Barnfield College has become an official hate crime reporting centre in an effort to help police crack down on instances of hate crime.
Working closely with Bedfordshire Police, the college will allow students and staff who may have been victims of, or witnesses to, a hate crime to talk about their experiences with someone they are familiar with.
Members of the public will also be welcome to visit the centre, with a dedicated hotline also in place for victims who wish to report an offence anonymously.
The college is the first educational establishment in Bedfordshire to become a hate crime reporting centre, and members of staff at both the college’s campuses are trained to take statements and submit them to the police through an online portal.
A hate crime is defined as an offence against an individual solely because of their race, sexual orientation, religion, gender identity, disability or any other perceived difference.
“We are delighted to be working with the police to provide a platform that will encourage victims and witnesses of hate crime to come forward and report incidents, with confidence,” said Beth Taylor, the college’s head of safeguarding.
Darlington council’s public health department has recruited college students to help reduce obesity levels in the borough.
Over 40 Darlington College learners on fine art, graphic design, photography and art and design courses have been commissioned to design posters to promote a healthier lifestyle to the area’s residents.
Ten of the designs have now been chosen to feature in a new campaign, with one of the winning designs by 18-year-old student James Peacock, featuring Star Wars characters as fruits.
“Stars Wars is current but stretches back several generations and is therefore something the community as a whole can relate to,” he explained. “I do make sure I watch what I eat and exercise. I’m delighted to be chosen in the top 10.”
“The students really understood the need for healthy living and their work can’t fail to reach the wide and diverse audience that exits in Darlington,” added Rachel Osbaldeston, public health portfolio lead at Darlington Council.
Seventy learners descended on a local hotel for a week in City College Plymouth’s largest-ever work placement initiative, reports Samantha King.
Students from across the college’s catering, marketing, hospitality, business and travel and tourism courses were let loose in Plymouth’s Duke of Cornwall Hotel to gain experience in a multitude of hotel disciplines.
Ahead of the placement, dubbed “City College @ The Duke”, learners were briefed about what would be expected of them – and the college even implemented a social media policy for the participants to avoid causing the hotel any reputational damage.
“The biggest thing we had to be aware of was remembering that this was an operating business. We had to be very, very careful around the reputational damage that potentially could have been caused by putting in a whole load of students into a hotel,” explained Mike Jones, the college’s employability and enterprise manager. “We spent a lot of time making sure the students were prepped.”
Students were placed across the hotel reception, events and marketing, and catering departments, with ESOL students taking up roles as housekeepers across the hotel’s 72 rooms.
“ESOL students are an area of learners that struggle to get work experience. It was good for them to get exposure to a working environment which also helped them develop their language skills as well as practical work skills,” Mr Jones added.
Following the placement, one student has been offered a part-time role in the hotel kitchen, and 17-year-old travel and tourism student Evie Mills has been kept on for an extended work placement following her work in the marketing and events team.
“People asked me if I was nervous but, honestly, I had total confidence in the calibre of students that the college can produce,” said Jonathan Morcom, the hotel’s director, who is also a former City College Plymouth student.
A new leadership course designed by farmers has been launched at Myerscough College to ensure the future of the farming industry.
The Young Farmers Leadership Academy will run until October at the college’s Food and Farming Innovation and Technology Centre, teaching aspiring farmers the leadership and management skills needed to run a successful farming business.
Consisting of six two-day workshops, the course has received the financial backing of the Prince’s Countryside Fund, which exists to secure the future of the countryside, and support the farming industry.
A range of guests speakers have already been confirmed to visit students undertaking the course, including Ciara Gorst, head of agriculture at the Co-operative and Oliver McIntyre, the national agriculture strategy director for Barclays Bank.
“The academy has been set up in response to a call from the farming industry for Myerscough to develop a leadership course for future farming leaders,” said Craig Thompson, the college’s head of agriculture and countryside. “The delegates left having really enjoyed the course and were brimming full of thoughts on their own leadership skills and how to use them in developing their career and businesses in which they work.”
Start date: April 2018 Previous job: Assistant principal, Hartlepool College of FE Interesting fact: Steve coaches a mini rugby team on a Sunday. He appeared briefly in the first division (now called the Rugby Premiership) as a player himself.
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Gary Riches, Head of apprenticeships, Hartlepool College of FE
Start date: December 2017 Previous job: Advanced practitioner, Hartlepool College of FE Interesting fact: Gary once played semi-professional football for Billingham Synthonia and Bishop Auckland Football Club.
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Carole Kitching, Principal and CEO, New College Swindon
Start date: July 2018 Previous job: Principal, Lewisham Southwark College Interesting fact: Carole is a fluent Greek speaker and ran a successful private school on the Greek island of Evia in the 80s and 90s.
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David Gartland, Principal, Lowestoft Sixth-Form College
Start date: January 2018 Previous job: Vice-principal, Lowestoft Sixth-Form College Interesting fact: David is a fan of sports, playing ice hockey as a youngster and recently completing his first ever 10k run for charity. He also supports Newcastle United.
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Mark Whitworth, Chair of governors, West Lancashire College
Start date: January 2018 Previous job: Chief executive, Peel Ports (ongoing) Interesting fact: Mark competed in taekwondo at the international level and is a fourth dan. Today, he teaches two of his three children when time permits, and both are black belts.
Ifyou want to let us know of any new faces at the top of your college, training provider or awarding organisation please let us know by emailing news@feweek.co.uk
Lord Agnew explained that 189 colleges had non-levy allocations with the ESFA last year, and 182 of them bid in the procurement.
But 10 were denied contracts, three of which are in London.
Six of the bids were rejected because they did not meet the minimum scoring threshold, and the others fell below the £200,000 minimum contract value.
Non-levy paying employers can access high quality apprenticeship training regardless of where in the country they operate in
Two colleges in the west Midlands were denied contracts, two in the north-west, and one each in the south-east, south-west and east of England.
“Potential providers were required to indicate the sectors and regions in which they would be delivering apprenticeships in their tenders,” Lord Agnew said.
“We are confident that non-levy paying employers can access high-quality apprenticeship training to support their growth and success, regardless of where in the country they operate in.”
He added that the Department for Education would continue to keep this under review and take action where necessary.
He was responding to a question tabled by Lord Watson of Invergowrie, who asked what assessment the government had made of the impact of colleges losing their allocation of non-levied apprenticeship funding on local employers and apprentices.
Lord Agnew reiterated that all providers who are on the register of apprenticeship training providers are still able to deliver to levy paying employers.
“All FE colleges with apprentices already in training will continue to receive funding until they have completed their learning,” he said.
“In addition, subject to limits on the number of starts, we have offered all existing providers that were unsuccessful in the procurement a three-month extension of their current contracts to the end of March 2018, allowing them to take on new starts.”
Lord Agnew
As revealed by FE Week last week, Conservative MPs have begun weighing in on the non-levy debate, with one requesting that all colleges have access to funding for apprenticeships with smaller employers.
Jeremy Lefroy, the MP for Stafford, became the latest prominent voice to raise the issue in parliament after Newcastle and Stafford Colleges Group, which is in his constituency, was denied a non-levy contract.
He is likely to be joined in the fight soon by Royston Smith, the Conservative MP for Southampton, who is jumping to the defence of SETA, a registered charity who has delivered engineering apprenticeships in the area for 48 years.
Other top training providers and colleges have also turned to influential MPs in an effort to squeeze the cash they need from the government after they were denied contracts in the much-delayed procurement.
Exeter College, which FE Week rates as the best college in the country, is working with Ben Bradshaw, a former culture, media and sport secretary who described the situation as “inexplicable”.
Meanwhile, ‘good’-rated HYA Training is liaising with its own MP, Emma Hardy, who sits on the education select committee.
Just under three quarters of colleges are now rated ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted, as the sector’s rapid improvement continues into 2018.
Two reports published this morning – for Chelmsford College and Craven College – record a crucial step up from grade three to grade two.
And Leicester College and Lakes College both achieved the same level of improvement in reports late last month.
Grades three and four are considered unacceptable by Ofsted, so the news that four more colleges have managed the climb will be a significant morale boost for their peers.
It also means that 74 per cent of colleges now hold the top two grades.
We carried out further analysis in December, which showed the proportion rated ‘good’ to ‘outstanding’ had risen to 73 per cent, after a good showing from colleges in the early part of the current academic year.
Today’s report on Craven College, which taught just over 6,000 learners last year, highlighted the “unrelenting” drive of its leadership.
“Leaders have made good progress in realising their vision to provide high-quality education and training for students and apprentices,” it said.
“Since the previous inspection, leaders and managers have focused unrelentingly on tackling weaknesses. They have put in place a wide range of largely successful strategies and actions for improvement.”
The report on Chelmsford College, which taught around 3,200 learners last year, was full of praise for the “high expectations” of governors and senior leaders.
It said that they “communicate well an effective learning strategy to improve the quality of provision and outcomes for learners”.
A national college planning to train the bulk of the country’s workforce for Britain’s nuclear industry opens today.
The National College for Nuclear is based across two hubs, in Cumbria at Lakes College and Somerset at Bridgwater and Taunton College.
It is the fourth national college to open, following colleges for high-speed rail, based in Birmingham and Doncaster, the creative and cultural industries, based in Essex, and digital skills, based in London, launched last year and in 2016.
But unlike its predecessors, it is not a college in its own right and will therefore not enrol students.
A spokesperson for Bridgewater and Taunton College confirmed the “individual colleges” involved “will enrol students according to current enrolment procedures”.
Skills minister Anne Milton welcomed the latest addition to the network of national colleges.
“I am thrilled to announce the launch,” she said. “This college will provide our nuclear industry with the highly-skilled engineers, scientists, technicians it needs to grow – as well as giving more people the opportunities they need to get on in today’s competitive job market.
“The impressive training facilities in Somerset and Cumbria demonstrate what can be achieved when government, employers and providers work together to deliver high-quality education.
“I wish all the trainees and apprentices the very best of luck for the future as they embark on this exciting journey.”
Former education secretary Justine Greening opening the National College for High Speed Rail in 2017
The chair of the new ‘college’ Colin Reed conceded that the journey to opening had been “challenging and rewarding”.
“It is with pride and expectation that we open the northern and southern hubs of the today,” he added.
“We have students in place at both hubs benefiting from high-level vocational education in state of the art facilities that were funded through government vision.”
The new institution will “open with 257 students and by the end of the academic year will have over 350 students enrolled”, according to a spokesperson.
The Department for Education provided £15 million to cover the cost of new buildings and equipment, while the Heart of the South-West local enterprise partnership contributed a further £3 million to the southern hub, and Bridgwater and Taunton put in £4.5 million.
The northern hub has been built using £7.5 million of the DfE money.
The nuclear sector is expected to see the development of 12 new reactors across five sites in the near future, with approximately 6,000 people needed each year for technical and professional roles that will need training.
The other partners for the new national college include EDF Energy, Sellafield Limited, Bristol University and the University of Cumbria.
A college was bailed out twice in December, to the tune of £1.5 million each time, FE Week has learned.
Figures revealing the amount of exceptional financial support dished out to Bradford College – which is currently in FE commissioner intervention – were published accidentally by the Department for Education last week.
No reason is given for the bailouts, and the college didn’t provide one when asked for a comment – nor has it published its 2016/17 financial statements.
The grade three-rated college was hit with a financial notice to improve in November, after requesting an unspecified amount of EFS.
The FE commissioner was then sent in to carry out an assessment of the college’s “capability and capacity to make the required changes and improvements”, and shortly after it was announced that its chief executive, Andy Welsh, would be stepping down at the end of the academic year.
But, according to its website, Chris Jones – a former adviser to the FE commissioner – was appointed interim chief executive in January to focus on “student experience, the college’s strategic recovery plan and financial sustainability”.
Bradford’s finance director, Chris Malish, is also new, having replaced former post-holder David Hambleton in August last year.
Minutes from a meeting of the college corporation in July reveal little sign of the trouble to come; the college had self-assessed its financial health as ‘satisfactory’.
But the college’s 2015/16 accounts revealed it had £43 million in bank loans taken out to fund a number of capital projects, and concerns were raised that it would be in breach of covenant on one of these by the end of 2017/18.
And accounts for the college-sponsored Bradford College Education Trust show it to have had an operating deficit of almost £1.3 million in 2016/17, although the college is in the process of withdrawing its sponsorship of the trust.
Bradford College, which had a turnover of £53.3 million in 2015/16, slipped from ‘good’ to ‘requires improvement’ in November last year. It emerged from the west Yorkshire area review, which completed in June 2016, with a plan to remain standalone.
But, according to last November’s financial notice to improve, one possible outcome of the FE commissioner’s involvement is a structure and prospects appraisal, which could see the college paired with another.
A spokesperson for the college told FE Week it had been “working closely with the ESFA and the FE commissioner to formulate a robust financial recovery plan”.
“As that work is ongoing, we will not be making any further comment at this time,” they added.
EFS is only available to colleges that are “encountering financial, or cash-flow, difficulties that put the continuation of provision at risk”, and which have “exhausted all other options”, according to ESFA policy. Any request leads to an automatic ‘inadequate’ financial health rating and a referral to the FE commissioner.
It’s set to be phased out with the introduction of the new FE insolvency regime later this year, proposals for which are currently under consultation.
The accidental publication of the EFS figures – which were quickly retracted – comes amid growing concerns over transparency, as a number of colleges have received multimillion-pound bailouts from the restructuring facility.
“The department does not normally publish information relating to EFS to ensure the college’s financial position can be managed effectively during the period of support,” a DfE spokesperson said. “Where appropriate, EFS is declared in colleges’ accounts.”
