Level two brickwork students have been learning how to restore and rebuild medieval dry-stone walling.
The team of learners from Lancaster & Morecambe College have been working on a five-mile stretch of dry stone walling at High Hampsfield Farm in Lindale, which has sections that date back to the middle ages, including a lime kiln.
Students have been rebuilding the sections of the wall using traditional techniques, as well as restoring the bricks, all under the watchful eye of Bill Pimblett, who runs the farm.
“It’s great for them to learn more about what’s on their own doorstep and how we can all help to preserve it,” he said.
“This has been an excellent opportunity for Bricklaying students to add something extra to their CVs and is a great introduction to walling techniques, which will hopefully enthuse students to want to follow this traditional skill further,” added Liz Smith, a tutor at the college.
The Department for Education has been heavily criticised for its oversight of the Student Loans Company during the tenure of its disgraced former chief executive, in a new report from the National Audit Office.
The watchdog looked into how the DfE monitored the company while Steve Lamey, who was dismissed for gross misconduct last November, was in charge.
The report has identified a catalogue of monitoring shortcomings at both the DfE and the onetime Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.
“There were many changes in the company during 2016,” the report stated. These included changes to its governance and senior leadership, “but the department did not consider whether its oversight arrangements were sufficient”.
Furthermore, “accountabilities, roles and responsibilities for the department’s oversight of the company are not up-to-date and lack clarity”.
The report also revealed that the DfE is reviewing its oversight and governance arrangements with the SLC. In fact, it will cover all its arms-length bodies, including the Institute for Apprenticeships, Ofsted and the Education and Skills Funding Agency.
A spokesperson said the department had “reviewed and introduced changes to our oversight measures, including quarterly shareholder meetings to discuss performance and risk management” after it assumed responsibility for the SLC in 2016.
The current review will look at “how we can build on those measures to ensure that the SLC is well-supported” in the future, she added.
Mr Lamey was appointed chief executive of the SLC in June 2016, despite concerns from BIS about his suitability for the role, according to the NAO report.
The report identified a number of areas where the DfE and BIS had fallen short in its oversight, including failing to update the framework which set out its relationship with the SLC for almost 10 years.
“We welcome the NAO report and have already implemented a number of changes to strengthen governance in the areas they identified,” a spokesperson for the SLC said.
Meg Hillier, chair of the Commons Public Accounts committee, said the report was a “story of the failure of two departments to effectively monitor a public body under their watch”.
Arboriculture students from Myerscough College’s Preston campus have won prizes in the 2018 Northern College Climbing Competition.
The team of level three BTEC students won £500 of arboriculture equipment for their college, impressing judges with their speedy tree-climbing in both of the competition’s categories: climbers with less than one year’s experience, and climbers with less than two years’ experience.
Students from the agricultural college’s Preston and Croxteth campuses took part, going up against learners from Reaseheath College.
The challenge is run by the Arboricultural Association, to give students an introduction to industry-standard tree climbing, building on their experience from college.
“Students from both our sites made superb times on their climbs and showed the north what awesome climbers they are. We’re proud of everyone who competed,” said Andy Taaffe, head of greenspace and creative studies at Myerscough College.
Engineering is an area that’s historically been dominated by men. Sandra McNally is leading an inquiry into how to massively widen women’s participation in this vital area of the economy, and is asking for written submissions by May 21
In this ‘Year of Engineering’, the Skills Commission is running an inquiry into the pathways for women into engineering. Engineering contributes 26 per cent of the UK’s GDP, and developing skills in this area is a key element of the industrial strategy.
While gender imbalances are prevalent in engineering in many countries, the UK is one of the worst, according to statistics produced by the Women’s Engineering Society. Research from the Learning and Work Institute found that women are far less likely than men to apply for an apprenticeship in engineering, manufacturing and technology. The Centre for Vocational Education Research has shown that men who undertake an advanced apprenticeship have much higher earnings in the future than women – and much of this is attributable to the sector of specialisation.
Why are women so underrepresented in engineering and what might be done about it? These are the central questions I and my co-chairs of the Skills Commission inquiry, Lucy Allan MP and Preet Gill MP, are asking. Even the question is difficult, because engineering is a very broad area and can be studied within both FE and HE.
Part of the answer might lie in the narrowness of how people perceive engineering as an occupation, perhaps picturing hard hats and railway lines. Witnesses to our inquiry have been keen to stress that there is much more to engineering than that, but it seems to suffer from an image problem that needs to be turned around.
While gender imbalances are prevalent in engineering in many countries, the UK is one of the worst
This is not helped by the school curriculum, where reference to engineering is absent, nor by the quality of information, advice and guidance on offer. Positively, the Skills Commission has already called for a step change in information, advice and guidance at schools, and the Baker amendment to the Technical and Vocational Education Act has ensured that local FE providers can meet potential pupils to make pathways into further education more accessible. One message seems to be that if people knew what engineers actually do and the range of settings where many of them work, it would not be so much at odds with the hopes and expectations of young women.
On the other hand, gender stereotyping from an early age is a very pertinent issue for STEM in general and engineering in particular. One of the researchers giving evidence to the inquiry told us that many women in engineering have a family member who works in the sector and need to be resilient to jibes from others for choosing to study and work in this area. This societal problem is sometimes reinforced in advertising, the media and even children’s toys. On top of this, the workplace culture can sometimes be hostile to women: from very practical ways of overlooking the their needs (such as a lack of appropriate clothing and facilities) to “macho culture”. However, there are examples of firms at the other end of the spectrum – desirable places for anyone to work.
Our call for evidence is now being extended to May 21, looking for examples of good and bad practice at engineering firms. We want examples of initiatives that have been tried (in any area) to address the barriers to women’s decisions to study or work in engineering. We are seeking ideas on how policy at various levels might help to address problems. For example, can more be done to incentivise best practice ? Are there practical ways that larger employers can help small employers in their supply chain? At schools and colleges, how might information, advice and guidance or the curriculum be changed to accurately represent what engineering actually involves, in all its diversity? Is there something that those designing T-levels can do? More broadly, are there practical ways that the more deeply embedded stereotypes can be challenged and changed?
It’s difficult to see how the needs of the engineering sector can be met without doing more to attract the 50 per cent of the population, from whom the current supply is pitifully small.
The Skills Commission has extended its call for evidence deadline until May 21. We want to hear from the engineering sector and those in the FE and HE sectors training engineers of the future. If you have thoughts to share, please respond to our call for evidence. Written submissions can be made anonymously or contact Beth Wheaton at Policy Connect .
Sandra McNally is the director of LSE’s Centre for Vocational Education Research
The UK’s first renewable energy training facility based at an FE college has been declared open by the prime minister.
The Energy Centre at the Berkshire College of Agriculture was officially opened by Theresa May on April 27.
The facility has been developed by the college in partnership with biomass company LC Energy, and will offer students aged 16 to 19 a range of technical qualifications in areas such as biofuel engineering and renewable energy.
During her visit, Ms May had a tour of the facilities, including the first training biomass boiler at a UK FE college, and met with students and staff.
“I was pleased to be able to meet with students who, through using the new energy centre, will be given the training and opportunity to make a real difference to help protect our planet for future generations,” Ms May said.
“We already have two biomass boilers and engine rooms on campus, and the addition of this new centre provides the facility for the development of professionally recognised training for this sustainable energy provision,” added Gillian May, principal of the college.
The principal of a London sixth-form college with a history of financial problems has been very suddenly replaced.
It is understood that Ken Warman left BSix Brooke House Sixth-Form College yesterday.
The grade three Ofsted-rated college would not comment on the reasons for his departure, but announced that his replacement Kevin Watson has been appointed “with immediate effect”.
Kevin Watson
“BSix Brooke House Sixth-Form College announces that Kevin Watson has today been appointed principal with immediate effect.
“Kevin has been director of learning at BSix since September 2017. He has almost 20 years’ experience as principal of Leyton Sixth-Form College, Richmond-Upon-Thames College and Winstanley College, Wigan.
“During that time Kevin was instrumental in raising the standards of those institutions.”
Further evidence that BSix was in danger of running out of cash emerged six months later, after the commissioner’s report uncovered grave financial issues.
“The finance committee had drawn to the corporation’s attention that the financial outcome for 2015/16 was far worse than forecast; a deficit of £492,000 caused largely by staff costs in relation to agency staff,” the report said of the minutes.
The SFC’s financial performance latterly appeared to have improved according to the ESFA’s accounts, which showed a surplus of £52,000 in 2016/17 on an income of £9,482,000.
But in a ‘requires improvement’ across-the-board report, published in April, Ofsted warned “governors have not challenged leaders and managers to bring about rapid enough improvements in the quality of teaching, learning and assessment, and student achievements”.
The SFC was rated ‘requires improvement’ in 2016, and ‘good’ three years before that. Mr Warman was in charge at the time of all three inspections.
The governors section of BSix’s website, which quotes from the more impressive 2013 report, still listed Mr Warman as principal at the time of publication.
But Stephen Blackshaw, the chair of governors, welcomed his replacement in a statement issued to FE Week.
“I am delighted that Kevin has agreed to become principal at BSix,” he said.
“His record of achievement during his years as principal at three separate institutions speaks for itself.
“In particular, Kevin’s focus on the core business of teaching and learning at BSix is essential for our continued improvement in those areas and in student outcomes. I very much look forward to working with him.”
Mr Watson led Leyton Sixth Form College from 2009 to 2017. It was rated as ‘good’ by Oftsed in 2010, 2013, and 2016.
He was at Richmond-Upon-Thames College from 2005 to 2008, which was rated grade two by Ofsted during this time.
Leadership and management was also rated ‘outstanding’ at Winstanley College under his watch from 1998 to 2005.
“I very much look forward to steering the continued forward momentum of BSix,” he said. “In my association with the college to date, I have seen considerable appetite for improvement and become aware of a widespread readiness to augment the many existing strengths with some fresh ideas and new approaches.
“The aim is to consolidate BSix as the destination of choice for 16- to 19-year-olds in Hackney and beyond.”
A team of horticulture students are working alongside war veterans to create a garden for this year’s Chelsea Flower Show, reports Samantha King.
The ‘Force for Good’ garden is being designed and created by learners from Sparsholt College in partnership with the charity Help for Heroes. It will document the journey of recovery faced by ill or injured British Armed Forces personnel and their families, represented in three sections: surviving, stability and support.
A soundtrack of white noise will convey chaos and confusion in the surviving section, with visitors then experiencing nature sounds and music as they progress through the garden. The positioning of plants and landscaping will be used to convey the theme of rehabilitation.
Former members of the military who are a part of the Help for Heroes’ gardening club at Tedworth House are working alongside the students to bring the design to fruition, with many having used gardening to aid their own recovery.
“The students interviewed the veterans, and we asked the wider veteran community to submit ideas for the garden,” explained Chris Bird, a horticulture lecture at Sparsholt, who is leading the team. “We then welded everything together with things that will work in a Chelsea environment.”
The garden has been in the planning for around 10 months, and the team of nine students and six veterans will start building it on May 15 ahead of the official public opening of the RHS Chelsea Flower Show on May 22.
Discussions are currently underway between the college and Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital about siting the garden as a permanent feature in their grounds after the show.
“We’re very keen that the garden doesn’t just finish when the show finishes. The hospital has a ward which is for serving military personnel, and they have a courtyard space which is a bit of rough grass at the moment,” added Mr Bird.
Another struggling university technical college has denied distancing itself from the UTC movement despite a rebrand now that it has joined a multi-academy trust.
Once known as “Sir Charles Kao UTC”, the 14-to-19 technical training provider has changed its name to “the BMAT STEM Academy”. It is joining the Burnt Mill Academy Trust, based in Harlow in west London.
The trust’s chief executive insisted the institution “remains” a fully-fledged UTC, but there are “significant changes” to its curriculum.
It opened in 2014 and specialises in computing, science and engineering, and had just 143 students in total on roll throughout 2016/17, despite a capacity of 500.
FE Week previously revealed that the college’s cashflow forecast for the year until August 31, 2017 predicted that it would run out of funds this June.
BMAT STEM Academy has already seen significant changes in curriculum and quality of teaching
A balance sheet from May 31 also indicated that £769,974 was owed to the EFA. An operating deficit of £511,150 was forecast for the full year.
But instead of throwing in the towel and closing, like eight other UTCs have done so far, it opted to join BMAT in September.
The college’s report on student numbers said that “joining BMAT will increase potential students at year 10 and year 12 from 2017/18 onwards”.
It is expected to start taking on new students in years 10 and 12 from September.
“BMAT STEM Academy, which remains a university technical college sponsored by Anglia Ruskin University, has already seen significant changes in curriculum and quality of teaching,” said Helena Mills, BMAT’s chief executive.
“We are looking forward to supporting this small academy to provide young people with a bespoke education in science and engineering and hope to encourage more women to go into this field in the future, in particular.”
New subjects that students at the school will be able to study include GCSEs in engineering, astronomy, statistics, computer science and 3D design.
UTCs are seen by many as unwelcome competition to more established general FE and sixth-form colleges, which consistently return a much higher proportion of better Ofsted grades.
“We have a unique model and the reason why UTCs have survived is that we actually patented the model so the government and companies and universities can’t mess us around.”
He added that the Baker Dearing Trust, which looks after UTCs, have “worked out an arrangement” with MATs so that when a UTC joins, it will continue to have an independent chairman and board.
Charles Parker, the chief executive of BDT, said that taking the word UTC out of the name is “not a red line for us”. The only red line is “if what goes on inside a UTC changes”.
He wanted to point out that the BMAT STEM Academy will have a strapline under its name that says “university technical college”.
Sir Charles Kao is the latest UTC to show signs of stepping away from the UTC brand.
In November last year UTC Cambridge rebranded as the Cambridge Academy for Science and Technology after joining Parkside Federation Academies, another multi-academy trust.
The college had clawed its way up from ‘inadequate’ to a ‘good’ Ofsted rating in just eight months.
Its principal insisted the college was not trying to “take away from the UTC movement” but the decision had been made because “so many people in our local community didn’t know what UTC Cambridge stood for”.
Staff at a host of colleges across the country will walk out on strike for up to seven days over exam season, in the latest action in an ongoing dispute over pay.
Ten colleges, nine of which are in London, will be affected in the latest round of action in May and early June, organised by the University and College Union.
UCU general secretary Sally Hunt said that her members were “resolute” in their fight for better pay and conditions.
“Strike action is always a last resort, but in the face of repeated below-inflation pay awards staff feel they have been left with no other option,” she said.
“The colleges need to urgently address members’ concerns if they want to avoid further disruption to students in the coming weeks.”
But AoC boss David Hughes said the action was “regrettable” and warned that it risked “disrupting students during the vital exam season”.
Strike action would “negatively impact students” rather than the government, which he said was responsible for the “chronic under-funding of further education” that had led to colleges being “unable to offer their staff the pay rise requested”.
“We will continue to pressure government to recognise the value of the workforce, and will continue the constructive dialogue taking place between AoC, colleges and UCU,” he said.
Staff at the affected colleges have already walked out twice, with an estimated 1,500 taking part in the first wave of strike action at the beginning of March.
UCU said in a statement that staff are taking action over pay, but at some colleges disputes also include concerns over working conditions such as workload.
It insisted that none of the colleges affected had yet made what it considered to be an “acceptable” pay offer.
A spokesperson said that what would be considered acceptable would vary from college to college, but it must “represent a significant improvement on the one per cent offer and go some way to addressing the falling value of pay”.
The National Joint Forum, made up of the unions representing college staff, had submitted a claim for an across-the-board rise of around six per cent in April.
But the final offer from the AoC last September was just one per cent, or the sum of £250 “where this is more beneficial”.
AoC boss David Hughes expressed regret at the time that it was unable to offer more, but “current funding levels for colleges do not allow us to do so”.
Last week UCU members at Lewisham Southwark College voted for strike action, to take place on May 22 and 23, in a dispute over their pay and conditions, which they say have got worse since the college’s merger with Newcastle-based NCG.
Up to 231 full-time jobs are at risk as the college attempts to balance the books, prompting an angry response from UCU members and a vote of no-confidence in college chief executive Michelle Swithenbank.
