‘DfE must employ civil servants who went to college’ says AoC boss

The chief of the Association of Colleges has publicly criticised the Department for Education for trying to reform the FE sector using civil servants who have “never been into a college”.

Speaking at the first day of the Federation of Awarding Bodies conference today, David Hughes said he was “really worried” about whether the DfE and Institute for Apprenticeships had the “capacity and knowledge” to reform the sector.

He also asked the government to hire more civil servants who had been through the college system.

“Every civil servant that is working on this is fantastic,” said Mr Hughes, who is himself a former senior civil servant.

“They are keen, they are eager, hardworking, they are putting a lot effort into it, but with the humility to know they don’t know much about this sector and about skills.”

David Hughes addresses the FAB conference

He suspects they all studied A-levels and a degree, and that “lots of them have never been into a college”.

“They have been out and about visiting and we are supporting them with literally hundreds of visits to colleges,” he said.

“All of that’s fantastic, isn’t it? But you know, come on DfE!

“Why have we got a lot in which every one of them says ‘oh well I don’t really know much about this’?

“Why would you do a reform programme with a bunch of people who don’t know much about it? Wouldn’t you try and find people who know something about it? Wouldn’t you recruit from the sector which depends on it? Wouldn’t you then try and set a career path, and reward programme to keep people there?”

Mr Hughes was the provider services director of the Skills Funding Agency in 2010 and 2011..

He went on to lead the National Institute of Continuing Education, which became the Learning and Work Institute, before taking over as chief executive of the AoC last September.

He used his speech at the conference in Leicester to criticise the government for rewarding civil servants’ good work on FE by moving them onto other projects, thereby losing valuable experience.

“They were rewarded by saying ‘fantastic, you can now leave’,” he joked. “They were rewarded because they were such good civil servants they could go and do something else.”

He also encouraged delegates to support T-levels, telling the conference that “we have no option but to make this work”.

“What’s the other option? Just to turn away from it? I couldn’t live with myself, literally, if we did that because I know that there are young people whose talent and ambition is being quashed by the system,” he said.

The first three T-levels were announced last week by the education secretary.

Qualifications in digital, childcare and education, and construction will be taught by a small number of providers from 2020.

The DfE’s wider action plan, due to be published imminently, will set out how the new “gold standard” vocational qualifications will be developed and delivered.

“What this gives us a chance to do is to give them a real opportunity in life to advance their ambitions and aspirations and life chances,” Mr Hughes told delegates.

“I think we’ve got to take that and we’ve got to work properly, honestly and with integrity with the department and with employers and with each other too.”

The DfE has been contacted for comment.

 

Annual geography-themed bake-off raises money for charity

A geography lecturer has set students and staff at Winstanley College the task of making geographically-themed cakes to raise money for charity.

Submissions to the sixth-form college’s Great Geographical Bake-Off included a Niagara Falls, Stonehenge and an Easter Island head cake, as well as a take on London’s Big Ben dubbed “Big Ben-Offee” by lower-sixth student Jessica Booth, who was crowned the winner.

It is the third year the cake competition has run, with the theme varying each year. This time it was famous landmarks.

“I chose to the do the Bake Off idea as a charitable act to mix two of my great loves – geography and cake. It’s one my highlights of the academic year,” explained Robynne Wood, organiser of the event.

“The first year we did the GGBO everyone assumed I was a judge and a competitive member of SLT recreated Malham Cove complete with cave system to impress me.”

After the competition, the cakes are sold to students and staff, and the proceeds go to charity. This year, a total of £100 was raised for the Madagascan Development Fund.

Easter Island cake

Hairdressing student fundraises for standing wheelchair to help him train

A hairdressing student left paralysed by a motorcycle accident is fundraising for a standing wheelchair to help him train.

Mitchell Chalmers, a first-year student at Bath College, needs to raise £4,900 for the chair, which would give him the extra height and support to lift and cut hair more easily.

Chalmers was 22 when he came off his bike at a motorcross racing event three years ago, suffering severe spinal injuries that left him paralysed from the stomach down.

The accident inspired him to pursue his dream job as a hairdresser, enrolling on the college’s hairdressing course this year.

“One of the biggest struggles is funding equipment to help me do the things I was able to do before. I don’t think there’s enough help out there,” he said.

“It’s been hard to find a job since my accident, but I think I’m young enough to try something new and being in a wheelchair won’t stop me.”

Mr Chalmers has already raised half of his target, and his fellow students are planning a rowing machine fundraising challenge at the college to help him achieve his goal.

Blackburn College first to have forest school enrichment programme endorsed by CACHE

Blackburn College has become the first FE institution in the country to offer a forest school enrichment programme endorsed by the Council for Awards in Care, Health and Education, reports Samantha King.

Introduced three years ago, the college’s forest school programme gets level three childhood studies students to take schoolchildren on weekly trips to woodlands and forests, and run enrichment activities like building mud pies, bushcraft and making hot chocolate.

The programme has now been endorsed by CACHE, an awarding body for the care and education sector which is part of the NCFE, after childhood studies lecturer Sue Croasdale submitted evidence of the programme’s positive impact on her students’ learning and wellbeing.

“We have a lot of students that come to us with mental health issues such as anxiety, and the difference in their mental health and wellbeing has been fantastic,” she said.

“We do about three hours in total in a forest school session to give the pupils time to run around and let off steam, and then we have quiet time and a story. We cover all aspects of pupils’ development. It’s very holistic and very sensory.”

The idea of forest schools originated in Denmark in the 1950s, and is studied by the college students as part of a module on international perspectives on education. The programme offers them first-hand experience of implementing the approach in a real-life setting, with real pupils.

“We’ve assigned two children to each student, and they then carry out observations on them. We use a psychological wellbeing scale and the students tick boxes to identify if the children are participating, how they’re communicating and what their social skills are like. It gives us a measure of whether forest school is making a difference to those children’s lives,” Ms Croasdale explained.

“I do have students that don’t like getting muddy or wet, but even they can see the value it has for the children.”

The programme will count towards the students’ work experience quota – which is a total of 750 hours – as well as getting them out of the classroom and learning key skills in a different, more natural environment.

There are plans to roll out the forest school approach with the college’s health and social care students, who will take care home residents and dementia sufferers into the outdoors to take part in gardening and even open-fire cooking.

Movers and Shakers: Edition 222

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

Geoff Russell, Chairman, JTL Training

Start date: December 2017
Previous job: Chief executive of the Skills Funding Agency
Interesting fact: He has just started a BTEC course in photography.

____________________________________________

Debra Stuart, Chair, the Training Room

Start date: September 2017
Previous job: CEO of Premier Global Group
Interesting fact: She worked as a fitness instructor for over 25 years.

____________________________________________

Jason Howe, General manager, South West Durham Training

Start date: August 2017
Previous job: Curriculum manager at Bishop Auckland College
Interesting fact: When working on an exhibition in Spain in 2005, he met the previous king of Spain, Juan Carlos, and sat inside a McLaren F1 car.

____________________________________________

Hannah Avoth, Vice-principal, Totton College

Start date: October 2017
Previous job: Assistant principal at Totton College
Interesting fact: Hannah took part in extreme camping as a teenager – no tents, no maps and the need to gut your own chickens if you wanted to eat.

____________________________________________

Mark Titterington, Chief executive, EngineeringUK

Start date: October 2017
Previous job: Global head of corporate affairs at Syngenta
Interesting fact: Mark spent several summers coaching football to children with attention deficit disorder.

 

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

Employers more satisfied with private providers again… but colleges catching up

Private training providers have once again proved themselves to be more popular with employers than colleges, according to government research – though the gap is narrowing.

A huge 88.1 per cent of the more than 60,000 employers surveyed said they were satisfied with ITPs, according to the Education and Skills Funding Agency’s latest employer satisfaction survey, based on training in 2016/17, while 84.6 per cent said the same of colleges.

Those scores – based on the median rating for the 202 colleges and 288 private providers with sufficient employer satisfaction feedback to be counted in the FE Choices data – are both higher than last year’s, indicating that overall satisfaction is on the up.

But while private providers’ score has increased by 4.2 percentage points, colleges’ score has gone up by 9.7 percentage points.

The proportion of employers either “likely” or “extremely likely” to recommend their training provider to others is also up – to 86 per cent, an increase of six percentage points on last year’s results.

In fact, scores across all providers and all measures are up compared with last year – by two or three percentage points.

However, the survey highlighted a number of differences across company size and type of training.

Medium and large organisations, those with at least 50 staff members, were “generally more satisfied” than organisations with fewer than 10 employees, who were “generally less positive than average”.

The survey also found that employers using providers to deliver non-apprenticeship training were “consistently more positive” than those delivering apprenticeships.

But it did also note that just three per cent of employers were delivering non-apprenticeship training – whereas 99 per cent of employers were using providers to deliver apprenticeship training.

“Employers delivering apprenticeships to 16- to 18-year-olds only were least positive about the training,” the survey found, although those with “both young and adult apprentices” were “significantly more positive”.

The majority – 67 per cent – of employers said they did not pay towards the cost of their training, while 24 per cent said they did.

Perhaps worryingly, eight per cent said they did not know if they were paying or not.

The survey, carried out between April and July 2017, represented the views of more than 60,000 employers and was based on training in 2016/17.

 

Concern at negative impact of FE loans on disadvantaged

The FE sector is worried by the negative impact FE loans have had on learners from disadvantaged backgrounds.

A government report published today has investigated the impact of the impact of the government’s FE reform agenda.

Its findings were largely based on analysis of responses to a telephone survey of 325 providers, as well as 50 more in-depth interviews, and individual learner records data.

It focused in-part on the introduction in 2013/14 of FE loans, at first just for learners studying courses at levels three or four and aged 24 and older.

Low interest and poor take-up of the loans by particular groups of learners, including those from disadvantaged communities was “a real concern for some providers” and “there is some evidence that the introduction of loans is leading to a decline in participation and provision at level three and above”.

Several providers indicated that they felt that “adults from disadvantaged areas were particularly reluctant to take out a loan”, though “for some providers, the policy has resulted in an increase in learner participation”.

It continued: “However, for most providers this has not been the case, with many reporting a decline in adult participation. Changes in learner numbers were considerable for some providers.”

FE Week revealed hugely disappointing uptake levels last month, and 58 per cent of FE loans funding – amounting to almost £1 billion – was found to have not been spent since 2013.

This figure, revealed by a Freedom of Information request, was branded a “systemic failure” that could unravel the government’s plans to upskill the nation in a post-Brexit world.

The Student Loans Company revealed that just £652 million in loan-funded provision had actually been delivered since 2013, against a massive £1.56 billion in allocations.

In terms of the overall impact of FE loans, which were expanded in 2016/17 to include 19- to 23-year-olds, and courses at levels five and six, it was found that 55 per cent of FE colleges were more likely to feel it had impacted a great deal on their organisation.

 

“Private providers (42 per cent) and ‘other’ providers (36 per cent) were more likely to say it had not impacted on their organisation at all,” it said.

Several providers further highlighted a particularly good take-up of 24+ loans for access to higher education provision.

“It was felt that there were stronger incentives for learners to take out a loan to fund this type of provision, including the loan being written off should they progress to university and complete their course.”

Providers also suggested that further work will be needed to develop learners’ understanding of the loans system and support increased engagement.

It also reported on the impact of the government’s much-maligned GCSE maths and English resits policy.

Since 2013, all 16- to 19-year-olds without at least a grade C in GCSE maths or English have had to enrol in courses in these subjects alongside their main programme of study.

This requirement was tightened in 2015 to require all of those with a grade D – now a 3 –  in those subjects to sit a GCSE course, rather than an equivalent stepping-stone course such as functional skills.

Today’s report highlighted concern on the impact of this policy on apprenticeships.

“The insertion of a GCSE maths and English requirement into apprenticeship is reported as having weakened demand for apprenticeship from some employers who do not see time spent on an ‘academic’ element as a necessary component in development of the skills they need,” it said.

It also reported support for the view that “developing English and maths to an adequate level by a functional skills approach was preferable to driving all learners towards formal GCSE examinations”.

 

WorldSkills 2017: Team UK’s gold standard show their support before the final hurdle

Anxious, tired and excited – that’s how 34 of the UK’s most talented young people in the skills industry will be feeling tonight after day three of WorldSkills Abu Dhabi, according to past champions.

With just one day to go until competitions are over, the pressure is heating up at this year’s global skills event.

FE Week caught up with two former gold medallists to get a sense of what Team UK will be feeling right now.

“By day three competitors have had roughly 18 hours in action. A slight bit of tiredness will be setting in so they’ve got to keep the energy levels up by drinking lots of water and eat plenty of food,” said Ashley Terron (pictured above), who won gold for Team UK in bricklaying in Leipzig 2013.

“Sometimes the mind can be wandering as they start to have a look at the other competitors’ work so they can be swayed by that but they’ve got to stay mentally strong, stick to their game plan, stay within their own team, and listen to their own training manager.

“They’ve got to trust their plans so that they know at the last second they will be finished and they’ve given their best shot and left everything on the stand and have no regrets.”

Rianne Chester

FE Week also caught up with Rianne Chester, who won gold in beauty therapy in Sao Paulo (2015) and won the illustrious Albert Vidal award for scoring the greatest number of points among all competitors from every nation taking part.

“They’d be feeling anxious, tired, but excited at this point,” she said when asked how our competitors would be feeling on day three.

“Each competitor will be feeling different right now. Some will be coming off happy but some will be crying their eyes out because they might have messed up on a section and that could be them basically blowing their chances of getting a medal.”

But when that buzzer goes on day four Rianne says they’ll be met with various sensations.

“When they’re finished what they’ll experience is either that feeling that comes all over your body like you’re all white and going to be sick, and you either cry or you get tired or get buzzing. It is different for everyone but it’ll be one of those.

“They’ll also feel really relieved.”

Every competitor in Team UK would have put at least two years of dogged training in to get to this point.

Ashley says they should stay confident in themselves to get over that final hurdle of the last day.

“This is everything they’ve trained for,” he told FE Week.

“Some people train for this for four or five years so they’ve got to remember they’ve made it to the top of the pyramid. So stick to your plans, you know you can do it, that’s why you’re on the stand and everyone else believes in your so believe in yourself and you’ll get through it.”

It is not just medal glory that Ashley and Rianne have experienced. After leaving Team UK Ashley was made a site manager at the age of 22 at a big construction firm called Redrow, and will be promoted to project manager soon aged just 25.

Meanwhile Rianne set up her own mobile beauty business called Beauty by Rianne.

“Personally, WorldSkills has benefitted me massively in my personal life in my confidence, the way I hold myself as a person and my confidence in my own ability,” said Ashley.

“It has been a huge opportunity for me and to be at this level in my professional career at such as young age and that has been made possible from me doing WorldSkills.”

Send your message of good luck to the team on their final day tomorrow by using the #TeamUK and our ‘Go Team UK’ social media image (click here to download). Also include the official event hashtag #WS_AbuDhabi.

Emotions high as Team UK competitors complete their work

Emotions were high as the first round of Team UK competitors completed their work for WorldSkills UK today. 

Jordan Charters, from Edinburgh College and employer George Charters, was captured by FE Week completing his work for what was the first competition to finish today.

He spoke to FE Week afterwards, saying that to succeed at the highest level of international competition “perfection is really the only option”.

“The relief is incomparable, “he added afterwards. “I’m feeling a bit emotional as well which is all good. It’s quite special. I’ll probably never feel like this again.”

 

And Bridie Thorne had a huge crowd cheering her on as she came to the end of her hairdressing competition.

 

Angus Bruce-Gardner, from provider Waters & Acland and employer Silverlining, was also interviewed after his competition in cabinet making.

 

“I don’t think I’ve done as well as I could have done, things have gone wrong, but overall I’ve got the piece finished [a cabinet] and it’s all done in time.”

He was thrilled with all the support he had received, including from family who travelled out there.

“My mum, dad and sister have been out all week, supporting me through this hole journey,” he said.

Betsy Crosbie, competitor in mechanical engineering CAD, from New College Lanarkshire, said it had been a “really good competition” as the four gruelling days came to an end.

“I’m really happy with all the work I’ve produced,” she told FE Week.

 

 

Daniel Martins, from EAS Mechanical and Briggs and Forester, also shared his thoughts after competing in plumbing and heating.

He said: “It was a really tough few days. I’m absolutely shattered now but happy with my work.”

 

Harrison May, from British Gypsum and H&R property Enhancement, told FE Week it was “absolutely amazing” to have finished the plastering competition.

 

Andrew Gault said he would “go away with my head held high” at the end of the auto body repair competition.

“I’m happy with what I’ve done – I don’t think I could’ve done any better,” he added.

Excitement is building as all the categories reach completion, and you can follow their progress on Twitter through @FEWeek.

You can view all our WorldSkills videos here.