SPONSORED: JTL is recruiting trade and training professionals

What happens when you combine a booming construction industry, a shortage of skilled trade professionals and a fall in net migration from the European Union?

You get rapid growth in the demand for apprenticeships – and JTL is leading the way in providing high quality training and development for the next generation of electricians, plumbers and heating engineers.

“We now work with approximately 3,000 businesses and train more apprentices than anyone else in the building services engineering sector,” says Julie Asher-Smith, JTL’s Human Resources Director, “and the need for apprentices is set to expand further with the Government’s target of delivering a million new homes by the end of the decade. It’s an exciting challenge and we’re building our training teams throughout the country to help us meet it.”

We’re building our training teams throughout the country

Other factors are also driving investment in apprenticeship training. Apprenticeships are increasingly seen as an attractive alternative to university, offering young people the chance to earn while gaining a valuable qualification, without taking on the burden of student debt. Apprenticeships also represent good value for money, with the government suggesting that every pound invested in level 2 apprenticeships returns £26 to the UK economy. More than that, surveys show that employers report benefits in productivity, competition and employee retention from taking on apprentices.

JTL has played a key role in raising the profile of apprenticeships in the UK, not just by challenging negative perceptions of their value and relevance, but by creating one of the most innovative and supportive training environments in the building services engineering sector. Their high quality, work-based training programmes are funded by the government and offer qualifications across four trades – electrical, plumbing, heating and ventilation, and mechanical engineering.

Each apprenticeship takes up to four years to complete, combining college education with on-the-job training and experience designed to equip individuals with the knowledge and skills to deliver real value to local businesses. “Eighty nine percent of employers say apprentices make their business more productive,” says Julie Asher-Smith. “And as for apprentices themselves, eighty five percent of them stay in employment upon completing their apprenticeships, and two thirds stay with the same employer. It’s a win-win for everyone involved.”

Growing demand for its services means that JTL is looking for a range of qualified trade and training professionals to strengthen its teams across the UK. The people who join JTL are typically experienced plumbers, electricians or heating and ventilation engineers who have practical experience of mentoring and developing trainees – or a real desire to develop those skills as part of a supportive team. Some involvement in government training schemes and National Vocational Qualifications is desirable, of course, and everyone on the team must have relevant industry experience and an up-to-date knowledge of industry working practices and techniques relevant to the building services engineering environment.

There are multiple roles at JTL – including Training Officers, Tutors and Assessors – but they all focus on engaging with young apprentices and creating a blended learning environment that brings out the best in them, both technically and personally. That takes more than a good technical knowledge in a specific trade discipline; it requires first-class communication skills, the ability to set rigorous standards of performance and the willingness to mentor, guide and inspire apprentices at every level of their development.

We try hard to create a team that’s as diverse as the communities we serve

Having the opportunity to influence the future of vocational training is just one of the advantages of being part of JTL. The company has also created a unique working environment that offers a combination of flexibility, ongoing development and some of the most attractive benefits in the sector.

“Many of our training and assessment professionals are based from home, which offers them a level of autonomy and control that few other organisations can match,” says Julie Asher-Smith. “They get to blend real independence with the confidence that comes from being part of a well-resourced and supportive team that can help them achieve the best outcomes for both themselves and our apprentices.”

There is a strong emphasis on continuing professional development as well. The company has held Investors in People status since 1995 and works hard to ensure that every member of the team has the training they need to perform well in their particular roles. This includes one-to-one coaching, specially tailored courses and the open sharing of ideas, knowledge and experience with the JTL community itself.

Diversity is another important aspect of JTL’s vision. It has been at the forefront of attempts to expand the reach of apprenticeships by tackling barriers that have made it hard for underrepresented groups to pursue a career in the sector – for example, by launching its “ambassador” programme to encourage more women and diversity into the building services engineering sector. That ethos informs its recruitment objectives too, says Julie Asher-Smith: “We want the best professionals on our team and try hard to create a team that’s as diverse as the communities we serve. So we don’t just welcome applications from all sections of society, we actively encourage them.”

In addition, JTL offers a comprehensive range of benefits designed to recognise and reward the contribution of its team members. Along with competitive salaries, they can expect a personal pension, BUPA, life insurance, occupationally relevant training and even financial support in pursuit of relevant professional qualifications.

“As an organisation, we can only ever be as good as the people who work for us,” says Julie Asher-Smith. “That’s why we’ve tried so hard to create an environment that values their talent, encourages their creativity and gives them the resources to make a real difference to the industry and the lives of the young people they support.”

For more information on our career opportunities, click here.

Movers and Shakers: Edition 224

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

Delroy Beverley, Chairman, Yorkshire, North East and Humberside regional board, CMI

Start date: October 2017
Previous job: Executive director of Nottingham City Homes
Interesting fact: Delroy was the first BAME chairman of an international business school in Europe.

____________________________________________

Stella Raphael-Reeves, Deputy principal, East Coast College

Start date: November 2017
Previous job: Director of curriculum at Birmingham Metropolitan College
Interesting fact: Stella is a yoga and dance instructor, with a keen interest in wellbeing.

____________________________________________

Anne Tyrrell, CEO, DN Colleges Group

Start date: November 2017
Previous job: Principal and CEO at North Lindsey College
Interesting fact: Anne has written and had published two books on 20th-century fashion.

____________________________________________

Peter Doherty, Chief operating officer, DN Colleges Group

Start date: November 2017
Previous job: Executive director of finance and corporate services at North Lindsey College
Interesting fact: In his youth Peter played guitar in a band – badly.

____________________________________________

Mick Lochran, Principal, North Lindsey College

Start date: November 2017
Previous job: Deputy principal at North Lindsey College
Interesting fact: Mick is a Scunthorpe United season ticket holder, and played football for Scunthorpe boys.

 

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

Exclusive: Sixth form college performance fell 8% points, Ofsted expected to say

Sixth-form colleges have been driven to “tipping point” through repeated funding cuts, the body that represents them has said, after FE Week exposed a sharp drop in top Ofsted grades.

Our exclusive analysis, using the same methodology as Ofsted’s own annual report, has shown an eight-point fall in those with a grade one or two for 2017, compared with the previous year.

This week saw two SFCs fall from ‘outstanding’ ratings in the last two days: John Ruskin College in Croydon, and King Edward VI College in Stourbridge.

Until 2017, the number of SFCs receiving the top two ratings had climbed every year since 2012.

It rose from 72 per cent five years ago to an impressive 89 per cent in 2016.

But figures to September this year show that the proportion rated ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ had dropped to 81 per cent.

 

Source: Ofsted annual report 2016 Figure 17 and analysis of Ofsted management information by FE Week for the year 2017.

The Sixth Form Colleges Association’s deputy chief executive, James Kewin, pointed out that Ofsted boss Amanda Spielman had acknowledged “a tipping point” at which funding levels start to harm quality and the curriculum offer at the SFCA conference in June.

He believes it is “very possible we have now reached that point”.

“Colleges have done everything they can to protect exam performance and in doing so have had to cut back on the support services they can offer students,” he said.

“But the two are inextricably linked, and outcomes will inevitably dip if colleges are forced to exist on starvation rations for much longer.”

Despite the fall, the SFCA said the sector was “still performing extremely well”, given that over 80 per cent are rated ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’.

King Edward VI drop to grade two, while John Ruskin fell to grade three.

John Ruskin was criticised for being “slow to address the decline in standards”, with too few learners completing courses and achieving qualifications and teachers “failing to engage and motivate learners fully”. Managers were said to not be tracking the progress of apprentices accurately, particularly those managed through subcontractors.

Although it remained a ‘good’ provider, Ofsted raised concerned that too many of the “most able students” at King Edward VI were not achieving the grades they were capable of and sufficient support was not provided for students wanting to progress directly into employment and training.

In 2016/17, eight sixth-form colleges fell from the top two grades to the bottom two.

Among these were Holy Cross College in Bury, which fell from ‘outstanding’ to ‘requires improvement’, and Leicester’s Gateway SFC which dropped from ‘good’ to ‘inadequate’.

During the same period just two colleges climbed into the higher tier: Strode’s College in Surrey, and Bilborough College in Nottingham, which both rose from grade threes to twos.

A survey published this week by SFCA found that the cuts to 16-to-19 funding has forced two thirds of colleges and schools to cut extracurricular activities and student support services.

Ofsted was asked to comment on FE Week’s findings.

ESFA boss Peter Lauener to lead Student Loans Company

Peter Lauener will take over at the Student Loans Company later this month, after its chief executive departed suddenly under a cloud

According to a statement on the SLC’s website, the outgoing boss of the Education and Skills Funding Agency and Institute for Apprenticeships will start in an interim capacity on November 27.

He will remain in the post until a permanent replacement for Steve Lamey is recruited.

“Following investigations into allegations about aspects of his management and leadership, the SLC has decided to terminate Mr Lamey’s contract as chief executive officer,” the SLC said in a statement. “The SLC and its shareholders expect the highest standards of management and leadership and these were not upheld by Mr Lamey during his time in this role.”

It went on to explain that Mr Lauener, who had been due to retire after stepping down this autumn at the ESFA and IfA, was taking over on a temporary basis.

“DfE and the SLC board would like to put on record our thanks to David Wallace for his excellent work as acting chief executive during Mr Lamey’s suspension,” the statement went on.

“He will continue in this role until Mr Lauener starts work. After that Mr Wallace will revert as planned to his former position as SLC’s deputy chief executive and chief customer officer.”

The news comes as Mr Lauener’s tenure as boss of both the ESFA and the IfA comes to an end.

Eileen Milner, former executive director of customer and corporate services at the Care Quality Commissioner, was announced in August as the ESFA’s new chief executive.

She will take over this month, with a short period of handover with Mr Lauener before he steps down.

But there is still no word on who will replace Mr Lauener at the IfA.

FE Week reported last month that the search was still ongoing, six months after it began.

We previously revealed in July that Mr Lamey had been suspended, pending further investigations.

 

Learndirect accounts reveal huge debts and an uncertain future

The long-term survival of Learndirect will hinge on the success of its sister companies, including Learndirect Apprenticeships, over the next 12 months, as newly released accounts show it saddled with debts of more than £50 million.

The nation’s biggest FE provider, which has had serious financial and performance issues ever since Ofsted damned it with a grade four in August, published its full accounts for the 18-month period up to January 31, 2017, this morning.

They show huge debts worth £48.5 million for its parent group, Pimco Holdings Ltd, plus a loan of £2.9 million from Lloyds Development Capital (LDC), both of which need to be paid back from November 2018.

There is a further loan from LDC of £48.8 million which will be repayable in May 2020.

Learndirect Apprenticeships (LDA), a firm set up by Learndirect as a separate entity to run its apprenticeships division in March 2016, also released its accounts this morning, which show similar financial problems.

Both companies were said in the accounts as to still be a “going concern”, and in order to survive Pimco has secured a “working capital facility” of up to £5 million from its bank lenders, which will be available until November 30, 2018.

There are however two “material uncertainties” which may cast “significant doubt” on Leanrdirect’s and LDA’s abilities to remain a going concerns: Pimco’s financial arrangements after November 2018 and the providers’ future performance.

The accounts state that while bank lenders and LDC “continue to be supportive”, Pimco’s ability to repay, refinance or extend these loans will depend on the performance of its subsidiaries – Leanrdirect Ltd, Learndirect Apprenticeships Ltd, and Learndirect Professional – over the next 12 months.

There are said to be “several factors” that make predicting income levels in the short-term more difficult than usual, according to the accounts.

These include the impact of Ofsted’s landmark report, changes to apprenticeship funding (particularly the levy), and the rate of growth in the European Social Fund.

Reduce the number of localised delivery centres and associated staff

Learndirect’s executive team is “continuing to manage day-to-day performance and is keeping cost levels under close review in order to be able to mitigate any shortfalls to expected operating income”, the accounts say.

Learndirect received around £45 million from the adult education budget to use until July 2018, despite its ‘inadequate’ rating and the fact it pulled out of a controversial procurement process. This represents 75 per cent of its previous £60 million contract.

Today’s accounts state that Learndirect, over the course of the coming year, will “continue to reduce the exposure that it has from costs related to delivery of ESFA-funded learning”.

This will be done by “reducing the number of localised delivery centres and associated staff”.

In the absence of an improved Ofsted grade, the ESFA has confirmed that funding for adult skills provision will not be available to Learndirect Ltd after July 2018.

The company’s accounts claim that it has “other sources” of funding, such as ESF contracts, which are “currently growing” with “scope for these contracts to be extended and for further contract wins in the future”.

“The directors consider that, if the business achieves its budgeted performance targets over the next 12 months, then there is a good prospect that the relevant facilities will be extended beyond 30 November 2018,” the report concludes.

Learndirect declined to comment.

The Learndirect saga has been closely followed by the FE sector ever since the Ofsted judgment in August, and subsequent decisions by the government have led the National Audit Office to launch an investigation into both Learndirect and the Department for Education following outcry from the Public Accounts Committee.

The outcome is expected to be released in “winter 2017-18”.

Milton reveals four pillars of new careers strategy

The four main themes of the government’s widely anticipated careers strategy have been set out by the skills minister, in a speech delivered at the Careers Education and Guidance Summit.

Anne Milton said the strategy would be published “shortly”, speaking at the event in London today.

“I am tremendously grateful for the work that you do. That is why I want to give you a first insight into the careers strategy. I know many of you in this room have been waiting a long time for this,” she told delegates.

“It will be an important document that will set out what government will do to ensure that everybody has access to the right advice at the right time. A clear and accessible document, setting out the part we will all play in achieving this vision.”

The first theme is ensuring a “high-quality careers programme” in every college and school.

This will be largely achieved, she said, through making the eight “Gatsby benchmarks” the “bedrock of our careers strategy”.

These markers, set out through the Gatsby Charitable Foundation’s Good Career Guidance, include the need to link curriculum learning to careers, and learn from career and labour market information.

The second pillar is making sure employers “are an integral part of our approach”.

She claimed that the Careers and Enterprise Company had made “outstanding progress”.

“There are now over 2,000 enterprise advisers working with over half of the schools and colleges in England providing support to develop a careers programme,” she said.

“They use their networks to help pupils get more experiences of the world of work and provide insight into the key skills needed by local businesses.”

The CEC is thought to have been backed by more than £70 million of government funding, and boasted of working with over 700 schools and colleges last July.

Yet FE Week last December reported criticism of a very mixed bag for its engagement with colleges – as opposed to schools which are generally viewed as the organisation’s priority – around the country.

We had repeatedly pressed the Careers and Enterprise Company, which was set up in July 2015 to connect young people with the world of work, for details of the colleges that it works with.

After being told three months earlier that we couldn’t have the information for “data protection” reasons, we were finally given a list showing a postcode lottery for FE coverage, with 15 LEPs not covered – and London completely absent.

The third theme will be making sure everyone can benefit from “tailored support”.

“Personal guidance from a qualified adviser can have a real impact. I know that the careers profession has experienced many shocks in recent years and that organisations such as Careers England and the Career Development Institute are working tirelessly to raise the profile and status of the profession,” she said.

Finally, Ms Milton said the careers strategy would seek to make the most of the “rich sources of information about jobs and careers that exist”.

She admitted that such “information sources can be difficult to navigate and those who could most benefit from them are sometimes unable to”.

She added: “The government already publishes data on students’ destinations, but we recognise that more needs to be done to make the data easier to interpret.”

Peers force senior civil servants to defend FE funding

Senior government figures have been forced to defend whether further education is getting its “fair share” of funding during questioning at the House of Lords.

A hearing on the economics of higher, further and technical education saw senior civil servants quizzed about the disparity of funding across the sector, during a session of the Economic Affairs Committee.

Speaking at the meeting, Lord Burns criticised the “lavish funding” afforded to higher education and said “it’s not surprising” that people believe FE “isn’t really getting a fair share”.

He quoted statistics showing that in 2017/18, 3.5 million FE students received approximately £2,700 funding per learner. In contrast, 1.5 million students in higher education received £11,000 per learner. 

The director general of HE and FE at the Department for Education, Dr Philippa Lloyd, said the government was working to address the issue but described it as “difficult stuff”. 

She said the recently launched apprenticeship levy on large employers does “help counter some of that”.

“As I said, we are very aware that our technical education is not where it needs to be and that’s what we are focused on,” she added.

Asked whether it was time to “radically rethink” the “fragmentation” of FE funding by Lord Layard, Dr Lloyd admitted the sector “definitely needs attention”.

Lord Darling also asked whether, at a time when so many universities are offering technical education, the divide between HE and FE should be looked at again and made clearer “given the disparity in funding”.

Dr Lloyd said it was something the DfE did think about it and described the issue as “complicated”.

She also discussed “lessons learned” in the department following the revelation that T-levels were the 29th reform to technical education so far.

“Sometimes people have tried to do technical reforms without sufficiently involving employers, or sometimes with employers involved but not really establishing if the employer would actually take people with those qualifications,” said Dr Lloyd.

“I think also there are things about really understanding how and why people make certain choices. One of the things we are trying to do this time is, and it’s not meant to sound novel, we are actually talking to students and parents and teachers about how they feel about the decisions they are going to take.”

Consultation launches on FE residential safeguarding standards

The government has opened its consultation on new national minimum standards for residential accommodation for 16- to 18-year-olds in the FE sector.

It has gone live on gov.uk today and will close on January 26.

“The standards were last revised in 2002, and much has changed in the FE sector since then,” said a Department for Education spokesperson.

“They are also too long, detailed and prescriptive by today’s standards.

“By revising and updating the standards we aim to make it easier both for FE institutions and for Ofsted to provide protection and reassurance for students and their guardians.”

A draft set of national minimum standards have been unveiled with the consultation.

The new rules are clearer on how providers should liase with local authorities and other key public bodies than those from 2002.

There must be “an effective working relationship between the college and local services, including local authority children’s or adult services and the police, especially whenever suspicion or allegations of abuse have occurred”.

A senior member of staff must also take responsibility for student safeguarding policy, to “liaise with the children’s or adult services (depending upon the age of the student), the designated officers within the local authority, and to coordinate action with these services, and where applicable liaise with the police following any allegation or suspicion of abuse or significant harm affecting a student”.

Hereward College, a general FE college which caters for day and residential learners with complex disabilities and learning difficulties, received a damning grade four-overall Ofsted report last November, which raised serious concerns about safeguarding in particular.

The report condemned the governors, leaders and managers for refusing to accept the findings of an investigation by the local authority into an incident.

“There have been a number of alleged incidents of peer-on-peer abuse in the college’s day and residential provision. One or more of the alleged incidents remains under investigation by another agency,” it said.

A former student at the college was subsequently found guilty of raping another learner at the campus, something the college said it was “deeply saddened” by.

In the section on staff recruitment and checks on other adults, the proposed new national minimum standards stress that anyone visiting residences must be “kept under sufficient staff supervision to prevent them gaining substantial unsupervised access to residential students or their accommodation”.

A college must have and follow “an appropriate policy on recording and responding” to complaints, and students must be aware of how to make a complaint.

A new government-commissioned report has further warned of a “striking level of mistrust” between residential special colleges and schools and councils.

The report, ‘Good intentions, good enough?’, was commissioned by the Department for Education and written by Dame Christine Lenehan (pictured), director of the Council for Disabled Children, and Mark Geraghty, principal and chief executive of the Seashell Trust charity.

The combination of financial pressure on town halls and rising numbers of learners with high needs, coupled with a feeling among these colleges and schools that pupils are only referred “at crisis point” were said to be contributing to issues on both sides, and their charges are being caught in the middle.

Justine Greening, the education secretary, has already taken up one of the report’s recommendations, agreeing to set up a new “national leadership board for children and young people with high needs”.

The new board will work with councils, health bodies and providers to support collaboration, the report says.

 

Richard Atkins – an interview with the FE commissioner

Richard Atkins completed his first year as FE commissioner in October. In a special interview to celebrate his anniversary, FE Week asked him about his expanded role, including the new £15 million fund to help failing colleges improve their education and training.

Almost exactly a year to the day since he took the torch from Sir David Collins, Richard Atkins is full of enthusiasm and keen to talk about his work.

But as his remit expands, he’s at risk of straying into other institutions’ territories.

Take the new £15 million strategic college improvement fund, for example – shouldn’t that have gone to the Education and Training Foundation, which is after all supposed to be responsible for boosting standards and quality in the sector?

Not according to the former Exeter College principal, who insists he does a “different job”.

“Most people actually ask if we’re duplicating the work of either Ofsted or the ESFA, rather than ETF,” he says.

Most people actually ask if we’re duplicating the work of either Ofsted or the ESFA, rather than ETF

“I think what we do is intervene, or provide diagnostic assessments and early intervention, at a governance and leadership level, with a real focus on institutional success. Our understanding of governance, leadership and institutional sustainability is second to none.”

He does believe the ETF is doing a good job, but won’t be drawn on what else he thinks they could be doing.

“They’re a non-governmental agency,” he says, “which provides a wide range of support services to colleges, from teacher training to English and maths – which is great, but they don’t do what we do.”

What’s more, he says he will “absolutely” work alongside them, and is happy to endorse their services.

“I have no doubt that if the ETF is offering the right thing, I will recommend it,” he insists.

The SCIF is just one aspect of Atkins’ expanded role, first announced by Justine Greening in July, which is designed to ensure he can support colleges before they hit crisis point.

Previously the FE commissioner intervened at failing colleges – those which had either been rated ‘inadequate’ by Ofsted or were in financial trouble – and overseeing the area review process, which ended in March.

“The thing that hit me when I first started the job is that there’s something frustrating about only working with colleges that have already hit the bottom,” he says.

This led to conversations “from very early on” with the education secretary’s strategy team, about how to “work with colleges that are on the way to becoming ‘inadequate’ and prevent them from becoming ‘inadequate’”.

He explains that the team “consulted extensively” with a range of people across the sector, including the Education and Skills Funding Agency, Ofsted and the afore-mentioned ETF.

“I had a significant input into [the strategy team’s] work, and what you see now are many of the suggestions that I made have turned into policy,” he says.

He definitely “suggested” that his office needed money – although he claims he “didn’t put an exact amount on it”, as “the strategy unit did that”.

The improvement fund, he says, while “not enormous” in terms of the overall DfE budget, is nonetheless “enough money to make a real difference”.

“I’ve spoken to a number of colleges; if we made between £200,000 and £300,000 available in-year and focused it on key quality-improvement, they’ve all said to me that could make a real difference,” he suggests.

The idea behind the fund, which is running in pilot form until July 2018, is to encourage peer-to-peer support – which Atkins wants colleges to see as a positive.

With daughter Beth at Wembley Stadium

The scheme will see weaker colleges – those rated grade three or four overall or for their apprenticeship provision – work with a stronger college to develop and implement an improvement plan, and both colleges will be named on the application form.

Eligible costs aren’t predetermined, and can include diagnosing a college’s quality issues and developing a plan to tackle them, mentoring and other professional development activities for senior leaders, or the cost of staff time.

He wants to learn from the pilot before deciding what will be funded during the main phase.

Between 10 and 15 colleges are expected to receive cash, with the rest of the money available in the first half of 2018. It is expected to run until March 2020, though it could be extended.

It aims to engage leaders from ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ colleges, to use their expertise to support colleges that need to improve significantly in one of more areas, which could lead to an application to the fund.

Atkins and his team will only be involved at the beginning and end of each plan, “to do a health check” and also “see what’s effective and how we can spread the best practice”.

While the commissioner will give his views on bids to the fund, he won’t be involved in the final decision over who gets the cash – that will be made by a “group in the DfE”.

We’ve absorbed some of the really difficult cases

Another new aspect of his expanded improvement toolbox is diagnostic assessments. These will see two members of his team spending a couple of days with colleges that “have the early symptoms of becoming unwell, but which haven’t yet developed the full illness” – to prevent them from slipping further towards failing.

These visits will result in recommendations for improvement, but no published minister’s letter.

Atkins says he’s about to start the first of seven pilot assessments, but estimates that “up to a third of colleges” could benefit from one.

He’s also setting up a college improvement board, which he hopes will meet for the first time after Christmas.

The plan is to bring all the different bodies involved in college standards, including the DfE, the ESFA, the Institute for Apprenticeships, Ofsted and the ETF, to develop a “strategic overview” for improvement.

While a part of the focus will be on failing colleges, and developing a coordinated approach from all the parties involved – “because if you’re trying to turn around a failing college you do not want another government official arriving every day of the week” – he says he believes the board will discuss “all colleges”.

He tells me that the sector is in a better financial position overall than it was before the area review process – thanks to the resulting mergers.

“We’ve absorbed some of the really difficult cases,” he says.

“They’ve now merged with a stronger partner and they’re much less likely to be predicted to fail.”

He insists the process was a success overall, “but I never thought for a minute that every recommendation would go through”.

But what about those merger plans that have fallen through?

He points out that many of those are, or have been, going through an appraisal of structure and prospects to find new partners: there are 10 this year, and 10 more expected in 2018.

Atkins describes the process as a “much more meaningful way” for a college to find a partner than area reviews.

“It’s the difference between going to a speed-dating event and going to an introduction agency and having a courtship,” he jokes.

The difference is “the focus it brings on an individual college”, which “tends to lead to meaningful mergers”.

He says he’s “pleased with the trajectory” of colleges over the past year; fewer are in intervention, and fewer are rated ‘inadequate’, while two thirds are ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ – but there’s still more to be done.

“I’d like to see that two thirds grow to three quarters,” he says. “That’s my initial target, and long-term I’d like to get to where schools are, around 80 to 85 per cent.

“You’ve got to start – and we’re starting now.”

Quick questions:

How many miles have you racked up as FE commissioner?

I’ve travelled approximately 40,000 miles in my first year in the job, much of this during the area review period. In one week I visited Lancashire, London, Norfolk, Northamptonshire and Manchester, in that order! Fortunately my working life is more manageable now. I always travel by public transport, either by train or plane.

Is there anything you wish you had known when you took the job?

How to manage myself without a PA, after 21 years of being supported by one! Recently, I’ve had an excellent new PA appointed, which helps a lot.

How many colleges have you visited in the past year?

I estimate that I’ve visited 70 colleges in my first year, and in the same way that enthusiasts visit football stadia or tube stations, I’m keen to visit many more this coming year. I find every visit fascinating, because every college is different.

How many hours do you work in an average week?

I usually work an average of 45 to 48 hours over four days per week – which is less than when I was a principal! We had 16 days holiday in Canada in September, during the college enrolment period, as they’re too busy to respond to me then.

Which do you prefer – being principal of an outstanding college or FE commissioner?

I loved being a college principal for 21 years, especially the final few years when my college was rated as ‘outstanding’, but it was the right time to go and I have no regrets at leaving. I didn’t expect to take on another major job, but the FE commissioner opportunity came up and I’m enjoying the work very much.