Blackpool Sixth Form College’s student council has been on a mission to keep teenagers across the Fylde coast healthy during exam season – by giving out free bananas to those in need.
Each banana comes with a guide produced by the college as part of its ‘Learn to Live’ healthy eating campaign, and addresses how to deal with exam stress, with tips on ways to stay calm, healthy and hydrated.
The guide has been designed for year 11 pupils, and is being distributed across local schools, including Hodgson Academy, Unity Academy, Montgomery High School and Aspire Academy, in an effort to help students boost their grades and reduce stress levels.
“A group of our students took part in an experiment earlier in the year where they changed their habits for two weeks to see if it had a positive impact, said the college’s associate principal Estelle Bellamy.
“Very quickly, they saw huge improvements in their concentration and focus. The student council are really keen to share what they have learned from their research into how learning improves with a healthy lifestyle.”
Seven Lee Stafford Education partner colleges took part in a national hairdressing competition at London’s L’Oréal Academy, and Chichester College came away with most of the accolades, reports Samantha King
Colleges from across the country have competed in the first ever Lee Stafford Education awards, an event open to any institution partnered with the hairdressing brand.
Students and staff from Chichester College, Peterborough College, Knowsley College, Abingdon and Witney College, South Tyneside College, Croydon College and Tresham College all took part, with Chichester romping home in first with three of the awards.
It was made ‘college of the year’ in recognition of standards reached by both students and staff, while Lauren Chater, a 17-year-old apprentice, won first place in the first year styling competition with her mermaid-inspired hair design, and the overall ‘student of the year’ award.
Lauren Chater with Lee Stafford, left, and judge Tony Woods, right
Lauren, who works at the Mark Lewis hair salon in East Wittering, said: “I was really nervous when we were travelling up to London – everyone on the coach was chatting but I was so quiet, which isn’t like me at all.
“Once the competition started I just seemed to relax and spent the whole time talking to my model as I worked on her hair. I never thought I’d win, so I was really surprised when they called out my name.
“I thought it was a joke at first as I had seen the other people in my category and they were amazing!
“To go on and win student of the year was unbelievable, especially as I only started the course in September. I was in shock but I’m really happy and my family are very proud of me.”
I am fortunate and privileged to be working with so many talented college trainers
Lauren’s fellow Chichester students Jodie Mayer and Zana Kuklyte came second in the ‘cutting and styling’ and ‘level three colouring’ categories, though students from Peterborough College and Croydon College pipped them to first.
Alongside the college’s three top prizes, hairdressing tutors Sam Morgan, Sam Lister and Sue Sweeney were presented with a pair of engraved gold scissors in recognition of reaching the highest standard of achievement possible in the partnership, by mastering 22 different hairstyling, cutting and colouring techniques.
“We have always believed we have an enormously talented team in our training salon – and this proves it,” said Shelagh Legrave OBE, Chichester’s principal.
“The awards given to our students and staff recognise the achievements and effort that they put in every day.”
Lee Stafford, the award-winning celebrity hairstylist was also present and posed for photographs with the winners.
“I am fortunate and privileged to be working with so many talented college trainers who have dedicated themselves to developing the next generation of leading stylists,” he said.
“The standard of work on show today is truly outstanding and the students should be incredibly proud of what they are achieving.”
Since the results were announced, a further three colleges – North Kent College, Doncaster College and North Lindsey College – have signed up to become partners for the 2017/18 academic year.
The Education and Skills Funding Agency has dug itself a huge hole. Incredibly, it’s still digging.
As readers will know, it was in the interest of “stability” that it decided to pause the non-levy tender, after demand from over 1,000 providers well outstripped the paltry £440 million that was available.
Instead it is extending pre-May contracts until December, which left some relieved and others – those without direct access to any funding – disappointed.
But the sense of relief and pretence of stability hasn’t lasted long, as the value of the contract extension appears well below expectation, in some cases by as much as 70 per cent.
The ESFA told providers this week how it arrived at these allocation figures, but still refuses to answer key questions about how much was dished out overall.
While it’s clearly unfortunate the data isn’t accurate and that there isn’t more funding for small employers, why refuse to fully explain how much and in what way it’s been allocated?
Starving providers of funding is bad, but also keeping them in the dark is appalling.
A copy of the Draft Labour Party manifesto was leaked to FE Week yesterday. Here’s the section on further education and apprenticeships in full. One of the commitments is to fund apprentice travel, so we’ve asked how much this policy would cost and above is our draft cartoon.
At a time when technology is changing demand for different kinds of skills, and evolving patterns of work mean that people are more likely to pursue several careers over a lifetime, it is crucial that our education system enables people to upskill and retrain over their lifetimes. As part of our dynamic industrial strategy, lifelong training will deliver productivity and growth to the whole economy while transforming the lives of individuals and communities.
To ensure that we deliver for every part of the UK, we will devolve responsibility for skills wherever there is an appetite.
Further and Adult Education
Despite claiming to be committed to delivering high quality training, the Conservatives have ruthlessly cut funding for FE colleges – our main provider of adult and vocational education – and reduced entitlements for adult learners. This has led to diminishing numbers of courses and students, and plunged the sector into crisis.
Labour would introduce free, lifelong education in FE colleges, enabling everyone to upskill or retrain at any point in life.
Our skills and training sector has been held back by repeated reorganisation, which deprives providers, learners and employers of the consistency they need to assess quality. Labour would abandon Conservative plans to once again reinvent the wheel by building new Technical Colleges, redirecting the money to increase teacher numbers in the FE sector.
We share the broad aims of the Sainsbury’s Review but would ensure vocational routes incorporate the service sector as well as traditional manufacturing, working in tandem with our broad industrial strategy to deliver for the whole economy.
We will improve careers advice and open up a range of routes through, and back into, education, striking a balance between classroom and on the job training, to ensure students gain both technical and soft skills.
To implement Sainsbury’s recommendations, we would correct historic neglect of the FE sector by giving the sector the investment – in teachers and facilities – it deserves to become a world-leading provider of adult and vocational education.
More specifically, we would:
Bring funding for 16-18 year olds in line with key stage 4 base lines, while ensuring that the budget is distributed fairly between colleges and school 6th forms
Restore the Education Maintenance Allowance for 16-18 year olds from lower and middle income backgrounds
Replace Advanced Learner Loans and upfront course fees with direct funding, making FE courses free at the point of use.
Drive up quality and consistency in the FE sector by:
Encouraging cooperation and leadership across colleges and 6th forms, improving curriculum breadth and quality
Setting a target, backed up by funding, for all FE teaching staff to have a teaching qualification within five years
In recognition of the role played by private sector providers, we would extend support for training to teachers in the private sector
Increase capital investment to equip colleges to deliver T-levels and an official pre-apprenticeship trainee programme
Apprenticeships
Employer-led training is the most effective way of meeting our growing skills gap. Labour supports the apprenticeship levy, but will take steps to ensure that every apprenticeship is of a high quality.
Labour will:
Maintain the apprenticeship levy while taking measures to ensure high quality by requiring the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education to report on an annual basis to the Secretary of State on quality outcomes of completed apprenticeships to ensure they deliver skilled workers for employers and real jobs for apprentices at the end of their training.
Set a target to double the number of completed apprenticeships at NVQ level 3 by 2022
Give employers more flexibility in how the levy is deployed, including allowing the levy to be used for pre-apprenticeship programme
Guarantee trade union representation in the governance structures of the Institute of Apprenticeships.
Set targets to increase apprenticeships for people with disabilities, care leavers and veterans and ensure broad representation of women, BAME, LGBT and disabled people in all kinds of apprenticeships
Cover apprentices’ travel costs, which currently run to an average of £24 a week – a quarter of earnings if apprentices are on the minimum wage
Consult on introducing incentives for large employers to over-train apprenticeships to fill skills gaps in the supply chain and the wider sector
Reverse cuts to Union Learn
Set up a Commission on lifelong learning tasked with integrating FE and HE
The principal of York College, Dr Alison Birkinshaw, is to be the new president of the Association of Colleges.
She will take up the role alongside her current position and will take over from Ian Ashman on August 1.
Ms Birkinshaw began her further education career in 1984 and has sworked as assistant principal of Runshaw College, principal of Nelson and Colne College and most recently, principal of York College; all three were rated outstanding by Ofsted.
In 2012 she was awarded an OBE and this year received an honorary doctorate from the University of York for her services to FE.
“This role will allow me to act as ambassador for the sector, and I look forward to drawing the attention of ministers and others in government to the big difference colleges make to the lives of individuals, communities and employers,” she said.
“I hope I can make a difference and live up to the expectations of my fellow principals, although I know that the work of previous presidents will be a hard act to follow.”
Her duties as president – which is a one-year term – will include promoting colleges to government ministers, meeting staff and students, and supporting the AoC’s chief executive, David Hughes.
Mary Curnock Cook OBE has been named as the next chair of governors at Kensington and Chelsea College.
The college is currently evaluating potential merger partners, with the interim principal, Michelle Sutton CBE, describing Ms Cook’s appointment as “exactly what the college needs at this time”.
Last month, Ms Cook stepped down as chief executive of the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service after seven years at the helm.
Prior to joining UCAS, she held the role of director of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, beginning her career doing secretarial work, working in the biochemical industry and then moving on to food and hospitality.
“One of our priorities in the merger is that we secure quality provision in the borough for both school-leavers and adults, combined with the efficiencies which will come from being part of a larger organisation,” she said.
“The magic of colleges is that they are the part of the education system that likes to say ‘yes’ to people’s aspirations regardless of where they need to start and which study route they need to take to fulfil their ambition.”
Graham Guest has been announced as the new principal and CEO of Telford College of Arts & Technology and New College Telford.
He will take the helm of TCAT and NCT with immediate effect, having previously been in post as deputy principal at Waltham Forest College.
The two colleges plan to merge and rebrand as Telford College on August 1; TCAT’s interim principal Ian Clinton will remain in post until July 31 to support Mr Guest in the lead up to the merger.
Mr Guest has worked in education for 28 years, beginning his career as a lecturer in building services. He has since gone on to work for six further education colleges, alongside running his own training provider business.
“There have been great strides made this year and I will be looking to keep up the momentum and take the new college to the next level with the support of staff,” he said.
“There is the opportunity to share best practice, knowledge and expertise from both sites and to build a strong and successful college in Telford.”
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
The allocations “horror show” has got even more alarming, after FE Week found the government has been wrongly categorising giant firms including Santander as non-levy payers.
Other smaller employers have meanwhile been classified as subject to the charge launched last month, despite their payroll being drastically short of the £3 million point from which firms have to shell out.
Providers this week received the detailed calculation of their allocations, for delivering apprenticeships to small employers from the Education and Skills Funding Agency.
Alongside this, the agency sent a letter to providers admitting the non-levy proxy they used is an “approximation using the best available data” and that there are “uncertainties in this data”.
Many providers sent their calculations into FE Week, and we found several examples of huge employers being misclassified, as not having to pay the levy charge.
Banking giant Santander was listed as a non-levy paying employer, despite having UK staff costs of £700 million, according to its most recent set of accounts.
Similarly, Berkeley Group Plc, a large property development firm, has a payroll close to £200 million according to their latest accounts, but was also listed as non-levy paying. And charity Mencap was on the non-levy list even though their accounts show staff costs have hit £131 million.
Only businesses with a total paybill over £3 million have to shell-out for the levy.
But the misclassification has also found small employers labelled as large.
One small provider told FE Week they found themselves classified as a payer, despite their payroll being “nowhere near £3 million”.
Another provider sent FE Week their employer allocation spreadsheet, in which they identified seven that they claim were incorrectly labelled as levy payers, adding their impact was wrong by “as much as 70 per cent” and that “needless to say we are working on a business case to send to the ESFA.”
After being shown the serious mistakes in employer classifications, Association of Employment and Learning Providers boss Mark Dawe said there was a danger of “irretrievable damage being done to employers, providers and apprentices as well as to the apprenticeship brand unless ministers take immediate action”.
Mr Dawe subsequently pleaded with the government for an immediate funding increase to prevent widespread “closures and redundancies”, which was swiftly rejected.
Mark Dawe
FE Week then revealed last week that this “horror story”, as labelled by Mr Dawe, had claimed its first victim.
After being shown the ESFA letter to providers admitting there was “uncertainties” in the calculations data, FE Week asked the agency to explain how the non-levy proxy was arrived at, but the agency refused to comment.
It would only say the department had communicated to providers that if they believed their allocations had been calculated incorrectly, they should work it through with their ESFA provider manager.
Mr Dawe told FE Week: “We were told there weren’t going to be winners and losers out of this allocation process, because the same calculation formula was being applied to all main providers and colleges.
“But clearly these mistakes over employer classifications have resulted in unfair allocations. This is why AELP is calling for the ESFA to double the allocations now to providers.”
Analysis: How we think they got it wrong
Our analysis suggests that the ESFA’s classification mistakes stem from employer information provided by Blue Sheep, a specialist data company.
The ESFA has a licence for employer data, which is typically used to determine the size of an employer for funding purposes.
The database includes employer IDs as well as staff numbers.
We believe that where the staff number in the Blue Sheep database is below 150, the ESFA has classed them as non-levy-payers – choosing this figure based on the average wage of around £20,000, a sum which when multiplied by 150 equals £3 million.
For example, for Santander the employer ID and staff number shown in the Blue Sheep database is 80 – thus classing it as non-levy-paying.
However, this is inaccurate information for the purposes of estimating total payroll at £3 million, as the database uses multiple employer IDs for one employer where they have multiple sites.
Therefore, a huge employer with lots of sites will have lots of employer IDs, each with a small headcount. Santander appears to have nearly 1,000 different Employer IDs.
The SFA’s most recent expenditure sheet shows that it pays £371,000 per year for the use of Blue Sheep data and services.
The Education and Skills Funding Agency has dug itself a huge hole. Incredibly, it’s still digging.
As readers will know, it was in the interest of “stability” that it decided to pause the non-levy tender, after demand from over 1,000 providers well outstripped the paltry £440 million that was available.
Instead it is extending pre-May contracts until December, which left some relieved and others – those without direct access to any funding – disappointed.
But the sense of relief and pretence of stability hasn’t lasted long, as the value of the contract extension appears well below expectation, in some cases by as much as 70 per cent.
The ESFA told providers this week how it arrived at these allocation figures, but still refuses to answer key questions about how much was dished out overall.
It has also refused to tell FE Week or providers how global firms have ended up wrongly classified as non-levy, so we’ve had to figure out for ourselves how the ‘mistake’ occurred.
While it’s clearly unfortunate the data isn’t accurate and that there isn’t more funding for small employers, why refuse to fully explain how much and in what way it’s been allocated?
Starving providers of funding is bad, but also keeping them in the dark is appalling.
A campaign has been launched today to prevent huge Brexit-induced cuts to FE funding, which supports learners who “fall between the gaps” of mainstream provision.
European Social Fund investment, worth £2.4 billion though the 2014 to 2020 allocations round, pays for hundreds of projects geared at boosting skills and helping those out of work find jobs.
But the funding tap will be switched off after Britain leaves the European Union.
A campaign, launched today by the Learning and Work Institute, with backing from the Association of Colleges, HoLEX and the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, is calling on the next government to invest “at least the same value” in locally-driven ESF successor programmes.
Stephen Evans, LWI chief executive [pictured above], said: “Too many people in our country feel left behind, and as we leave the EU, it will become more and more pressing to grow our own skills. We simply can’t afford to lose investment of [up to] £500 million per year.”
ESF funding for this country is administered through the Education and Skills Funding Agency, Department for Work and Pensions, and the Big Lottery Fund, which provide match funding.
One of these is Calderdale College, which currently has £35 million ESF funding for workforce development, in support of 13,000 employers and around 24,000 learners across seven local enterprise partnership areas.
Ebrahim Dockrat, director of external funding at the college, said withdrawal of ESF cash would “have a huge impact on the economy, employers, learners and ultimately some of the core programmes that we all deliver as FE institutions”.
“It supports the very learners that fall between the gaps of mainstream provision, and provides access to the mainstream for many low-skilled, low-wage people,” he said.
David Hughes, Association of Colleges chief executive, said ESF helped people “in the most economically disadvantaged parts of the country”. Any spending reduction would “widen existing social and economic divisions”.
Dr Sue Pember, director of policy and external relations at HoLEX, added ESF had helped “provide a safeguard” against adult education funding cuts.
“If we lose the equivalent ESF funding, then Britain’s problems of poor productivity will continue,” she said.
EU funding expert John Bell, senior partner at consultants Curved Thinking, told FE Week one of the strengths of the ESF programme was that it allowed local areas to focus on the issues affecting them – which it had done “very effectively”.
“If it’s not replaced, the problem will be that everywhere in the country will effectively get one size fits all approach to it from Jobcentre Plus, from the apprenticeship programme, so there’ll be very little opportunity to respond appropriately to local need,” he warned.
When asked to respond to the campaign call, a Conservative party spokesperson said the government had “moved swiftly to offer guarantees” of ESF projects signed before the UK leaves the EU, following last year’s referendum. Any future spending decisions would be “taken by our parliament and our government”.
A Labour spokesperson said: “We recognise the vital role the ESF plays in Britain, and we will ensure there will be no funding shortfall as a result of Brexit.”
Other bodies that have signed up to the campaign include the Employment Related Services Association, National Enterprise Network, Careers England, Campaign for Learning, and the National Council for Voluntary Organisations.
A pledge to stop fees on courses for adult learners, which FE Week has learned would involve scrapping advanced learner loans, has been made by Labour before the official launch tomorrow of its education election plans.
Jeremy Corbyn
Shadow education secretary Angela Rayner (pictured) and party leader Jeremy Corbyn will outline the proposals, during speeches set to be delivered at Leeds City College from 10am.
The key announcement for FE is the plan to “scrap fees on courses for adult learners looking to retrain or upskill”.
A spokesperson stated they would “increase the adult skills budget to £1.5 billion by the end of the parliament, in order to abolish upfront fees and increase course funding by an average of 10 per cent year on year”.
When asked for more information about how this would work by FE Week, including with relation to FE loans, a spokesperson said tonight: “Labour will scrap advanced learner loans and make education and training in FE colleges free at the point of use.”
Mr Corbyn complained ahead of tomorrow’s speech the country was being held back by FE funding cuts.
“The Conservatives have cut support for students and forced colleges to increase fees,” he said. “It’s created a downward spiral that is bad for the people being held back and bad for the economy.”
Former top skills civil servant Sue Pember, who is now director of policy at adult learning provider membership body Holex, told FE Week: “We welcome Labour’s commitment to lifelong learning.
Sue Pember
“It will interesting to see the policy in full and how it will fit within a devolved skills landscape.”
David Hughes, chief executive of the Association of Colleges and former provider services director at the Skills Funding Agency, said: “In its education pledges, the Labour Party has recognised the vital role of colleges in delivering education and training to people of all ages, reaching out to those who have not been in learning for many years and helping people progress to higher skills levels.
David Hughes
“To achieve all of that, the next government will need to invest more, so it is good to see Labour pledge to put more funding in for young people and adults.”
FE Week also asked Labour why apprenticeships were not mentioned in the education commitments, and to clarify what it meant with pledging to “increase the adult skills budget to £1.5 billion by the end of the parliament”, when it already stands at around that level.
Shadow skills minister Gordon Marsden told FE Week: “This doesn’t mean we won’t be saying anything about apprenticeships in the manifesto. It will feature.”
He also looked ahead to more explanation being provided ahead of the election on the AEB spending plans.
The other key FE-related pledge is to restore the education maintenance allowance for college students, as previously reported by FE Week.
A spokesperson explained: “Assuming the same proportion of 16-18 year olds qualify for EMA as previously the cost would be £582 million a year.”
The FE announcements are part of wider Labour plans that will be expanded upon in the morning, to invest in a National Education Service “to ensure no one is held back and create a more skilled workforce and productive economy”.
It is to be funded from the £20 billion that Labour says would be raised by “reversing the Conservative Party’s cuts to corporation tax”.
We asked yesterday why apprenticeships had not got a mention in the initial raft of pre-general election education announcements this was part of – which shadow education secretary Angela Rayner and leader Jeremy Corbyn are outlining in speeches this morning at Leeds City College.
They have now explained that Labour would maintain the new apprenticeship levy, launched last month, but “introduce new measures to drive up quality”.
Angela Rayner speaking today
A spokesperson explained they would require the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education to report “on an annual basis to the Secretary of State on quality outcomes of completed apprenticeships to ensure they deliver skilled workers for employers and real jobs for apprentices at the end of their training”.
It would also “shift emphasis from quantity to quality”, by measuring completion rather than apprenticeship starts, and through “focusing on higher NVQ level apprenticeships, committing to double the number of completed apprenticeships at level three by the end of the parliament (94,000 in 2015/16 to 200,000 by the end of the Parliament)”.
Shadow skills minister Gordon Marsden (pictured) also told FE Week: “We will also protect the £440 million funding for non-levy payers on small and medium sized businesses, and see what more can be done in that area.
“We will also concentrate on recognising the needs of independent training providers, as well as general FE colleges.”
Ms Rayner echoed this in her speech this morning, saying Labour will ringfence £440 million from the apprenticeship levy for small and medium sized businesses, as well as increasing capital investment to help colleges deliver planned new T-levels.
Mr Marsden also told FE Week: “We will also put an equal amount of emphasis on growing service sector apprenticeships as manufacturing. It’s about parity of esteem.”
Association of Employment and Learning Providers’ boss Mark Dawe said: “As was set out in AELP’s own manifesto [which called for 4 million starts in the next parliament], we don’t think an increase in apprenticeships has to be at the expense of quality. Numbers and quality can grow together. Therefore Labour’s focus on quality is welcome.
“We have to be a little careful however about using completions as a target measure, because this might lead to employers and providers only taking the applicants most likely to succeed and we must never lose sight that one of the best attributes of apprenticeships is them acting as a driver of social inclusion for young people.”
FE Week also asked Labour to clarify what it meant through last night’s announcement by the plan to “increase the adult skills budget to £1.5 billion by the end of the parliament”, when it already stands at around that level.
A spokesperson confirmed this morning that this was misleading, and the plan is actually far more ambitious.
He said the ASB, the same thing as the adult education budget, would actually be “increased by £1.5 billion”.
Mr Marsden also told FE Week this morning: “We will increase the ASB by £1.5 billion (not “to” £1.5 billion), so it will go up to £3 billion per year by 2021/22, the end of the next parliament.
“It will include extra funding for ESOL (English speakers of other languages) courses.
“The whole thing will be in order to fund the specific FE expansion ledges as part of our lifelong learning drive”.
Speaking to journalists after her speech, Ms Rayner said more about FE:
“I’ve been deliberately trying not to talk about higher education today. I came here today to a further education establishment, an amazing establishment here in Leeds, and I’ve talked about my personal story because many politicians have talked about parity of esteem, but they’ve not touched FE.
“They’ve never felt the transformative effect that FE has. When I was a mum at 16, I was made to feel that ‘that’s it, there’s nothing left of me’. I had failed at secondary school and there was no option for me to go back and to be good at anything, whereas FE gave me the opportunity to get a vocational qualification in care, so I was able to go back into the workforce on a part time basis and then full time.
“For the first time, I fell in love with learning. Before that, I never felt good enough. That’s what FE does. That’s the transformative effect. So forgive me that I’m not talking about higher education today, but it’s because I genuinely believe in parity of esteem and if I talk about higher education everybody talks about that and leaves FE behind, and that frustrates me.
“If Labour are in power on June 9, I will be the education secretary, I will say that parity of esteem for FE and apprenticeships means something to me. It genuinely means something to me, because I am that working-class kid from a council house that was written off at 16, that was told you’ll never be good at anything, and I want all of those children up and down the country to know they are amazing, they are what makes Britain great, and with me as their secretary of state for education.
“I will ensure that they reach their full potential and if that’s through an FE, higher education, or through an apprenticeship route. I will make sure that option is open to them.
“And for the mums and dads that are my age that feel like that’s it for them, that they’re in a job, they’re not going to be able to afford to go back to adult learning, under Labour you will. If you at nine were saying ‘I want to be a nurse, I want to be a teacher’ and you have had those dreams snatched away from you, under Labour, those dreams can become a reality. It doesn’t stop at age 16 or 20.”
