Training providers delivering skills bootcamps received higher upfront fees in wave three of the rollout after complaining to the Department for Education (DfE) they felt they were teaching “for free”, a delayed report has revealed.
The DfE published an evaluation of its flagship employment skills programme today, 18 months after the 2022-23 ‘wave three’ period ended.
It reveals that contractual payments for delivering the crash courses, which last up to sixteen weeks and are meant to include a guaranteed job interview, were changed following cash flow concerns by providers.
Providers told researchers they needed more cash upfront because “resources can be a bit tight”.
The DfE agreed to increase the upfront fee for learners enrolling and starting a bootcamp, known as ‘milestone one’ from 30 to 45 per cent.
In a bid to incentivise providers into getting learners into a new job or a better role, the department also decreased the second milestone payment for learners completing the course from 60 to 35 per cent, and increased the final milestone payment from 10 to 20 per cent.
However, increasing the weighting of the final payment, which requires the learner to share proof of a positive job outcome with the provider, reduced the “financial attractiveness” of delivering bootcamps.
The DfE’s target of 75 per cent of learners achieving a positive outcome, and 100 per cent being offered an interview was criticised as “unrealistic”.
One anonymised provider told researchers: “If you’re very niche or working with employed co-funded learners you’re pretty much guaranteed an outcome, otherwise it’s very challenging when you’re working with unemployed learners.
“Our average job outcome across all our programmes is around 40 per cent, which is in line with the national picture for getting people into employment.”
Some providers shifted their focus towards co-funded or self-employed learners because it was “easier” to receive the full payment.
According to figures released last week, almost two-thirds of skills bootcamp learners in the previous wave, covering 2021-22, failed to achieve a positive job outcome in the second year of the flagship programme’s rollout, new government data has revealed.
And almost two in five bootcamp starters from this cohort dropped out before the end of their course.
The DfE has blamed the delay in releasing this data on the Covid pandemic and the general election.
However, FE Week understands there have been issues between providers and the Education and Skills Funding Agency over evidence required to receive the final payment for positive outcomes.
The report failed to provide any statistics showing how many learners completed their course or moved on to a new or better job.
However, it said “few participants” had achieved successful outcomes, although many felt “more confident” about their skills.
Attendance of bootcamps was low, with just under half of learners attending all or three quarters of their training, researchers found.
Overall, learners were “largely positive” about their course, although some complained they were “too complex and the timescales too short to learn the required knowledge and skills”.
According to the Greater London Authority, the estimated cost per bootcamp learner is about £3,500.
Around one-quarter of all students are neurodiverse, but are our campuses and estates designed in a way that caters for everyone? How well do sector leaders understand the significance of environment in meeting neurodivergent students’ needs, and are they equipped to do so?
Neurodiversity is the concept that brain differences are natural variations and that some people’s brains simply work in a different way. For the 22 per cent of students are neurodiverse, these differences may mean they are diagnosed with one or more neurological conditions within a broad range that includes autism, dyslexia and ADHD.
Understanding these differences and variations lays the foundation for ensuring that every student has an accessible and comfortable learning environment. By accepting that a student’s learning experience is impacted by how their brain processes information and by their surroundings, we can keep their specific needs in mind right from the planning phase.
It’s equally important to understand the differences between SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities) and neurodiversity. Although there is a BSI standard relating to neurodiversity in the built environment which aims to help with the design, creation and management of neurodivergent-inclusive environments, it is more likely to be overlooked in the design industry.
While SEND and neurodiversity differ, there is an overlap. Some conditions considered neurodiverse, including ADHD, autism, dyslexia, dyscalculia and dyspraxia can also be classified as SEND conditions. However, some are not.
Therefore, engaging at an early stage with key stakeholders such as staff, experts, parents, students and those with lived experience is essential to fully integrate needs into a building’s design. That work shouldn’t end at the consultation stage. Doing so ongoingly can help leaders to prioritise, plan and eliminate any issues or missed steps.
Some adaptations might be simple, quick fixes
Working with experienced suppliers who understand the needs of educational buildings used by neurodiverse students can also lead to quicker project completion. The more specialists are involved from the beginning, the more likely students will be able to thrive in inspiring, safe and sustainable learning environments.
To ensure an environment is suitable for neurodiverse students, colleges must start by assessing their buildings.
Some adaptations might be simple, quick fixes: the brightness of artificial lighting, access to natural light, removing distractions or making smaller breakout spaces available.
Larger considerations include the ability to move around. Many neurodiverse learners, for example, can struggle in large or loud environments and feel more comfortable in a low-stimulus space. Teachers can factor this into their teaching plans – but will do so most effectively if classroom layouts and the building itself allow it.
Although changing behaviours, attitudes and practices can help to create a more accessible learning environment, it may not always be enough. Some buildings may require long-term estate planning and refurbishment if the structure is not suited to accommodating a wide range of learning styles.
Having said that, adapting to meet the needs of a diverse range of students will also help to futureproof estates and ensure sustainability, not only in terms of decarbonisation but also in terms of maintaining high applications and admissions rates.
However, doing so will be a steep hill to climb without government funding.
Sadly, of the £2.6 billion allocation announced in 2021 to create 20,000 new specialist education places, the FE sector will see only a very small fragment. Current projects plan for only 160 places for young people with SEND in colleges — less than 1 per cent of the total.
This investment is a significant step in the right direction for schools, but many if not most of these students will transition to the FE sector before long. Welcoming them into unsuited environments will only add to pressure on staff – a pressure that is already associated with recruitment and retention challenges in the school sector.
So the funding settlement will need to change, but in the meantime, there’s no reason not to make progress where we can.
Whether that’s through quick fixes or embedding neurodiversity in already-scheduled projects, ensuring neurodiverse students can thrive should be a priority now.
Internationally and for many years, there has been a focus in education on ‘generic skills’, also referred to as ‘soft skills’, ‘life skills’, ‘essential employment skills’, or even ‘employability skills’. Here, however, curriculum reform over the past 14 years has focused mostly on schools and on knowledge acquisition. So how does our system now compare, and what does it mean for colleges?
Our new report reviews the extent to which generic skills are delivered in the 14-19 curriculum in ten jurisdictions. We investigated academic and vocational programmes in England, China, Estonia, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Ontario in Canada, Scotland and Singapore.
There are, of course, different takes on what generic skills are. However, across all ten jurisdictions there is a very clear top three: communication, collaboration and personal qualities (e.g. character, personality, self-management).
The next most common were ICT or digital skills, creativity, critical thinking and citizenship. The notion of being able to learn independently was also mentioned by many jurisdictions.
In every jurisdiction, generic skills are part of the vocational curriculum. In England they are an explicit part of study programmes for 16- to 19-year-olds. However, most of England’s learners start to be exposed to generic skills two years later than their international peers. Indeed, unlike England, most of the international systems we looked at include generic skills for the full 14-19 cohort.
In most jurisdictions, those on academic programmes still mostly have generic skills integrated into their curriculum, typically in the form of projects. These projects, we find, are widely considered to work well in helping to develop generic skills like collaboration.
However, they can be taught variably, particularly in jurisdictions where the focus was on high-stakes exams and knowledge-based pedagogy. This is certainly the case in England, where optional extras like extended project qualifications and Duke of Edinburgh awards, for example, remain the purview of higher-income families.
England is an outlier in a number of ways
Schools in England can make their own decisions about the extent to which they include generic skills in their curriculum provision, but they are not compelled to do so. This further drives inequalities in terms of opportunities and outcomes.
This is not the case for vocational learners. They are getting a better deal than their academic counterparts, because generic skills are an explicit part of their study programmes.
Of course, the economic and social context of the jurisdictions as well as the design of their education systems and the status of teachers in them all have an impact on their inclusion of generic skills.
In some countries, like Germany, a questioning and democratic approach to teaching means generic skills like communication and collaboration are taught naturally within the curriculum.
And in Finland, a longstanding commitment to a particular set of generic skills means they are embedded as a matter of routine.
Meanwhile, systems with fluidity between academic and vocational options are more likely to ensure all learners receive equivalent generic skills that are relevant to their programmes.
The high status of teachers in most jurisdictions also means they get the initial training and ongoing professional development to support them to make the most appropriate choices for embedding generic skills within their curriculum areas.
In England, however, we do not have fluidity between academic and vocational areas for 14-19-year-olds, with the notable exception of provision within FE colleges. In these settings, learners are typically better supported to develop a range of skills alongside subject-specific ones.
Our selection of jurisdictions is mostly made up of PISA high-performers with a range of education systems. Among them, England is an outlier in a number of ways.
With a curriculum review underway and a different culture at the DfE, it’s clear that renewed interest in generic skills is required to make us internationally competitive and begin to tackle challenges at home like youth unemployment and skills shortages.
In this, there is much to learn from the experience of those delivering study programmes in colleges, as well as from abroad.
Read the full report, Generic skills in the 14-19 curriculum: An international overview here
Introducing a volunteering strategy can seem daunting, especially when staff workloads are already high. However, with thoughtful planning, it’s possible to create meaningful opportunities without overburdening staff.
Being part of Good for ME Good for FE and witnessing the incredible work happening across the sector has been a major source of inspiration for us. Winning three of the campaign’s awards last year was the icing on the cake, and has only motivated us all to push even further this year.
However, I understood from the moment I was appointed to lead student social action in 2022 that the key to success would be to find the right balance between fostering strong student engagement and minimising the impact on teaching staff.
Here’s how we’ve done that.
No new to-do’s
We have embedded volunteering into existing curriculum frameworks. This ensures the strategy supports personal and academic development while keeping staff involvement manageable.
Doing this involved dedicating six stand-alone Personal Social Development (PSD) tutorial sessions to planning and executing social action projects, guided by the #IWill Movement‘s six principles.
This is now aligned with project-based learning and embedded in the main body of the PSD curriculum, spanning a substantial number of weeks. In fact, feedback from staff and students after the six-week pilot encouraged us to provide extra time (eight to ten weeks) in 2024/25.
Dedicating part of the structured curriculum to volunteering projects allowed students to engage in meaningful community activities without creating additional assignments.
Student-led projects
Empowering students to take ownership of their volunteering projects is crucial. Our students lead the entire process, from selecting themes and developing initiatives to executing the projects themselves.
Tutors act as facilitators, offering guidance and ensuring each project aligns with personal and academic goals. This approach not only builds students’ autonomy but also equips them with essential ‘future-ready’ skills, including soft skills, digital literacy, numeracy and oracy.
The student-led model significantly lightens the administrative burden on staff while enhancing student growth and engagement.
Clear messaging
To streamline the process further, we established clear frameworks for social action projects. We developed structured guidelines that outline the steps, expectations and deadlines for each project.
Templates for project proposals, evaluation forms and other documents also help reduce confusion and keep students on track, limiting the need for constant staff oversight.
Vocational alignment
Volunteering initiatives should complement the academic or vocational focus of the students involved. For example, our projects are linked to real-world issues like sustainability and social entrepreneurship, allowing students to develop skills that enhance their employability.
Using peer and expert assessment to feedforward on project progress and outcomes can also negate the need to spend time assessing and grading.
By aligning social action projects and products with vocational pathways, students gain relevant, practical and hands-on experience while tutors can guide and signpost without adding significant workload.
Strong external partnerships
Partnering with local organisations and charities can create mutually beneficial relationships that support the volunteering strategy.
Last academic year, we worked with over 45 charities and organisations, enabling students to work on meaningful community projects. These external partnerships can offer resources and support that alleviate pressure on staff while strengthening the college’s connection to the local community.
Structured staff involvement
Our next step was to introduce a staff volunteering scheme as part of their professional development. This initiative, aligned with the college’s strategic priority of giving back to the community, will provide opportunities for staff to engage in community service without adding to their regular workload.
Integrating staff volunteering into existing professional development plans is allowing us to create a culture of service that benefits employees and the community alike.
And it’s working. Staff and students are engaging in a multitude of activities including refurbishing a local library, creating garden spaces and murals, singing in local care homes and raising awareness of homelessness with a ‘Big Student Sleepout’.
In the end, workload isn’t just about how much work we do. It’s about the value we place in it. If everyone in the organisation values it properly, from inception to design to delivery to impact, then workload isn’t an issue that arises.
And how can anyone fail to value this work?
Nominations for this year’s Good for Me Good for FE awards close on October 7. You can nominate here
Offering prisoners earlier release dates if they participate in education courses will not work unless the government improves “underfunded” education services, ministers have been warned.
According to a report in The Times this week, ministers are drawing up early plans to copy the success of a scheme in Texas which allows prisoners to shorten the time they serve if they take part in education.
The policy proposal, understood to have been briefed to the newspaper by special advisors, comes almost 10 years after former justice secretary Michael Gove claimed to be looking at the policy.
But the Prisoner’s Education Trust’s chief executive has warned that prisons currently lack the capacity for classrooms, teachers or prison officers to meet demand.
Prison education shortage
Jon Collins, whose organisation provides 130 distance learning courses to prisoners, welcomed prioritising education as “fresh thinking” that could help to solve the prisons crisis.
However, he told FE Week: “The biggest problem with prison education in England and Wales isn’t with demand – by and large, people in prison are keen to access education – it’s with supply.
“Prison education is underfunded, what is on offer is narrow and limited, and there aren’t enough classrooms or teachers to accommodate more people or enough officers to escort them to education departments.
“The first priority must be to make high quality education more widely available in prisons, with the capacity to support more learners. Once that is in place, the focus can shift to how to encourage more people to participate.”
According to the Ministry of Justice’s prison performance ratings, more than half of prisons failed to meet their targets for progress in English and maths (57 per cent in category B prisons and 64 per cent in eligible reception prisons) in 2023-24.
An FE Week investigation earlier this year highlighted concerns about declining prisoner participation in education, contracts that prioritise value for money over quality, and a focus on English and maths over more interesting or advanced courses.
Not a new idea
The idea to incentivise prisoners to study through earlier release dates was floated by Gove during his 14-month tenure as justice minister in 2015.
He reportedly asked MoJ civil servants to draw up detailed proposals before then prime minister Theresa May sacked him in 2016.
None of the eight Conservative justice ministers who followed Gove in the last eight years appear to have revived the plans.
In 2022, the MoJ accepted “in principle” a House of Commons education committee recommendation that it consider education as an incentive for early release.
‘Counterproductive’ warnings
However, officials said directly linking early release to education “could be counterproductive”.
They added: “The essential criteria are whether the temporary release applied for will further the prisoner’s rehabilitation, and whether they can be safely released.
“As is demonstrated by our strengthened performance management metrics on prisoner attendance at education, we are keen to ensure that governors can take decisions as to how best to incentivise their prison population to engage with education and training.”
Peter Cox, managing director of prison education provider Novus, which operates at more than 40 prisons and young offender institutions across England and Wales, said: “Reoffending costs taxpayers £18 billion each year, and Ministry of Justice research has demonstrated that individuals who take part in prison education are 7.5 percentage points less likely to reoffend.
“We welcome moves to look at what more can be done to support rehabilitation in prisons, including exploring approaches which have proved successful in other countries.” The MoJ declined to comment.
A judge has dismissed an unfair dismissal claim against a London college group because it was filed 21 years after the event.
United Colleges Group has successfully had an employment tribunal claim thrown out after a former employee lodged a complaint over an accident that happened in 2003.
Judge Tim Adkin agreed with the college’s representative that a fair hearing was “no longer possible” given the time since the accident and the fact that individuals involved are likely to have moved on.
The claimant, named in tribunal documents as Mr A Watfa, was contracted as a centre services assistant for the City of Westminster College in March 2003 and shortly after had an accident that resulted in the amputation of his right middle finger.
Watfa was dismissed in September 2003 and lodged claims of unfair dismissal and disability discrimination 20 years later. He explained the reason for the delay was that it was a “traumatic” accident, and he had had “periods of mental health difficulties” since.
The judge told Watfa that, if his tribunal claim were taken forward, it would probably be heard next year, making it “unfair” for key witnesses to explain their actions 22 years after the incident.
“Even if the respondent was able to track down key witnesses, which must be in doubt, in my view the prejudice to the respondent would be very great and it would be unfair of them to explain their actions 22 years after the event,” Judge Adkin said.
He added that it was “simply just too late” to bring a claim so long after the event.
“I understand that in part the claimant says that he has had a lasting problem as a result of the injury. I do understand that, and I am very sympathetic to that,” the judge said.
“My finding is it that it will not be possible to have a fair hearing.”
Nick Smith of TTE Training sees himself as the “living embodiment” of the difference education can make.
His “amazing” career has so far included briefing journalists on military operations as a commando-trained Royal Navy officer, overseeing a students’ union, and taking the helm at the engineering apprenticeships provider TTE Training.
His office at Ellesmere Port on the Wirral gives him regular cause to reflect on the power of education. It’s on the same waterway his maternal grandmother passed through regularly when she and her family transported coal on a barge from London.
She never went to school and her illiteracy left her vulnerable to exploitation. She was “ripped off” with “inappropriate” credit deals, Smith says. That is why now “the biggest kick” he gets comes from seeing young people “meeting their potential”.
“I feel like a vampire sometimes because I feed off that energy,” he says.
Nick Smith as a child
Taxing tedium
But it took the chief executive a while to realise his own potential.
When he was 11 his dad left the army after 18 years as a squaddie in the light infantry. The family moved from the Black Country to a “sink estate” in Telford.
The struggling school that Smith and his brother attended, which was later closed down, failed to notice the potential in Smith’s younger brother. He was “a lot more intelligent” than Smith but had his “chances hampered from a critical age”.
Smith was less impacted, and made it to Liverpool University to study physics. But his poor schooling left him feeling inferior to the “very upper-middle class kids” he met there. There were “big gaps” in his mathematical knowledge and he felt “very aware” that he “hadn’t been as prepared for that university experience” as his contemporaries. He had to fight “tooth and nail” to graduate.
He recalls a lecturer saying he was “not taking his studies seriously” because he left term a week early to start a Christmas job at Boots. “But otherwise I had no money,” Smith explains.
These days, although his company trains up the next generation of engineers, in his spare time Smith is drawn to the arts; he takes commissions for his watercolour paintings and enjoys playing the saxophone.
His biggest regret is that he didn’t go to art college instead of studying physics. But it never occurred to him back then that a creative career could be possible.
Upon graduating Smith trained to be an accountant – and “absolutely hated it”. Three years into the course, a particularly tedious lecture on tax rules was the final straw. He turned to the person next to him and whispered, “are you enjoying this?” Smith certainly wasn’t.
Nick Smith at his university graduation
Living the dream
A chance meeting on a train shortly after caused his life to take a new turn. A man he met had just been interviewed for a Royal Navy education officer role and inspired Smith to apply. Unlike his train acquaintance, Smith was successful.
During his training at Dartmouth, aged 26 (and already married with two children), he was painfully aware he was older than the other recruits.
Nevertheless, three years later he was serving alongside the Royal Marines. Wearing the coveted green beret had been a “boyhood dream” for Smith, who had been in the territorial army as a teenager.
To become a commando he had to “significantly raise” his fitness levels over the course of a “very intense” 12 months.
How many training provider CEOs can say they’ve completed the gruelling All Arms Commando Course, which includes a ‘Tarzan assault course’ with its rope climb up a 30-foot, near-vertical wall and its full-loaded, eight-hour, 30-mile march across Dartmoor?
Nick Smith passing out of Britannia Royal Naval College in the rain
Media ops
Smith loved his peacetime role as an education officer, raising the aspirations and confidence of young people who, like he once was, were “very unsure of themselves”.
He believes that most people “don’t necessarily appreciate” that the military are “experts in training” when they’re not fighting.
But when they were on a wartime footing Smith was tasked with manning the radio at his commando unit’s headquarters and delivering media briefings.
Fending off tricky questions from journalists (then and now) is “absolutely fantastic” compared to the tax lectures he endured years earlier.
Smith also spent six months in Northern Ireland, during which time his job involved giving young marines an “understanding of the cultural significance” of the tensions there.
He would explain to them how England was “historically a much more homogeneous society, because we’ve been invaded and taken over by different groups throughout history, whereas the Irish generally have been able to repel invaders and retained their cultural identity in a keener way. So flags and sectarian belonging mean much more to aspects of that society.”
But it was “challenging” to tell a young marine that, had they “grown up in that environment”, they would “potentially be exactly the sort of person to be recruited by a paramilitary”.
He says: “The initial reaction was, ‘how dare you?’ because we were all serving Queen and country. But if you can make someone understand that, then they’re less likely to offend when they’re out patrolling the streets.”
Nick Smith wearing his coveted green beret
Moral courage
Smith’s eight years in the military made a “massive difference” to his self-confidence.
He also gained a sense of “moral courage” which means that nowadays he won’t “just walk by” if he sees someone being threatened.
His son and two grown-up daughters are “proud” of him for that, and he can see that attitude in them too.
“The military aren’t all closet Sergeant Majors. But we do all have a very honed sense of loyalty and service.”
But he was “really lucky” his commission ended before the second Gulf war started. Several people he served with were later injured and killed.
A few years later, Smith joined the reserves. He attended an inquest as a media operations officer for a marine killed by an improvised explosive device. Seeing the room full of the man’s friends, “all in tears over the circumstances of his death, really brought home” to Smith how lucky he was not to have endured similar horrors. “They stay with you forever.”
Nick Smith at his LJMU MBA graduation with his kids.
Liverpool life
His first job after the military involved securing new business opportunities for Vasishta Technologies Limited, a company set up by the brother of a royal artificer he had taught.
It was owned by an Indian company and its remit was supplying offshore IT expertise. Smith spent an “interesting” 12 months there before leaving to take on a very different role as chief executive of the students’ union at Liverpool John Moores University.
The “amazing people” he met at the union included the TV presenter Alex Brooker, then one of his elected officers. But he also witnessed during student election time some shenanigans he compares to “what goes on in the House of Commons”, with candidates “trying to entrap” their opponents to prove they were breaking the rules.
It was a “really colourful” place to work. Smith jokes how “the students flogging Socialist Worker on the steps of the Students Union became the stockbrokers of tomorrow”.
Nick Smith speaking at the TTE Training awards 2015
Tomorrow’s engineers
But the role, which mainly involved advising new sabbatical officers each year, became repetitive after a while. In 2007, he decided to jump headfirst into the training provider sector by joining TTE Training.
By that point, the company had already been established for 17 years and had grown to become one of the North West’s leading providers of advanced apprenticeships Level 3 in engineering and laboratory operations, and engineering apprenticeship Level 2 programmes.
It was set up by Ineos ChlorVinyls (formerly ICI, whose chairman is Jim Ratcliffe), Innospec (formerly Associated Octel) and Shell UK to provide training mainly in the chemical and petrochemical industries. The name TTE stands for both its registered name – Technical Training Enterprise – and the strapline the company uses, ‘training tomorrow’s engineers’.
Smith says they pride themselves on delivering personal development, leadership and teambuilding skills “over and above” the requirements that have been built into the apprenticeship standards.
The company’s 45 staff train around 350 learners at any one time.
They mainly take “rabbit in the headlights” 16-year-old school leavers, who by the end of their three-and-a-half-year programmes (two years at TTE’s training centre and 18 months with their employers) are “enormously” transformed.
Their cohort also increasingly includes those with degrees in unrelated fields such as the fine arts, as they can now be funded if their course was in a non-related subject.
It’s never a struggle to find academically able apprentices, with the provider rated ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted in successive inspections in 2017 and 2023.
Nick Smith speaking at an event
Money isn’t everything
But Smith does face challenges trying “to convince staff to stay”, given “how easy in theory it would be for our technical trainers to get a job in a college on more money”.
As a small company that “can’t afford to pay massive salaries”, TTE focuses on maintaining staff by providing a “good work-life balance”.
Its teaching staff are often former schoolteachers approaching or at retirement age, who still want to “do something socially worthwhile”.
“Money isn’t everything. People want to go home at night feeling like they’ve made a difference,” Smith says.
Nick Smith with colleagues from CMI, as he is a Chartered Companion of the Chartered Management Institute
Ongoing learning
Smith is ever the learner as well as the trainer. He completed an MBA while at Liverpool John Moores, and for his doctorate at Chester University he is specialising in ambidextrous decision-making in independent training providers.
The fact some of us might struggle to understand what the term ‘ambidextrous decision-making’ means only “highlights the problem” with modern training systems, says Smith.
It means “a company is self-aware enough that they’re putting in simultaneous resources into exploiting an existing opportunity and identifying new opportunities with the idea of becoming a sustainable business.
“If you just concentrate on what you’re doing in the here and now, you’ll run out of work. But if you just concentrate on research and development, you won’t make enough money to survive… You’ve got to do both.”
As for AELP, he believes many of its members, like him, “get a bit cynical about the rules and regulations” in the sector.
“But we’re all still here fighting because we care about young people in society. We want to help them meet their potential,” Smith says.
A Birmingham college principal has been chosen as the next president of the Association of Colleges.
Pat Carvalho has been the CEO and principal of Birmingham Metropolitan College since 2021 and has been working in the FE sector for over three decades.
She will succeed Corrienne Peasgood, who has served as AoC president since September 2022, on October 16.
“I am delighted to be the next AoC president and I hope I can do as good a job representing our great sector as my predecessors,” she said.
Before entering FE, Carvalho’s first career was in the NHS as a medical secretary after training at a local Birmingham college, before going on to university as a mature student.
She led Harrow College as principal for over eight years before the college merged to become Harrow and Uxbridge Colleges (HCUC) in 2017. She was then principal and deputy CEO of HCUC for another three years before moving to Birmingham.
AoC presidents are elected by the membership body’s college members. Their term of office runs for a maximum two-year tenure.
The president acts as an ambassador for the membership organisation and the further education sector.
Peasgood said: “It has been an honour to serve as the AoC President for two years, and it’s given me the privilege of seeing our sector from another perspective
She added: “AoC colleagues, staff, leaders and the board have been incredibly supportive, and I’d like to thank them for that. It’s time to hand over the reins now though and I’m thrilled that Pat Carvalho is our new president. It’s a fantastic role, and I wish Pat all the best.”
David Hughes, chief executive of AoC, said Carvalho is “inspiring and passionate about FE and brings a wealth of experience with her from the sector”.
He added: “I also want to say a huge thanks to Corrienne for her hard work over the past two years. She has worked tirelessly in her role as AoC president and has had an immense impact on our influencing and engaging work in particular.”
