Do new college principals really need sector experience?

Dr Sue Pember, director of policy and external relations at Holex, answers your questions on college governance, backed by her experience as principal of Canterbury College and in senior civil service posts in education and skills

Question One: Do new principals need sector experience?

We are just starting work to replace our retiring principal, and are considering essential candidate criteria. We can’t agree on whether it is essential for candidates to have FE experience or not. What is your view?

Answer: This is an interesting question and one for debate.

In schools it is more clear-cut: an applicant headteacher is expected to undertake the national professional qualification for headship, and although it is possible to get on this course without teaching experience it is very unlikely.

In principle it should be possible to move from a senior business role to become chief executive of a college

Although in principle it should be possible to move from a senior business role to become chief executive of a college, and while several exceptional people have done exactly that, in practice it is much harder to be successful. Some like to see the role as being mainly financial, but the reality is it is all about the students and the staff.

If an external candidate doesn’t know how to ensure a successful student experience and doesn’t understand the basics about class/group size and how it affects the bottom line, they are unlikely to lead the college to success. Personally, I believe you need a few years of experience in the classroom to truly understand students and learning; it builds resilience and allows you to understand the impact of the government’s constant changes first-hand, which in turn influences your responses and style of leadership when you become principal.

Question Two: Career advice to students

How can we maximise our opportunities with the recent change in the law requiring schools to allow colleges access to their pupils?

Answer: As with many others, I was pleased when in January 2016, the then-education secretary Nicky Morgan announced that the government would legislate to require schools to give emphasis to academic and vocational routes alike, and would collaborate with colleges, university technical colleges and other training providers to ensure this was done.

You should work with schools to gain access and create a really engaging experience

I was very excited about Lord Baker’s amendment, which came into force on January 2, requiring schools to allow providers of technical education and apprenticeships to contact pupils and promote their courses. But then I thought ‘isn’t it a sad world where we need legislation just to offer our young people fair and balanced advice?’ I am sure all of us, whether in a school or college, would say we want what is best for our pupils.

However, we do need to embrace these new rights and, as you say, it is now over to providers to maximise this opportunity.

To this end, you should work with schools to gain access and create a really engaging experience, using your best and most inspiring staff who can point out the differences between going to college or apprenticeships in positive way.

A college course or apprenticeship comes alive and is more appealing when pupils can come to see your premises. Access to pupils in the school is fine but there are other very effective practices: for example, offering specialist workshops in your premises to year 8s (12-year-olds) is one way to influence them.

Youngsters seem to know where they want to go before they pick their GCSEs so this new law is helpful but it is not going to fully solve the issue of ensuring fair information. It will still be up to you to make your offer known.

 

Question Three: Data protection reform

How does the new data protection law affect our work as governors?

Answer: Governors and the senior executive should be preparing for the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) now and, as governors, you need to be aware of the changes and approve the corresponding college policy, which needs to be in place by May 25.

These new regulations strengthen individual rights

There is plenty of help and support out there and your first port of call is the Information Commissioner’s Office, which has a set of tools and information for educational organisations.

These new regulations strengthen individual rights, and are supported by rules related to direct marketing which cover the promotion of aims and ideals as well as the sale of products and services.

In many cases, organisations will need consent to send people marketing information, or to pass on their details.

Organisations will need to be able to demonstrate that consent was knowingly and freely given, and should keep clear records.The rules on calls, texts and emails are stricter than those on mail marketing, and consent must be more specific. Organisations should not take a one-size-fits-all approach and therefore college processes and permissions will undoubtedly need to be revised.

 

Scheme giving vulnerable shoppers a safe environment to shop comes to Bath

Bath College is helping to pilot an initiative at a local supermarket that gives people with dementia and additional needs the space, support and time to complete their weekly shop in comfort, reports Samantha King.

Seven of the college’s health and social care students will help run the ‘Slow Shopping’ project at their local branch of Waitrose, where each Tuesday between 10 and 12 in the morning, lights will be dimmed, tannoys switched off, background noise limited and extra seating made available for shoppers who may become overwhelmed in an everyday supermarket environment.

Helping to make Slow Shopping happen

The project was started by Katherine Vero, after experiencing her own mother’s struggles with dementia while shopping, and projects are already established in branches of ASDA, Tesco and Sainsbury’s in Newcastle and Essex.

“I heard Katherine on Radio 4, and afterwards I contacted her and said I’d really like to work with her, and that the students could learn a lot from this,” said Sally Wilson, the care academy coordinator at Bath College. “She loved the idea of an intergenerational project where young people are supporting those who are often elderly, but not always. The joy of slow shopping is that it’s for any shopper with additional needs.”

It is the first time a slow shopping project has involved students, and Ms Vero has visited learners and Waitrose staff together to train them in how to run the project, which involved a tour of the shop floor to identify any potential barriers for shoppers.

The joy of slow shopping is that it’s for any shopper with additional needs

“They walked around the store and imagined it through the eyes of someone they may have worked with or cared for,” Ms Wilson said. “If you have Alzheimer’s for instance, it’s difficult to know when you come out of the toilets where the store entrance is, and people can become quite disorientated. It’s about learning what simple things can be done to help.”

The project, which has received funding from the St John’s Foundation, a charity that works with Bath’s elderly population, ran for the first time earlier last week, and has already received glowing feedback from the local community.

“We would love for other colleges to pick up and run with this,” Ms Wilson added. “Often with health and social care you’re working in settings geared up towards supporting people, but this is day-to-day life in a real world environment.”

Crash courses in cooking for aspiring HE students

In an effort to encourage more students to move on to higher education, Walsall College has been running ‘Cooking on a budget’ workshops to prepare them for university life.

Learners have been taught how to become self-sufficient in the kitchen by making easy meals such as pasta dishes and Chilli Con Carne, and attendees were presented with a cookbook of affordable recipes at the end of the session.

Chris Sammons

Led by the college’s hospitality and catering lecturer Chris Sammons, the workshops also covered how to shop on a budget, hygiene in the kitchen, and the correct way to store and freeze food.

The workshops were part of the college’s ‘Aspire to HE’ programme, which aims to support the government’s goals to increase the number of young people pursuing higher education routes by 2020.

“Living independently and budgeting for food is a large part of university life,” said Vivien Russell, the college’s progress coach for Aspire to HE. “The workshop was chance to prepare students for some of the challenges and opportunities of living on a smaller budget, whilst being able to prepare healthy and tasty meals.”

The 3m apprenticeship manifesto target slips further way – and now the AoC boss wants it scrapped

The government’s ambition to reach three million apprenticeship starts by 2020 is slipping further out of its grasp as we hit the halfway point, according to exclusive FE Week analysis of the latest statistics.

The number of starts in the 30 months since May 2015 has just hit 1,234,000, the latest monthly starts data shows, leaving us 266,000 (18 per cent) under one-and-a-half million, which is half of the eventual three-million target.

And a leading sector figure has now told the government to scrap the target entirely.

The head of the Association of Colleges, David Hughes, wrote on Twitter that it was the “wrong target” and claimed that a “brave government would abandon it now and replace with a target about job outcomes”.

In another tweet, he suggested that such disappointing results were a “great chance to abandon starts target and focus on access, quality, outcomes and building capacity and capability to deliver that”.

The Department for Education won’t be drawn on whether it is considering either abandoning or changing the target.

A brave government would abandon it

The Learning and Work Institute’s chief executive, Stephen Evans, also believes that the Department for Education is “measuring the wrong thing”, and warned that it risks “both missing the target and missing the point”.

“It’s based on starts not completions, and doesn’t look at quality or access. We need to look more broadly at the learning and skills system for young people as a whole,” he said.

“Our research shows a rise in the proportion of young people spending at least six months not in education, employment or training and an increasing disconnect with the official claimant count.”

The government first introduced its flagship target in 2015, and repeated it in last year’s election manifesto.

In order to hit the target, the country would have had to add an average of at least 50,000 apprenticeship starts per month, a threshold only beaten in three of the last 30 months.

Today’s provisional figures revealed a 26-per-cent drop in apprenticeship starts in the first quarter of 2017 compared to the same time period last year.

Today’s figures are a warning for the government, as it becomes increasingly unlikely that it will meet its three million new starters target

As reported by FE Week, total apprenticeship starts fell 41 per cent in the six months since May – when the levy was introduced – in comparison with the same period the previous year.

“Today’s drop in apprenticeship starts remains alarming and proves again that the apprenticeship levy isn’t yet working for businesses, apprentices and the economy,” said Neil Carberry, the CBI’s managing director of people policy.

“A fresh approach is needed to make skills reforms work. The CBI will continue in its calls to government to evolve the apprenticeship levy into a flexible skills levy, so firms can fund training for their people whatever the form of high-quality course they do. And policymakers must collaborate more closely with businesses and learning providers to design a stable national framework for skills.”

Seamus Nevin, the head of policy at the Institute of Directors echoed these concerns.

“Today’s figures are a warning for the government, as it becomes increasingly unlikely that it will meet its three million new starters target,” he said. “The levy is the right idea, but the system is ripe for reform.”

The apprenticeships minister Anne Milton admitted that last year had been “a period of significant change” and that “it will take time for employers to adjust”.

“But we must not lose sight of why we introduced our reforms in the first place – to put quality at the heart of this programme, and putting control in the hands of employers,” she said.

“It is right that they are taking their time to plan ahead, with two years to spend their levy funds, and maximise the opportunities an apprenticeship can bring for both the learner and employer. Feedback we’ve had shows employers are doing exactly that.”

 

College overseas ambassadors promote FE sector in China

Overseas ambassadors from three colleges have been selected to represent the UK education sector on a recent trip to China.

Nottingham College’s head of international projects Shaf Hussain, Central Bedfordshire College’s international manager Richard Harrison, and Cardiff and Vale College’s international development manager Ian Thomas were all selected as guest speakers at the British Council Agent Training Workshops, which aimed to promote the UK FE sector to Chinese students and their parents.

Run by the British Council, the workshops took place in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chengdu, and were attended by education consultants, who are responsible for representing and helping families with their educational planning.

“A strong message went out to agents highlighting that FE is the best place to prepare international students for UK university study,” said Mr Hussain. “The purpose of me attending was to try to positively impact on the international student market and I’m happy to say that I feel that I was able to achieve this.”

The representatives hope their respective colleges will see an increased intake of international students by September 2018 as a result of the trip.

Movers and Shakers: Edition 232

Your weekly guide to who’s new and who’s leaving

Cath Orange, Chair of governors, Bradford College

Start date: December 2017
Previous job: Dean and pro vice-chancellor, Leeds Metropolitan University
Interesting fact: Cath is a passionate Tranmere Rovers fan.

____________________________________________

Dr Stephan Jungnitz, Interim principal, Thomas Rotherham College

Start date: January 2018
Previous job: Interim principal, Hartlepool Sixth Form College
Interesting fact: Outside of education, Stephan works at the Huddersfield food bank, which helps to support individuals and families in crisis.

____________________________________________

Dipa Ganguli, Principal, Sutton College

Start date: January 2018
Previous job: Assistant principal, Westminster Adult Education Service
Interesting fact: Dipa loves travelling and learning about new cultures. Her alternative career choice would have been a researcher for Lonely Planet.

____________________________________________

Peter Lauener, Chair, NCG Training

Start date: March 2018
Previous job: Interim chief executive, the Student Loans Company
Interesting fact: When studying economics at university, Peter took a course in Marxian economics which was then cancelled because of lack of interest.

____________________________________________

Steven Downham-Clarke, Vice-principal and deputy chief executive, Myerscough College

Start date: April 2018
Previous job: Assistant principal, Kirklees College
Interesting fact: Steven has a keen interest in the outdoors and has hens, dogs, a cat and a horse.

 

If you 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

David Meller resigns from DfE board following Presidents Club allegations

David Meller, the co-chair of the controversial Presidents Club charity dinner that has been rocked by allegations of sexual harassment by guests, has resigned from the Department for Education’s board.

Anne Milton, the skills and apprenticeships minister with responsibility for the board, announced in Parliament this afternoon that he had stood down from both his non-executive director role at the DfE and the Apprenticeship Delivery Board.

Milton said she understood there were “allegations of inappropriate and lewd behaviour” at the dinner which she found “quite extraordinary”. 

“The government expects board members to adhere to the code of conduct for board members of public bodies. This quite clearly states that they should adhere to the seven principles of public life,” she said.

“David Meller is stepping down as non-executive member for the Department for Education and the apprenticeship delivery board, and I know my right honourable friend the secretary of state is absolutely clear that this is the right thing to do.”

She also insisted that “this event was absolutely nothing to do with the Department for Education”.

She added: “Women have the right to feel safe wherever they work, and allegations of this type of behaviour are completely unacceptable.”

Angela Rayner, the shadow education secretary, told MPs that Meller “should not have any other roles in education”.

Nadhim Zahawi, the newly appointed children’s minister, is also understood to have been in attendance at the dinner, but left early, according to reports.

A story by the Financial Times, published earlier today, revealed allegations of “groping, sexual harassment and propositioning” of women hired as “hostesses” for the Presidents Club charity dinner, which took place at London’s Dorchester Hotel last Thursday.

According to the Department for Education’s website, Meller joined as a non-executive board member in June 2013. He set up the Meller Educational Trust, which runs four schools and a university technical college, and served as chair of the National Apprenticeship Ambassador Network and the Apprenticeship Delivery Board. He was made a CBE in the new year’s honours list.

 

Skills Commission: Young apprentices need travel subsidies now

The government is harming young and disadvantaged people with its failure to ease their travel costs, according to a major new inquiry into the impact of the apprenticeship reforms.

The Skills Commission has “heard growing concerns” that “opportunities for disadvantaged young people are being displaced”, its new report out today warned.

Made up of an influential group of education leaders, business and MPs, the commission has made a series of recommendations to redress the balance.

Prominently, they want the government to “urgently” introduce subsidised travel for apprentices, bringing “discounts in line with those in full-time education”.

“The commission welcomes the current government’s commitment to discounted travel costs for apprentices. However, as yet there is no indication of how or when this pledge will be implemented,” the report said.

“Not only can transport costs be a barrier to accessing an apprenticeship in the first place, but they can also limit the variety of opportunities a young person can access. This is particularly the case in rural areas where transport options are more limited.”

The Conservatives committed to cutting travel costs for apprentices in their manifesto for June’s general election, in which they pledged to “introduce significantly discounted bus and train travel for apprentices” in an attempt to make the qualifications more attractive to people from disadvantaged backgrounds, but moves to implement cuts have stalled.

Other recommendations include having the Institute for Apprenticeships “monitor closely the extent to which the levy is being used to upskill existing employees”.

The apprenticeship levy was introduced for large employers in April last year.

But much of the resulting funding is being used by the employers to retrain employees already on their books, rather than employ new, younger apprentices.

“Of greatest concern is where rebadged training may simply accredit the existing skills of employees,” the report said.

It also suggested the government should develop “an apprentice kite mark, which employers should sign up to, to encourage higher-quality standards and best practice”.

The commission also wants the “apprenticeship premium” first suggested by the Learning and Work Institute, an additional sum paid to employers and providers to help them support young apprentices.

This premium would give “employers the breathing space to fund additional costs associated with recruiting a young apprentice through the levy”.

The inquiry was co-chaired by Peter Mayhew-Smith, the principal of South Thames College, Lilian Greenwood, the Labour MP for Nottingham South, and Michelle Donelan, who is the Conservative MP for Chippenham.

Mr Mayhew-Smith praised the “bold and imaginative strategy for investment in technical skills for the future” but warned that the enquiry had “exposed grave concerns” about the apprenticeship levy and its “ability to deliver inclusive participation and healthy levels of social mobility”.

“We feel that the new arrangements need to be looked at again to make sure they create positive change for the people and businesses they’re intended to benefit,” he added.

Although it describes apprenticeships as having the potential to be “a major engine of social mobility in the UK”, the report warned that factors such as low apprentice wages, the government’s cuts to household benefits, and the lack of “parity of esteem” between apprenticeships and traditional university degrees were putting off potential applicants.

The Association of Employment and Learning Providers’ chief policy officer Simon Ashworth said the recommendations were a “timely wake-up call that more needs to be done to support young people, especially 16- to 18-year-olds, into and through an apprenticeship”.

“Ministers would be wise to act quickly on implementing them,” he added.

 

BREAKING: Apprenticeship starts continue to fall sharply six months after introduction of the levy

Total apprenticeship starts fell 41 percent for the six months since May when the levy was introduced, compared to the same period the previous year (see below).

Provisional figures published by the DfE this morning report provisional starts for the first quarter of 2017, covering the months of August, September and October. This shows a 26 percent fall compared to the same quarter the previous year.

When these latest provisional figures are added to final starts from May to July (see below), the performance of the first six months of the reform programme shows the sluggish start continues.

Exactly half way into the five year Manifesto commitment target to achieve 3 million starts, the figures show an 18 percent (266,000 starts) shortfall.

Responding to the latest figures, Minister for Apprenticeships and Skills Anne Milton said: “The last year has been a period of significant change, it will take time for employers to adjust.

“But we must not lose sight of why we introduced our reforms in the first place – to put quality at the heart of this programme, and putting control in the hands of employers.

“It is right that they are taking their time to plan ahead, with two years to spend their levy funds, and maximise the opportunities an apprenticeship can bring for both the learner and employer. Feedback we’ve had shows employers are doing exactly that.”

The Department for Education report accompanying the data said: “There were 114,400 apprenticeship starts reported so far for the first quarter of the 2017/18 academic year, compared to 155,600 reported at this time in 2016/17, a decrease of 26.5 per cent. However, the decrease was not as large as the drop between quarter 4 2015/16 and quarter 4 2016/17 (59.3 per cent), which is likely to be associated with the introduction of the apprenticeship levy in April 2017. There have been 67,200 levy-supported starts so far, of which, 46,100 were reported in the first quarter for 2017/18.”

The latest figures have caused concern in the sector. 

The Association of Employment and Learning Providers’ (AELP) chief executive, Mark Dawe, warned ministers should be “really concerned” about the “social mobility agenda” after data revealed a continued drop in starts for both young people and at lower levels and called for cuts to the sector to be reversed. 

He added: “The government has got to look again at the incentives for recruiting young people and make sure that there are apprenticeship opportunities available across the country.  This means that employers shouldn’t be charged for taking on 16 to 24 year old apprentices and they should be given more flexibility in how they train them.”

EEF’s head of education and skills policy, Verity Davidge, said the figures should be a “wake-up call” to the government that the “apprenticeship levy and wider reforms aren’t working”, and called for a “radical rethink”.

She said: “The fact that the drop isn’t as huge as the previous quarter is by no means a cause for celebration, as the numbers are a snapshot of the time when most apprentices begin. The only ray of hope we can find is the increase in the number of higher apprenticeships. 

“Government must listen to  business concerns and ensure the levy delivers the demand-led system that was promised to employers.”

The Learning and Work Institute’s chief executive, Stephen Evans, described the fall in apprenticeship starts as “worrying” and said the government risks “both missing the target and missing the point” unless there is a change in government policies including measuring completions, quality and access to courses. 

He said: “A smaller fall is probably not the headline the Government were looking for, and their three million target looks some distance away.

“We need to look more broadly at the learning and skills system for young people as a whole. Our research shows a rise in the proportion of young people spending at least six months not in education, employment or training and an increasing disconnect with the official claimant count. The fall in traineeship numbers today shows a decline in routes to apprenticeships for many young people.”

Others took to Twitter to voice their worries.