Halfon puts lifelong learning back in the spotlight

Lifelong learning is firmly back on the government’s agenda, according to the skills and apprenticeships minister Robert Halfon, who says the government’s new industrial strategy includes provisions for adult education.

The green paper released on January 23 acknowledged a “growing challenge” with training for older people, and committed to exploring “ambitious new approaches to encouraging lifelong learning”. Proposed measures could include ways to make the training costs people face “less daunting”, and provide better information to ensure older people who are retraining learn the skills that are actually needed by employers.

“We wouldn’t have put this in the industrial strategy if we weren’t serious about it,” Mr Halfon told FE Week, just a week after more than 60 MPs wrote him a letter calling for more commitment to adult learning.

“At the moment government and I are looking at it in terms of how does it meet skills needs, how do we help the socially disadvantaged, how does it work for the modern age,” he said.

According to government figures, there are around 1.5 million fewer adults aged 19 or over participating in adult FE than there were during the Labour MP David Lammy’s stint as minister between 2007 and 2008, when the figure stood at 3.75 million.

There are around 1.5 million fewer adults aged 19 or over participating in adult FE than there were during the Labour MP David Lammy’s stint as minister

Asked whether it was fair to say that the government had neglected this important policy area while concentrating on 16 to 19 learning, Mr Halfon dodged the question, replying: “This has not just been an issue for this government. In terms of skills in general it has been the same story over 20 or 30 years.”

It is also so far unclear whether there will be an adult skills strategy, or a lifelong learning framework.

“It will fit in the framework of government priorities,” he said, “meeting our skills deficit, helping the disadvantaged, ensuring that people get jobs. Those are the priorities.”

In his first speech to colleges last November, Mr Halfon said that the wider sector “is essential for social justice – ensuring that individuals from the lowest-income backgrounds get on the ladder of opportunity and benefit from the best education and skills training”.

Former business secretary Sir Vince Cable, who is currently working on a research project for the National Union of Students into how FE reforms should be tailored for learners, welcomed the new commitment to adult education.

He said: “One of the things that I managed to save from the Treasury when I was in government was adult community learning. That kept quite a lot of the part-time, non-accredited learning that is the basis of proper adult education.”

He added that the work done for such learners was “wonderful”, and that any further support for providers was to be welcomed.

Earlier this month, more than 60 MPs led by Mr Lammy wrote to Mr Halfon, demanding more government commitment to lifelong learning. The signatories also included Angela Rayner, the shadow education secretary, and Gordon Marsden, the shadow skills minister.

Mr Lammy has told FE Week: “While I do welcome the commitment to exploring new approaches to lifelong learning, and I know the minister does share my concerns, this is an urgent issue that has been ignored by successive governments.”

Former top skills civil servant Sue Pember, who is now director at adult learning provider membership body Holex, said: “It is good news this is being given such prominence in the industrial strategy.

“We would like to see any lifelong learning framework addressing the poor basic skills of the workforce, support those with low skills into further training and start preparing those who are at the risk of losing their present jobs because of technological advances into learning new skills.”

Technical Education Panels: Why pay for advice that is already free?

For two years, employers have been working hard on the new technical education panels – the government’s offer to pay professionals to do the same undervalues their contribution, says Iain Mackinnon.

This is all very odd. The Department for Education wants to waste our money paying for expertise it could get free of charge. In doing so, it’s undermining and undervaluing the contribution of the many employers who currently work for free in Trailblazer groups. And it’s weakening the principle of employer leadership, which has rightly been a central plank of the apprenticeship reforms.

What’s got me annoyed is the department’s recent advert for Technical Education Panels of Professionals. It ought to be uncontroversial. This is the next step in implementing Lord Sainsbury’s report on technical education, moving on from high-level aspiration (which everyone applauds) to sector experts knuckling down to the nitty-gritty of defining standards, which is where it will get difficult.

Employers often get a lot of stick in the skills world, and of course there are some who evade their responsibilities, cut corners, and game any opportunity they can

But why offer to pay? What does the department think employers have been doing for the last few years in Trailblazer groups? In the six I’m involved with in the maritime sector, employers turn up again and again to slog through the detail of creating new standards for apprenticeships, then the supporting assessment plan, and none of them gets paid extra to do so. Yet still they come, because they’re committed to making apprenticeships work in their sector.

One of the groups I support is comprised entirely of small companies in the workboat sector (high-spec boats with a crew of two or three, which support the offshore energy industry or construction projects). They meet on Merseyside or in Southampton, and in both cases most of the members have to travel long distances. We typically meet for four hours, so each of them is giving up a day after you factor in the travel. Yet still they come.

Employers often get a lot of stick in the skills world, and of course there are some who evade their responsibilities, cut corners, and game any opportunity they can. But there are plenty more who give a lot of time to the pretty thankless task of defining standards, shaping apprenticeships, and improving training in their sectors.

The DfE doesn’t need to pay. It can, and does, get all this huge – and hugely valuable – work for free.

So why pay? The clue may lie in the shift of emphasis from “employers in the driving seat” to “panels of professionals”. The DfE has confirmed to me that it’s “not about watering down the commitment for an employer-led system”, but that it “felt it was important to have representatives from professionals and trade bodies who also have experience of working on industry standards”.

I agree, but why pay? They will and do turn up anyway for Trailblazer groups. It’s their job: influencing discussions like these is central to what they do.

And we need to keep the focus on employers. I agree with the government’s mantra that the these reforms should be employer-led, even if it doesn’t always feel like it; employers may be in the driving seat, but DfE’s in charge of the Highway Code. This latest twist does feel like it’s weakening that commitment.

In one of the Trailblazer groups I’m involved with, we have two colleges, two trade unions, a professional body, the sector regulator, the awarding body we use, and two sector skill bodies, plus a good range of employers and two employer co-chairs to share the load.

We all work together because we want to create a good set of apprenticeships that will appeal to employers, and which will get more of them to take on apprentices.

We’ve been going two years now, and still they come. Despite the time cost – which is far greater than any of us imagined – and despite the frustrations – ditto – still they come.

I doubt very much that the maritime sector is unusual. The DfE has misjudged this, and undervalued the voluntary commitment of so many. It doesn’t need to pay. And it’ll stay true to the principle of employer leadership if it doesn’t.

 

Iain Mackinnon is managing director at The Mackinnon Partnership

Training provision must adapt to demand

The skills sector needs an effective market strategy that drives employer investment and supports providers to deliver high quality at scale, says Pippa Morgan.

This week saw the launch of the government’s industrial strategy – and it was great to see skills feature so highly in it. For businesses, a stable, long-term strategy designed to support the fundamental drivers of our economic success must address the question of training.

There was a lot to like. From strong support for technical education, to looking at building more level four and five skills, to progressing with post-16 maths, many ideas in the paper chime with business priorities.

But our challenge in skills hasn’t been lack of policy, it’s been effective delivery. How the system works on the ground – how it influences the behaviours and meets the needs of learners and businesses – is what really matters. The government’s approach must be built on understanding what drives employer investment and supports providers to deliver high quality at scale; rather than an approach that begins with Whitehall and works its way out, we need a more effective market strategy.

Our challenge hasn’t been lack of policy

The urgent need for this kind of approach is evident with the apprenticeship levy – now little more than two months away – and three key related issues being raised by companies.

Firstly, unclear definitions of success. The pages of FE Week constantly detail gloomy predictions for the new system, with ‘Employers turn backs on young’ a recent example, and there are certainly some causes for concern. We need to be honest that the aim of the reform is that provision changes and adapts to demand.

We can be clear about what success looks like: it will be making sure provision grows in areas that give learners real returns, through good careers. That will involve challenges and must avoid defending existing provision, simply because it exists.

Secondly, preparedness. From transfers to the new agreements, we have been working with officials to improve key aspects of the system in recent months. But policy and system design has been taking place when companies needed to be planning, creating schemes and recruiting. Of the 21 months since the levy was announced in summer 2015, it’s taken 18 months and counting for government to design, build and prepare itself for the levy – giving firms and providers an incredibly short window of clarity before the system goes live. And large parts of the longer-term system – rules around transfers, the Digital Apprenticeship Service, and the role and influence of the Institute for Apprenticeships – are not yet ready.

What we now need is a proper strategy for the skills market

Employers and providers have tried to fill this gap as best they can, but contracts written last autumn are currently being revisited to ensure they remain compliant with the system as we understand it now.

For a system that requires the support of employers and providers to succeed, this timeline breeds growing frustration in many businesses. This is particularly true in the devolved nations, where progress on real system reform – and interoperability with the others – is especially slow.

The third key issue is how the levy will change business behaviour. The CBI has always been clear about the real risk that, if poorly designed, the levy could have perverse incentives, such as firms training fewer apprentices, or being forced to rebadge existing provision to reclaim levy money.

To encourage the growth of better provision, the system of 2017 will need to adapt and adjust as we go through the early years and transition into a whole new system. This must start with a proper transfer regime that allows firms to share more than a sliver of their levy money within their supply chain or sector.

An effective regime for allowable expenses – such as time developing much needed new standards – will also help turn those perverse incentives round. If we really care about delivering a skills base for our new industrial strategy, then this is essential.

What we now need is a proper strategy for the skills market that deals with these issues, giving employers confidence to invest, offering providers stability throughout the substantial changes they need to make, and challenging the system where change doesn’t happen. The partnership approach of industrial strategy is the right road, but it is very late in the day to get the levy on track.

 

Pippa Morgan is head of education and skills policy at the Confederation of British Industry

College staff and students stitch blankets out of utility covers for the homeless

Students and staff at Chichester College have made colourful blankets out of recycled grey utility covers to keep homeless people in the local area warm.

Working with Blanket Angels, a local homeless charity, students and staff at the West Sussex college produced 57 blankets to distribute to those in need.

The blankets include labels with information about local shelters, plus contact details for organisations which can offer them help and support.

Set up by Anna Stephenson-Knight, the charity usually works with local sewing clubs to create the blankets that not only provide warmth and comfort – but also details of where homeless people can seek help.

Anna said: “I’ve been really pleased by the response from the college. All day, people have been dropping in to design and make blankets – including people who have never used a sewing machine.

“I’m amazed we have made so many, I’m really grateful to all the staff and students who have given up their time for us.”

Shelagh Legrave OBE, Chichester College’s principal, added: “As a college we pride ourselves on our community involvement, and enjoy helping out with projects like this one where we can.”

 

Featured picture: (L-R) Shelagh Legrave, Anna Stephenson-Knight and deputy principal Andrew Green

Fine art students create artwork to trigger happy memories in dementia sufferers

A  group of fine art students have used their creativity for a good cause, creating artwork for people with dementia in order to help them trigger happy memories.

The group of extended diploma level three students from West Suffolk College researched dementia, and created artwork based on the five senses, all around the theme of happiness.

The artworks will be displayed around St Peter’s House, a residential care home in Bury St Edmunds.

Amongst the art is a painting of a boat on a beach made with real sand and rope, sensory cushions, a multicoloured painting with working lights, and pictures with touchable, embroidered flowers.

One of the home’s residents, Pam Norman, was impressed with the students’ work, saying: “It’s very, very good. They have spent a lot of time and thought about it and people will appreciate it”.

Kathryn Smith, director of operations at the Alzheimer’s Society, said: “It’s great to see this coming together of generations in Suffolk.

“It’s very interesting and moving to see this work transformed the students’ perceptions from being scared to being comfortable to work so collaboratively with people affected by the condition.”

 

Featured picture: Shannon Wade, left, and Alice Buckmaster with their work 

College runs integration classes for refugees

North Shropshire college has begun holding integration classes for local refugees to help them with their English skills and teach them key phrases.

Currently, there are 12 students in the class; 10 from families taken in from Lebanon by the UN, and two from Bangladesh.

Alongside English skills, there will be a focus on employability, with training also covering interview techniques.

Everything they learn in class, including names of medication, is designed to help the students transition into their local communities and let them access healthcare.

The class, which is being delivered with help from Refugee Action, a national refugee charity, has been running since September 2016, and will continue until summer this year.

The charity assists with refugee resettlement, homelessness and poverty, and offers help and advice to asylum seekers who are adjusting to their new environments. It also offers resources to organisations who are looking to help with the process.

Rosemarie Sellers, who tutors the group, said: “They are a pleasure to teach. I wish all of my students were as polite as they are. It’s an honour to be able to help in any way I can.”

Refugee Action reports that the United Kingdom is accepting up to 20,000 Syrian refugees by 2020.

 

Featured picture: Some of the refugees in the class

Indie pop band Blossoms perform secret gig for Salford students

English indie pop band Blossoms performed a secret gig for creative media and music students at Salford City College’s FutureSkills centre.

Media students were on hand with video cameras as the band performed six songs from their chart-topping debut album ‘Blossoms’, including hits ‘Charlemagne’ and ‘Honey Sweet’, which were filmed as part of the BBC Introducing series.

The singers also participated in a Q&A hosted by presenters from BBC Radio Manchester, with fans from around the world sending in questions for the band’s frontman Tom Ogden and drummer Joe Donovan to answer during a live broadcast.

The band, from Stockport in Greater Manchester, formed in 2013, and were recently nominated for British Breakthrough Act of the Year at the 2017 BRIT Awards.

David Gate, creative music tutor at Salford City college, said: “This is the biggest event we’ve ever had at FutureSkills and it was an honour to have Blossoms perform here. We have the perfect gig venue here, so we’re now looking forward to hosting more of the same in 2017.”

 

Featured picture: Tom Ogden, centre-right, and drummer Joe Donovan, centre-left, take part in a Q&A

Report shows college struggle with ‘endemic’ sexualised behaviour

Ofsted has blasted a college for “endemic” sexualised behaviour and incidents of sexual assault in a damning new report.

In November, the inspectorate awarded Hereward College the lowest possible grade for its most recent inspection, which saw it fall from the ‘good’ rating it had earned just 18 months ago.

That report said the college’s safeguarding was “ineffective”, and brought to light a number of alleged incidents of peer-on-peer abuse – at least one of which was under investigation “by another agency”.

The scale of the problem has now been laid bare in detail, in a monitoring visit report published earlier this month.

Based on a visit in December, the new document said that a “worryingly high proportion” of the safeguarding incidents had “involved sexualised behaviour” or “in some cases sexual assaults by one learner on another”.

“Leaders do not have a sufficiently wide range of strategies to tackle this endemic issue,” it found.

Consequently, it urged college leaders to “urgently devise a specific strategy” to deal with “incidents of unwanted sexual attention paid by one learner to another”.

A spokesperson for the Hereward said the college had taken the report on board and had “put in place a number of actions to make the necessary improvements”.

A new safeguarding manager, who will enable the college “to progress safeguarding issues more rapidly”, has been in post since January 3.

“The college is moving forward with a new chair of governors, new board members, a new interim principal and a determination from its dedicated staff to embrace the challenges that the college faces, a resolve to put things right and build upon the good work the college has done and continues to do in supporting its students,” she said.

Hereward is currently led by interim principal Geoffrey Draper, who was appointed in November after the former principal Sheila Fleming left at the time of Ofsted’s visit in October, reportedly due to an illness.

A college spokesperson confirmed to FE Week that Ms Fleming, who took up the post in 2011, is still on sick leave from the college, but refused to say whether she is being paid.

The college provides full-time learning programmes at pre-entry level to level three for people with disabilities and additional needs, and offers both day and residential provision. It had around 570 learners over the previous full-contract year, and receives high needs funding for around 280 learners.

As previously reported in FE Week, the FE commissioner is understood to have urged neighbouring Henley College Coventry and City College Coventry to consider merging with Hereward.

A number of issues raised in the report related to the specific needs of the college’s learners.

These included shortcomings in its newly revised safeguarding policy, which it said “fails to explain the college’s approach to child sexual exploitation, female genital mutilation, restraint, intimate care or bullying, all of which are important issues for this group of learners”.

The policy also failed to address “how learners with profound and multiple learning difficulties or communication difficulties might communicate their concerns or disclose if they were being abused or harmed”.

The report conceded that the college had begun to review its admissions policy, and one local authority has now agreed to “avoid placing learners with challenging behaviours at the college”.

However, it noted that leaders and managers had “paid insufficient attention to how to manage the current mix of learners more safely and effectively”.

“Leaders and managers acknowledge that they are finding it challenging to balance the delivery of the accredited curriculum with the need to increase greatly the focus on personal, social and health education, and in particular sex and relationships education,” it said.

The report found that leaders had “given initial thought as to how to help learners to behave more safely”, but that further work was needed.

FEATURE: Lecturers tie Titchmarsh to a tree for Channel 4 programme

Tethering a TV presenter high up to a tree is something that many people will go through their entire lives never having done, but the chance arose for three forestry lecturers from Plumpton College. Samantha King reports.

To mark the 90th anniversary of AA Milne’s beloved children’s character, producers from Channel 4 decided to mark the occasion with a programme called ‘Winnie-the-Pooh: The World’s Most Famous Bear’, a programme exploring his history, friends and exploits.

I don’t think it was too alien what we were doing with him

To get to the heart of the matter, producers recruited Plumpton College’s forestry lecturer Dean Bell, and his colleagues Matt Moss, a programme manager for foundation degrees in forestry and woodland management, and Ollie Perry, a programme manager for level one and two students, to help tie the show’s presenter Alan Titchmarsh to a tree overlooking Ashdown Forest – one of Winnie’s favourite haunts.

Tying him to the tree took the lecturers around five minutes, with a further 10 spent keeping the ropes out of shot.

Dean Bell said: “We were asked if it was possible for us to put Alan Titchmarsh in the tree. To fasten him in, we used a rock-climbing harness instead of a tree-climbing harness. It was thinner, which allowed us to get it higher up his body and he could put his coat over the top of that.

“The rope was tied securely around a branch and fastened to Alan and his harness so there was no way he could move. We daisy-chained the tail of the rope and tucked it down the back of his jacket, and his left leg covered another bit of rope.”

Luckily, Mr Titchmarsh had himself trained as an arborist, which made the process easier both for him and the forestry team securing him.

“He was very easy to work with, a very nice man, and he understood what we had to do. He did train as an arborist, so he said it’s been quite a few years since he’s been up a tree but he has himself previously climbed. I don’t think it was too alien what we were doing with him,” he said.

Presenter Alan Titchmarsh

The experience has helped to bolster the college’s connections with the media industry, and inspired students to think about the various career pathways available to them with their qualifications; one of M Bell’s students is already considering a career filming at height in the Amazonian rainforest.

“I’ve got a canopy access qualification that I got for future career options such as canopy research abroad, but a lot of people do it to get qualified so they can rig up a tree and film up and down the canopy,” continued Mr Bell.

“We have the facilities at the college to show and emulate what you would learn in that course. It’s good to show the students a different climbing method that you adopt in a certain situation such as filming.”

The one-off programme first aired on the December 31, 2016, and is still available to watch online.

 

Featured picture: (L-R) Matthew Moss, Alan Titchmarsh, Ollie Perry and Dean Bell