Chartered status: when will the government subsidies end?

The Chartered Institution for Further Education, the brainchild of the former skills minister John Hayes, was first conceived back in 2012, to get high-achieving FE providers the royal seal of approval.

But almost six years later – and more than two years after it first started accepting paying members – just eight providers have been awarded “chartered status”. A Freedom of Information request has revealed that the institution has received more than £1 million in public subsidy, and is still being propped up to the tune of £210,000 a year.

FE Week’s editor Nick Linford caught up with the institution’s chief executive Dan Wright to talk about how it plans to recruit more members, and what’s in it for providers.

To have a royal charter is something which is unique to the sector

Why is the CIFE still receiving public money?

Quite simply, it doesn’t yet have enough members. Mr Wright acknowledges that a “lot of time” has been spent on “setting up the institution and getting it through the privy council”, and “determining the body as something that’s going to add value to the sector”, but he admits there is still “a big task for us to do”.

Part of the challenge is that providers, grappling with issues like the apprenticeship levy and the non-levy tender debacle, are telling him “we’ve got our plates full at the moment”.

He has a plan, however, agreed with the Department for Education last summer, setting out how the institution will be self-sufficient by mid-2019.

“We needed to make the plan realistic but acceptable to the department, so they knew we had a date by which we would be free of government funding,” he says.

How will the CIFE survive without public money?

Mr Wright’s goal is to have 80 members, which would make it “completely free” of government subsidy.

Although that’s a massive jump from the institution’s current membership of just eight, he’s “very confident” he’ll meet that target.

The “current pipeline” – which he says is “pretty much in line” with his plan – “is that there are seven applications which are currently being considered, a further eight which are on the point of being submitted, and as of today’s date, 45 organisations we are in active discussions with”.

Each prospective member pays a £3,000 fee to have their application assessed – a process that involves a financial assessment as well as evaluation against the institution’s quality criteria – and a further £5,000 a year in membership fees.

The DfE is “reviewing the progress against the plan, and they hold my feet to the fire in terms of are we progressing against it”, Mr Wright says.

How do you counter the criticism that the CIFE is elitist?

He acknowledges that some people might see the CIFE as elitist, although that’s not how he wants it.

The regalia of the institution’s first inauguration ceremony, held last February – complete with full academic dress – can’t have helped its highbrow image, I suggest.

Mr Wright tells me that the institution’s chair, Lord Lingfield, “wishes to present it in that way” – but is quick to defend the approach himself.

“Academic dress is a common fact of higher education – why shouldn’t it be for the FE system?” he points out.

“To have a royal charter is something which is unique to the sector and something which doesn’t exist elsewhere,” he adds, suggesting that the “sector can take advantage of that in terms of raising its profile externally”.

“Some people will see it as being elitist, and some people may see it as being very encouraging and that’s a matter of choice.”

What’s the relationship between Ofsted grade and membership?

It’s also about showcasing best practice and celebrating the achievements of the sector

The institution’s criteria are for members to be rated grade one or two – but when I push him, it turns out things aren’t quite so clear-cut.

It’s certainly “correct” to say that no grade three provider can become a member, he says.

So what happens if an existing member falls to a grade three?

“We would have a discussion,” he says. “We’d review where they’d fallen down and where the issues are. Then that would be a matter for the council to discuss as to whether their membership would continue or not.”

While this might surprise some, he insists that quality is about more than just an Ofsted grade – with other factors including “financial sustainability, whether organisations work in the right way, in an ethical way, and whether they treat their people well”.

What’s the advantage for a college or training provider to gain chartered status?

“The use of the charter mark with employers is a powerful thing,” he insists.

They’re often “bombarded with a lot of approaches” from training providers, and struggle to “determine what good provision is”, he explains – so chartered status can help “employers make clear decisions” about which provider to use. It’s also about showcasing best practice and celebrating the achievements of the sector.

“To me there’s just not enough of that,” he says. “We tend to gravitate towards the lowest common denominator – lots goes wrong, and that tends to mask what goes really right.”

Ultimately, he says, his goal is for “earned autonomy”, in which chartered status is seen as the “quality standard” for the sector.

“There ought to be a need for less intervention by having proved that you’ve been through a rigorous process and you’re committed to abide by a code of conduct which is going to sustain that quality throughout it.”

Milton to launch national Year of Engineering

Update, 11am, January 15: The Department for Education called FE Week to say that the minister’s visit to the National College for Digital Skills had been cancelled.

 

A government-wide campaign to boost the country’s engineering skills is being officially launched today by Anne Milton.

The Year of Engineering is designed to change perceptions about engineering, and encourage more people from diverse backgrounds to take up careers in the sector.

The skills minister will officially kick-off the year with a visit to the National College for Digital Skills later this morning.

“I want to see everyone whatever their background, wherever they live to have a chance to get a rewarding career or job in engineering whether they come via a technical or academic route,” she said.

She described the campaign as a “great opportunity to work together with business to inspire a new generation of world class engineers”.

“We want to build the science, technology, engineering and mathematics skills that we need for a growing economy, as highlighted in the government’s industrial strategy.”

Although engineering is one of the country’s most productive sectors, it still faces an estimated shortfall of 20,000 graduates a year.

The campaign will see government and around 1,000 partners – including Crossrail and Ocado – deliver “a million inspiring experiences of engineering for young people, parents and teachers”, according to today’s announcement.

These will include a roadshow, called Siemens See Women, aimed at inspiring more women, including black, Asian and minority ethnic girls, to pursue STEM careers – to increase diversity in a sector that is currently 91 per cent male and 94 per cent white.

Chris Grayling, transport secretary, said: “Engineers – whether they are working on cutting-edge technology in aerospace, energy or artificial intelligence – are vital to the lifeblood of our economy”.

By bringing young people “face to face with engineering role models and achievements we can send a clear message that engineering careers are a chance for all young people, regardless of gender, ethnicity or social background, to shape the future of this country and have a real impact on the lives of those around them,” he said.

Sir Terry Morgan, Crossrail chair, said the year was a “fantastic opportunity” to “show the range of opportunities there are for training and jobs” in engineering.

And Mark Richardson, Ocado chief operating officer, said that encouraging more people to take up careers in engineering was “essential to ensure the growth and development of new technologies and businesses in the UK”.

The year was first announced by Mr Grayling at the Skills Show in Birmingham, last November.

“If you look at what the skills show is all about, bringing thousands of young people to see engineering in action and to see what they would be doing if they chose engineering as a career, there is no better place to send the message,” he told FE Week.

 

Nescot accepts former £360k a year principal was unfairly dismissed

A college has accepted that its former principal Sunaina Mann was unfairly constructively dismissed, after she brought her case to an employment tribunal.

North East Surrey College of Technology (Nescot) has today issued a statement in which it admits to regrets over “the circumstances in which her employment came to an end”, and revealed how an “agreed resolution” had been reached.

The college has also “made a substantial contribution towards Ms Mann’s costs,” a spokesperson added.

FE Week reported in May 2016 that Ms Mann’s husband, Jaswinder Singh, had been paid almost £200,000 in a contract that it was alleged was not declared to college governors for 18 months.

Ms Mann (pictured), who was the highest paid FE principal in the country at the time and received a salary of £363,000 in 2014/15, denied that there had been any non-disclosure.

She told FE Week that “robust governance arrangements… removed any conflict of interest”.

The Skills Funding Agency asked for a report from Nescot on the issue at the time, a request with which it complied.

Ms Mann was reported to have departed from the college by June 2016.

Today’s statement from Nescot said: “The college accepts that Ms Mann was unfairly constructively dismissed.

“Ms Mann has chosen to withdraw her claims of discriminatory treatment by the college and its officers.”

It explained she had considered that Nescot had breached her contract of employment, causing her to resign and “take up employment” as the chief executive of the Jeddah Female College of Excellence, in Saudi Arabia, which Nescot was in partnership with.

 “Ms Mann made claims in the employment tribunal of unfair constructive dismissal and race discrimination,” the spokesperson said.

 “Following a thorough review of the evidence, Nescot accepts that Ms Mann had no involvement in the engagement of her husband by NCL (Nescot Consortium Limited).

“All of the directors of NCL were aware of the appointment of Mr Mann, as was the previous chairman and corporation clerk and director of HR of Nescot.”

FE Week reported in May 2016 that Jaswinder Singh Mann was employed as a consultant by Nescot to work on its partnership with the Jeddah Female College.

It was alleged that Mr Mann signed his first contract with the college on September 24, 2014, but Nescot’s governors were not made aware of his role until a board meeting a year and a half later, on March 18, 2016.

According to Nescot’s financial statements for the year ending July 31, 2015, payments of £71,000 in 2014 and £106,000 in 2015 were made to Point Nemo Ltd,“a company “under the control of the principal and chief executive’s husband” for “consultancy in the role of NCL Vice Dean MIS and Funding”.

Nescot also referred in today’s statement to Ms Mann’s “remuneration”.

“All remuneration received by her prior to January 1, 2015, was approved by the board of Nescot.

“With effect from January 2015, when she was seconded to NCL in Saudi Arabia, Nescot now accepts that the aggregate remuneration was approved by the board of NCL, that the Nescot corporation clerk was fully aware of the aggregate remuneration as was the previous director of finance.”

It added the contracts with both Nescot and NCL “were drafted by lawyers on behalf of Nescot, and signed by the then chairman of Nescot, and by the chairman of NCL”.

Ms Mann said: “I am glad that Nescot have recognised that I was not treated properly in the spring of 2016 and that the circumstances in which I was forced to leave were unfair.

“Following this recognition I am pleased to say that this matter is now concluded. Despite the treatment to which I was subject I wish the college well on its important mission.”

A representative for her previously said: “In the summer of 2013 [Ms Mann] was the principal of Nescot, and a nominee director of NCL.

“There was an urgent need to address MIS systems and David Round [the company secretary and project manager at NCL] proposed the appointment of Jaswinder Mann.

“[Ms Mann] was not in support of that proposal, because she felt it better that he did not work for an organisation in which she had any involvement, but the board agreed to take forward the recommendation, noting her concern, and arrangements were put in place to ensure that there was clear independent oversight of his appointment and of his performance.”

Anger as ESFA dodges MPs’ scrutiny on subcontracting fees

The government has been accused of shocking double standards on transparency, admitting it probably won’t publish its long-delayed findings on subcontracting fees in time for parliamentary inquiry hearings.

The Education and Skills Funding Agency has taken over responsibility for publishing all subcontracting “management” fees, but it “aims” to publish them by the end of March – four months after its own deadline and too late to make them available for scrutiny by MPs.

There are several imminent select committee inquiry hearings on the matter, both from the Commons education and public accounts committees, which will focus on major concerns that have arisen on subcontracting, and on providers including Learndirect.

The chair of the education select committee, Robert Halfon (pictured), has told the DfE to redress this “deeply worrying” situation, and collect the data “immediately” so it “can be collated and we can see them”.

“The taxpayer should have the exact information readily available as soon as possible, as to how much money is being creamed off,” he insisted.

The taxpayer should have the exact information readily available as soon as possible, as to how much money is being creamed off

His demand was echoed by the shadow skills minister Gordon Marsden.

“The continuing failure of ministers and the ESFA to provide this data, after they had trumpeted loudly taking responsibility for it, risks hampering hugely the work of public bodies such as the education select committee’s current enquiries on the concerns around subcontracting,” he said.

“It seems to be double standards, a case from this government of ‘do as I say, not as I do’.”

The DfE’s apparent delaying tactics indicate “defensiveness”, Marsden claimed “not least in terms of its decisions in the Learndirect funding controversy”.

The education select committee launched an inquiry in November into the quality of apprenticeships and skills training.

It is due to hear evidence on January 16, and will focus on concerns over value for money. It will more than likely investigate the Learndirect saga in more detail.

The largest training provider in the UK retains all of its contracts despite an Ofsted grade four last year – in what looks like special treatment from the DfE.

It is notorious for charging high management fees: in 2015/16, it retained £19.8 million from its 64 subcontractors, 36 per cent of its total SFA funding for that year.

The public accounts committee will also hold its own hearing on January 15, to “examine the funding of Learndirect Ltd”.

Individual lead providers once had to publish the annual figures by the end of every November, but civil servants have not even sent out the templates, on which providers are to record their figures for the last academic year. The DfE claimed they will go out “in due course”.

A spokesperson admitted there is still no firm date for when the fees will be published.

“We aim to publish the information on our website by the end of this financial year [March],” he said.

“The new process will provide greater transparency and will mean information is much easier to find and all charges will be published in one location.”

The delay has provoked dismay on the government’s online forum, feconnect.

“For 2015-16, we had to publish the fees charged and funding paid to our subcontractors on our own website within five weeks of the R14 close, whereas for 2016-17 year, the ESFA were supposed to supply us a template. Has anyone received this?” one user said.

“No sign of this yet,” another replied. “Rather ironic considering they decided to do it this way round cos some people weren’t bothering to do it and now no one is doing it.”

Ofsted watch: Two providers climb out of ‘inadequate’ but one slumps the other way

Two training providers pulled themselves away from ‘inadequate’ ratings this week, but one went the other way and plummeted to the inspectorate’s lowest possible grade.

The Wiltshire Council and Norman Mackie & Associates Ltd, based in Manchester, both received the good news they were hoping for and climbed from a grade four to a three.

Start Training Ltd, however, didn’t fare so well and dropped dramatically from a two to four.

Inspectors praised Wiltshire Council managers for making “good” progress in carrying out the recommendations from its previous inspection; “consequently, the service has the capacity to improve further”.

They added that a “well-designed curriculum” engages well learners who are “disadvantaged and those with low confidence and few qualifications”.

To improve even further, Ofsted said tutors at the council should ensure that the advice and guidance they give to learners before they start their courses “take account of their circumstances and that learners fully understand the information given to them”.

“The discussion should include longer term goals to raise learners’ aspirations,” it added.

Over in Manchester, Ofsted lauded Norman Mackie & Associates’ leaders for setting high expectations for learners and staff.

“Staff have established a culture in which learners respect each other and understand the importance of valuing diversity,” inspectors said.

Effective coaching by tutors enables learners to become more independent and confident, they added.

However, managers’ self-assessment is not “forensic enough” to identify precise weaknesses in order to “ensure that the improvement plan contains the right actions to rectify the areas that require improvement”.

The provider should address this fault in order to improve further, Ofsted said.

Start Training, which is based in Greater Manchester and trains around 500 apprentices in health and social care, dental nursing, administration and business management, received ‘inadequate’ ratings across the board.

The proportion of apprentices who gain their qualifications is “low” and “too many” do not complete within the agreed timescale, inspectors said.

“Assessors do not collect and use information about apprentices’ existing vocational skills and knowledge to plan for their individual training and development.

“Assessors do not review and record accurately the progress of individual apprentices throughout their training; they do not involve employers in reviewing apprentices’ development in a meaningful way.”

Meanwhile, two adult and community learning providers – Bracknell Forest Borough Council and St Helens Metropolitan Borough Council – went from a grade three to a much healthier two.

At Bracknell, Ofsted said leaders have taken “successful action” to improve learners’ achievement rates and these are now high.

And at St Helens, managers were praised for their “high expectations” of staff and learners.

“They are clearly ambitious to provide an outstanding service for learners,” inspectors said.

It was also ‘good’ news for Sussex Coast College Hastings as it retained its grade two in a full inspection.

To improve to ‘outstanding’, inspectors said the college needs to ensure that leaders, managers and teachers “carry out their plans to improve the skills of level two and GCSE maths teachers so that they can better prepare students for their examinations and help them develop their skills”.

Leeds College of Building didn’t receive the same applause as it dropped from ‘good’ to ‘requires improvement’.

Ofsted said that leaders do not use self-assessment or quality improvement processes “well enough” to improve the quality of provision and outcomes for students.

It also pointed out that “too many” students who complete level one study programmes do not progress to a higher level.

The troubled UTC Plymouth had its second monitoring visit report published since its damning grade four in June 2016.

Inspectors said that leaders are taking “effective action” towards the removal of special measures and the school’s action plan is “fit for purpose”.

Ofsted recommended that the UTC does not appoint newly qualified teachers before the next monitoring inspection.

Four short inspections were also published this week, where providers maintained their ‘good’ ratings.

These were received by North Kent College, Stockton Riverside College, Rewards Training Recruitment Consultancy Ltd, in Crawley, and King Edward VI College Nuneaton.

 

GFE Colleges Inspected Published Grade Previous grade
Leeds College of Building 28/11/2017 10/01/2018 3 2
Sussex Coast College Hastings 28/11/2017 11/01/2018 2 2

 

Independent Learning Providers Inspected Published Grade Previous grade
Norman Mackie & Associates Limited 28/11/2017 09/01/2018 3 4
Start Training Ltd 29/11/2017 11/01/2018 4 2

 

Adult and Community Learning Inspected Published Grade Previous grade
The Wiltshire Council 05/12/2017 10/01/2018 3 4
Bracknell Forest Borough Council 22/11/2017 11/01/2018 2 3
St Helens Metropolitan Borough Council 05/12/2017 12/01/2018 2 3

 

Other (including UTCs) Inspected Published Grade Previous grade
UTC Plymouth 05/12/2017 08/01/2018 M M

 

Short inspections (remains grade 2) Inspected Published
North Kent College 29/11/2017 09/01/2018
Stockton Riverside College 21/11/2017 10/01/2018
Rewards Training Recruitment Consultancy 05/12/2017 12/01/2018
King Edward VI College Nuneaton 21/11/2017 10/01/2018

 

Could Hinds’ experience make T-levels work?

Damian Hinds has been appointed as the new education secretary and, with a background including responsibility for youth employment at the Department for Work and Pensions, he could be exactly what T-levels need.

The government has said that all T-level students will have to take part in “high-quality” work placements, which should last between 45 and 60 days and consist of a minimum of 315 hours, something described as “impossible” by the Association of Colleges.

But Mr Hinds, who served as the government’s employment minister at the DWP from July 2016 until his sudden promotion on Monday, has past form for linking together employers with young people.

Through work experience, young people broaden their horizons, learn how to work with others and gain confidence

At a Westminster Hall debate on youth employment in December, he spoke of the importance of employers “large and small” offering work experience and vocational training in an effort to “improve productivity, promote intergenerational fairness and tackle poverty and disadvantage”.

As part of his brief at the DWP, he helped introduce the Youth Obligation programme in April last year, a scheme he described as “a partnership approach between the government, MPs and educational employers”.

The programme, in areas where full universal credit is running, requires claimants aged between 18 and 21 to undergo intensive job-support training, including work experience, skills workshops, mentoring, help with job applications and interviews, and training in maths, English and IT.

Those still unemployed after six months are given compulsory vocational training and work experience in a sector with a high number of vacancies or encouraged to take up a traineeship.

Mr Hinds is so confident in his ability to link young people up with employers that, during the debate last month, he told his fellow MPs to contact him if they were having difficulties putting local businesses in touch with job centres so he could help to “facilitate” it.

“When businesses give a young person a chance of employment or the valuable opportunity of work experience, it is not only the job-specific skills that they gain that make a difference,” he said.

“Through work experience, young people broaden their horizons, learn how to work with others and gain confidence. That in itself can be instrumental in changing their job opportunities and life chances.”

Damian Hinds

The Department for Education is currently running a public consultation on T-levels, but there will be no backtrack on the mandatory work placements, according to his predecessor as education secretary, Justine Greening.

Mr Hinds replaced Ms Greening on Monday evening, when she resigned from the government after refusing to take up a post at the DWP.

Skills minister Anne Milton had been tipped to move to health but remained at the DfE when the reshuffle came to an end on Tuesday.

However, the YouGov founder and former apprenticeships adviser to David Cameron, Nadhim Zahawi, was promoted to junior minister at the DfE.

At the time of going to print, the DfE was still refusing to comment on whether Ms Milton or Mr Zahawi would take on the apprenticeships brief.

Mr Zahawi became apprenticeships adviser to the Mr Cameron in November 2015, in support of the Conservative manifesto pledge to deliver three million apprenticeship starts by 2020.

In August 2016, a month after Theresa May became prime minister, it was confirmed that he was no longer in the role.

The new Secretary of State for Education: Damian Hinds

  • Born in 1969, Damian Hinds is 48 years old
  • Attended St Ambrose Grammar School in Altrincham, Cheshire
  • Studied politics, philosophy and economics at Trinity College, Oxford University.
  • According to his LinkedIn profile he worked in hotel management after university before becoming a strategy consultant.
  • First elected MP for East Hampshire in 2010, with a majority of 25,852 (47%)
  • Served on the Education Select Committee and until October 2012.
  • Chaired the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Social Mobility.
  • Assistant Government Whip from July 2014 until March 2015
  • Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury from May 2015 until July 2016
  • Minister of state for employment at the DWP from July 2016 to January 2018

 

Why the sector needs Milton to stay at the helm of apprenticeship and skills

Anne Milton MP has been the apprenticeship and skills minister for seven months, and will continue to be an education minister.

Nadhim Zahawi MP, former apprenticeship adviser to the PM, joins the DfE as a minister, mostly likely for childcare.

But as FE Week goes to press, two days after the junior minister reshuffle, the Department for Education is unable to confirm whether Milton or Zahawi will be responsible for apprenticeship and skills policy.

Individual ministerial briefs are determined by the new Secretary of State, and Damian Hinds appears in no rush to decide.

In all likelihood Milton will retain responsibility for apprenticeship and skills policy, which would be welcomed.

The apprenticeship levy is in full swing and T-Level plans cannot afford further delay.

So experience and continuity of leadership is what’s needed at this pivotal moment in the perpetual FE reform cycle.

Government search site is flooded with hundreds of ‘locations’ for the same providers

Training providers are flooding the government’s Find Apprenticeship Training website with hundreds of locations they have no permanent presence in, to get around a search function that only allows employers to filter geographically.

FE Week found one provider listing itself as having nearly 400 different sites from where it can deliver training, most of which are residential homes.

This tactic, which has been sanctioned by the Education and Skills Funding Agency, optimises providers’ search rankings to appear near the top for apprenticeships around these areas, as the site restricts searches by location.

Click to enlarge: The British Institute of Recruiters dominates a page of Find Apprenticeship Training

One of the most high-profile examples is that of Lifetime Training, a provider with a giant £37.2 million allocation to deliver training this year, which plotted itself 189 times for the business and administration level two standard.

The provider’s boss, Alex Khan (pictured), who was awarded an MBE in the New Year honours list, explained this was the “purest way” of getting across that his organisation is a “national provider” on the government site.

He inputs the home postcodes of tutors he employs to deliver work-based learning so that any employer or apprentice looking for a provider in their area is aware that Lifetime Training can train them.

“We worked with the ESFA on this one,” he told FE Week. “When you do a search, it does it on a geographical radius from the point of where the potential learner or employer is.

“The most logical way of doing this for us, because most of our training delivery is done on site, is that we utilise the locations of our trainers.

“So if you put Birmingham and we have a whole bunch of trainers in that particular area, it would show we have a presence.

“There is nothing sinister about this but we need to demonstrate we have the national coverage. We can do everything everywhere and therefore we should feature to actually have the capabilities.”

The most logical way of doing this for us… is that we utilise the locations of our trainers

He admitted that it doesn’t seem like the “most sophisticated way of doing it” but that it is “pure”.

The Department for Education told FE Week that it doesn’t mind if providers use Find Apprenticeship Training like this, as an organisation that offers an apprenticeship doesn’t need a permanent site, as long as it actually delivers in an area.

“Organisations listed on the Register of Apprenticeship Training Providers are eligible to use Find Apprenticeship Training to promote their apprenticeship offer, and are responsible for keeping their information on the course directory up to date,” said a spokesperson.

Other providers employing this tactic admitted they had similar motivations.

“We approached the directory by listing postcodes in areas our tutors are based, to ensure our provision comes up in searches where we nationally deliver,” said Azmat Mohammed, director of the British Institute of Recruiters, which bombarded the government site with 372 different postcodes, mostly around London, for the level three recruitment apprenticeship standard.

And at the business and administration level two standard, Professional Training Solutions listed itself over 150 times, while CQM Training & Consultancy inputted nearly 100 different locations.

“CQM Training & Consultancy Ltd is a national award-winning provider which delivers tailored business improvement programmes mainly on employers’ premises,” said Andrew Cheshire, its managing director.

“It is important that we reflect our ability to deliver nationally on the government’s Find Apprenticeship Training website and we are proud to offer our successful programmes anywhere in England.”

Professional Training Solutions did not comment.

Sir Alan Tuckett: Former NIACE CEO, Founder of Adult Learners’ Week

A lifelong left-winger who has dedicated his life to adult education, meeting Yasser Arafat and the Sandinistas on the way, Sir Alan Tuckett was knighted in the recent new year’s honours list. He spoke to FE on his work in a sector that’s badly understood by the politicians who pay for it.

Adult education guru Sir Alan Tuckett, who was knighted in this year’s honours, is best known for spearheading the growth of the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education – now Learning and Work Institute – spending 23 years at its helm.

What is less well known is that in pursuit of his cause, he worked with world leaders such as Yasser Arafat and Daniel Ortega, and even had the American beat poet Allen Ginsburg sleep in his bed (Sir Alan took the sofa…).

With Yasser Arafat and women’s literacy organiser Sahar Ghosheh, Gaza 1995

He’s been president of the International Council for Adult Education, advised UNESCO, founded charities, sat on a myriad of boards, authored hundreds of academic papers and held visiting professorships all over the world.

And if the characters that colour his stories reveal his political inclinations as being firmly on the left, his approach to politics is pragmatic. As chief executive of NIACE – a charity founded in 1921 – he positioned the organisation as “critical friends” of government: “We’d win contracts, but they recognised that we could, and would, be publicly critical on behalf of the interests of adult learners and the providers who provided for them.”

He has never shied away from public action. He made waves early in his career by organising a highly successful seven-day “teach-in” to protest adult education funding cuts in Brighton, capturing the media’s attention with celebrity visits and quirky classes, such as having a group of pensioners “painting the night away”. But he was heavily influenced during his eight years as principal of the Brighton Friends Centre, a Quaker adult education hub, by the group’s emphasis on dialogue and consensus-building for conflict resolution, principles he took with him throughout his career.

We’d always tell the government how we were going to fight them: privately, in advance

“We’d always tell the government how we were going to fight them: privately, in advance,” he says of his tenure at NIACE. “And if it was really inconvenient, like they’ve got some major policy coming out on Thursday, we were interested in the long run, not the immediate run. So we’d put it off for a week.”

Sir Alan sees community action as a “form of commitment to critical democracy”, and can find no reason to stop challenging a government that has showered him with accolades – first an OBE in 1995 and now a far higher honour. Quite the contrary: “Any recognition gives you the chance to make the case for saying ’it’s not good enough currently’.”

And that’s exactly what this doyen of adult education, who has spent his life making a fuss about the “invisibility” of the FE sector to politicians, is saying.

“I think we’ve had an almost entirely inappropriate industrial strategy in Britain,” he explains, adding that successive governments, inspired by the OECD’s love affair with the idea of “human capital”, have tried, wrong-headedly, to engage in a form of planning that links training directly to gaps in the labour market.

“From 2003 you get an increasingly narrow Gradgrind utilitarianism where there’s a crude link between what the government will pay for and what the outcomes are,” he says.

But this kind of top-down approach can lead to perverse consequences, he claims, drawing parallels between Train2Gain, “which included ludicrous things like paying Tesco for the induction training they were already doing so they would hit their targets”, with present-day criticisms about the levy apprenticeship system “validating things people can already do”.

And as white-collar jobs risk being wiped out “faster than blue-collar jobs went, with globalisation’s impact on manufacturing”, training must be “expansive” rather than “restrictive” and adults must be empowered to take control of their own learning.

“If you’re able to exercise your creativity you feel more agency, ownership and possibility – and you take that wherever else you go.”

Keeping learning is one of the ways of keeping out of being a burden on the state through the health service

He contrasts this with the government’s “incredible short-termism” and lambasts the former education minister Alan Johnson’s decision not to fund qualifications at the same level or lower than those already held: “People displaced by industrial change need more imaginative public policies than that.”

He is outraged that colleges have had their funding slashed in recent years while university budgets have boomed. But that’s not all; once upon a time, universities were funded to provide educational outreach in the community – a funding stream that ended in 1992. The Brighton Friends Centre was in fact an “extramural” post for the University of Sussex, from which Sir Alan was able to launch a pioneering adult literacy campaign at a time of general skepticism about the existence of adult illiteracy, creating resources that were initially reported to the local MP as “biased” for addressing themes such as squatting, but which were later lauded by government and distributed nationwide.

After Brighton, Sir Alan moved to London in 1981, as principal of Clapham-Battersea Adult Education Institute, where he stayed for seven years and, towards the end of his tenure, campaigned hard (this time, unsuccessfully) to save its parent organisation, the Inner London Education Authority.

ILEA would offer classes in “more or less anything you can think of” for “risible” fees (£1 a year for unlimited classes for pensioners) and had dramatically higher levels of participation than anywhere else in the country. Its dissolution in 1990 was a huge hit for adult education in the capital, and for society in general, he reckons.

“We’re an ageing society,” he points out. “Keeping learning is one of the ways of keeping out of being a burden on the state through the health service.”

Linked to the GLC, ILEA was likely closed, he jokes, in retaliation for its public support for the miners’ strikes. While working there, he was elected president of the International League for Social Commitment in Adult Education, leading to collaborations with the Palestine Liberation Organisation and its leader Arafat – who was “really committed to education” – in Tunisia and Gaza, as well as a visit to the Sandinistas in Nicaragua for one of their legendary adult literacy campaigns.

NIACE, which Sir Alan joined as chief executive in 1988, has an impressive history of its own, spawning respected cultural institutions such as the British Film Institute and the Arts Council. One of its lesser-known inventions was the army’s bureau of current affairs, organised by his predecessor W.E. Williams during WWII, where soldiers would have an hour of discussing contemporary issues “on the basis that if you’re fighting for democracy you ought to know what it’s all about”.

Adult Learners’ Week was really the first national festival focused on adults

As he tells this story, it’s clear why Sir Alan took the role at NIACE – it’s precisely this kind of creative approach to education that gets him excited, and to which he has dedicated his life.

Absolutely committed to “social justice and a world in which everybody can live with dignity and fulfil themselves”, and determined to get the media and policy makers to sit up and take notice, Sir

Alan threw his energies at NIACE into developing research capacity to demonstrate the “difference adult learning makes”. From 18 employees when he first arrived, he grew the Leicester-based organisation to 300 at its peak.

Adult Learners’ Week was Sir Alan’s major legacy project. Started in 1992 with the aim of showcasing adults learners’ stories, the concept was adopted by UNESCO and spread to 55 countries.

Now renamed the Festival of Learning and run by NIACE’s successor organisation, the Learning and Work Institute, he’s disappointed at the loss of a unique adult focus: “Learning means lots of different things; Adult Learners’ Week was really the first national festival focused on adults.”

The rebranding of NIACE is another move that has left him perplexed. He was five years gone from the top job there when it merged with the Centre for Economic and Social Inclusion to form LWI in 2016, but this didn’t stop him from arguing against the name change at the AGM.

“If I were running it, I would resuscitate Inclusion and NIACE as sub-brands,” he says. That way, “they’d be more visible, and the focus on adults wouldn’t be at risk”. But if throwing away “90 years of brand recognition” seems nonsensical to him, he’s keen to note his admiration for LWI’s work under the leadership of Stephen Evans.

On leaving NIACE in 2011, Sir Alan couldn’t resist another chance to work internationally and accepted the presidency of the International Council for Adult Education, leading to collaborations “with brilliant colleagues in India, Latin America and Iran” on the UN sustainable development goals. He’s still dodging retirement, with a job-share FE professorship at Wolverhampton University.

As I leave, I pass a replica medieval helmet on one of his living room chairs, which turns out not to be a costume left by a grandchild (he and his wife Toni Fazaeli – another FE veteran – have six between them), but rather a joke gift from his brother-in-law making light of his knighthood.

His own approach to his new title is similarly low-key.

“The recognition is for the sector,” he insists. “They don’t have the policies in place but I like to think it’s a tiny green shoot of change.”

It’s a personal thing

What are you most looking forward to when you retire?

I’m looking forward to more time on the allotment, where I’m incompetent – I like being the least competent person.

What’s your biggest regret?

That I never persuaded anyone to fund adult education properly!

Where would you escape to for a month?

Coogee in Sydney, Australia – I worked there once and would swim across the bay and back in the morning before starting my day.

Favourite thing about living in Leicester

Its cultural and human diversity, although once upon a time I would also have said the Leicester Tigers.

Who was the worst education secretary in your career?

John Patten: combining self-regard with inadequacy, he was even worse than Thatcher or Gove.

What did your parents do?

Dad was in the forces, so I grew up all over the place. Mum was a domestic servant before the war – so she used to tell me not to argue with anybody or I’d lose my job!