A member of staff from North Lindsey College has led a successful fundraising campaign for the Alzheimer’s Society after her father was diagnosed with the disease.
Emma Buttrick, a health and social care learning facilitator at the college managed to raise a total of £1,536.83 for the dementia support and research charity through a three-part challenge, inspired by her father’s diagnosis.
With the support of staff in the health and social care department, the money was raised through cake sales, a cycling challenge and memory walk; £200 was raised through the cake sale alone.
“This year the focus was on fundraising and next year is about awareness-raising,” said Buttrick. “This was devastating news to my family and we are now coming to terms with the challenges we are facing.
“The money raised is absolutely amazing, and I am now in touch with a lady from the society and we have planned for someone to come and talk to the health and social care students and share their knowledge.”
Alzheimer’s is the most common type of dementia and affects an estimated 850,000 people in the UK.
Students from Hartpury College got embroiled in the world of competitive dog agility last weekend, as the campus played host to a national dog show, reports Samantha King
Competitors and their dogs from across the UK gathered in Gloucester for the Hartpury UKA show, an event for people who are serious about dog agility to chance their arm in a range of categories.
Attendees and their dogs could compete in agility, jumping, steeplechase and casual events, at levels ranging from beginner and novice, to senior and champion.
A total of 16 student volunteers from courses including animal care, veterinary nursing and equine ran the two-day event, setting up the courses across four different rings, logging scores, managing queues and checking in competitors.
Student Julia Shimwell with Dizzy
The courses had been previously designed by competition judges, so students had to build the course to their exact specifications, and adjust the height of equipment to cater for different types of dog.
“Out of the students who volunteered, only one was actually ever involved with dog agility previously,” explained the college’s animal collection manager, Aleksandra Lipinski, who helped set up the event. “Most of them had no idea what to expect or what a dog agility show looked like. They went in blind, and managed to do a really amazing job.”
Two of Hartpury’s own students took part in the event, and Julia Shimwell, a student taking the level three extended diploma in animal management, even competed with her dog Dizzy for the first time. Jess Radnor, another student and an experienced competitor took a top prize.
Ms Lipinski decided to set up the agility show after noticing how many horse shows there were at the college, and not so many events featuring smaller animals.
“We have a lot of equine events and some sports events, but we don’t really have much from the animal department. I know a horse is an animal, but it’s a separate department,” she said.
“I go to all these dog shows and they say they’re always looking for new venues and things, so I thought, ah, that might be good – so we started setting up something that students could run.”
Open to competitors registered with competitive dog agility group, UK Agility, the event cost the college a total of £1,500 to run, with spectator ticket sales and competitor fees covering the cost.
The event attracted almost 200 competitors, with a grand total of 920 dog runs – including those competing with more than one dog, or the same dog running in different events.
A senior Ofsted figure has admitted the inspectorate needs to focus more on apprenticeship providers and will ask employers for feedback on how to improve in the coming months.
It published a new five-year strategy at the end of September, in which it committed itself to being “a force for improvement through intelligent, responsible and focused inspection and regulation”.
“Our FE workforce is pretty balanced towards colleges at the moment, and we do need to bring in some new people with specialist apprenticeship experience,” he said.
Luke Tryl
“There has been a huge expansion of growth in this sector. We need to focus what we do and make sure we follow it in the right direction.
“I think, on balance, our system has favoured the college sector and it’s something we need to address.”
Ofsted has been holding focus groups with parents around the country to find out how to improve reports for different audiences.
Mr Tryl said the next step would be to do the same with employers, and that he hopes to have wrapped this up by January 2018.
“We want the 2019 common inspection framework to be the best it can be. If companies don’t think the current framework works, we want to hear from them,” he added.
“Right now our reports are targeted at three different audiences – institutions, the government and the public. Having a report that does three things is difficult. Maybe we need to make sure we present different information with different prominence to difference audiences.
“There’s potential for looking for new ways of presenting information across our remit and through digital means.
“We want to establish with employers what they need from our reports, what needs to change and how best to give them the information.”
The government already has a ‘Find apprenticeship training’ website, but Ofsted’s previous FE and skills data dashboard was closed down in 2016, just two years after it was launched with a promise to help governors and members of the public keep a check on the performance of providers.
However, Mr Tryl insisted that Ofsted wanted to develop something new.
“A dashboard approach might not be the right way to go. People might want a more narrative approach, although perhaps that won’t appeal to employers so much,” he continued. “We are in a time of limited resource. We aren’t going to invest where we don’t need to.
“We are going to ask how we can do this better. I’m convinced we can do it better.”
Five budding film critics from Stratford-upon-Avon College have taken top prizes in a film-reviewing competition.
The group of students, who all study the college’s A-level film course, submitted reviews to the review of the week competition run by Into Film, an educational organisation funded by the British Film Institute.
Their submissions were selected as the winners from hundreds of entries, and they will now each receive a badge, a certificate and a DVD randomly selected from the organisation’s film library as their prizes, as well as having their reviews featured on the Into Film website.
Among the submissions was a review of Richard Ayoade’s film Submarine, by 17-year-old Katie Jellicoe, and a review of the adaptation of Stephen King’s IT, written by 16-year-old Harry Gibbons.
“It’s difficult to believe that when they wrote their reviews they had only been studying film for a week,” said Sarah Downing, the A-level film lecturer.
“I’m immensely proud of them and look forward to seeing them flourish in their future careers.”
Harry added: “I think I’ve caught the film review bug a little bit. Film criticism is definitely something I’d like to consider in the future.”
Photo: (L-R) Katie Jellicoe, Ellie Checketts and Harry Gibbons with lecturer Sarah Downing
Scarcely half of eligible employers have signed up to use the government’s apprenticeships system, new statistics published today suggest.
Just 10,500 apprenticeship service accounts were registered on the system by the end of August – well short of the estimated 19,150 levy-paying companies that are eligible to use the service.
Today’s experimental statistics, published by the Department for Education, demonstrate that the number of employers signing up to use the service is tailing off.
FE Weekreported in July that 8,300 employers had registered by the end of May.
In the three months since, the number has increased by just 2,340 – with 910 companies signing up in June, 740 in July and only 690 in August.
A Twitter survey run by the Education and Skills Funding Agency suggests that the DfE is concerned by this lack of take-up.
The survey, run by the @ESFADigitalService account, asks levy-paying employers why they’re not yet registered for the apprenticeship service, and gives four options: “not currently recruiting”, “no framework/standard”, “need skilled staff” and “other”.
But as this story was published, just an hour before the survey was due to close, there had been just six votes.
Are you a levy-paying employer? Not yet registered for the #apprenticeshipservice? Please tell us why
She said she’d had meetings with at least one managing director who “didn’t know anything about it”, and admitted more needed to be done to promote the levy.
The apprenticeships service is the online system that levy-paying employers use to manage their funds, including registering “commitments” or apprentices, and paying for training.
Currently only large employers that are subject to the apprenticeship levy – those with an annual wage bill of at least £3 million – can use the service.
Figures published by the DfE in August 2016 indicated that 19,150 companies – representing just 1.3 per cent of all employers – would be eligible to pay the levy.
Today’s statistics show a total of 26,700 fully confirmed commitments – meaning that both the employer and training provider have agreed the apprenticeship start – were registered through the service by the end of August.
The same @ESFADigitalService Twitter account is also currently surveying non-levy paying employers, ahead of a planned expansion of the service to include all employers by April 2019.
A Department for Education spokesperson said: “Through our reforms to apprenticeships, we are making sure that millions of people have access to life-changing skills they need for a successful career.
“We have been working hard to support employers, and help them understand the benefits that high-quality apprenticeships and the apprenticeship levy can bring. Our records show they are engaged and ready to use their funds, and we will continue to work with them so they can invest in high-quality training.”
Start date: October 2017 Previous job: Director of Medacrii.com Interesting fact: She is the director of a social enterprise that runs organic sourdough bread-making courses.
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Steve Burgin, Chair of governors, South Staffordshire College
Start date: November 2017 Previous job: Vice-president of GE Power in Europe Interesting fact: He is deputy president and board member of the French Chamber of Commerce of Great Britain.
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Alison Robinson, Principal and CEO, Myerscough College
Start date: April 2018 Previous job: Vice-principal and deputy chief executive at Myerscough College Interesting fact: She will be the second woman to lead the college in its history, and has lived down the road from the main campus for over 20 years.
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Matt Bagley, Head of farms, Askham Bryan College
Start date: September 2017 Previous job: Head of agriculture at Askham Bryan College’s Penrith campus Interesting fact: He sits on a number of national committees including the National Sheep Association and the Sheep Vet Society.
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Bruce Carnegie-Brown, President, the Chartered Management Institute
Start date: September 2017 Previous job: Chairman of Lloyd’s of London and Moneysupermarket.com group Interesting fact: He is a trustee of Historic Royal Palaces and a deputy lieutenant of Greater London.
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
The leader of a troubled college has stepped down just 18 months into the job – and will be replaced by the ex-principal of another formerly struggling institution.
Derek Headrige [pictured right] was appointed campus principal at Totton College in April 2016 following a period of turmoil that saw it merge with the social justice charity Nacro.
But he has now resigned and is being replaced on an interim basis by the former principal of LeSoCo, Maxine Room [pictured left], the college announced today.
Lisa Capper, director of education at Nacro, said she was “delighted to welcome Maxine to the team”.
She praised the work Mr Headrige has done since her took over, and said Totton College “has improved its Ofsted rating and results and has introduced a number of high-quality technical courses and apprenticeships to match the needs of the local community and industry demands”.
A spokesperson insisted the resignation was not connected to the college’s recent Ofsted inspection, in which it improved by just one grade to ‘requires improvement’ in July, and said he was leaving to take a “promotion to a new role within the education and training sector”.
A return visit by the education watchdog in June resulted in the college receiving a grade three across the board.
“Since the transfer of ownership to Nacro in December 2015, the pace of change has been slow,” noted the inspection report.
Ms Room was in charge of Lewisham College from 2009, and oversaw its merger with Southwark College in 2012.
But when the new body was inspected in November 2013, it was branded ‘inadequate’ – a verdict that occasioned a visit by the FE commissioner Sir David Collins in January 2014.
His report noted that a lack of action to address the weaknesses identified by Ofsted “leaves serious doubts about the capability of the leadership team”, and that there was a “lack of confidence” in the leadership team among key stakeholders.
Despite a recommendation that the college board “develop and implement a succession plan for the post of principal”, it wasn’t until May that Ms Room announced she was stepping down.
According to her LinkedIn profile, Ms Room has been working in a variety of consultancy roles since leaving Lewisham Southwark.
She will be supported in her new role by Hannah Avoth, who is being promoted to vice-principal.
“This is a strong set of appointments and I know they will take the college to the next stage of its successful development,” Ms Capper said.
The skills minister will be speaking at this year’s Association of Colleges annual conference.
Anne Milton’s address is guaranteed to be one of the highlights of this year’s event, which will be held at ICC in Birmingham on November 14 and 15.
The news of her appearance at one of the FE sector’s biggest annual events comes days after she spoke at the Conservative party conference, at which she discussed the need for “flexibility” in the new apprenticeships system.
David Hughes, AoC chief executive, said he was “delighted” that Ms Milton would be speaking at the conference.
“It’s such a good opportunity for her to set out the government’s vision for education and skills and the critical role colleges will play in achieving that vision. I know that AoC members will be looking forward to hearing from her and posing their questions.”
Other confirmed speakers at the two-day conference will include Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, Ofsted’s chief inspector Amanda Spielman, and the writer and broadcaster Matthew Syed.
This is only the second time the sector will have had the chance to hear from the apprenticeships and skills minister directly, after she spoke at the Association of Employment and Learning Providers conference in June, just days after she took up the role.
The skills minister has admitted she’s heard serious concerns about the government’s apprenticeship reforms, but claims there is “just enough time” to ensure that the enthusiasm, energy and time put into the project is not lost.
Speaking at an Apprenticeships Forum fringe event at the Conservative Party conference this morning, Anne Milton said successive governments had proceeded with “good intentions and great ideas”, but then the “dead hand of the state” took over.
She was responding to a question about the problems with the process for developing new apprenticeship standards and criticism of the new Institute for Apprenticeships, and admitted that the system would not work “unless there is flexibility in it”.
Successive governments proceed with good intentions, and then the dead hand of the state comes in
“Successive governments proceed with good intentions, great ideas, everything’s very exciting. And then the dead hand of the state comes in,” she said.
“This conference is very timely, because there’s just about enough time to pick it up and make sure that enthusiasm and energy and actually time, people are giving up huge amounts of time to work with the IfA, isn’t lost.”
Ms Milton claimed her door was “always open” to the sector and to businesses, but admitted the list of people wanting to see her was “huge”.
Although she praised civil servants, who “tell me what’s working and what’s not”, she admitted that, four months into the job, the conference had been an opportunity to identify concerns about government policy that she was not aware of before.
For example, she said she had been “quite flabbergasted” to find out that many large businesses were unaware of the apprenticeship levy, despite paying large amounts of money into the pot.
She said she had had meetings with one managing director who “didn’t know anything about it”, and admitted that more needed to be done to promote the levy.
“[I met a] local business, big business [that is] paying the levy. Certainly the managing director didn’t know anything about it. Finance director knew vaguely about it,” she recalled.
“I said, you can spend this money on training – they have a couple of apprentices anyway. They knew nothing about it. Two people around the table yesterday. Senior levels in big organisations.”
Issues with the involvement of small and medium-sized employers (SMEs) in the apprenticeships system have also been raised, she said.
“That has come up quite a lot in the round tables for me, how we get SMEs involved, how we make sure that they can use the levy.
“The flexibility in the system is something that a number of people have raised with me.
“The other issues, if we’re talking about upskilling the workforce, so your existing employees, can that levy money be used – and it would apply to small businesses as well – to do shorter courses. So we need to look, we definitely need to look at that.”
Ms Milton also discussed the WorldSkills competition in Abu Dhabi, and said she had been “talking to the press office” about her potential trip to the event.
“What I would love to see is that get huge publicity. There can be no better opportunity than to give apprenticeships a boost. It is a brilliant opportunity.”
At the event this morning, she shared a stage with her predecessor Robert Halfon.
Now chair of the education select committee, Mr Halfon admitted that changes to the apprenticeship levy system were needed.
“I’m allowed to say this now that I’m not in government,” he said. “I actually think that we need to fine tune the apprentice levy. We need to do one of two things. We either increase the levy generally or we increase the amount of companies that have to pay.
“At the moment on two per cent of companies pay the levy, that have got wage bills of £ million. Perhaps you should increase that, set it at a wage bill of £2 million.
“And I would use that levy, part of the levy, to incentivise people to acquire apprentices from disadvantaged backgrounds. Because I think that will be a really good financial incentive to the companies, and I also think it will also help in the long term.”
FE Week put the employers’ concerns about a lack of feedback and flexibility, and too much bureaucracy, to the IfA, which replied they related to rigid guidance determined by the Department for Education.
The institute’s spokesperson added: “We are listening to employers and exploring how we can improve the speed and responsiveness of the processes that we run.”
We put the IfA’s claim to the DfE, and a spokesperson said: “The Institute for Apprenticeships, puts employers at the heart of the decision-making processes so it’s important that we listen and respond to concerns they have about how it is working for them.
“We want to ensure all apprenticeship standards are developed to a high quality and part of this is ensuring that apprenticeship standards are employer led.
“We will continue to work closely with the Institute for Apprenticeships and make sure we address concerns as the new system evolves.”
Picture L-R: Kevin Schofield, Editor of PoliticsHome, Anne Milton MP, Skills Minster and Robert Halfon MP, former Skills Minister and now Chair of the Education Select Committee
Editorial: Milton in the middle
Sat at the front of a breakfast event, I was witness to a refreshing account from a skills minister from whom we’d not really heard since June.
On the morning of the third day of the Conservative conference, Anne Milton was speaking at her fifth fringe event.
Freed from the shackles of civil servant minders, employers were able to give her honest and frank feedback.
She declared she was “quite flabbergasted” to find several big business bosses ignorant of the apprenticeship levy.
Read Editor Nick Linford’s view here
Others were telling her that employer ownership in practice meant red tape and discussing “inflexibility” from the new Institute of Apprenticeships.
Stuck between her advisors and employers, she said she would need to find common ground, and quickly.
I was also struck by how much degree apprenticeships dominated the debate, as if they were now the only show in town.
But when I asked what the saturation point was for £27,000 management degree apprenticeships, I was reassured that level two and three were also important.
The minister sounded like she was taking the feedback seriously, and change could be on the way.
Whether the “dead hand of the state” ultimately wins, only time will tell.
