able to meet a former college student who had gone on to study for a PhD.
First, he forgot to appoint a minister for skills for nearly a week. Now Boris Johnson has forgot colleges also offer courses to do after A-levels in his congratulations to students picking up their results today.
In his message, the Prime Minister said his new government will do “all we can to improve funding for education and to give schools the powers they need to deal with bad behaviour and bullying so that pupils can learn”.
He went onto say that government “must focus much more attention on providing great apprenticeships for all those who do not go to university”, seemingly forgetting colleges also offer routes for school leavers.
His lapse comes after the Department for Education caused outrage by making the same mistake on Twitter, where it said A-level students could either go to university, do an apprenticeship, or get a job after they got their results, with no mention of college courses.
This could be seen as a further snub of colleges and FE from a prime minister who did not appoint a dedicated skills minister in his first reshuffle and instead shared the brief between education secretary Gavin Williamson and children’s minister Kemi Badenoch.
Johnson had promised during the Conservative leadership election to “do more to fund our amazing FE colleges”, then told the Commons as prime minister that it is “vital” to invest more in FE and skills.
18-year-old Uther Naysmith from Derby College has secured his place to study law at Oxford after scoring an A* in politics and As in history and french.
He said he had “really enjoyed” his time at the college, and it was his teachers who encouraged him to apply for Oxford, which he had not thought of doing before.
Other success stories from the college include Ethan Lee, 19, who gained A* grades across the board in English language, psychology and sociology.
He is off to the University of Nottingham to study cognitive neuro science and psychology, and said he was “on another level of relieved and thrilled” with his results.
Meanwhile, Jaiya Verma, 18, is “really pleased” with her A grade for Extended Project and B grades in English language, English literature and sociology.
She hopes to follow in her mother’s footsteps and become an English teacher, and will be studying English Literature at either Durham or Newcastle.
We kick off today’s blog with a message from new education secretary Gavin Williamson, who said everyone receiving results today should feel “proud” of their achievements – as should the “thousands of teachers that supported them in our brilliant schools and colleges”.
“Today marks the culmination of years of hard work which it’s right to recognise at this time of year,” he added.
“Of course, the minds of thousands of young people getting their results will soon turn to the next chapter in their lives, whether that’s a place at one of our world class universities, earning on an apprenticeship or entering the world of work – and I hope every one of them is excited about the opportunities that lie ahead for them and I wish them the very best of luck for their results today.”
Students would only be able to apply to universities after seeing their A-level and other qualification results under a Labour government.
The party has today pledged to “radically reform” higher education admissions by scrapping offers based on predicted grades.
Labour said the current system, where college and sixth form student applications are made by January – months before sitting their exams in early summer – unfairly penalises disadvantaged students and those from minority backgrounds.
“This would put a further squeeze on the amount of teaching time available”
Its proposed “fairer system” of post-qualification admissions (PQA) would “curb the sharp rise in unconditional offers” and bring an end to the “stressful” clearing process.
Similar plans were ditched in 2012 after a review by the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) found “insurmountable” problems, including less teaching time as exams would need to be brought forward in the year.
The review said the changes were also impractical because students from the four countries of the UK sit their exams at different times of the year, and students might research their university options less thoroughly.
Labour hasn’t addressed those issues in its announcement today. But shadow education secretary Angela Rayner (pictured) said they will work with schools, colleges, and universities to “design and implement the new system, and continue to develop our plans to make higher education genuinely accessible to all”.
She added the current system “isn’t working” and “radical action is needed to change that”.
The Sutton Trust has previously warned poorer students are more likely to have their grades under-predicted than their wealthier peers, meaning they are less likely to apply to the most selective institutions.
But Clare Marchant, UCAS’ chief executive, said while a post-results admissions service has a “natural appeal”, it would be “likely to significantly disadvantage underrepresented and disabled students”, unless school, college and university calendars changed.
“Young people need their teachers’ support when making application choices, and this isn’t readily available to all at the scale required when schools and colleges are closed during August.”
Former UCAS chief executive Mary Curnock-Cook told FE Week that Labour would need to pull some “major system changes out of the hat to ensure that it doesn’t become just one big clearing process over a few short weeks in the summer holidays”.
She said having the “choice of applying early and getting a motivational conditional offer, or applying post-qualifications in what is now a very professional clearing system, is the best of both worlds”.
Bill Watkin, chief executive of the Sixth Form Colleges Association, said a review of current arrangements is “welcome”, but “many of our members are concerned that making offers after the publication of A-level results would mean that exams would have to take place at least a month earlier”.
“This would put a further squeeze on the amount of teaching time available – time that has already been reduced following the introduction of linear A-levels,” he added.
David Hughes, chief executive of the Association of Colleges, said the current admissions system “concerns” colleges and “it is clear that pre-results applications are problematic” as “only 16 per cent of applicants achieving their predicted A-level grades”.
“We are keen to explore other approaches and with more than half of university students coming from colleges it is vital that colleges are part of the ongoing discussions about how to make the system work better,” he added.
Labour said PQA is the norm across the world, and England’s reliance on predicted grades is an international outlier.
Jo Grady, general secretary of the University and College Union, believes allowing people to apply after they receive their results would “help level the playing field for students”.
“The current system, based on inaccurately predicted results, is failing students and it is time we adopted the type of system used around the rest of the world where university offers are based on actual achievements instead of guesswork,” she added.
A Department for Education spokesperson said: “Universities must ensure their admissions practices are fair, to ensure everyone can access higher education, or they will face action.”
She added that the Office for Students and Universities UK are already undertaking a review of university admissions to “look at how well current practices serve students and we urge all groups to support them to see how they can be improved”.
