The financial implications of Labour’s pledge to cover apprentices’ travel costs have been called into question, after the Conservatives labelled their costings a “total shambles”.
A leaked draft version of Labour’s manifesto committed to paying for apprentices’ travel costs, “which currently run to an average of £24 a week – a quarter of earnings if apprentices are on the minimum wage”.
FE Week asked the Labour press office to explain how much this would cost in total – as £24 per week works out at around £1,200 per apprentice every year, and the travel costs of all 899,400 apprentices who participated last academic year would therefore amount to just over £1 billion.
The party’s spokesperson refused to comment on a leaked draft. However, FE Week also spoke to shadow skills minister Gordon Marsden, who previously committed to funding apprentice travel at FE Week’s Annual Apprenticeship Conference in March.
This week, he told us that the “still-to-be-finalised” manifesto pledge would only actually cover transport for 16-to-19s, at a cost of around £99 million in the first year.
Nevertheless, a Conservative Party spokesman claimed this was demonstrated that “Labour’s manifesto is a total shambles”.
Mr Marsden told FE Week: “The precise figures are still to be worked out, but we would be looking to assist 16-to-19 apprentices, at least on 50 per cent of the average figure that is being quoted, for travel costs and hopefully moving forward”.
He explained that the figures “were based on the number of 16- to 19-year-old apprenticeship starts on last available data from March 2016”.
“The figures were down on the basis of the latest half-year number of starts, which was 82,600,” he added. “We doubled that to make 165,000. We then multiplied that by £1,200 to make £198,000,000, and halved it for 50 per cent – so £98 to £99 million.”
Asked why only starts had been factored in, when it’s natural to assume that all apprentices of that age-range would want to receive the payment, he replied: “The initial scheme will be based on new starts, and we would go from there.”
By our calculations, the total number of 16-to-19s reported as participating in apprenticeships between August last year and January was 156,800. Going by the shadow minister’s reckoning, if that were doubled and multiplied by £1,200, the final cost would work out at £376 million, or £188 million if halved.
This is the latest election commitment problem to hit Labour.
Shadow home secretary Diane Abbott came in for some stick last week for struggling, during an interview on national radio station LBC, to explain how much putting an extra 10,000 police officers on the streets would cost.
Later, the shadow education secretary Angela Rayner faced similar problems when asked, by the same radio station, for more detail on Labour’s plans to plough £5.6 billion into schools.
Presenter Nick Ferrari asked how many children would be affected and criticised Ms Rayner for her reply, that it was a “significant” number.
Mr Marsden previously told AAC delegates the £24-per-week costing came from research by the National Society of Apprentices.
“This equates to a quarter of the salary of an apprentice who is earning the apprentice national minimum wage,” he said.
NUS president-elect Shakira Martin told us this week: “I, and the [NUS-run] NSoA are delighted Labour included a commitment to supporting travel cost.
“It is especially exciting this commitment has come directly from NSoA’s research. When there are some apprentices paying over half their wages on travel to and from their apprenticeship, it is clear the current financial support apprentices receive is not fit for purpose.”
But speaking about today’s announcement, Chris Bilsland OBE, chair of governors at Lewisham Southwark College, said he was “delighted” at the merger, which would ensure “that we can remain a local college but with national reach”.
“The college will have the benefit of access to a huge range of expertise in areas such as apprenticeships and higher education as well as further education,” he said.
“At the same time, joining a like-minded organisation with an Ofsted ‘good’ rating will support us in continuing to improve the quality of our provision.”
Jamie Martin, chair of governors at NCG said: “We are delighted that the governors of Lewisham Southwark College have taken the decision to join with NCG and look forward to welcoming the team in the coming months.”
News of the planned merger between the London college, which is led by former Newcastle College principal Carole Kitching, and NCG first emerged in March 2016 – although talks began in autumn 2015.
Lewisham Southwark, which was rated ‘requires improvement’ at its most recent Ofsted inspection in May 2016, explored a possible merger with nearby Lambeth College during the central London area review last year – but the link-up with NCG emerged as its preferred option.
A spokesperson for Lewisham Council told FE Week in March, when consultation opened on the proposal, that it was “disappointed” at the outcome.
The council “would have preferred to see Lewisham Southwark College find a more local London partner”, it said.
Today’s announcement means that Lewisham Southwark will become the fifth FE college member of NCG, after Carlisle College joined in April.
NCG, which was rated ‘good’ in its most recent Ofsted inspection report published in September, also counts Newcastle College, West Lancashire College and Kidderminster College as members, alongside one sixth form college and two independent training providers.
Ms Kitching, who has overseen the college’s improvement since her appointment in 2015, said the merger would “provide a catalyst for growth in the range of programmes we can offer students, including vocational and technical Higher Education”.
She stressed that the college would “continue to determine our own curriculum in response to local need, with NCG’s full backing for growth and development” and that it would “maintain a high degree of autonomy”.
Both Labour and the Lib Dems have made some pre-manifesto pledges on further education, but these should all be taken with a pinch of salt, says Gemma Gathercole
The opening salvos of the election campaign have been fired and now we’re getting to the good stuff – well, at least for policy geeks like me.
The messages from Labour and the Liberal Democrats in their pre-manifesto – and leaked draft manifesto – pledges on education will, I’m sure, be welcomed by the sector.
FE features in the headline promises from both parties, although the pledges made by the Labour party go further to address the needs of the whole sector. Though the Conservatives are yet to release any commitments on education, it will be interesting to see their pledges.
One of my favourite quotes from the epic US political TV show ‘the West Wing’ is about campaigning: you preach to the choir, “because that’s how you get them to sing”. I wonder how much of these early indicators are designed to appeal to natural party voters and how much will actually cut through to the general public.
It’s good to see the ‘Save Our Adult Education’ campaign
Labour’s key pledges for education cover the full spectrum of the sector: there are promises affecting schools, colleges and universities – announcements that I’m sure will be welcomed broadly.
For the FE sector, there is a promise to restore the education maintenance allowance and an increase for the adult skills budget.
The increase to the adult skills budget is sizeable: an extra £1.5 billion over the course of the parliament, to create a system of free lifelong learning.
The announcement talks about providing courses for adults wanting to upskill and reskill. It’s good to see that the shadow skills minister’s contributions to the ‘Save Our Adult Education’ campaign have translated into election pledges.
In the announcement, the pledges were said to be funded by reversing the Conservative government’s cuts to corporation tax, a figure it places at £20 billion. However, totting up the announcements in Labour’s press release, I get a figure closer to £30 billion. It will be interesting to see the full breakdown in the manifesto when released.
The announcements from the Liberal Democrats focus on some familiar areas, including the protection of the pupil premium that they championed in the coalition government. However, their pledges focus much more on the schools sector rather than full breadth of education.
A single pledge is made for FE; a promise to protect FE funding per pupil in real terms. While a welcome promise for a sector that has seen the impact of significant cuts in very recent memory, it is essentially a focus on 16- to 19-year-olds.
It remains to be seen what the Lib Dems propose regarding adult education or apprenticeships, which is also missing from these pledges. It seems as though we’ll have to wait for the manifesto…
As with all pre-election pledges, they need to be taken with a pinch of salt; after all, the promises are made during a campaign, designed to win votes and more importantly, get people to the ballot box to allow them to take power.
But the hard part is that delivery needs to happen when in government and the fantastic thing about a forecast, as my accountant sister reminds me, is that it’s only accurate until it’s written down. It’s quickly out of date, either for positive or negative reasons, as the economy is that it doesn’t always perform as expected.
The actual policies that follow will be largely dependent on how the economy performs and/or how much a future government can or will borrow to meet their promises. After all, while “you campaign in poetry, you govern in prose”.
Of course, much of the detailed analysis of the affordability of any of these proposals can only come when we have the full manifestos so the full set of promises can be costed. I for one will be eagerly awaiting them, albeit from my sunbed on holiday.
Gemma Gathercole is head of funding and assessment at Lsect
Writing exclusively for FE Week, Shakira Martin, the new president-elect of the NUS discusses her ambitious plans to represent students of all stripes by leaning on her own background in further rather than higher education
I sat down for breakfast with my two daughters over the weekend, back to normality after the rollercoaster of NUS National Conference. Finally, I had the chance to reflect on my journey, how my FE college gave me what I needed to put food in front of my kids and how my student union gave me – a black woman and single mother – a voice.
It was a conference where students – FE, HE and apprentices from across the UK – put their faith in me to lead the NUS as president. As just the second president to be elected from FE, following Toni Pearce in 2013, I want to continue to fight for the voices of the often forgotten FE learners nationally.
Since taking office in July 2015, the theme of my vice-presidency has been another bout of fundamental reform: I am sceptical of the reviews, but have fought and lobbied government through the NUS’ #FEunplugged campaign to make sure the voices of learners are heard and our rights are protected.
As education was changing around us, we had to be at the table making the case for the future of FE we wanted to see. We needed to show what learner voices can do to those who have undermined them for years.
The general election gives us a great opportunity to put FE learners in the spotlight
Since then, there have been announcements on possible funding for merging colleges, using loans from the treasury to plug the gaps in the sector, the insolvency regime, the post-16 skills plan and T-levels, the apprentice levy and a new Institute for Apprenticeships, which will take on colleges as well from 2018.
Even the terms ‘further’ and ‘vocational’ education were forgotten about in favour of ‘technical education’. I’m surprised anyone is able to keep up!
So much reform in so little time carries huge risks. I speak to student governors who tell me that they have seen two or even three strategic plans for their colleges over the last two years, just to respond to the changing landscape. Providers are being given such little time to pause, plan and move forward.
We have to make sure that learners are not forgotten, but seen as equal partners to the needs business in an economy struggling through a chaotic Brexit.
Our FE Unplugged campaign has taught us that debt is not solely an undergraduate issue. Learners are feeling the pinch through 19+ loans. Crucial grants such as EMA, disabled students’ allowance and the adult dependants’ grant have been cut over the last few years, putting up barriers for tens of thousands of current and potential students to the education they deserve.
The general election gives us a great opportunity to put FE learners in the spotlight. In the wake of the Brexit vote, work is being done to enhance vocational education, but my student movement wants big answers from political parties in this general election about how they will remove the barriers faced by so many to getting a decent education.
Last week, the NUS conference promised to run the biggest voter registration drive we have ever held – and as the president-elect, I plan to make sure we do exactly that over the next four weeks. The voices of every student must be heard at the heart of every election manifesto, and the NUS is runnning a #GenerationVote campaign across both FE and HE.
Whoever forms the next government will find me at the front of the queue to number 10. Alongside Emily Chapman, my excellent successor as VP FE, and the rest of my officer team, we will put a coherent case for strong, active student unions in every provider.
We will hold the new government to account over a Brexit which the majority of students didn’t vote for, and we will amplify the voice of learners for a generation, both locally and nationally in a country that is forgetting to listen to them.
It was FE that gave me my voice. I want to work with the sector to make sure that it does the same for millions of others.
Shakira Martin is vice-president for FE and president-elect of the National Union of Students
After Brexit, the government must replace the £500 million provided every year by the European Social Fund for people in disadvantaged circumstances, says Shane Chowen
It’s only been a month since that windy Tuesday morning when the prime minister announced that the country will face a general election on 8 June.
When parliament resumes on June 19, the new government will have to negotiate Britain’s exit deal with European leaders.
But among talk of negotiations, “divorce payments”, trade deals and “remoaning”, the next government also has to find ways to align its domestic policy agenda to a post-EU legislature. The Conservatives want a great repeal bill to cut many EU laws from the UK.
The new government must also provide some clarity about the future of projects and provision currently in receipt of EU funding, specifically the European Social Fund.
The Brexit white paper, published in February, confirmed that projects funded through European Structural Investment Funds, which includes the ESF, that were signed before the 2016 autumn statement and which have end dates after the UK leaves the EU in 2019, will still be fully funded.
But £400 million-worth of projects currently cofunded between the ESF and the ESFA have an end date of March 2018 – a year before we’re due to leave under Article 50 – and the 76-page white paper makes no specific reference to ESF at all.
Learners and providers have been offered no security or assurances on the future of their funding
Elsewhere, there are 19 open calls for proposals for projects funded through the current ESF programme through DWP: Enterprise M3 LEP is looking for projects to improve digital skills for unemployed people, Hertfordshire LEP has £1.5 million to invest in upskilling its health and social care workforce, and Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire LEP have £5 million available for projects to develop higher-level skills in key sectors.
These calls for proposals specify varying end-dates; some stipulate that projects have to be done by October 2020, and others “after three years”, with the caveat that you could be told sooner at DWP’s discretion.
Providers have the right to know where they stand. Users of the ESF span the private, public and charity sectors. They employ specialist practitioners who work with often the most marginalised and disadvantaged across the UK.
At the Learning and Work Institute, the work we’ve seen done with ESF funding over the years through the Festival of Learning and the Adult Learners’ Week Awards has been extraordinary.
Take Bad Boys Bakery for example. With support from ESF, this programme based in Brixton prison provides skills and work experience to offenders which improves their chances of securing a good job on release. That investment has also led to a dramatic cut in reoffending rates. On average, 47 per cent of ex-offenders reoffend within 12 months of release from prison. For participants of Bad Boys Bakery, that figure is just 3 per cent.
Despite this, learners and providers have been offered no security or assurances at all on the future of their funding, which just isn’t good enough.
The breadth of organisations that have signed up to the campaign to protect the kind of learning opportunities that the ESF currently provides following Brexit demands action. The country cannot afford to lose the £500 million that is invested every year in the life chances and opportunities for people in deprived areas, people with disabilities, older people and ex-offenders.
Replacing the ESF with domestic social investment must be central to the next government’s economic and social justice strategies; whether that’s “a country that works for everyone” or “for the many not the few”.
Shane Chowen is head of policy and public affairs at the Learning and Work Institute
A plumbing student has been crowned the winner of a skills competition in the north-east.
Seventeen-year-old Josh Wilkinson, who studies a level two EAL diploma in plumbing and heating at East Durham College, took first place in the North East Inter-College Plumbing Competition Final, as the only competitor to successfully build a fully watertight pipe circuit.
Students had four hours to build a complex pipe circuit, with their work scored on dimensional accuracy, pipework joints, soldering, clip spacing, machine pipe bending accuracy and watertight performance.
The challenge was taken on both by Josh and his fellow EDC student, Kyle McCullough, also 17, who competed with students from the nearby Bishop Auckland College.
The competition was part of a series of inter-college challenges in the region taking place throughout the year, which challenge different vocational disciplines in an effort to build students’ practical skills and increase their confidence.
“It was a very close-fought contest with only two points separating them all, but Josh emerged as the winner, being the only competitor to achieve a fully watertight pipe circuit,” said Lecturer Tim Beasley.
“Congratulations to Josh, and everyone should be very proud of their performances. They are an absolute credit to their respective colleges.”
Main image: Josh, right, with East Durham’s Rob Hutchinson
Horticulture staff and students at Derby College have designed a garden representing multiple sclerosis as their entry to BBC Gardeners’ World Live.
More than 50 students have been involved in the design and building of the garden, which depicts the journey from diagnosis to life with the disease.
The garden will feature soft-flowering plants and spiky thistles to show the difference between good and bad days experienced by those living with MS, as well as a bridge and cave signifying the support available for sufferers of the condition.
Click to enlarge: the garden design
The college teamed up with the Multiple Sclerosis Society to design the garden, entitled ‘Journey to Hope’ (pictured left), which will be submitted to the annual gardening event for consideration.
“Following our gold award at last year’s BBC Gardener’s World Live we were keen to do something even more ambitious this year,” explained the college’s horticulture lecturer Mike Baldwin.
“Our goal is to raise awareness of the work of the Multiple Sclerosis Society and the challenges, anger, pain and frustration facing more than 100,000 people affected by the neurological condition in the UK.
“It is our biggest project for many years, but we are confident that the results will be striking.”
Main image: The college’s winning entry in last year’s event
A group of students from Wigan and Leigh College have gone behind the scenes of BBC’s Question Time to see what a career in television might be like.
Students from the college’s level three media course and A-level professional honours programme took part in backstage preparations and pitched questions to David Dimbleby during a script rehearsal.
During sound checks, the show’s long-time presenter took the time to ask them about their studies and their interest in politics.
Maria Babu
Students also had the chance to shadow camera operators, audio engineers and producers at the BBC during the rehearsal, to see how the programme was put together.
Maria Babu, a student on the A-level professional honours programme, said: “It was truly an incredible opportunity to be involved in such a high profile television show such as Question Time. The BBC team were so supportive and willing to answer lots of questions about the technology used on sets and about the show. I got an amazing insight into the world of politics and television.”
The college’s professional honours programme offers students the option of studying a combination of A-levels and professional qualifications, along with work experience and internships.
“This has been an incredible opportunity for our students wishing to pursue careers within this industry,” said Anna Dawe, the college’s principal.
“This experience has been invaluable in providing them with opportunities to inform their career aspirations as well as engaging them in current affairs.”
Emily Chapman has overcome depression and anxiety to be elected as the National Union of Students’ new FE champion, a poignant reminder that challenges like these don’t define who you are or what you can achieve.
The NUS’ newly minted vice-president for FE will take up the role in July, marking a complete turnaround from her darkest days, when she was afraid even to leave her room to attend college.
She was brave enough to speak frankly about her experiences during last week’s Mental Health Awareness Week, and the troubles she has conquered to reach this point suggest that, despite her modesty, she has the determination required to fill the space left by formidable predecessor Shakira Martin.
Emily was born in Edinburgh in July 1989, but her dad moved her to Blackwater in Hampshire when she was just 18 months old after her mum walked out on them.
The LCCSU photo wall
She was often cared for by her grandparents while her dad was at work as a credit controller. It was in this job that he met her step-mum, whom Emily says is still “always there” for her.
But life in this quiet country town was disrupted when she moved to Leeds aged 10, the year her half-sister Keri was born.
She had been used to hiding behind her dinner lady grandmother at school in Hampshire, but starting year six in Leeds was much tougher.
“Socially I’ve never been very good; I didn’t make friends very easily,” she admits.
“I found school quite challenging. I was bullied from age five to 15 – more when I came up to Leeds because I was different.”
She describes herself as a “lanky cockney girl” at the time. “I also have quite a high testosterone level and so I have dark hair that is quite prominent,” she explains.
“I got things like ‘Tina Turner’ or ‘Chewbacca’. I really suffered from it quite badly.”
It was an incident at Pudsey Grangefield Secondary School that made Emily stand up for herself, when at age 14 a punch from another student almost broke her nose.
“It shook me into thinking ‘why am I letting this happen?’”
Her “saviour” at the time turned out to be rugby league. She learned how to play and referee and the sport soon boosted her confidence.
“After that, if people did start bullying me again I’d give them stick back,” she adds.
Joining both the student council and the school radio station were other ways to improve her self-esteem – and she soon became a media buff interested in politics.
“It was a way to be hidden but express yourself at the same time,” she says.
Me with the SU mascot, SU the meerkat
This experience led her to study a BTEC national diploma in media studies at Leeds City College – but it was at this point in her life that “the wheels came off the wagon”.
Her dad and step-mum moved to Spain in 2006, but Emily was “stubborn” and decided to stay in England by herself at just 17.
Desperate to find a secure friendship group, she began going out drinking. “I ended up in quite a bad depression. It was a very bad time,” she says.
Between September and December of 2006 she stopped going into college and eventually couldn’t face going out at all.
“I physically couldn’t leave my room,” she explains. “I didn’t want to see the outside world.”
After Christmas with her parents she worked up the courage to go back into college in January, but to her horror found she had been expelled.
Rather than walk away, she explained what had gone wrong and luckily, the college gave her a second chance.
She had to report to a tutor every other day, and was set up in sheltered housing with a counsellor who visited every week.
With this support she achieved an amazing “distinction-merit-merit” result from her diploma.
“It shocked some of my family members; they thought I could only get Es and Fs,” Emily says.
A job on the checkout in Marks and Spencer’s for a year brought more stability. Then she applied for a media and sports studies degree, receiving an unconditional offer from the University of Stirling to start in 2008.
But the path ahead was obscured again when, four weeks before she was due to start university, she found out her parents were coming back to England and getting divorced.
“My family was in disarray at that point,” she says, admitting that the situation triggered struggles with socialising again.
“I was trying to buy my friendships. I kept borrowing money from payday loans, I didn’t pay my bills and I tried to get credit cards so I could keep spending money.”
Everything came to a head just a week before Christmas, when she was evicted after getting behind on her rent.
Emily chokes up as she explains having to call her dad to bail her out: “That broke my relationship with my dad quite badly. I’d let my family down on the money and I’d lied. I thought that I was being an adult and I could deal with it. I couldn’t. That whole scenario basically broke me.”
But despite feeling as though she had hit rock bottom, she found the determination to carry on.
I physically couldn’t leave my room
Just four months later, in April 2010, she found emergency council housing and a new job at Grosvenor Casino, back in Leeds.
“Work became my life. I thought ‘if I’m in work I’ll have money, and I have to have money to live’.”
After two and a half years she moved to a new job at security firm Golden Crown Management, but was battling with an anxiety disorder and regular panic attacks.
“If you’d said to me at that time in 2012 that I would go on to be the next VP for FE at the NUS I would have laughed at you. I didn’t want to be visible in any way,” she says.
The words of a close family friend, who was like an uncle to her, spurred Emily back into education when he passed away in February 2014.
“He always used to say to me, ‘this year is going to be your year, I can feel it my girl’,” she says.
“I used to laugh it off, but when he died it made me ask myself what I really wanted to do.”
She took the plunge and returned to Leeds City College to start a foundation degree in law and criminal studies.
“It was a great feeling,” she says.
At the college’s higher education fair Emily had her first encounter with the student union – when a rep unexpectedly introduced her to the president, Craig Clements.
A campaign shot promoting the need for student voice (I knew this picture would haunt me)
Craig became a mentor, helping Emily through a late diagnosis of dyslexia and partial dyspraxia at 25. Working with the union became a way to overcome her barriers, especially anxiety.
“I’m a lot better than I was. I’ve had a big group of people around me who support me. Shakira was one of them,” she says.
They have been working together since Emily became president of LCCSU in March 2015. And while it has been her “security blanket”, she is looking forward to moving on.
“Shakira and I are completely different people, but I’m really looking forward to working with her when she becomes the national president,” she enthuses.
“We can continue the growth of FE. I’ve got big shoes to fill – I don’t think anyone would disagree with me on that – but hopefully working with her I can do that.”
It’s a personal thing
What is your favourite book?
‘The Butterfly Lion’. I was with my family over the weekend and we were in Waterstones and I saw it for £7. I thought “I know this is a children’s book and I’m turning 28 in July but I don’t care, I’m buying it!”
What do you do to switch off from work?
I spend time with my family. I’m a very big dog lover so we’ve got quite a few dogs in my family and extended family. I enjoy going home and seeing my mum and the dogs.
What’s your pet hate?
I hate negativity. I’m bad for it myself but I don’t like this whole “we’re not going to do it, we think it’s going to fail before we start”. You have to be realistic but you should have some optimism at the same time.
What did you want to be when you were growing up?
I wanted to be a sports journalist. In essence I wanted to be [BBC reporter] Tanya Arnold, who does the rugby league sports show.
Who do you most admire, living or dead, and why?
Jemina Puddleduck, my treasured item
I admire anyone who has gone through bullying and come out the other side of it. It’s one of those things that people can really suffer with and it can harm them. The #BeKind project [an anti-bullying campaign] that ITV’s ‘This Morning’ show are doing at the moment is something that I’m very passionate about and would love to see more of, and I’ll pledge to do more with that. Bullying has got so many evil forms now.
Who do you turn to in times of crisis?
I’ve got a circle of people I turn to. One of them is Craig Clements, the former president of LCCSU, who is basically my best friend now. Even though he hasn’t been president here for two years he hasn’t been very far away and I do speak to him every other day. If I’ve ever got a problem I can ring him. The other person would be my mum. If I need anything mum’s always there at the end of the phone – even if she doesn’t know what I’m talking about, which in terms of politics can happen quite often! She’s always there ready to let me rant and to listen. I turn to mum in crisis mode.
What is your most treasured possession and why?
I think it’s my Jemima Puddleduck toy. I’ve had it since I was a baby; it was given to me when I was born. It’s 27 years old with a floppy head because I used to hold her around the neck and never let her go! She’s always with me, even when I go away to national conferences I take her with me.
