Gateshead College is the only FE institution to be shortlisted for an award at the annual Construction Investing in Talent Awards this year.
The college has been shortlisted in the ‘apprenticeship scheme of the year’ category for its role in the PlanBEE Consortium – an alliance of architects, designers, contractors and engineering specialists.
It teamed up with the network to develop an apprenticeship in which students can work across several companies at once while completing their qualifications. The first cohort began in September 2016.
Also shortlisted in the category are Fife council, contractors FK Group, infrastructure support service Amey, project management and consultants Pettit Group and apprenticeship employer TrAC.
The awards are hosted by Construction News, and seek to find organisations helping people from a diverse range of backgrounds access the construction industry.
This year, there are a total of 13 categories, including ‘wellbeing initiative of the year’, ‘excellence in learning and development’, and ‘best use of technology’.
The college will find out if it has been successful at the grand final hosted in London on November 15.
A nesting box project begun by students at Moreton Morrell College has been successful after three barn owl chicks hatched.
The project was a collaboration between level three wildlife and countryside management students and level three arboriculture students, who built a series of nesting boxes in the hopes of attracting barn owls for their farm habitat management module.
The students worked closely with the South Warwickshire Barn Owl Survey to build the boxes, and the arboriculture students used their climbing skills to install them in May.
The chicks have been given a health check by licensed barn owl handlers, and recently flew the nest.
“The students decided that they wanted to build the boxes so it’s all down to them and their hard work,” said countryside management lecturer
Heather Hopkinson. “We were delighted that they have been used by the owls so quickly – it’s a fantastic success for our students.
“This term we are planning to start building nesting boxes for kestrels, tawny owls and barn owls, so we hope they will be just as successful.”
An Ipswich college is hoping to uncover the next big social media star by introducing video blogging classes to its programme of leisure courses.
From this month, Suffolk New College is offering a ‘vlogging for adults’ course at its Ipswich campus, a course covering everything from building a successful social media profile to making quality videos.
The courses will run over five weekly, two-hour sessions on Thursday evenings, and are open to anyone over the age of 16.
John Nice, a spokesperson for the college, said: “Video blogging and the rise of YouTube as a marketing tool for individuals and businesses is becoming increasingly effective. We would love to think that we could create an internet star via this course. So far, the take-up has been good.”
It isn’t the only new idea the college has introduced, with laughter yoga also on offer – a course that focuses on breathing and laughter to boost health and wellbeing.
The college’s leisure learning programme was reintroduced in 2016 after increased demand, and offers classes in cookery, construction, crafts and languages, with Indian cookery classes proving the most popular.
“Traditionally leisure learning is seen as being something for mature learners, however, as far as we’re concerned, age should never be a barrier to learning; therefore we welcome all-corners to our courses,” he added.
Vlogging tutor, Jack Sizer, right, shows his student the ropes
A lecturer who founded student-led, commercial games publishing studio Rizing Games, has been awarded a top title at the National Enterprise Educators Awards, reports Samantha King.
Michael Warburton, the head of computer games development at Cambridge Regional College, won the Enterprise Catalyst award last week for his work with Rizing Games, a company run by the college’s level three UAL games development students.
During their two-year course – which has been designed to reflect the way a games company works – students develop business plans, and learn all aspects of game creation before commercially releasing their games under the Rizing Games brand.
The initiative has now been running for eight years and began after Mr Warburton, who taught himself to programme after a career as a music tech teacher, noticed an hour of free time in the students’ timetables.
“When I started teaching on the games course I thought, hang on, they’re all learning these different bits but they’re not building computer games,” he said. “I decided, if they’re not doing anything in that hour, let’s get them to make a company where they can bring their ideas together and release games.”
Michael Warburton
Mr Warburton was up against two university lecturers in the Enterprise Catalyst category, which looked for educators driving change inside or outside the curriculum through entrepreneurship.
“It was a surprise, if I’m honest,” he said of his win. “The universities have set up amazing companies with degree-level and postgrad students that are turning over money.
“Rizing Games doesn’t make a penny. It’s not about the money.
“It’s humbling to think people can recognise what I’m trying to do – it’s not all about when you get to higher education. Yes, it’s fantastic and you can specialise, but we’ve got to trust the younger learners. They can do it earlier if you give them the right tools and environment.”
“The second or third year of running Rizing Games, I said why don’t we go to E3 and have a stall with the students. Everyone said don’t be an idiot, so I went ahead and did it anyway,” he said.
“Fundraising got us there, and a little bit of college support. We were standing there at E3 surrounded by the likes of Warner Bros and these massive games companies, and there was us this tiny little college from the UK. We were the only educational establishment in the whole world there.”
During their first year at the expo, Warburton made connections with software company Unity and gaming giants Playstation, who both donated software and equipment to help the fledgling company get off the ground.
Mr Warburton is now keen to help schools, universities and fellow colleges set up similar initiatives, and is looking forward to continuing to grow Rizing Games.
“My dream goal would be to run apprenticeships for college and uni kids,” he said. “There aren’t apprenticeships within the games industry, so if I could get to the point where I could offer them an apprenticeship here, that would be really cool.”
Interviews for a permanent chief executive at the Institute for Apprenticeships will at last begin later this month, finishing in October.
The hunt for a full-time successor to Peter Lauener began way back in April, with a closing date of May 22 for applications.
But the IfA turned to headhunters in July after failing to appoint anyone after the first recruitment round.
However, a spokesperson has now confirmed to FEWeek that the institute is in the “latter stages” of its search.
“There has been strong interest and we will be conducting interviews with a number of candidates in September and October,” he said. “We will make a further announcement after that process.”
It will be welcome news for many across the sector, which has been eagerly anticipating an update for months.
“The IfA has a vital role to play in the system in making sure apprenticeships meet learner and company needs,” Neil Carberry, the CBI’s managing director, told FE Week.
“It’s great news that the appointment of a permanent chief executive is finally making progress.”
The IfA, which launched in April and is expected to have an annual budget of around £8 million and up to 80 staff, has been led by Peter Lauener in an interim role since September last year.
He took the work on alongside his existing responsibilities as head of both parts of the then-separate Education Funding Agency and Skills Funding Agency.
In August the ESFA announced it had appointed Eileen Milner, currently an executive director at the Care Quality Commission, as head of the newly combined ESFA.
She is due to take up her new job in November, after which Mr Lauener is expected to begin his well-earned retirement.
Ian Clinton OBE, Interim principal and chief executive, North Shropshire College
Start date: August 2017 Previous job: Principal at Telford College of Arts and Technology Interesting fact: At 14, he put a plaster on the finger of The Who’s lead singer Roger Daltrey before he went on stage, while on first-aid duty with St John’s Ambulance at a music festival.
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Gill Burbridge, Principal, Leyton Sixth Form College
Start date: August 2017 Previous job: Deputy principal at Leyton Sixth Form College Interesting fact: She worked with Citizens UK to organise a welcome summit at the college for local schools to share ways of supporting refugees in their local community.
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John Doherty, Principal, Loughborough College
Start date: November 2017 Previous job: Managing director of ESPO Interesting fact: He once did a static-line parachute jump for charity but never felt the calling to take it up as a hobby. His three siblings also work in the education sector.
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Emma Yorke, Chief operating officer, Babington Group
Start date: August 2017 Previous job: Managing director of HCUKT (part of the Hull College Group) Interesting fact: She is an avid collector of World War 2 memorabilia, including publications, posters, frontline letters and telegrams.
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Mark Hughes, Head of Hartlepool Sixth Form College
Start date: August 2017 Previous job: Lead for collaborative outreach at Hull University Interesting fact: Mark first moved into academia following a successful career as a rugby player and personal trainer.
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
A 10,000-learner provider on the brink of collapse after it lost 97 per cent of its funding has been “assured” the government is discussing “options” to reverse the cut – but there’s been no change yet.
On Monday, bosses at Somerset Skills & Learning were joined by four Somerset MPs and various county council representatives for a meeting with the Department for Education to “urgently review” the £3.3 million cut to its adult education budget.
The provider’s chief executive Susie Simon-Norris and its director Kathryn Baker told FEWeek after that the skills minister Anne Milton had been “supportive”.
Ms Baker said she had been “assured that options will be discussed”, though confessed that “at this point there is no change to our funding situation”.
The community learning provider, which is rated ‘good’ by Ofsted and has around 200 staff, won a new AEB contract during the Education and Skills Funding Agency’s recent tender, but was awarded a mere £111,000 – a shadow of the £3.4 million it had been allocated last year.
Courses have now been put on hold as it faces a catastrophic reduction in provision at 10 centres across the county.
Ms Pow said she was “pleased” to get the chance to “promptly discuss the issue”.
“We had a full and frank discussion with Ms Milton and the ESFA,” she said. “Officials are considering all options to try and plan a way forward.”
She added that all parties are expecting a “full and detailed response” to the solution by the end of this week.
But even while SS&L had its funding eviscerated, the nation’s biggest FE provider, Learndirect, has been handed an AEB contract worth £45 million – even though it recently received Ofsted’s worst possible grade – something that usually prompts the DfE to terminate a provider’s funding.
As a result, it has been given 75 per cent of the value of its previous contract, after the ESFA significantly changed tender rules at the eleventh hour.
The AEB tender for private providers was itself dogged by delays. Results were supposed to be released on May 19 after it was first launched on January 27, for a sum that originally came to just £110 million. Results were finally published on August 4.
Main image: From left: David Warburton, MP for Somerton and Frome, James Heappey, MP for Wells, Anne Milton, apprenticeships and skills minister, Rebecca Pow, MP for Taunton Deane, and Marcus Fysh, MP for Yeovil
Mr Halfon confirmed that it will place heavy scrutiny on FE.
“We have agreed to look carefully at a number of subjects spanning the quality of apprenticeships training and subcontractors,” he said.
“Social justice and productivity will be at the heart of our work on the education committee over this parliament. How our education system helps to improve young people’s lives and puts them on the ladder of opportunity will be placed front and centre of our programme of work.”
Its work on subcontracting and apprenticeships is expected to be focused on concerns on value for money and quality of provision – which will more than likely see more of a spotlight on the Learndirect saga.
It is notorious for charging high management fees, in a process known as “topslicing”, which often sees lead providers retaining a large slice of government funding before paying subcontractors to run training on their behalf.
The committee also announced that it would hold early hearings with the education secretary Justine Greening, Ofsted’s chief inspector Amanda Spielman, and Ofqual’s chief regulator Sally Collier, once Parliament returns from the party conferences in October.
Further details of the committee’s new inquiries will be announced in the coming weeks.
The new members are:
. Robert Halfon MP (Chair) – Con, Harlow
. Lucy Allan MP – Con, Telford
. Michelle Donelan MP – Con, Chippenham
. Marion Fellows MP – SNP, Motherwell and Wishaw
. James Frith MP – Lab, Bury North
. Emma Hardy MP – Lab, Kingston upon Hill West and Hessle
The Department for Education is forking out £95,000 to run “high-level message” sessions to train FE staff about T-levels.
It has put out a tender looking for an organisation to create a “series of specialist events” to raise awareness about the reforms to technical education.
These will also serve as information-gathering events for the public consultation on T-levels, which will be published soon after a delay of more than a year.
“The government is introducing new college-based programmes, called T-levels, in 2020,” the tender says.
“By providing high-level messages relating to the reforms, these events will help FE heads of curriculum to factor these changes into their plans and effectively engage with the public consultation at the end of this year.”
News of these events will be welcomed by many across the sector, given the general lack of communication on T-levels, and because understanding of the reforms has so far been limited.
The skills minister Anne Milton announced in July that the first T-levels would be delayed until September 2020 – a year later than planned – following an assessment of the DfE’s delivery timescale.
The remaining routes are still expected, as planned, in September 2022.
The closing date for the DfE’s tender is September 20. The successful bidder must be available to deliver seven full or half-day events between October 9 and December 15.
While the events will be useful to college and private provider staff, one FEWeek reader described it as “a very short turnaround… to arrange awareness events on T-levels for FE staff starting October 9 – just three weeks to apply, get approval and organise said events”.
