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Rare passenger plane is backdrop for student horror film

A group of media students from East Durham College have used a rare passenger plane as the location for several of their horror film projects.

The 14 students, all studying their technical level three diploma in media, paid a visit to the last complete Hawker Siddeley Trident 1C passenger plane left in the world, and used it as the backdrop for their shoot.

The former BA aircraft was moved from Heathrow airport to Durham Tees Valley in 1983 when it left service, before it was brought to its current home at the North East Land, Sea and Air Museum in 2011.

Amanda Gregory, the head of department said: “They are each making a horror film, and working on a green screen was distracting from what was happening later in the film. Having explored different effects, they decided to do it in a real environment.

“This is the only plane of its kind still in existence and the footage was incredible.”

The final results will be seen when the films – covering every aspect of the genre from monster movies to zombies – are completed as part of the course.

Main image: Media students with the Hawker Siddeley HS.121 Trident 1C aircraft

I wouldn’t ‘trust’ the new Register of Apprenticeship Training Providers

Many of the colleges and training providers that failed to get on the apprenticeship provider register are red-faced.

Not just angry but embarrassed, given some simply failed to comprehensively answer the questions in the tender document.

The SFA is sticking to its guns, but I suspect a quick reapplication will result in this being a temporary setback.

A much bigger concern should be whether this new register contains only what the DfE press release described as “top-quality training providers”.

Robert Halfon, the apprenticeships minister, when unveiling the register, also said: “We are giving employers the confidence to do business with high-quality training providers.”

And we’ve since received press releases from jubilant firms claiming they have been given what they call “government trusted training provider status”.

But, to my surprise, it turns out companies with little or no trading history have successfully found their way onto the register.

These new firms probably wrote beautiful apprenticeship plans in their application, but in the real world employers get confidence from experience.

The SFA said they would set the entry bar high, but as exposed in the pages of FE Week, this has proven not to be the case.

So employers will still need to do their own due diligence when picking a provider, posing the question: why bother with a register at all?

Autocar’s car industry awards for women open up to apprentices

An annual event identifying and promoting women in the car industry will, for the first time, have a category for apprentices.

Every ear, Autocar’s annual Great British Women in the Car Industry looks for the most promising women working in UK automotive industry, and celebrates the top 100 at an annual awards ceremony.

This year, winners will also be picked in the new apprentices category, alongside those in the existing categories of vehicle development, manufacturing, purchasing, retail, marketing, communications, design, motorsport and executive.

Candidates must be nominated by friends, colleagues or their employers, with judges taking into account the influence or potential future influence each individual has when making their decision.

Mike Hawes, chief executive of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, said: “We need to attract the most talented people to enter the workplace. We want to highlight successful women who’ve made a difference in UK automotive and to provide inspiration for many others considering their future careers.”

To submit a nomination, please email jim.holder@haymarket.com, Autocar’s editorial director, with the name of the nominee, their CV and a paragraph on why they deserve to be there by April 3. There is no limit to the number of nominations that can be made.

The winners will be announced on June 21

Budding chefs take over hotel kitchen for culinary battle

A team of student chefs staged a kitchen takeover at a local hotel and went head to head in a culinary battle. Samantha King reports

Six student chefs from Sunderland College took over the kitchen of the Washington Holiday Inn for a day, to creat their own three-course menus.

Splitting into teams of two, the culinary trainees went head to head under the watchful eye of the hotel’s head chef Mariusz Urbanczyk, and battled it out to see who would be crowned takeover champions.

The winning team, who created the dish that was most popular with guests, was made up of Eleanor Wilson, Morgan Brickle and Connor Mills.

The students made quite an impression on the hotel’s general manager Paul Mandeir, who said he was “delighted” with the way the day went.

He added: “It is clear from the delivery of service that the students will excel in the hospitality trade. All of the guests who attended enjoyed the food and left delighted with the event.”

The event wasn’t just to determine who the best chefs were however, with £160 raised on the day going to the Holiday Inn’s chosen charities, Grace House and Greenfingers.

Rob Stewart, Sunderland College’s curriculum leader for hospitality, tourism and engagement, said: “We were really pleased to help support local charities and give the learners an opportunity to see inside a different type of kitchen to any they’d seen or worked in before.

“They all put in a lot of effort to prepare for the event and so hearing such positive feedback from the diners made it all worthwhile.”

Last September, the college’s catering students were moved into brand new facilities, which included a bakery, a training kitchen, two learning kitchens, plus a new commercial restaurant, City Bistro.

“With the facilities our students are used to cooking in day in day out, they are gaining the knowledge and skills they need to become top chefs,” added Mr Stewart.

“We encourage them to do as many work placements as they can in restaurants while they are studying with us and along with the experience they gain in City Bistro – which is fast becoming one of the most popular restaurants in the city – they are getting a great head start in the industry.”

The takeover was arranged with the help of Reed NCFE, which joined forces with Sunderland College in 2014 to create a job zone offering work experience opportunities and careers guidance.

Katrina Blyth, employment broker for Reed NCFE, said: “The students have had the chance to create their own menus, cost their menu, prepare and, ultimately, take over the professional kitchen at the Holiday Inn, cooking for a restaurant of people.

“This has proved to be a real eye-opener for the students in terms of the hard work that goes in to running a real-life, working kitchen and they have all done a wonderful job.”

No Birmingham colleges make apprenticeships register

The nation’s second largest city may not have an FE college delivering apprenticeships when the levy launches in April, as none of its colleges has made it onto the new register of apprenticeship training providers.

Birmingham Metropolitan College, Bournville College, South and City College and Solihull College were all missing from the list published by the Skills Funding Agency on Tuesday – despite the four currently delivering almost £12 million worth of apprenticeships between them.

Several other major apprenticeship-delivering colleges have also failed to make the list, including Bournemouth and Poole College and Hartlepool College, both rated ‘good’ by Ofsted, and which have apprenticeship allocations of £5.6 million and £2.9 million respectively.

In all, FE Week estimates that at least 21 colleges that were eligible to apply, with a combined allocation of £44 million, did not make it onto the register.

David Hughes, AoC’s chief executive, said he was “concerned about the exclusion of some high-quality colleges from the register” and would be raising the issue with the SFA and the Department for Education “as a matter of urgency”.

BMet’s principal Andrew Cleaves told FE Week that “we are very surprised and disappointed by the outcome”.

He said that his college, which has the largest 2016/17 SFA allocation of all four, at almost £4.7m, had “put forward a solid proposal to the SFA” and had “grown significantly this past year”.

The college’s most recent Ofsted report was published Thursday (March 16) and gave the college a grade three overall, with a grade two for apprenticeship provision.

“We are now working with the SFA to see how we can address things and are confident that this will reach a positive conclusion over the coming weeks, for BMet and our many satisfied employers and apprentices,” he said.

Bournville College and South and City College, which are currently in federation ahead of a planned merger later this year, have a 2016/17 apprenticeships allocation of almost £5 million between them.

South and City College received a grade two overall, including its apprenticeship provision, when it was inspected by Ofsted in December 2015.

But Bournville received a grade four for its apprenticeship provision during its most recent Ofsted inspection in September – which meant it was ineligible to apply for the register, according to SFA rules.

A spokesperson for the two colleges confirmed that Bournville hadn’t applied.

“However, we were very shocked to discover that the South and City College application had been unsuccessful, given our grade two Ofsted report and excellent track record,” she said.

“We are keen to understand why this was the case and have already sought feedback. It is our intention to reapply at the next possible opportunity.”

A spokesperson for Solihull College said it was “very surprised” not to be on the new register.

The college, which has an allocation of £2.3 million, was rated ‘good’ overall and for its apprenticeship provision at its most recent Ofsted inspection in November.

The college is “in discussion” with the SFA about “next steps and are awaiting a response”.

All four colleges were part of the Birmingham and Solihull area review, along with three sixth form colleges – none of which are on the register.

One of the outcomes from the review, which finished in March last year, was to set up an apprenticeship company.

According to the review’s final report, which was published in November, the company would “provide the first collaborative college-owned company delivering a dedicated service to employers to increase the range, volume and quality of apprenticeships in the Birmingham and Solihull area” and would be “driven by employer demand”.

Movers and Shakers: Edition 203

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

There have been two new appointments at Askham Bryan College, which specialises in land-based courses.

Sandra Burnhill has been appointed executive director of the York college.

She joins Askham Bryan from her role as assistant principal at Kirklees College, which she has held since 2009.

Beginning her career as a police officer, she first started working in further education in 1989 as a sport and public services lecturer at Dewsbury College. She later became its head of department before moving on to the role of assistant principal.

In the new role at the college, Ms Burnhill says she is most “looking forward to returning to her North Yorkshire roots” and sees working in the land sector as going back to her “agricultural” beginnings, after growing up with the sheep her parents kept.

“For a while now I have wanted to work with students learning about the land-based sector,” she said.

“I am looking forward to working with the college’s curriculum team, particularly with the challenges and opportunities which government reforms to apprenticeships offer.”

She will begin in the role on March 20.

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A former Askham Bryan student, Josh Banks, has been meanwhile appointed as the college’s farm manager.

He will be responsible for running the three farms at the campus – totalling more than 600 hectares of land – as well as supporting student learning and assisting with public visits such as lambing Sunday, which often attracts 5,000 visitors.

He will oversee facilities such as the college’s milking parlour, which has the capacity for more than 240 cows, as well as crops currently being grown across the land.

Mr Banks, 30, graduated from the college four years ago, and has since gained experience across the industry, specialising in livestock. He said he was “delighted to be back at the college”.

“During my three years there as a student I thoroughly enjoyed my learning experience.

“My degree gave me the ability to progress quickly through the industry, culminating in my recent appointment as the college’s new farm manager.”

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Paul Riley has been appointed as the new principal at Worthing College.

The West Sussex college is spread across an 18 acre campus, and received a ‘good’ rating from Ofsted in its latest inspection.

Mr Riley takes up the new role from his prior position as interim principal at the college, which he has held since September last year following the retirement of Peter Corrigan.

In response to the appointment, he said he was “thrilled to be given the opportunity to be the guardian of the Worthing College community”.

He hopes to lead the college to an ‘outstanding’ Ofsted rating within the next three years, adding: “I am relishing the prospect of leading the organisation and continuing with the innovative work we are already doing to create an exciting and dynamic college in the heart of our local community.”

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

How to get positive media coverage for FE

It can be a struggle to win media coverage, but there are ways to increase your chances of getting heard, says Ruth Sparkes

Could it be that vocational qualifications just aren’t sexy enough? Granted, they are getting recognition, but they’re not up there with the likes of GCSEs and A-levels just yet.

I mean, I don’t remember seeing female twin or triplet apprentices jumping up and down in strappy summer tops brandishing technical certificates on the front pages of national daily newspapers.

FE has suffered over recent times and the apprenticeship ‘brand’ has taken a bit of a beating. But (the levy and register aside) there is definitely a new positive buzz, and even awareness surrounding apprenticeships that I have certainly not experienced before.

Cybersecurity, law, marketing, veterinary nursing, journalism, software development and auctioneering are just some of the new and exciting industry areas for apprentices and we are seeing some fabulous marketing initiatives.

This buzz could quite feasibly be leveraged to give a boost to the FE sector as a whole in the public consciousness.

The apprenticeship brand has taken a bit of a beating

So, what is it about vocational qualifications that gives journalists (other than the fabulous staff at FE Week) that glazed look? Is it the way we’re ‘selling’ that puts them off ‘buying’?

Granted, not everything that happens in the world of FE is newsworthy, however with a hook, a good picture and careful timing you can very often leverage column inches.

I’m running a session at the Annual Apprenticeship Conference 2017 that will look at:

The ‘dull story’ hall of fame: What is and isn’t news.

Messages: For parents and apprentices, your message might be ‘employers are hungry for certain skills and this is the most cost effective route to a rewarding and well-paid career – debt free’, but the message for employers might be something different.

How to leverage current national stories: Topics to piggyback upon, such as; skills shortages, mindfulness, women in STEM, males in primary schools, aerospace and Brexit.

Using a personal or unusual angle: Looking for something unique. We’ve used ex-soldiers who’ve retrained in construction – Baghdad to Battersea — and a costume apprentice at the English National Opera.

Timing is everything: We’ll look at some real-life examples of how timing has ensured an improved take-up of apprenticeship-related press releases.

Have you got the tools for the job? We’ll look at some helpful (and not so helpful) online tools to help get your story in front of the right people.

If you’re not able to attend the workshop at AAC 2017 – here are my top tips for getting press coverage.

Timing

Can you create a local story by piggybacking on a national event?

Pictures

VERY important these days – stories are getting shorter, and newspapers and websites need images. A good picture is where you will gain the advantage.

Topicality

What’s new is news.

Write for the publication

Newspapers generally have a house style. Look at who you are writing for and copy their house style. A pitch idea for a national paper will look quite different.

Widen your net

If you have a story about, for example, a carpentry apprentice, don’t just think local – think niche, too. A search will reveal that there are 27 magazine contacts who are interested in writing about carpentry.

Don’t just think print

Look at broadcast, blogs and online news, too.

Key messages

If a story can’t include one of your key messages, ditch it.

Quotes

All PRs ought to have a quote. Often if you cannot see a way to include a key message, you can use a quote to ensure there is link back.

Comment pieces

Some national titles have comment sections on their online platforms. Examples include: The Independent, The Guardian, Huffington Post, TES andFE Week

Relationships

Build relationships with your local journalists, education journalists and citizen journalists/bloggers.

Ruth Sparkes will be running a workshop entitled ‘Top tips for positive media coverage’ at AAC2017

There are two levels of unfairness in FE

Mark Dawe made his maiden speech as chief executive of AELP at last year’s Annual Apprenticeship Conference. One year on, he tackles a familiar question: are FE institutions treated fairly?

My youngest of four children, the only girl, often retorts “What about me?” when I make the mistake of saying “come on, boys”. Given my own experience in the further education sector, I really should empathise more.

I come from a background of educational privilege and I have seen what is possible. I have also run an exam board working with nearly every school in the country, while in various roles in FE I worked closely with schools and universities. I have witnessed the political priorities in what was the original all-encompassing DfES. Here is what I’ve learned.

There is inequity in the education system

Despite positive noises about skills and extra money in last week’s budget, I don’t think anyone can deny that while all public services are suffering at the moment, further education gets a tougher deal compared with schools and universities.

The sector has every right to shout and scream on behalf of the young people and adults it tries to support

And this disparity has a direct knock-on effect for learners. FE has some of the most challenging learners and is the engine for social mobility and productivity.

While it’s increasingly recognised, resources don’t follow rhetoric – I am sure I don’t need to go into the funding per learner in HE or schools compared to FE – and the sector has every right to shout and scream on behalf of the young people and adults it tries to support.

In many ways the Brexit vote represented a proportion of the population who didn’t feel like they had a voice – something we have said in FE for decades. Maybe if ministers, secretaries of state and prime ministers paid a little more attention to the FE sector, they would have a better understanding of the mood – and challenges – of the nation.

There is inequity within FE

Some people accuse me of being anti-college, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. Working in colleges for over 12 years, I have represented them regionally and nationally. I was principal of the first college to join what was then ALP – they understood how to engage with employers and I wanted to learn how. Moreover, many of the issues were common to all providers and I thought we should be campaigning side by side.

I am a cheerleader for the FE sector as a whole. I hate ‘Cinderella’, ‘second chance’, ‘safety net’ and the many other labels the sector has been given and still uses itself. With the apprenticeship policy and the technical and professional proposals, we can see a genuine light at the end of the reputation tunnel.

However, I also hate injustice, and as much as there is inequity of treatment between FE and HE and schools, inequity also exists within the sector.

Namely, independent training providers and colleges are treated differently.

In some cases, this may be justified – especially when their functions and purposes are different – but there are also cases I shall outline below, where the inequity feels like nothing more than bias.

Terminations

The government’s approach to colleges and ITPs is very different. Take the recent demise of First4Skills, closed down almost overnight primarily because of a grade four from Ofsted, resulting in an abrupt end to their Skills Funding Agency contract.

While I hold to my conviction that ‘inadequate’ provision does not deserve new starts, the owner of First4Skills is a grade three (previously grade four) college that continued to get funding for new starts despite a damning letter from the minister over four months ago. If ever there were a situation to open a wound and then rub handfuls of salt into it, this has to be it.

Bailouts

The government made clear in its apprenticeship register rules that a college with a grade four could continue to recruit apprentices if its apprenticeship provision was at a better grade, but gave no such leeway to the non-college sector.

Colleges didn’t have to demonstrate financial security; non-colleges did, despite the message that colleges would be allowed to go bust.

Capital funding

The ITP sector has never ever had capital funding or any kind of capital support yet colleges have. ITPs are not getting grants for consultancy to set up apprenticeship companies, joint ventures, etc – while colleges are. While this is not technically state aid (we checked), it is the closest yet.

Subcontracting

The news is nearly always about subcontractors going bust, or lack of control over the subcontractor, but it is those doing the subcontracting that need to be challenged. The prime contractor is responsible for monitoring the quality and financial stability of those they work with.

Bad subcontracting is a consequence of a clunky funding system, where the money is not going to the providers that can do the job and there is no willingness to redistribute funds once allocated – in many cases allowing large management fees for no management, which is totally unacceptable.

Good subcontracting and proper partnerships are great for the sector. Dishing out money while retaining a margin is simply bad practice.

Adult funding

Over 90 per cent of adult education is now grant-funded to colleges and local authority providers – with only £110 million put out to tender. To add insult to injury, colleges are able to compete with ITPs for their paltry slice of funds.

This isn’t going to remain static; we have the continued pressure of austerity and the looming implementation of devolution. Surely combined authorities will see that a greater proportion of the budget should be commissioned?

However, it seems this may be stymied in the name of financial stability for colleges; we are already hearing local authorities complain that the DfE readiness conditions include a requirement not to destabilise the college sector.

Let’s be honest about the biases

In short, there is an underlying bias in favour of colleges. If this is what the government wants, let’s at least be honest about it. Let’s have colleges as public assets and provide them the support they need to survive in their current form.

There is an underlying bias in favour of colleges

However if they are independent, let the many good colleges flourish, while those that fail can wither and die.

Fundamentally, some key decisions have to be made about what we want our colleges to be. My view is that large monolithic institutions delivering skills development away from the workplace doesn’t work.

Just listen to the voice of apprentices and employers articulating the benefits of being embedded in the workplace and supported while in a job. Large educational establishments scare many of the learners we are trying to reach.

We need to speak for those who don’t have a voice

When we argue for fair funding, it should be for FE and its students. Funding should follow the learner and be the same no matter who is delivering it.

I sometimes wonder (conspiracy theory warning) whether there is a deliberate plan to cause friction within the sector, so we forget the problems caused by government for the learners we are all striving to serve.

We all need to fight the elitist viewpoint that level two is low quality and doesn’t deserve to underpin an apprenticeship, fight the view that academic assessment is good therefore everything has to be externally examined, no matter what skills and competencies are being developed and tested.

The schools fairer funding campaign is getting lots of media attention, and HE fees almost brought down a government; but ripping out 16-18 apprenticeship funding and disadvantage funding, for example, was barely noticed outside the FE sector.

We have to speak up for those young people and adults with the quietest voices, and we need to purge the biases that lead to inefficiencies and poor delivery, and encourage everyone in the system to play to their strengths.

Colleges and ITPs have different strengths

Many colleges agree ITPs are far better at engaging with employers: colleges are not structured to respond in the flexible ways employers expect. They suffer from their own bureaucracy, which stifles their chances of proper employer engagement.

Colleges have incredible resources for full-time learning, but local niche organisations are often better at community work.

Some colleges are excellent at meeting the agenda, but generally the further the apprenticeship delivery unit is from the college systems, management, KPIs and processes and the more they are left alone, the more successful they are.

Each part of the FE sector has its own strengths – the sooner we recognise this, the sooner we will all be able to focus on those strengths and work collaboratively.

Timeline: Mark Dawe’s first year as chief executive of AELP

Ofsted boss commits to more ‘positive and purposeful’ approach to FE

Ofsted’s new chief inspector was vowed to “reset” the relationship between the education watchdog and colleges, in her first speech to the FE sector since taking over from Sir Michael Wilshaw in January.

Amanda Spielman struck a more conciliatory tone than her controversial predecessor at the AoC Ofsted conference this morning in London.

But while she acknowledged the pressures the sector was facing, she also made it clear she will not shy away from challenging the sector.

Ms Spielman said: “We need a much more positive and purposeful relationship between Ofsted and the FE sector. And so I want to use today to reset that relationship.”

She continued: “I will not be using my position at Ofsted to impose my personal views, or to make unevidenced claims about the sector.”

Instead, she said she was interested in “collecting inspection evidence, analysing it rigorously and reporting it objectively”.

“It is only when you have evidence on your side that you have the authority to make respected judgements which genuinely drive improvement,” she said.

Seven out of 10 colleges were good or better, Ms Spielman said, and she had seen some “excellent practice”.

“But while we must recognise the good practice, we can’t lose sight of the fact that inspection grades have been in decline for at least two years now,” she said.

“This is a worrying sign, and a trend that needs to be reversed: too many colleges are struggling to maintain quality, and too few that require improvement are demonstrating the capability to do so.”

Ms Spielman made it clear she would work with colleges to drive up standards.

“That challenge means that we, and I use we in the broadest sense, need to take a hard look in the mirror to ensure we are doing all we can to make sure that college education is the best it can be,” she said.

The Ofsted boss recognised that the government’s “well-intentioned” English and maths GCSE resit policy was “causing significant problems” to colleges.

She said the policy had a “disproportionate effect on different institutions”, with around three-quarters of students at FE colleges following vocational courses.

The large numbers of students failing to improve their grades following resits was “such a waste”, Ms Spielman said.

“We must ask ourselves whether expecting all students without a C grade to retake English and maths is the right way forward.”

She continued: “Our hope therefore, is that while maintaining this important policy objective, the government will reflect on feedback from Ofsted and the wider sector, to refine its approach to promoting these vital maths and English skills.”

Ms Spielman also spoke about the impact of funding pressures on colleges.

“What is undeniable is that while the other age ranges have been largely protected from funding pressures until recently, the same has not been true for education post-16,” she said.

“This has had real consequences,” she said.

“And while college funding is the domain of the SFA, and not Ofsted, we do know from our work that it is having an impact on the quality of education,” she acknowledged.

Ms Spielman continued: “My hope is that the announcements in the budget pave the way for a new approach to FE funding, where the benefits of investment are realised, and the temptation to keep paring back is resisted.”

Former Ofsted boss Sir Michael Wilshaw, who retired in January, caused huge controversy with his outspoken comments about the FE sector.

In March 2016, he laid into the sector during a parliamentary select committee, telling MPs that he believed all 16 to 19-year-olds should be educated in schools.

In July he was caught making up evidence about the standard of careers guidance in colleges, calling it “uniformly weak” without an identifiable source to back up his claims.

And in December he contradicted Ofsted’s own annual report by pointing the finger at colleges for the sharp increase in 16 to 18-year-olds failing English and maths GCSE resits.

Having heard Ms Spielman’s speech, David Hughes, AoC chief executive, said: “It was also pleasing that she has recognised the important role of colleges and proposed a “positive and purposeful conversation” with the sector.

“It is clear she is committed to Ofsted inspecting colleges based on evidence and wants to ensure that Ofsted truly is an agent for quality improvement, not just of quality measurement.

“We have been working hard to highlight the difficulties in making the current English and maths GCSE resits policy work effectively. It is a challenge for every college and we believe has enormous consequences for college inspection outcomes.

“It is therefore very welcome news to hear Amanda supporting the call for the Government to reconsider its approach to this policy as well as acknowledging the need for inspectors to recognise the scale of the English and maths challenge which colleges face.

“I look forward to working closely with Amanda and her team to further develop this new relationship for the benefit of colleges and students.”