Ofsted watch: Kendal College falls from grade one

This week brought disappointment for Kendal College, which lost its ‘outstanding’ Ofsted grade and dropped down to ‘good’.

The small college, which serves around 2,610 learners and is located in the Lake District, was inspected in early June, around five years since Ofsted’s last visit.

It secured an ‘outstanding’ result for personal development, behaviour and welfare, but its apprenticeships provision was labelled ‘requires improvement’.

The education watchdog said in too many instances teachers were failing to “plan learning that takes into account learners’ and apprentices’ individual starting points,” which had a negative impact on measuring progress.

In a minority of qualifications, including English and maths, the outcomes achieved by learners and apprentices were said to “require improvement”, while leaders and managers needed to do more to “reverse the decline in the proportion of apprentices who achieve their qualification in the planned time”.

Positive feedback included the fact that “Managers have successfully cultivated highly effective partnerships, resulting in a curriculum that meets local and regional needs exceptionally well” and teachers and assessors were found to “provide excellent information, advice and guidance for learners and apprentices, preparing them exceptionally well for their next steps”.

Adult and community learning providers the Harington Scheme, in Highgate, had more success this week, jumping up from ‘requires improvement’ to a ‘good’ grade across the board.

The charity caters for people with learning difficulties or disabilities, behavioural difficulties or mental health needs by providing employability training, and currently has 45 learners.

Ofsted found the proportion of learners achieving their qualifications, including English and maths, had risen and was now “high in almost all subjects”, while work experience schemes were “highly effective and personalised”.

The curriculum designed by leaders, manager and trustees was “effective, personalised, flexible and interesting”, and learners had “good attitudes to learning and work”.

Areas to keep improving on were maths, which learners were making “slow progress” in, and a stronger focus on assisting learners with the most significant communication needs – who were found to require “better access to specialist support”.

Independent learning provider Advanced Personnel Management Group (UK) saw a reverse of fortunes compared to the Harington Scheme, falling from ‘good’ to ‘requires improvement’.

While adult learning programmes were still rates ‘good’ by Ofsted, all other areas of provision dropped to a level three after an inspection in June.

Focusing on the Birmingham-based provider’s delivery of study programmes, Ofsted acknowledged that the company had had a major restructure, with nine of the 10 training and assessment staff and managers employed in just the past 12 months. 

To improve the watchdog urged the provider to fully implement already planned changes, refine governance arrangements, improve the skills of tutors to ensure they challenge learners properly, and ensure all learners are provided with detailed information, advice and guidance.

North Yorkshire County Council also saw its grade fall from ‘good’ to ‘requires improvement’ across the board this week, with suggested improvements including managers intervening more quickly to address non-attendance, and teachers and assessors setting more specific and challenging targets.

Sheffield City Council was also inspected for adult and community learning but retained its ‘good’ grade.

Local authority Essex county council had its second re-inspection monitoring visit after it was found to be inadequate for overall effectiveness, leadership and management, personal development, behaviour and welfare, and adult learning programmes in February.

Ofsted said the council had made progress in improving safeguarding, leaders’ self-assessment and the quality of performance information provided to county councillors. However, progress was insufficient in the observation of tutors’ practice and the overall quality of teaching learning and assessment.

Independent learning providers Mantra Learning Limited and Wiltshire Transport Training & Development Limited both received short inspections and continued to be rated ‘good’.

GFE Colleges Inspected Published Grade Previous grade
Kendal College 06/06/2017 11/07/2017 2 1
         
Independent Learning Providers Inspected Published Grade Previous grade
Advanced Personnel Management Group (UK) Limited 13/06/2017 10/07/2017 3 2
         
Adult and Community Learning Inspected Published Grade Previous grade
North Yorkshire County Council 06/06/2017 12/07/2017 3 2
Harington Scheme Limited (The) 06/06/2017 10/07/2017 2 3
Essex County Council 06/06/2017 14/07/2017  M  M
Sheffield City Council 13/06/2017 14/07/2017  2  2
         
Short inspections (remains grade 2) Inspected Published    
Wiltshire Transport Training & Development Limited 20/06/2017 10/07/2017    
Mantra Learning Limited 07/06/2017 13/07/2017    

Corbyn demands end of FE loans in new Labour push

The government will be pressured by Labour in the coming months to scrap advanced learner loans, its leader Jeremy Corbyn has told FE Week.

And the party confirmed it will also look into ending historical FE loan debts, in a welcome boost to our #SaveOurAdultEducation campaign demanding action for learners left with huge debts and no qualifications.

In an exclusive interview, FE Week asked Mr Corbyn if Labour planned to campaign for an end to FE loans, as well as higher education.

“We will be pushing the government in parliament on this,” he said. “We will be really raising the whole question of university and FE loans.

“If we don’t properly fund our FE system, if we don’t give students parity of esteem between going to university and vocational education, then we all lose out.”

I like a challenge. We’ve got to start dealing with this debt crisis that we’re foisting on our young people

Mr Corbyn previously indicated, in an interview with music magazine NME, that his party would consider wiping all existing student loan debt if it got into power.

Shadow education secretary Angela Rayner was asked about this proposal – which goes further than the party’s election manifesto pledge to scrap university tuition fees – by the BBC’s Andrew Marr on Sunday, July 9.

Ms Rayner said Mr Corbyn had only indicated it was an “ambition” at present, but, she added, “I like a challenge. We’ve got to start dealing with this debt crisis that we’re foisting on our young people. It’s not acceptable.”

Meanwhile, the Labour press office told us that “Labour is committed to scrapping student fees for both FE and higher education, and restoring university maintenance grants and the education maintenance allowance.

“Additionally, we acknowledge the need to address historical student debts. A Labour government will consider the scope for this depending on economic circumstances at the time.”

The party’s general election manifesto pledged to campaign for “free, lifelong education in FE colleges, enabling everyone to upskill or retrain at any point in life”.

The recently appointed Conservative skills minister Anne Milton has been tasked with leading a review of funding across tertiary education.

When the review was first announced in the party’s general election manifesto, it prompted speculation that it might include a rethink on the controversial loans.

Advanced learner loans were first introduced in 2013 for learners aged 24+ at levels three and four, but were later expanded in 2016 to cover all learners aged 19+. However they continue to suffer from low take-up.

Loans allocations for 2016/17 stand at £335 million. The latest figures from the Student Loans Company show that just £146.9 million was paid to providers between August 2016 to April 2017 on behalf of 73,500 learners starting courses in 2016/17.

FE Week’s #SaveOurAdultEducation campaign, launched in the Houses of Parliament in February, calls for debts to be written off for hundreds of former learners who were left with huge loans debts but no qualifications, after their providers went bust.

The campaign scored a partial victory in April when the Department for Education announced it would defer affected learners’ loan repayments for a year.

But we revealed this week that at least nine former learners affected by the demise of Hampshire-based Edudo Ltd are still having to make repayments.

The Department for Education was unable to comment on this ahead of publication.

Learner satisfaction still highest with private providers

Private training providers have maintained their near 10-point lead over colleges in the government’s annual learner satisfaction survey, which was published this week.

The Department for Education released the results of its annual survey, which had 364,589 respondents, representing 18.2 per cent of all learners, on June 13.

Private providers scored 90 out of 100 for their overall satisfaction rating from students compared with 80.9 for general FE colleges.

This is nearly the same result as last year’s, but this time colleges’ scores shifted upwards by an average of 0.5 points, while private providers went up by 0.4.

Overall learners’ satisfaction increased by just over one per cent from a score of 86.6 to 88.

Three providers received a perfect score of 100, all of which were private training providers.

The learner satisfaction survey took place between October 31 last year and April 7, and is comprised of 12 questions with six response options ranging from ‘extremely likely’ to ‘extremely unlikely’.

Only providers with sufficient numbers of responses were included in the results.

Results revealed that learners attending general FE colleges are less likely to recommend their learning provider (78 per cent) than learners attending private providers (88 per cent) and those at other public funded FE institutions (93 per cent).

A high level of learner recommendations appeared to be associated with providers with top Ofsted grades.

Eighty five per cent of learners at providers rated ‘outstanding’ or ‘good’ would recommend their institution, compared with 77 per cent of learners at providers who were rated as ‘requires improvement’ and 74 per cent of learners at providers who were rated as ‘inadequate’ by Ofsted.

Meanwhile, more students studying lower-level courses appear to prefer their providers than those on more advanced levels.

Ninety two per cent of learners studying at level one or below said they would recommend their provider, compared with 83 per cent of those studying at level two and 78 per cent of those on courses level three or above.

The survey also showed that students living in the areas of highest deprivation were slightly more likely to recommend their provider than other learners – 86 per cent compared to 81 per cent of those in the least disadvantaged areas.

The report also found that 16- to 18-year-old apprentices were slightly less likely to recommend their provider than adult apprentices, with 82 per cent likely to do so compared to 88 per cent among the older age group.

Results also showed most apprenticeship framework areas were highly rated by learners compared with classroom-based study in equivalent subject areas.

Female learners were much more likely to recommend the learning provider than male learners – 87 per cent compared to 79 per cent.

Grimsby boy swaps fish and chips for funeral services

A former waiter in a Grimsby fish and chip shop is hoping to become a funeral director after taking up an apprenticeship in funeral care. Samantha King reports.

Ryan Coombes spent four years working in his local fish and chip shop before deciding he wanted to pursue an alternative career, applying for an apprenticeship within the funeral industry.

He has now become the 2000th apprentice on the Co-op’s apprenticeship scheme in funeral operations and services. 

Explaining his decision to move into the funeral industry, 23-year-old Ryan said: “I always felt like there was something more rewarding for me to do out there because I enjoy helping people and this is definitely the business for it.

“I was doing food orders all day and now I’m dealing with the deceased. It’s a completely different job.

“My dad moved to the funeral industry after spending 18 years elsewhere and really enjoyed it, and my uncle has also worked in funeral services for 27 years, so it has always been around in the family.”

Since its launch in 2013 the apprenticeship scheme has attracted a diverse range of applicants, from classical musicians and plumbers, to detective sergeants and cabin attendants, with approximately 500 new apprentices joining every year. In 2016, there was an average of 40 to 50 applicants to the scheme every month.

“I think younger people are more accepting of funerals as a celebration of life rather than simply mourning, and therefore more willing to come into the business,” Ryan said. “It is hard to recruit in though as a lot of people think it’s a bit morbid.”

Delivered in partnership with Learndirect, apprentices can work towards a level 2 and level 3 certificate in funeral operations and services.

Jenny Atkinson, head of HR for Co-op Funeralcare said: “Working within the funeral industry can be an extremely rewarding and satisfying career. 

“Our intention has always been to provide people from all walks of life with the opportunity to develop a worthwhile career in funerals. Providing they possess compassion, empathy, excellent service and organisational skills, we can teach everything else on the job.”

Ryan – who has a degree in criminology – is currently receiving training at Kettle Funeral Directors in Grimsby.

“Before I did this job I’d never been further than the outskirts of Grimsby, and this job takes me from Skegness to Hull and Doncaster, so I’ve got a lot of experience of driving now,” he said. 

“One of the main challenges I came across was getting used to driving the ceremonial vehicles. I’m used to driving a Peugeot 108 which is a tiny car.”

Student helps publicise talking newspaper charity with new website

An IT student is helping blind and partially sighted people in Bath and Bristol access a talking newspaper.

Peter Day (pictured), a level 3 student from Bath College has been working on a website for charity, Keynsham & District Talking Newspaper, which helps people who struggle with their sight access local news.

It posts subscribers a memory stick each week, where they can listen to interviews, community features and lifestyle articles. 

In the newly created website, Peter has uploaded a sample of the articles to raise awareness of the free service to potential listeners and their families.

He said: “The charity wanted the website to be clear and easy to use, allowing people to navigate it themselves. The main challenge was making sure it was readable for partially sighted people, which is why the website is yellow with a large font.”

Eighteen-year-old Peter will now help the charity with the upkeep of the new website, and use the experience to help him in his future career.

Mike Crane, chair of KTN, said: “We are delighted with the work Peter has done for us and were very pleased that he was able to attend our recent meeting of volunteers and listeners to present the new website.”

Movers and Shakers: Edition 216

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

Tony Batchelor has been appointed training manager at the British Woodworking Federation, a trade association for the UK’s woodworking and joinery manufacturing industry.

In the newly created role, Mr Batchelor will be responsible for working to increase recruitment in the sector, and maintain and develop qualifications.

He will also work within the Centre of Excellence Network – an initiative set up by the BWF and the National Association of Shopfitters – to ensure training providers and colleges are meeting the needs of industry through regular audits.

Mr Batchelor spent his early career in the public transport sector, before working in training and skills, including a spell with the British Council to deliver training on vocational and educational projects in Asia.

The chief executive of the BWF, Iain McIlwee, said: “Perhaps the biggest change the joinery sector currently faces is to the skills landscape. 

“Now for the first time we have a dedicated training manager role which isn’t split with other responsibilities. Tony is a vital part of our plan to attract talent into our sector.”

________________________________________________________

The deputy principal of Kirklees College, June Durrant, has retired this week after 31 years working in further education.

Ms Durrant has spent the last 13 years of her career at Kirklees College, joining in 2004 as head of school, before becoming a curriculum director in 2008 following its merger with Dewsbury College. She took on her current role of deputy principal in 2014.

Before this she spent 18 years working at Bradford College, of which she was an alumna, having studied A-level biology there in 1986.

“The best thing about my work has always been the people – all the staff and students who I have worked with along the way at both Bradford and Kirklees,” she said. “I feel very privileged to have been able to work in a sector that I know has the power to change lives.” 

Ms Durrant plans to spend to spend her retirement pursuing her hobbies of crafting, knitting and watercolour painting.

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There have been two new appointments at Qube Learning, a provider that specialises in apprenticeships, traineeships, short courses, e-learning and recruitment.

Mark Eaves-Seeley has joined as its learning and development director.

He takes up the position from his previous role as assistant director of partnerships and collaboration at Birmingham City University, which he held for just over a year.

He previously worked at United Learning for nine years leading on learning development and talent provision, holding the role of people development director and then dean from 2013 to 2015. 

“I am very excited to be joining Qube at this pivotal point in the apprenticeship agenda,” he said. “We have an unprecedented opportunity to improve learning for apprentices and the impact they have in their workplaces.”

________________________________________________________

Anthony Melia has been named assistant director of learning and development.

He will take up the role alongside his position as head of quality and compliance at Qube learning, which he has held since 2014.

In his new position, he will be working closely with Mr Eaves-Seeley, supporting the design and implementation of Qube’s learning and development strategy. 

Mr Melia has over 18 years’ experience in the training and education sector, spending a total of 15 years at apprenticeship training provider First4Skills.

“I look forward to working with the team to design and implement high quality learning and development solutions for our students, customers and our internal colleagues,” he said.

 

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

Apprentices commissioned to make trophies for Asian Apprenticeship Awards

A team of apprentices have been commissioned to create trophies for the annual Asian Apprenticeship Awards.

The apprentices from the Midlands-based engineering company Salop Design and Engineering Ltd will design and manufacture the trophies, which will be given to winners.

Salop supplies goods to the manufacturing, automotive and aerospace industries, with clients such as Jaguar Land Rover and Nissan. It won the ‘promoting apprenticeships in the workplace’ award at the Nachural Summer Business Ball earlier this year.

Now in its second year, the AAA aims to showcase the work of Asian apprentices, and help increase BAME employment by 20 per cent by 2020.

Nominations for the awards are now open, with categories for employers, apprentices, learning providers and schools, and winners will be announced at a ceremony in Birmingham on November 2.

Isa Mutlib, project director for the AAA, said: “Nominating for the awards recognises and celebrates the hard work of talented British Asian apprentices, their employers and learning providers. Not only this, but we are also able to raise the profile of apprenticeships within the British Asian community bringing benefit to the lives of the apprentices, businesses and the economy.”

To submit a nomination, click here. Applications close on September 11.

 

Main photo: Isa Mutlib, right, oversees the trophy design

College donates radio equipment to remote Gambian village

A college is donating radio broadcasting equipment to a remote village in west Africa so they can set up a local community radio station.

The equipment, currently owned by the Heart of Worcestershire College, will be donated to residents in the Gambian village of Kwinella to enable them to communicate more easily.

The donation was the idea of the college’s security officer, Lamin Sanneh (pictured left), who visits the village each year to see his mother.

Now, Mr Sanneh is working out a way to train the villagers to use and set up the equipment ready for its arrival in the Gambia in four to five weeks’ time.

 “I’ve had the idea of running a facility that will enable the people of my community to communicate with each other when there are no other means of doing so,” said Mr Sanneh

“Setting this station up will mean so much to the local community. I am so grateful to the college who have donated the radio broadcasting equipment to enable me to fulfil this ambition.”

Sharp rise in loans for EU students before Brexit

There was a sharp rise in the number of EU students taking up advanced learner loans this year despite the looming spectre of Brexit, government statistics show.

Figures for take-up of all FE loans were released by the Department for Education last week, and the overall picture showed starts had gone up compared with the same period last year – to 73,500 from 56,100.

This was expected because the government last year extended the age range for students to be eligible to apply, down to 19 from 24.

More interesting was the percentage increase for EU (non-UK) learners.

The figures, which are taken from loans starting in August 2016 to April, show that 12 per cent (8,800 of 73,500) of starts came from EU learners, up from 9.8 per cent in 2015/16, and 7.6 per cent on the year before that.

This is despite concerns that the rights of non-UK residents will be affected by Brexit, following Britain’s vote to leave the European Union on June 23 last year.

Government officials have however moved to assure EU learners on loans provision that they will be allowed to complete their courses.

Jo Johnson, the universities minister, said that EU nationals or their family members who are currently in FE and are eligible to receive loans from Student Finance England, will “continue to remain eligible for these loans and grants until they finish their course”.

He added that these eligibility rules would also apply to EU students who are starting in either the 2017/18 or the 2018/19 academic year.

“SFE will assess these applications against existing eligibility criteria, and will provide loans and/or grants in the normal way,” he continued.

“These eligibility criteria set out that for students beginning study any time after August 2016, EU nationals must have been resident in the UK for at least five years or be EEA migrant workers in order to apply for a maintenance loan.”

Mr Johnson also said the migration status of EU nationals in the UK is “being discussed as part of wider discussions with the EU”.

A DfE spokesperson declined to release any more details.

The Conservative election manifesto promised a “major review of funding across tertiary education as a whole”.

It is likely that advanced learner loans will be a central feature in this review owing to the troubles the DfE has had with them over recent years.

The Education and Skills Funding Agency has previously recognised it has a problem overseeing loans-funded provision, particularly where much of it is subcontracted.

Since August 2016, the ESFA has banned new subcontracting contracts for advanced learner loans, with a complete ban coming into force from August this year.

In addition, growth requests for advanced learner loans were paused in September last year, while in November the SFA introduced caps for how much loan money can be allocated to a provider; for example where an approved loans facility is £500,000 or less, a maximum growth limit of £250,000 will apply.

The DfE would not be drawn on whether advanced learner loans would be considered in the forthcoming funding review.

SLC boss suspended pending investigation

The boss of the Student Loans Company has been suspended pending an investigation.

Steve Lamey was suspended from the organisation, which administers the government’s advance learner loans, on July 11.

An SLC spokesperson said: “The Student Loans Company, in consultation with the Department for Education, took the decision to suspend the chief executive pending an investigation into concerns which have been raised.

“The suspension is a neutral act and does not imply wrongdoing. As the matters leading to suspension are now subject to an independent investigation, it would be inappropriate to comment further at this time.”

The DfE would not provide any further comment.