FE News Podcast: #FutureofEducation News Channel: Recent Episodes
FE News
Thought Leadership, Good News, & Event Podcasts in #EdTech #Apprenticeship #Skills #FE #HE & #Employability on www.fenews.co.uk
In October 2023, FE News held its first-ever event - The FE Collective!
The FE Collective is a flipped conference where the audience works together to share ideas, visions and solutions, and develop a joint plan to tackle some of the biggest challenges facing the FE and Skills sector.
All of which contributed to a revolutionary collaborative report. In this stream, we will discuss this epic report and even bring in some of our speakers from the day to get their views and opinions!
Read the FE Collective Report here:
https://www.fenews.co.uk/fe-voices/trust-us-to-shape-fe-and-skills-for-future-urge-sector-leaders-in-new-fe-collective-report/
In today’s series finale, Gavin O’Meara (CEO, FE News and FE Careers) and Suzanne Slater (Director of Operations for Apprenticeships, NCFE) co-host a discussion that looks towards the future of apprenticeships and focuses on collaboration as the key to unlocking their continued success.
In today’s episode, Gavin O’Meara (CEO, FE News) and Sacha Finkle (Head of EPA, NCFE) co-host a discussion looking at all things end-point assessment (EPA), in our special EPA spotlight episode. Our hosts are joined by two expert speakers in Jacqui Mokenthin, consultant and researcher, and Chris Cherry, lead on end-point assessment at the Skills Development Network, to discuss the topic.
In this week’s show, co-hosts Gavin O’Meara (CEO, FE News) and Michael Lemin (Head of Policy, NCFE) are joined by guests Aidan Relf (Skills Consultant) and Becci Newton (Director of Public Policy Research, Institute for Employment Studies) to discuss the impact of the cost of living crisis on the future of apprenticeships.
In this week’s episode, Gavin O’Meara (FE News) and co-host Suzanne Slater (Director of Operations for Apprenticeships at NCFE) highlight the topic of apprenticeships and SMEs to examine their current relationship and the obstacles that are being faced. They are joined by two expert speakers in Anthony Impey (Chief Executive at Be the Business) and Anna Ambrose (Director of the London Progression Collaboration).
In our first episode of season 3, host Gavin O’Meara and co-host Suzanne Slater (Director of Operations for Apprenticeships at NCFE) are joined by guest speakers Lucy Hunte (National Programme Manager for Apprenticeships, NHS) and John-Joe Tams (Accreditation Apprentice at NCFE) to explore an important question – are apprenticeships still working for 16-19 year olds?
The first in this series, this podcast outlines Top 10 Tips and ideas for managing that precious commodity, time, as well as you can.
Emerging technologies are transforming the possibilities for delivering really engaging digital learning. With a focus on users, we have the hardware and software to make new experiences accessible at an increasingly low cost. At the same time, smart artificial intelligence can remove some of the routine tasks from managing the learning process, allowing teachers and trainers more time to use their expertise to support learners directly.
The new tech available in XR (augmented or virtual reality) gives learners the chance to immerse themselves in the learning task, developing muscle memory as well as gaining knowledge. It can be deployed where it is too risky, too expensive or simply too complicated to gain access to real workplaces to give learners an idea of what the experience is like in real life.
Ufi projects have tackled the challenge of implementing VR/AR solutions in a number of projects, in sectors as diverse as construction, manufacturing, first-responder training, empathy and soft skills development and river pilot training. Bodyswaps is developing a Virtual Reality (VR) learning platform and content library offered as a service to businesses that uses VR and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to provide soft skills training similar in performance to expert coaching and role-playing, but close to the cost and scalability of eLearning. Many sectors are going through significant transformation through automation and digital innovation, not least those which have traditionally been labour intensive such as retail or transport. In this new realm, companies increasingly depend on employees’ soft skills to add operational value. Therefore, rapidly developing the soft skills of the workforces is critical. Virtual and augmented reality has very high potential to enable access to soft skills training at scale. The Bodyswaps platform empowers learners to safely practice their skills and measure their progress through a library of VR role-play simulations. The company’s most recent innovation is a job interview simulator, focused on improving university students’ career chances. With Bodyswaps, organisations of all sizes can boost and scale their training programmes with affordable learning experiences far more effectively than with traditional online exercises or even facilitated role-playing. Ufi invested in Bodyswaps in September 2020 alongside Haatch Ventures and a group of private investors. This investment fits with our focus on investing to help people learn the essential skills needed for work, now and in the future – including interpersonal skills Other projects Ufi have funded in this space include Bridgewater and Taunton College’s ‘PRACTICE’, Contented Brothers ‘The Difficult Conversation Trainer’, First Step Trust’s project ‘Smart Pathways’, NIACRO’s ‘SITE IT’, BTLK’s ‘Tripping the Thames’, TalkOutVR’s COPS, LIVES Covid-response project – also supported by TalkOutVR. And in AR, National Composite Centre’s ‘LayupRite’.
In the emerging field of Artificial Intelligence, Ufi projects have addressed the challenges of student advice and induction, assessment and personalised learning.
Taking English and maths GCSE resits after a less-than successful experience in school is hard – both for the learner and the teacher trying to motivate and support them. FE Colleges were looking for a better way to help learners succeed. CENTURY is the tried and tested intelligent intervention tool that combines artificial intelligence with the latest research in learning science and neuroscience. It creates constantly adapting, personalised pathways for every student and powerful intervention data for teachers.
Over the past year, CENTURY has been piloting the use of their AI platform to demonstrate its potential to support learning in FE. Their focus is on the impact of AI technology in English and Maths as part of an independent or blended learning strategy for learners who are undertaking resits in these subjects.
Their intelligent intervention tool works with Colleges to stretch and support every student, instantly addressing gaps in knowledge, remedying misconceptions, and providing resources for teacher-led learning sessions. This, in turn, frees up the time teachers spend on marking and feedback to make effective use of classroom time. Other Ufi funded projects involving AI solutions are Bolton College’s ‘ADA’ and ‘FirstPass’, and AI-assisted decision making in FLUENCE.
These technologies are enabling innovators to not only redefine what is possible but also to build more inclusive and learner-centered models of delivery.
Scanning the horizon, we anticipate metaverse technology will support entirely new approaches to learn, collaborate and demonstrate skills. Blockchain and micro credential technologies will provide new tools for learners to evidence their competencies. We also expect a seismic shift in modes of assessment where AI technologies make high stake examinations redundant.
Over the last 18 months, we have witnessed an unprecedented acceleration in the adoption of digital technology to support learning. The challenge now is to maintain this pace whilst ensuring that no one is left behind.
Future of Assessment: what innovations can we expect to see?
Hosted by Gavin O’Meara and Dean Blewitt (Learning Innovation Manager, NCFE), we invited Peter Twining (University of Newcastle – Australia) to discuss what assessment innovation means in practice and what the future holds, as we find new ways of working that meets the changing needs of learners and educators across the globe today. NCFE is focused on exploring the future of assessment to ensure that learners have access to the world-class products and services that help them to fulfil their potential, not just in terms of academic attainment or employment outcomes, but also their wellbeing, mental health and happiness.
So, what are the key ingredients that are required to create a system that is truly transformational? To support with this, NCFE recently launched £1 million worth of funding to support centres, employers, awarding organisations and other stakeholders in piloting new and innovative approaches to assessment. Phase one of this Innovation Fund is now complete and this show shines a spotlight on some of the fantastic new and interesting ideas that came out of this, and how we will pilot these new approaches to test their validity. From virtual reality to digital badges, what innovations can we expect to see as learning expands far beyond the classroom?
By the *Black Further Education Leadership Group (BFELG): #AntiRacismInAction: Leadership and the Leader’s Voice with Larissa Kennedy, National President, NUS UK; Nazir Afzal OBE Chair, Hopwood Hall College; Robin Landman OBE, Co-founder and BFELG Director; The Rt Hon Nadhim Zahawi MP, Secretary of State for Education.
The 9th and final episode of Season 1 BFELG Livestreams #AntiRacismInAction - Making the Most of an Ethnically Diverse Britain aired today, November 29. The first episode aired on Monday 4 October and has been followed by a fantastic feast of 30 minute weekly broadcasts on seven consecutive Mondays. Each Episode had a different focus, showcasing Anti-racism in action and exploring how diverse groups in the education sector and beyond can get involved.
With each Livestream introduced by a public figure and influencer sharing what #AntiRacismInAction means to them, the Season has taken us on a rich journey across the UK. Guests have included influencers, provocateurs and a diverse range of stakeholders from the world of education and the communities it serves. There were quite stunning examples of ‘thought leadership into action’, collaborative leadership and place-based leadership creating opportunities to tackle, with determination, institutional, regional and national challenges in the area of racism.
Today’s Episode focused on Leadership and the Leader’s Voice, a fantastic opportunity to bring together four highly influential and powerful voices in the persons of Larissa Kennedy, Nazir Afzal OBE, Robin Landman OBE, and the Secretary of State for Education, the Rt Hon Nadhim` Zahawi, MP. The Episode was co-produced by BFELG and FE News, co-anchored by Gavin O’Meara (CEO and Head of Digital, FE News), and Stella Mbubaegbu CBE, Co-founder and BFELG Director.
Hosted by Gavin O’Meara and Dean Blewitt (Learning Innovation Manager, NCFE), we invited Peter Twining (University of Newcastle – Australia) to discuss what assessment innovation means in practice and what the future holds, as we find new ways of working that meets the changing needs of learners and educators across the globe today. NCFE is focused on exploring the future of assessment to ensure that learners have access to the world-class products and services that help them to fulfil their potential, not just in terms of academic attainment or employment outcomes, but also their wellbeing, mental health and happiness. other stakeholders in piloting new and innovative approaches to assessment. Phase one of this Innovation Fund is now complete and this show shines a spotlight on some of the fantastic new and interesting ideas that came out of this, and how we will pilot these new approaches to test their validity. From virtual reality to digital badges, what innovations can we expect to see as learning expands far beyond the classroom?
One of the underlying questions in Ufi’s work on the VocTech Challenge work over 2021 has been “how can digital technology help ensure equity of opportunity to develop skills for work?”. This episode reflected on how this question has been addressed during the wide diversity of sessions during #Week of VocTech. The episode also includes the announcement the organisations being offered funding as part of the Ufi’s VocTech Challenge; £1.5m to help level up learning for those most impacted by the digital divide.
Co-anchor Louise Rowland was joined for the Livestream by Ufi Trustee Jeff Greenidge, Director For Diversity at The Education and Training Foundation & The Association of Colleges, and Ufi team members Josh Smith and Mahreen Ferdous, to look back on the events of the week.
Louise Rowland announces more than £1.5m in grant funding for 14 projects that use tech to help adults impacted by the digital divide, so they can gain the confidence to get the skills they need for work.
The #WeekofVocTech is a free programme of online events exploring the role of digital technology in vocational training and to celebrate its impact on learners, employers, training providers and society as a whole.
This highly interactive week united trainers, learning providers, developers, investors, funders and policymakers over five days of networking, interactive sessions and celebration of ‘what works’ in financing, developing, and deploying VocTech.
In this week’s Future of Assessment series, Gavin O’Meara is joined by NCFE’s Barbara Archer (T Levels Partnership Manager) in discussion with Janet King (NCFE Sector Manager for Education and Childcare) and Kim Smith from the North East Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP). The show focuses on the challenges and opportunities that come with the work placement element of a learning programme, with a particular spotlight on T Levels and Early Years. We are all aware of the disruption caused by the global pandemic across the whole sector– and students’ ability to access industry placements and gain that vital hands-on experience was one of the most impacted areas. Gavin and Barbara explore how links have been facilitated between education and industry in relation to T Levels, what collaboration we have seen, and how to increase employer understanding of these flagship new qualifications. The show also looks at the challenges that early years providers and employers have faced and how they have overcome these barriers to ensure learners could progress in their chosen field.
AntiRacismInAction: Scotland with Dr Nighet Riaz, EDI Policy Officer, University of Glasgow, Jim Metcalfe, Chief Executive, College Development Network and Audrey Cumberford MBE FRSE, Principal and CEO, Edinburgh College.
Episode 8 of 9 BFELG Livestreams #AntiRacismInAction – Making the Most of an Ethnically Diverse Britain, aired today, November 22.
Focusing on Scotland, today’s episode is the fifth within the Livestream series to explore place-based, system leadership of #AntiRacismInAction. It is also the penultimate episode in this Livestream series.
4% of Scotland’s population is classified as non-white ethnic minority – Asian, African, Caribbean or Black, Mixed or Other. The Race Equality Framework for Scotland states that the Scottish Government is determined to show leadership in not only advancing race equality, tackling racism and addressing the barriers that prevent people from minority ethnic communities from realising their potential but also to use its influence to ensure that this is embraced across Scotland.
The Introduction to the Framework document paints the all too familiar picture that ‘ 50 years on from the introduction of the Race Relations Action 1965 (the first legislation to address racial inequality in the UK) significant inequalities remain in many areas of life for minority ethnic people. Too many minority ethnic individuals and groups face poorer outcomes than average; including lower employment rates, a higher risk of poverty, under-representation in public life and with racism being a lived and daily experience for too many people. While Scotland has a strong legal framework and innovative public services, too often these services are not treating everyone with the dignity and respect they deserve. No one in Scotland should experience disadvantage due to structural racism or discrimination on the grounds of nationality, ethnicity or national origin. All must be able to achieve equal outcomes in every area of social, economic, civic and political life.’
The document sets out how the Government aims to progress this ambition over a 15 year period from 2016 to 2030 through six themed Visions. The first of these is the overarching ambition for race equality in Scotland to be achieved by 2030. The other themes cover outcomes related to community cohesion and safety; participation and representation, education and lifelong learning, employability, employment and income and health and home.
As anchor institutions in their communities, Scotland’s colleges and universities have the potential to make a strong contribution to the country’s overarching ambition for race equality by 2030.
In her welcome and introduction to the Episode, Dr Nighet Riaz, EDI Policy Officer, University of Glasgow outlined what #AntiRacismInAction means to her: building relationships, making space for our voices to be listened to by the decision makers and our institutions; recognising that there is a collective drive from activists and educators to pursue change, not only by highlighting the gap but also showing feasible attainable strategies and actions that are needed for that change to happen.
And today’s Episode, brought together two highly influential leaders in the Scottish educational landscape who are personally and professionally committed to #AntiRacismInAction – Jim Metcalfe and Audrey Cumberford OBE FRSE.
Jim Metcalfe is the Chief Executive of the College Development Network (CDN), the national agency in Scotland that supports skills and sector development across colleges and vocational learning. CDN’s mission is to support the college and skills system in enhancing success for students, their wider communities, and regional economies by supporting the learning workforce to develop excellent digital skills; promoting leadership development; developing collaborative research and enquiry programmes; and leading and growing the college Climate Emergency Expert Group.
During the livestream discussion, Jim affirmed CDN’s commitment to raising awareness of the issue of racism on college campuses, and working to create the conditions for confident conversations around this. He highlighted CDN’s contribution earlier this year to the creation of a suite of resources to help tackle racism on college and university campuses. A steering group of experts from colleges and universities in Scotland oversaw the development of the resources, which drew on the expertise and lived experience of a diverse range of staff and students working and studying across Scotland’s colleges and universities. The resources include a race literacy glossary, utilisation guides, diagnostic tools, templates, blogs and webinars discussing race, racism and whiteness.
CDN is currently involved in two working groups as part of the same project which looks at tackling the under-representation of ethnic diversity in the college and university workplace and the development of an anti-racist curriculum.
Jim also discussed CDN’s collaboration with BFELG in the areas of…..
Audrey Cumberford is the Principal and CEO of Edinburgh College. The College has four main campuses across the city and Lothians, 30,000 students and around 1400 staff. Around 3.4% of Edinburgh College’s staff have declared being from a *Black background; this figure has more than doubled since 2017, when it sat at 1.5% of staff, but is still not fully representative of the local population (8.2%).
The College is ambitious for itself, its students, communities and region, and its role in addressing racial inequality and building on its wider equalities plans. This ambition is palpable. In 2021, Edinburgh was one of the first Scottish colleges to publish its ethnicity pay gap figures. Analysis of the data showed an ethnicity pay gap of 11.3% – 1% above the Scottish average of 10.3%.
On leadership and culture, Audrey spoke about how Anti-racism must permeate through the whole college and how as Principal she ensures and creates the right and best environment for impactful change. She highlighted the creation of the College’s Anti-Racist Unity Group, a staff network open to everyone who wants to be part of the conversation around anti-racism, conversations being a key part in changing mindsets and changing culture. She acknowledged that this is a small step with much more to do and believes in collective responsibility, and challenge, to embed meaningful and impactful change throughout the College The College is also developing plans to survey staff on the topic of racially and religiously motivated harassment and discrimination to confront the reality of racism on campus and create a benchmark.
In addition, the College is one of 44 Scottish colleges and universities that have signed up to the ‘Tackling racism on campus’ project’s declaration to stand united against racism. Managers across the College have recently taken a 4-part ‘Let’s Talk About Race’ training course through the Scottish Association of Minority Ethnic Educators (SAMEE).
However, Audrey acknowledged that in many ways the College is at the beginning of a journey, with exciting opportunities ahead whilst recognising a number of challenges. BFELG is absolutely delighted that Edinburgh College, the largest college in Scotland, has become a BFELG Affiliated Organisation. Responding to Robin Landman’s warm welcome, Audrey said that the College sees affiliation with the BFELG as a very real opportunity to evaluate the journey so far, support us through that journey and to help us ‘step up’ our efforts by developing a planned, strategic approach. The College has strong foundations on which to build; the commitment and will to make a difference; and is confident that the BFELG 10-point Toolkit provides the framework, the scaffolding around which to build a clear and deliverable strategic ambition and priorities to tackle race inequalities.
As the first Scottish College to partner with the BFELG, Audrey added that the College is also committed to playing it part to promote a team Scotland approach across the college sector. Being Scotland’s Capital College and the largest in Scotland, comes with a significant responsibility in serving the people and communities in the region. The College delivers over 10% of the activity of the whole college sector in Scotland and so its reach is significant and represents a very real opportunity to effect change, changing mindsets and practices – not only within the organisation but with wider stakeholders.
Speaking about the wider sector and wider landscape both Jim and Audrey shared their thoughts on how Edinburgh College and CDN can help support a sector wide commitment to Anti-racism. The also outlined the characteristics of the Scottish landscape that make it easier to achieve collective responsibility and approach.
Watch the Livestream to hear Jim Metcalfe and Audrey Cumberford talk about their individual dream scenarios for Anti-racism.
The Episode was co-produced by BFELG and FE News, co-anchored by Gavin O’Meara (CEO and Head of Digital, FE News), and Robin Landman OBE, BFELG Director.
Tune in on Monday 29 November at 9.30am for Episode 9, the season finale of Making the Most of an Ethnically Diverse Britain: #AntiRacismInAction.
*’Black’ is used as an inclusive definition to refer to people from ethnically diverse backgrounds who share a lived experience of the effects of racism.
AntiRacismInAction: Liverpool City Region with Steve Rotheram, Metro Mayor, Liverpool City Region, Elaine Bowker, Principal and Group CEO, the City of Liverpool College, and Lorna Rogers, Assistant Director, Mayoral Programmes, Liverpool City Region Combined Authority
Episode 7 of 9 BFELG Livestreams #AntiRacismInAction – Making the Most of an Ethnically Diverse Britain, aired today, November 15.
Focusing on the Liverpool City Region, today’s episode is the fourth within the Livestream series to explore place-based, system leadership of #AntiRacismInAction.
The Liverpool City Region is a combined authority region of England, centred on Liverpool, incorporating the local authority district boroughs of Halton, Knowsley, Sefton, St Helens and Wirral, and located in the historic counties of Lancashire and Cheshire. The region’s economic development is also supported by the Liverpool City Region Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), a private sector-led board comprising political and business leaders from around the city region.
The region is home to 1.6 million residents including the oldest African heritage community in the UK, the oldest Chinese community in all of Europe, large Indian, Latin American, Malaysian, African-Caribbean, Ghanaian, Somali and Yemeni populations each with at least several thousand people.
In his welcome and introduction to the Episode, Steve Rotheram, Metro Mayor of Liverpool City Region Combined Authority said that the region had been known for centuries for its welcoming nature which had created a diverse and celebrated community. He spoke candidly about the rightness of the city’s apology for its history in the slave trade and also spoke optimistically about the future: what is needed now, is to build a fairer, more socially just society for all.
Today’s Episode, brought together as our Guests, two inspirational women, Lorna Rogers and Elaine Bowker, to share their insights into the practicalities, challenges and opportunities of system and place-based leadership of Anti-racism. Of particular interest is their collaborative work.
Born and raised in Liverpool, Lorna Rogers is currently Assistant Director of Mayoral Programmes at Liverpool City Region Combined Authority. She has over 20 years public sector programme and project management experience of working locally and nationally. She returned to the region to work for the Combined Authority (CA) as she wanted to make a contribution and difference in her home region.
In the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder in the US, Lorna asked to take a lead role in her organisation to take action on Race Equality and is working collaboratively with other institutions to make a change. The CA has developed and published a Race Equality Programme with a vision that will ‘tackle systemic injustice and inequality and drive forward positive change for our Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic employees and residents – influencing the partners we work with to do the same.’ The Programme has three areas of work: CA as Employer, CA as Commissioner and CA as Facilitator.
Discussing the Race Equality Programme, Lorna gave examples of the 2025 achievement targets set out in the Declaration of Intent, the support received for the Programme and the hoped for achievements through the race equality hub.
Elaine Bowker is Principal and Group Chief Executive of the City of Liverpool College which as an anchor institution within the city, has a key role in supporting the City Region to ‘build back better’. The College is in the top 10 per cent of colleges in the UK. It is a leader in providing high quality skills and education, delivering opportunities for growth to people and businesses in the Liverpool City Region and beyond. The College has a student population of more than 10,000, with more than a third of 16-18-year olds in the city studying with the College. The College has affiliated with the BFELG. Affiliation provides access to a framework of support and services for deep cultural change – #AntiRacismInAction, using the BFELG 10 Point Plan Diagnostic Toolkit as a departure point.
Elaine is also a member of the Liverpool City Region Local Enterprise Council (LEP) and is its EDI Champion. She is an early signatory to the BFELG Open letter as well as an ally. During the livestream episode, Elaine spoke about the learning and challenges of the College’s journey so far in becoming an anti-racist organisation, and the power of doing so as part of a place-based leadership network of committed and local leaders including Lorna Rogers.
Elaine also her role discussed her role as EDI Champion for the LEP, setting up the Race Equality Business Support Group (a sub-group of the LEP) with support from Lorna, and the aim of diversification of Boards across the Region.
Guests talked about the unique opportunities and challenges faced by the City Region in respect of ethnic diversity, and the success factors in seeking to address these; their respective organisational responses to ethnic diversity, and the steps being taken to move forward on this agenda. They also touched on their roles as ‘custodians’ of the future legacy for their communities.
Watch the Livestream to hear Laura Rogers and Elaine Bowker talk about their respective drivers for #AntiRacismInAction, their tips for other leaders and key players to accelerate progress towards reflecting their communities and their individual dream scenarios for Anti-racism.
The Episode was co-produced by BFELG and FE News, co-anchored by Gavin O’Meara (CEO and Head of Digital, FE News), and Amarjit Basi, BFELG Director.
Tune in on Monday 22 November at 9.30am for another place-based Episode – #AntiRacismInAction: Scotland.
- ’Black’ is used as an inclusive definition to refer to people from ethnically diverse backgrounds who share a lived experience of the effects of racism.
Ufi’s VocTech Challenge White Paper identified one of the key potential barriers for vocational learners as access to learning across wide geographical areas, and in particular how practical skills can be developed when workshop or classroom demonstrations are not possible.
The needs of rural communities can be very different from the challenges in urban areas, and different approaches are requird to get learning to where it is needed and recognise the different mindset of learners outside of urban centres.
A number of past Ufi projects have addressed these issues in a variety of ways, using entirely remote and hybrid approaches to serve their target communities of learners.
From our VocTech Now portfolio of projects, PHX Training supported learners across a very wide geography in Cumbria, LIVEs created amazing new content for first responders across Lincolnshire and CTC (Care Training Consortium) delivering across rural Dumfries and Galloway made sure that their long experience of delivering in this sector could continue during lockdown using new technologies.
From our Seed projects, Ambios (another Ufi project on the Learning Technology Awards shortlist) have developed an innovative nature conservation vocational skills training package, delivered remotely into a learner’s own environment.
Through the loan of wildlife survey equipment, supported by access to enriched online training materials and live training broadcasts, learners can take the time needed to gain competence in specialist professional skills. Those might involve safely catching and monitoring specific species or tracking wildlife in its natural habitat.
Myserscough College was one of our early pioneers in 2016. Their project involved the production of interactive instructional videos for the land-based sector, predominantly geared at level two golf greenkeeping learners, accessed on smartphones and tablets. The College went on to incorporate what they had learned into a wider programme of blended learning content development.
The two guests on this episode have current Ufi projects supporting this sector.
As a College in a rural area, Boston have first-hand experience that working at different levels across remote rural communities is challenging for employers, learners and trainers in terms of time and cost. The team used the Discovery Phase to explore with learners and employers the challenges they have in accessing classroom-based learning in order to understand better what VocTech solutions might help to solve those problems. In response, they are developing a learning programme that not only tackles contextualized learning for the Agri-Tech sector but delivers personalised learning pathways that adapt to the individual’s needs as they progress through the course. The VocTech supported learning programme will encourage users to progress onto Level 3 Leadership and Management qualifications, enabling learners to develop in their careers and local SMEs to be supported in their growth. All of this in an accessible fashion to meet the challenges of time and distance. The College as a whole has benefitted from involvement in the project, taking time to look in detail at their experience with blended learning and how that can be expanded, with the potential for the roll-out of more VocTech solutions into other areas of their work.
Understanding of technical content is far more effective when presented and taught within a real-life or simulated vocational environment or setting. Herefordshire, Ludlow and North Shropshire College in our Seed 19 cohort plans to create, develop, deploy, test and share new Mixed Reality (MR) learning resources that overlay virtual objects onto the real-world environment, in a unique approach to the delivery of animal care & welfare education and training within a rural context. This enables the learner to both see and experience issues around animal care. The mobile nature of the headsets and the ability of the holographic horse (the pilot animal) to be placed in any working space goes well beyond current teaching methods used in college at present. The solution will use mobile digital technologies to operate effectively in a rural work and training environment. Combining these with the creation of small and highly practical MR objects for learning and assessment takes vocational training to a new level. Hologram imagery is impressive when viewed from the HoloLens headset. The Mixed Reality Animal Care learning object experience is designed to be compelling and any representations in videos or images cannot faithfully reproduce or replicate the excellent headset experience.
Ufi’s experience with all these projects shows that there is a real need for innovative solutions to enable those most excluded from vocational training because of where they live to have better chances to develop their skills and their careers. Across all four nations of the UK, from the Highlands and Islands to the tip of the West Country, through rural Wales and across Northern Ireland, we encourage Colleges and other training organisations to engage with our funding opportunities and bring their unique perspectives on learner needs to our communities of practice.
Dream in Green – putting climate change at the heart of education
With the COP26 summit dominating the news agenda, in this week’s Future of Assessment series, Gavin O’Meara is joined by NCFE’s David Jones in a timely discussion with Beth Chaudhary from IfATE and Charlotte Bonner from ETF to look at green skills needs for both now and in the future.
We know that achieving Net Zero by 2050 will require seismic changes from all sides, and that the role of education is fundamental in getting us there. It’s a huge and daunting task. We need to entirely rethink the way that we work, which is why acting swiftly to embed climate change at the heart of education worldwide is of the utmost importance.
This show explored the DfE response to COP26 and what more is needed, clarity on green skills and how we work together to deliver them, as well as looking ahead and dreaming big.
How can we weave sustainability through all sectors and all levels of education?
How can we equip, empower and support young people to make a difference?
And what does this mean for the future of assessment?
ResearchFurther: Speaking exclusively to FE News at #AoCConf2021, @Jansev Jamal explained that @NCFE and @AoC_info have formed a research partnership initiative to fund up to ten FE scholars to do either an MPhil or a PHD to help increase the knowledge base in the FE Sector:
In this episode, the latest in the series, host Gavin O’Meara invited David Gallagher (Chief Executive, NCFE) to catch up about NCFE’s refreshed vision and how this links to the future of assessment.
The discussion comes a few weeks after NCFE launched their new brand and David and Gavin explore NCFE’s ambitious plans for change, including the innovations we can make in the world of assessment to optimise the end-to-end learner experience.
NCFE recently relaunched as an educational charity and leader in vocational and technical learning, and this refreshed approach focuses on outcomes that place inclusivity and fair access at the heart of learning.
By going beyond the remit of a traditional awarding organisation, the organisation is aiming to ensure learners are given the opportunity, means and motivation to make the best possible ongoing choices about their futures.
AntiRacismInAction: West Yorkshire with West Yorkshire with Robin Landman OBE, Chris Webb and Palvinder Singh
Episode 5 of 9 BFELG Livestreams #AntiRacismInAction - Making the Most of an Ethnically Diverse Britain, aired today, November 1.
The Episode was co-produced by BFELG and FE News and co-anchored by Gavin O’Meara (CEO and Head of Digital, FE News), and Amarjit Basi, BFELG Director and introduced by Robin Landman OBE – one of the founding Directors of the BFELG.
Robin spoke succinctly about how, for him, #AntiRacismInAction means taking personal action - the time for policies and procedures is over and all individuals must now look at themselves in the mirror and ask themselves what they can do to make a difference.
Focusing on West Yorkshire, today’s episode is the second within the Livestream series to explore place-based, system leadership of #AntiRacismInAction. It follows Episode 4 #AntiRacismInAction: Wales.
Episode 5 is of particular interest because barely a year ago, in November 2020, the Independent Commission on the College of the Future, a UK-wide, four nations process, published The English College of the Future: A nations specific final Report. Of particular interest in the summary of recommendations are: Colleges as anchor institutions within the wider local and regional ecosystem; Skills guarantee for a post-COVID economy and future labour market changes; Diverse and representative systems leaders; A new strategic partnership with employers (an example was given – Creating the workforce of the future: a new collaborative approach for the NHS and colleges in England).
Furthermore, Implementation of the FE White Paper: ‘Skills for Jobs’ (published in early 2022), places an emphasis on upskilling people through lifelong learning, addressing barriers to help people to fulfil their potential and undertaking local labour market assessments (LSIPs), to support local growth and prosperity.
And, West Yorkshire Combined Authority’s Economic Recovery Plan, post Covid, has set two goals: inclusive growth and sustainable environment. The key inclusive growth success measures are: “increasing the numbers of people in good quality work, numbers of innovations for social good, diversity of entrepreneurs, wellbeing metrics, digital inclusion.”
- all residents and communities have the skills required to be able to take up high quality employment - or start in enterprise - is central to an inclusive economic recovery
- wellbeing – by first and foremost acting to reduce inequalities, is at the centre of our economic recovery plan
- good work through more inclusive employment environments and interventions, and equal access to job opportunities, and
- access to digital connectivity for home working, and public transport networks for helping the unemployed access the labour market and providing all communities with access to services.”
So how are The English College of the Future recommendations playing out in West Yorkshire, in the context of the implementation of the FE White Paper ‘Skills for Jobs’ , West Yorkshire Combined Authority’s Economic Recovery Plan and the imperative - Making the Most of an Ethnically Diverse Britain? Is there an ambition to Make the most of an Ethnically Diverse West Yorkshire considering that the region’s population will grow substantially over the coming two decades and is set to become significantly more ethnically diverse by 2061?
Today’s Guests, Chris Webb, Principal/Chief Executive Bradford College, and Palvinder Singh, Principal/Chief Executive, Kirklees College were well placed to share their insights into the practicalities, challenges and opportunities of system and place-based leadership of Anti-racism in West Yorkshire. Both CEOs were early signatories to the BFELG ‘Open letter’.
West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in England consisting of five metropolitan boroughs (City of Bradford, Calderdale, Kirklees, City of Leeds and City of Wakefield). Under devolution, these local authorities have pooled some of their resources and functions, working together as the West Yorkshire Combined Authority.
According to the UK Office for National Statistics, the 2020 population estimate of the region is 2,345, 235 (81.8% White). The largest Black heritage group is Asian. The proportion of Asian owned businesses in West Yorkshire is 11% and Bradford comprises one of the UK’s biggest Black working age populations (38%).
However, *Black groups are under-represented in the workforce - local government, NHS and FE, especially in management and leadership roles.
Co-anchors and Guests - Chris Webb and Palvinder Singh, discussed the opportunities and challenges for West Yorkshire’s FE colleges, as they considered college local leadership roles as anchor institutions post-Covid in terms of their future student base, curricula and interface with their communities, including local employers. All these have been identified as crucial to future relevance, growth and sustainability of colleges.
Bradford College is one of the biggest education and training providers in the region, with around 20,000 students studying A Levels, vocational qualifications, community courses, apprenticeships, degrees and masters level qualifications. Bradford College, Shipley College (also in West Yorkshire) and the BFELG have been working on a Local Skills Partnership Research Pilot.
Kirklees College serves the local communities and business throughout the Kirklees region and works with over 1000 employers around West Yorkshire. The College is entrenched in the heart of West Yorkshire with two main centres in Dewsbury and Huddersfield and specific learning centres in Engineering and Process Manufacturing, Construction and Animal Care as well as the recently opened Pioneer Higher Skills Centre. Kirklees has affiliated with the BFELG because this provides them access to a framework of support and services for deep cultural change - #AntiRacismInAction, using the BFELG 10 Point Plan Diagnostic Toolkit as a departure point.
Guests talked about the unique opportunities and challenges faced by the West Yorkshire in respect of ethnic diversity, and the success factors in seeking to address these; their respective organisational responses to ethnic diversity, and the steps being taken to move forward on this agenda. They also touched on their roles as ‘custodians’ of the future legacy for their communities.
Guests recognised the imperative of placing ethnic diversity at the heart of their considerations, particularly within LSIPs, in the context of devolution of the adult skills budget to the Combined Authority. The role of employers in recognising and enacting their responsibilities in investing in skills and training, including in developing diverse talent, was also identified as being critical. Palvinder Singh shared his ambition for Anti-racism to be part of Kirklees College’s DNA and the interconnectedness of lived experiences. Chris Webb shared particular actions being taken by Bradford College on their Anti-racist journey.
Watch the Livestream to hear Chris Webb’s and Palvinder Singh’s respective drivers for #AntiRacismInAction, their tips for other leaders and key players to accelerate progress towards reflecting their communities. They also shared their individual dream scenarios for Anti-racism.
Tune in on Monday 8 November at 9.30am for another place-based Episode - #AntiRacismInAction: West Midlands.
- ’Black’ is used as an inclusive definition to refer to people from ethnically diverse backgrounds who share a lived experience of the effects of racism.
Reflecting on Party Conferences 2021 – What can we hope for in education?
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, last year’s 2020 party conferences took place virtually with members contributing and joining online. Fast forward to 2021, and there was a tangible sense of anticipation at the fact that some party conferences would be taking place face-to-face once again.
Here at Edge we’ve enjoyed a busy conference season, joining the Liberal Democrats online, the Labour Party in Brighton, the Conservatives in Manchester and the Green Party in Birmingham. We learnt so much from the chatter, the networking, the dangerous questions and passionate audience members – all of which would have been impossible to replicate online. Safe to say, we’re now glad to be back, and looking forward to reflecting on lessons learnt. We’re also unlikely to eat any more sandwiches for the next month, having consumed our fair share at conference…
Why conference – what is the point of going?
Firstly, given that conference takes a lot of energy, can involve a substantial cost and time away from home, it’s important to ask ourselves why we should go, and whether it is a good investment of our time. This is a question we explored last week with colleagues from across our wider education policy network who also attended the conference, and it was fascinating to hear a range of perspectives.
Many of us found conference to provide an important opportunity to expand our horizons and join the dots between different areas of education – similar to a ‘reading week’ by immersing ourselves in multiple topics including “How do we fund an education recovery plan?” “The reform of assessment” “Bridging the skills gap” and “The future of work” among many others. By doing this, we heard about new pieces of research and became alive to a range of different perspectives – with teachers, students, parents, policy makers asking challenging questions and highlighting their lived experiences. For example, we heard about the difficult mental health challenges that young people have faced this year. We heard from passionate teachers about how much joy their work brings, but how difficult it has become to teach amid increasing timetable pressures and accountability measures. These perspectives and new nuggets of information are important in helping us expand our thought and in bringing better policies to life.
Conference also provides an opportunity not only to join the dots within education, but to attend discussions on broader areas – transport, digital skills, the future of AI, and the green economy. After all, many of us often call on our own policy officials within Whitehall to better connect across government departments. So we must ensure that we practice what we preach and conference provided an important opportunity to expand our own thought and connect education to broader areas across our economy and society.
Some may also ask “Why bother going to the conferences of parties who are not in power?” For us, it provided a chance to hear important counter arguments and evidence that highlights where current policy is not working. Impartiality, honesty and integrity are important qualities for all policy makers – so we must continue to hold government to account, stay alert to diverse perspectives, and ensure that sensible policy proposals continue to serve the needs of its stakeholders.
After the past year of lockdowns and online events, this year’s conference provided a particularly welcome opportunity to network in person, and to finally put a real face to the zoom name. Not only this, but MPs and their teams were visible and approachable, which provided a welcome chance to directly interact and share ideas.
Some reflections on the main themes and shared messages
Education at the core of a prosperous economy and society
This year it was clear that education was at the core of all of the parties’ vision for a better economy and society.
At the Liberal Democrats conference, Ed Davey spoke passionately about the Liberal Democrats previously being the party of education, and their strong desire to be the party of education once again. Indeed, education was set out as one of their core pillars, alongside supporting small businesses and caring for our loved ones.
At the Labour conference, education and the reduction of child poverty came hand-in-hand. Education also featured heavily in Keir Starmer’s speech where he highlighted “if you can’t level up our children, you’re not serious about levelling up at all”. He also highlighted the importance of a “curriculum for tomorrow” and the importance of work experience, careers advice and mental health support across schools.
At the Conservative conference, the headline message from Boris Johnson’s conference speech was “skills, skills, skills” with a clear focus on skills at the core of the Conservatives’ agenda for levelling up and addressing the impact of Covid-19.
At the Greens conference, although in the process of updating their key policy recommendations for education, the party’s key philosophy of lifelong learning was highlighted, where no one should be left behind. There was an understanding that the current curriculum and assessment system is too narrow and sets a third of young people up to fail. Instead, compassion and inclusiveness are crucial across the board. A holistic education that nurtures curiosity and creativity is needed and for this more financial investment is key.
Importance of skills and lifelong learning
Indeed, it was good to see the importance of skills and lifelong learning emerge as another clear priority.
For the Liberal Democrats, policy motions called for every adult to have the chance to access education and training opportunities throughout their lives by introducing Skills Wallets. There was also an emphasis on local skills gaps to explore how different parts of the country can cluster expertise and build networks.
At the Labour conference, Starmer highlighted the importance of digital and creative skills that are in low supply, and the importance of rounded learners, who can emerge from school “ready for work, and ready for life”.
At the Conservative conference, ministers highlighted that we are on the “cusp of a skills revolution”, with Chancellor Rishi Sunak highlighting his ambition for “good work, better skills and higher wages”.
At the Green conference, the party stressed the importance of subjects such as the arts and music, which should complement a STEM education rather than replace it. After all the creative sectors is one of our country’s greatest exports, as well as being hugely beneficial for individuals.
Given the changing nature of work and increasing megatrends such as automation, the move towards net zero and the implications of Brexit and Covid-19, the world of work will continue to change and initiatives to support skills and lifelong learning will be needed more than ever before. Here at Edge, we will continue to push hard for this through our Skills Shortages bulletins.
Reform of Assessment
We were also surprised by the strength of debate around assessment reform, and the opportunity to reform assessment alongside curriculum and pedagogy. This is something we are particularly passionate about at Edge, alongside a number of other organisations including Rethinking Assessment, the New Era for Assessment, NCFE, the National Baccalaureate Trust. Appetite for reform is clearly growing, and we must seize this momentum for change.
The use of narrative
We also saw discussions explore the use of narrative in the sector. For many, phrases such as a ‘broken’ education system, reference to “snowflakes”, the “lockdown” generation or “low skills” suggest negative connotations, and many agreed on the importance of using more thoughtful language, to highlight the excellence work taking place across the sector. We also saw the re-emergence of terms such as “vocational” a term that hasn’t been popular for a while now – and it is good to see vocational skills re-emerging as part of the broader skills debate.
There was also a broad desire for us to now use bolder, more urgent messaging around education. Many agreed that education is often seen as the “political football” that is often politicised or tossed about – but we can no longer afford to do this.
Importance of evidence
Discussions also highlighted the importance of research and evidence in guiding sensible policy decisions in education. Indeed, this was referenced multiple times by the new Secretary of State for Education, Nadhim Zahawi who said “I promise you that I will be led by evidence in the decisions that I take. We will relentlessly focus on what works.” We hope that this offers the sector an opportunity to work with policy makers on sensible policy proposals, based on rigorous research and data.
Ufi has funded a number of very exciting Health and Social Care projects over the last five years. Learners in this sector very often fit within our definition of ‘unloved’ as they do an amazing job, often on low pay and with little chance to access continuing professional development. But there are some fantastic providers across FE Colleges and private training providers, innovating to make real change in the sector. The diversity of ideas and responses to the challenges within the sector are a very positive sign that there are alternative approaches using VocTech that can be used to tackle some long-standing challenges in the sector.
Pandemic Response
During our VocTech Now pandemic response, Ufi funded several organisations to transform their delivery so that front-line workers could continue to access the training they needed to be competent and safe in the workplace and to deliver the all-important care services in those difficult times of early lockdown.
St Monica Trust, CTC (who ended up collaborating with one of our early projects in this sector, CuppaCare), Acorn Training, 3 Spirit (who have gone on to an Ignite project to explore AI in care), Acorn Training and Action for People all took the challenge of integrating VocTech into their practice so that learners could engage remotely in skills development. Responses included the creation of new resources that could meet both learner needs in being accessible for those with limited language skills, but still meeting the requirements of the accrediting body, right through to the kitting out of professional recording studios for the long-term creation of engaging learning content, demonstrating practical skills in a safe environment. There was a strong focus on allowing the seasoned professionals offering the training an effective way to deliver both skills and know-how using technologies that they were unfamiliar with. The learning curve was steep for both trainers and learners in many cases.
Several of our Seed and Impact projects have also tackled aspects of vocational training in this sector. The Spotless project by Solutions 42 uses scenario-based learning, contextualized to the learner’s environment, to help learners really understand compliance issues in care homes and hospital settings. AgyliaCare offers bite-sized training and an extensive catalogue of training, using AI to personalize the delivery of the content, for paid and unpaid carers.
What’s the challenge?
The big issues in this sector are around creating bridges and ladders so that people can join and progress within the care professions from diverse backgrounds. This can mean improving entry routes into the labour market for young people, ensuring the existing workforce has the skills businesses and the NHS need to deliver high quality care, supporting individuals to progress in their professional practice, and deploying those skills in a way that drives productivity and growth. In an industry where profit and operating margins are often very low, the challenge is to support training that goes beyond basic compliance and ‘box ticking’ to something that really engages learners and offers a valuable learning experience at a time place that they are able to access the content.
Demonstrator Projects
The two projects joining Hilary Stringer for this livestream are Passport to Employment in Health Care from City of Glasgow College/KLIK2LEARN, which provides innovative training for non-native English speaking healthcare professionals, and Future Dom Care (now called e-care) from Barking and Dagenham College where learners are empowered to gain new skills in their profession rather than having to leave the frontline of care to progress in their careers - previously featured on FE News in this article.
As of March 2020 there was an estimated 43,000 shortfall in nurses across the UK. Some of these positions could be filled by qualified professional from overseas or qualified immigrant healthcare professionals living in the UK. The aim of this City of Glasgow digital vocational training course is to provide non-native English speaking healthcare professionals with engaging, flexible and high-quality training which will enable them to obtain the language and skills needed to pass the mandatory Occupational English Test (OET) and start employment within the health service. The solution will enable them to improve their spoken and listening skills in authentic scenarios in real time. This project will give learners the option to study online, using an innovative tools and software, to create a user journey which focuses on communication skills and maps to the learning outcomes required to pass the OET. Building on the Ufi supported KLIK2LEARN platform, learners can study at their own pace, either using the tools and technology to guide them on the learning pathway or via a Tutor Supported option which will offer a blended approach.
Over the last twenty years, recipients of social care have become older and sicker. Homecare agencies and care homes are dealing with tougher, more complex challenges. At times, society has looked the other way. But something more positive has also happened. Digital innovation has seen diagnostic tools become smaller, cheaper and easier to use. The e-Care project from Barking & Dagenham College and Care City aims to give domiciliary carers some of the latest digital technology to spot ill-health quicker, so they can call the right clinician at the right time with the right information. e-Care are building a mobile learning platform to help carers – many of whom lack the time and resources to go to college for long periods – to learn about physiology, the latest care tech and about working with District Nurses and GPs.
KLIK2LEARN’s Ann Attridge and Jeanette Griffin from Barking and Dagenham will join us live to share more of their experiences.
Hosted by Gavin O’Meara and Leo Webster (Assessment Product Manager, NCFE), we invited Jack Edwards (Academy Director, Swift) and Mike Blakely (Exeter College) to discuss how we can best connect the learner journey– supporting individuals from the start of their apprenticeship right through to completion.
The discussion looked at the importance of setting people up for success in terms of initial assessments to diagnose prior learning / strengths and weaknesses – and how we can use this information to build personalised learning plans and put positive steps in place throughout an apprenticeship programme.
This development also comprises mental fitness, meta skills, and maths / English, to help learners have a truly transformational learning experience; completing their apprenticeships as well-rounded, highly skilled, qualified employees.
The discussion also explored end-point assessments and how best to support and prepare learners for this milestone, looking at the challenges that emerged during the pandemic, the way the sector adapted, and what the future might look like.
Ufi VocTech Trust launched their VocTech Challenge White Paper in April, at the EdTech Summit, with a £2m commitment for grant funding, best practice sharing and sector partnerships to unlock the potential of digital technology to help those most impacted by the digital divide to get the skills they need for work.
The initial “discovery phase” Challenge question to the FE community was “How can VocTech improve vocational outcomes for people most impacted by the digital divide and at greatest risk from the long-term impact of the pandemic on access to training and jobs? How do we then link those vocational skills to real employment opportunities?” A set of assumptions was published about the wider landscape Ufi had seen through their work during the pandemic and the desk research that they had undertaken. But the most important thing was to talk to people about their own lived experiences.
Ufi undertook three months of consultations with learners, employers, and education providers of all kinds, to try to uncover what the big issues were for them. Participants were asked, what, in their direct experience, were the underlying needs of learners and employers? How can VocTech help with these needs? How can VocTech improve vocational outcomes / the working lives of those who need it most? And what could Ufi, either alone or with partners, do to reduce the digital divide?
At the end of the process, a Green Paper was published focusing on the key findings:
There was a lack of access to both devices and bandwidth and alongside that, learning design was not tailored to the devices that people were able to access content on
Learners most at risk of digital exclusion have real issues of confidence and motivation which are real barriers to getting started and sticking with their learning
Digital skills barriers remain prevalent, but are more complex than might be expected – not all young people are digital natives and not all older people lack digital experience
It is particularly difficult to deliver practical skills remotely, and social aspects of learning need to be built into VocTech solutions
The VocTech market is still a difficult one to introduce innovations into, and there is a need for champions in the sector to take a risk and adopt new approaches
Ufi’s mission is around vocational skills, so they were not in a position to address all of these issues. A subsequent White Paper was published with responses to the consultation, including the VocTech Challenge funding call and activities in partnership with other key organisations in the sector to address some of the wider questions.
They are now in full flow delivering on the commitments made in the White Paper, but it’s important to Ufi to continue to explore the themes that were uncovered, to see what’s changing over time, so they are working on a ‘one year on’ analysis of what change they have been able to catalyse or support.
The VocTech Challenge funding call applications are currently in the process of being assessed to make sure that Ufi funds those that are addressing the issue of confidence and motivation within their target learner group – finding out what really works for those learners most at risk of remaining disadvantaged by the digital divide. Ufi are looking for projects that really engage with users to find out about their underlying needs and they know that these user groups can have complex needs to help them gain the skills they need for work.
But the VocTech Challenge is about more than Ufi’s grants and learner needs. As part of the Discovery Phase for their Challenge process, Ufi spoke with teachers and educators across the sector to see what issues they were facing. It was clear that problems of confidence and motivation also applied to those supporting learners as they grappled through 2020 to learn new skills and work remotely.
Ufi was well placed during the pandemic to fund a number of projects across the FE sector and private training providers to respond to the immediate needs of learners, and educators to keep delivering vocational skills in very difficult circumstances. As things are progressively returning to ‘normal’, Ufi is keen to see the VocTech that was adopted really embedded into daily usage, in a blended model or fully remote, depending on circumstances. And to champion what really good VocTech looks like, as an experience for staff and students.
Initiatives like AmplifyFE run by the Association for Learning Technology are helping to share that message of ‘what good looks like’ and embedding best practice, and the VocTeach team are gathering and developing resources to help take the strain out of finding good online content.
In this episode, Hilary Stringer, who co-ordinated the Challenge Discovery Phase will introduce guests Geoff Elliot, who worked at Pembrokeshire College and has led several Ufi funded projects and Peter Kilkoyne who is working with Pembrokeshire’s Audactive project – an innovative solution that enables teachers to create learning activities so learners can have a ‘conversation’ with coursework and avoid using a keyboard.
Future of Assessment: Adapting assessment – this year and beyond
Hosted by Gavin O’Meara and Zac Aldridge (Director of Qualifications and Assessments, NCFE), we invited Chris Tubbrit (Product and Content Development Manager, NCFE) and Mike Saunders (Head of Quality Improvement, York College) to discuss how the pandemic changed the way we assess and award qualifications – and what this means for the future. At NCFE, four principles shaped the changes they made to their approach - supporting learning progress, maintaining rigour and robustness, streamlining and supporting centres, and working in partnership for the benefit of learners. After seeing hundreds of thousands of learners succeed in an exceptional year, this show explored what new and innovative methods of assessment emerged as a result of Covid-19.
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The discussion also looked at the challenges and barriers still being faced by learners and institutions (including the well documented impact of learning loss), the successes that we saw, and how we can better collaborate as a sector to drive learner success. Ultimately, the sector (and the world!) was not ready for the seismic change that it experienced - how we can build systematic resilience into the education eco-system so we are future proofed for whatever comes out way?
AntiRacismInAction: Higher Education with Oliver Young, Charles Egbu and David Mba
Episode 3 of 9 BFELG Livestreams #AntiRacismInAction - Making the Most of an Ethnically Diverse Britain, co-produced by BFELG and FE News, was aired today Monday 18th October.
The Episode, #AntiRacismInAction: Higher Education, was special in that it featured Professor Charles Egbu and Professor David Mba, two eminent academicians who are *Black and who are leaders of Higher Education institutions in the UK. Black Vice-Chancellors and Black Deputy Vice-Chancellors are very few and far between in UK Higher Education.
Professor Egbu is Vice Chancellor, Leeds Trinity University. Appointed in 2020, he is the first UK university Vice-Chancellor of African heritage. Professor David Mba is the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Research, Knowledge Exchange and Enterprise, University of the Arts (UAL), London.
In a sector where 25% of students are from Black communities, sadly, only 2.9% of university Vice-Chancellors/Principals (7 of 238) are Black. This situation is even worse than in Further Education where 8.1% (19 of 234) of college CEOs/Principals and 30% of students are Black. Very few board Chairs are from Black communities in both sectors and hardly will one find a Black leader in the senior hierarchy of regulatory bodies and organisations that provide both sectors with support. Black students are less likely to gain a place in high tariff universities or achieve a first or 2:1 degree. This cannot be right.
Introducing the Episode and the Guests, Oliver Young, Chief Diversity Officer, University of Exeter Business School, and a member of the BFELG stated unequivocally: ‘Anti- racism is the only way to cohesively advance our ambitions as a diverse and representative society. Anti-racism is a challenge we all need to take collective responsibility for, and address for our future generations.’
Racial inequalities are a significant issue in higher education. This was identified as one of five fundamental guiding principles of Advance HE’s Race Equality Charter (REC), formally launched in 2016. The Charter aims to improve the representation, progression and success of Black staff and students withing higher education.
In 2019, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) Report, ‘Tackling racial harassment: universities challenged’ uncovered ‘widespread evidence’ of racial harassment on university campuses and in November 2020 Universities UK (UUK) published guidance on tackling racial harassment in higher education. The guidance acknowledges that the higher education sector cannot reach its full potential unless it benefits from the talents of the whole population, and individuals from all ethnic backgrounds can benefit from the opportunities it provides. Importantly, the guidance acknowledges that racial harassment is just one manifestation of structural racism in higher education and points out that a wider programme of culture and policy reform is needed to tackle racism and racial inequalities of all forms.
There are currently about 79 institutional REC members, 17 of which are award holders. A recent independent evaluation (March 2021) of the REC identified the need for greater strategic senior manager and institutional buy-in for race equality.
Against this background, co-anchors Gavin O’Meara (CEO and Head of Digital, FE News) and Robin Landman OBE, and BFELG Executive Member, were in conversation with the featured Guests, exploring the particular Race Equality opportunities and challenges for the HE sector and their individual organisations and the specific HE system leadership actions necessary to make tangible and rapid progress.
David touched on his links with the BFELG and highlighted UAL’s Anti-racist Strategy. UAL is a collegiate university, specialising in arts, design, fashion and the performing arts. It is a federation of six arts colleges: Camberwell College of Arts, Central Saint Martins, Chelsea College of Arts, the London College of Communication, the London College of Fashion, and the Wimbledon College of Arts. UAL is also Europe's largest specialist art and design university and the world’s second best university for Art and Design in the QS World University Ranking 2019 .
Charles highlighted a specific initiative by Leeds Trinity University to address racial inequalities. The University has recently launched its Strategic Plan 2021-2026 which is built around the four strategic pillars of ‘Education and Experience’, People and Sustainability’, ‘Research, Impact and Innovation’, and Careers and Enterprise’ supported by the two key themes of Digital Futures and the Leeds City Region. Promotion of the principles of dignity, respect, social justice, equality, and inclusion to support each and every person in the University community is a stated important part of the Strategic Plan. The University’s mission is rooted in its Catholic foundation and Leeds Trinity welcomes students from all backgrounds and beliefs.
- ’Black’ is used as an inclusive definition to refer to people from ethnically diverse backgrounds who share a lived experience of the effects of racism.
The Cure for Policy Amnesia?
Edge’s Learning from the Past project aims to do exactly what it says on the tin, learn from past experiences. We often talk about the loss of policy memory or policy amnesia and our project aims to revisit past educational policy initiatives in England that have influenced and driven change across the education system in order to learn from them.
We have mainly focused on policy initiatives related to technical and vocational education, and those that have supported disadvantaged groups of young people, such as young people not in education, employment and training.
Since February 2021 we have published a series of policy reviews developed by Edge’s Emerging Researchers Network members. Each review offers a brief summary to support the understanding of policy context at the time and summarises what went well and what the challenges were. We aim to offer a neutral summary for the reader to draw their own conclusions. We also draw parallels with current policy initiatives where appropriate. The reviews are based on past policy documents, research evaluations and academic articles.
So far we have reviewed, for example, Connexions, Entry to Employment, Young Apprenticeships, Technical Vocational Educational Initiatives and Education Business partnerships.
Future reviews will include, for example, Train to Gain, the National Scholarship Programme and the Polytechnics.
For example, we have reviewed two very topical past initiatives that have direct relevance now;
Education Maintenance Allowance. and
The 14-19 Diplomas
The Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) pilots were launched in England in 1999 to raise participation, retention and achievement rates in post-16 education among young people from lower income families. EMAs offer financial incentives, including weekly payments and achievement bonuses, to young people. The pilots were subject to one of the largest evaluations ever commissioned in the UK, and positive impacts were demonstrated. EMAs were subsequently rolled out nationally in 2004 and remained operationalised in England until 2011, when they were replaced by a less generous post-16 bursary programme. EMAs continue to be offered to young people in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Over a fifty-year period, an array of youth employment initiatives has been introduced across the UK. For example, starting in the 1970s, the Youth Opportunities Programme (YOP) offered six-month work experience placements to the young unemployed. This resembled the current Kickstart scheme, although the latter offers wage incentives rather than a fixed training allowance. By the early 1980s, youth unemployment had escalated to such an extent that YOP was the destination for more than half of all school leavers entering the labour market. In 1983, YOP was replaced by the much larger Youth Training Scheme (YTS), which attracted an enormous £1 billion annual budget, with an emphasis on expanding training opportunities for unemployed 16-18-year-olds. In contrast, the current Kickstart scheme has a total budget of £2 billion to meet the needs of a much wider age cohort, namely unemployed 16-24-year-olds across Great Britain until March 2022.
The 14-19 Diplomas were announced in the 14-19 Education and Skills White Paper in 2005 but they never reached a full rollout. They were cut in 2010 when the Coalition Government took power. These middle track qualifications which could combine academic and vocational learning enabled learners to continue in further training, further studies as well as to enter employment. Diplomas were initially developed in 14 ‘lines of learning’ that were linked to industry sectors. (However, in 2007 the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) announced the development of three additional general education subject Diploma lines in Science, Languages and Humanities.) Employer engagement in the Diploma qualification development was taken to a new level -employers were to contribute to and lead on the content of the new qualifications.
The Diplomas were complex composite qualifications that were challenging to understand for the learners, their parents and employers. However, learners were able to complete a number of qualifications as part of their Diploma. Drawing parallels with the T-levels that are currently being developed, there are striking similarities. T-levels broadly cover similar industry sectors. There has been yet again great emphasis on engaging with employers in order to meet industry needs. Considerably greater work-experience is a fundamental part of T-levels – about 45 days in T-levels as opposed to minimum 10 days in Diplomas. T-levels are qualifications that may lead to all further training, further studies as well as to employment. So, what have we learnt from the 14-19 Diplomas?
We consider it really important to understand previous policies – how they worked, what went well and what challenges they faced. This is essential to help us to identify the guiding principles, and build on and adapt the best ideas from the past to avoid repeating mistakes.
In episode 2 of the #VocTechFutures livestream, Ufi’s Patrick Dunn will be exploring how VocTech is being used to provide accessible, personalised and high-quality learning in the prison sector. As part of the session we will hear from two organisations delivering innovative VocTech solutions: Meganexus, who provide access to education and training technologies and content across the UK prison sector, and who are working with Ufi to bring learning into every prison cell in the country; and Niacro who are using VR to deliver immersive training in construction skills.
The discussion will spotlight how VocTech is being used to overcome the challenges of working in the prison environment and share insights into approaches and technologies that might be applied more widely. It will touch on how technology can improve access to learning in prisons, how learning can be better tailored and assessed to individual need using new technology, and how prisons and prisoners can use technology to find employment and career paths.
FutureOfAssessment - Accessibility and Inclusion livestream Episode 2. This episode was hosted by Gavin O’Meara and Jessica Blakey (Assessment Design Manager, NCFE), we invited Gem Turner (award winning disabled lifestyle blogger) and Dan Howard (Director of Operations and head of EDI group, NCFE) to discuss the importance of accessibility and inclusion in assessment design and practice.
AntiRacismInAction Episode 2: Employers and Employment with Grace Haynes, Amarjit Dhillon and Robin Ghurbhurun - Making the Most of an Ethnically Diverse Britain, was aired today, Monday 11th October and co-produced by BFELG and FE News
In a poignant and passionate introduction to the Episode, Grace Haynes, Head of People & Culture, Coventry City Council, said ‘Anti-racism means everything to me’. Juxtaposing racism to Covid 19, she also said that we might have to learn to live with the latter, but we must never accept living with racism. She called for collaborative action to fight to ensure that eradicating racism is at the forefront of everything that we do.
The Episode focused on #AntiRacismInAction: Employers and Employment. Co-anchors Gavin O’Meara (CEO and Head of Digital, FE News) and Stella Ngozi Mbubaegbu CBE, BFELG Executive Member, were in conversation with the featured Guests, Amarjit Dhillon, Turning Point’s Chief Information Officer also with accountability for Commercial Ventures, and Robin Ghurbhurun, Managing Director, further education and skills at Jisc.
Turning Point is a leading social enterprise with over 4,500 staff. It provides health and social care services that help over 100,000 people annually in over 300 locations across England, live they life they want. The organisation’s vision is to constantly find ways to support more people to discover new possibilities in their lives. Amarjit Dhillon belongs to a small group of business leaders brought together by Sir Ken Olisa OBE, Lord-Lieutenant of Greater London, and Dan Brown, Founder and CEO of Positive Transformation Group. The purpose of the small group is to create cross-industry sector support for the message of Anti- racism in the business community throughout the UK in support of the BFELG’s mission, working alongside Education.
With a staff of approximately 900, Jisc is the UK higher, further education and skills sectors’ not for profit organisation for digital services and solutions. It champions the importance and potential of digital technologies for UK education and research. Its vision is for the UK to be the most digitally-advanced higher education and research nation in the world. Jisc also welcomes customers from local government, public sector, non-profits and industry. Robin Ghurbhurun has been an outstanding supporter and advocate of the BFELG from its inception and Jisc as an organisation is also a strong supporter and ally.
Responding to questions, both Guests talked about their personal and respective organisations’ response to ethnic diversity, the steps they are taking to move forward on this agenda, their engagement with the BFELG and how the Corporate and Education sectors can work together. There were interesting observations about why given the ‘business case’ for ethnic diversity in corporate leadership - referencing the McKinsey Report 2020, Diversity wins: How inclusion matters, there appears to be very little progress in this area in UK plc.
Amarjit highlighted the important role of wellbeing practices to address the race agenda and how Turning Point as an employer is applying these practices in the workplace and with their our own apprentices and are working with training providers to support them to apply the same offering to their schemes.
Jisc has an interesting approach whereby Diversity & Inclusion and Race Equality are pursued as two separate strands of activity. Robin spoke about challenging staff recruitment, selection and development practice and also shared how the BFELG 10 point plan is being implemented across Jisc.
Watch the Livestream for Amarjit Dhillon and Robin Ghurbhurun’s suggestions for accelerating ethnic diversity in the workplace and their call to action to Employers!
How can VocTech support skills for work in FE?
In this first episode, Sarah Axon, from Ufi VocTech Trust will explore what VocTech is, how it is being used and the impact it is having on learning delivery.
Voctech are digital technologies that support vocational training and help improve skills for work. Voctech describes the digital tools which are used to teach vocational skills to adults: skills which will be used by the workforce in the workplace.
What’s the difference between edtech and voctech? Edtech is a generic term which covers all types of educational technologies used in all sorts of settings - schools, colleges, universities - for all sorts of educational purposes. Voctech is the specific application of edtech in a vocational context. While the basic technologies are the same, when applied in a vocational context for adults existing tools often need adjustment or redesign to ensure they work for adults in a work skills context.
Ufi is an independent charity which has been around for c 10 years. We believe in the power of digital technologies to change lives; only through the use of voctech will we be able to scale up and give wide access to skills training and tackle the UK vocational skills shortage. Our aim is to catalyse change across the UK to achieve the change in scale that we need in vocational learning for adults.
Grant funding projects which demonstrate how innovation in digital learning has an impact
Investing via our Ufi Ventures programme in order to help create a market in voctech
Working in partnership with organisations who have influence in the sector
Helping to build the voctech community and sharing knowledge
We’ve funded all types of organisations to demonstrate voctech in all types of innovative ways. In FE for example, there is some real innovation. Bracknell College is working with Century Tech to use AI to provide adaptive personalised learning pathways for students. Hereford and Ludlow College used augmented reality for their animal care course. The National College for Nuclear and Bridgewater and Taunton college used VR to create a safe place to practice skills for the nuclear industry. Ufi’s VocTech Directory is a great resource for exploring other examples of how VocTech is being used.
We understand the barriers to adoption of voctech in colleges. Resources – time and money are a real issue. FE colleges are really stretched. Government spending on FE has dropped by a third since 2010 (Institute for Fiscal Studies) and the budget for entire country is £3.5bn - less than the combined annual operating costs of Oxford and Cambridge universities. But the primary barrier has always been cultural – any change to how learning is delivered requires new skills and approaches, and that’s a challenge.
The pandemic forced a shift. Necessity became the mother of invention. During the pandemic technology ensured that learning and teaching could still continue. Our VocTech Now funding call provided immediate help to 11 FE colleges to help them make the transition. Some great work and creative problem solving emerged. CPD for staff is an ongoing issue and we are working with ALT to create a network of FE voctech professionals - Amplify FE.
The future? AI will undoubtedly help unlock voctech in colleges. When online, AI mediates almost everything – Google, Google Scholar, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Amazon, Netflix. And AI will play a great role in learning – which we are beginning to see. AI can create content powerful personalised learning - at scale. Data-driven approaches can also deliver push techniques, such as nudge learning and spaced-practice. If AI is the rocket, data is the fuel.
In future episodes the FE livestream will be looking in more detail at practical applications of VocTech and how they can be applied to FE.
Hosted by Gavin O’Meara and Janine Oliver (Head of Assessment Innovation, NCFE), we invited Olly Newton (Exec Director, Edge Foundation) and Isabel Sutcliffe (Independent consultant in Education and Skills) to discuss what assessment innovation means in practice and what the future holds, as we find new ways of working that meets the needs of learners and educators today.
NCFE is focused on exploring the future of assessment to ensure that learners have access to the world-class products and services that help them to fulfil their potential, not just in terms of academic attainment or employment outcomes, but also their wellbeing, mental health and happiness. In order to achieve this, we know we need to look at assessment used in a variety of ways and at different stages of the learning journey - from pre-programme diagnostic assessment, formative micro and milestone assessment, through to summative end-point assessment and beyond.
AntiRacismInAction with Shaid Mahmood, Dr Sam Parrett OBE and Mandeep Gill
BFELG Livestreams #AntiRacismInAction - Making the Most of an Ethnically Diverse Britain, co-produced by BFELG and FE News was launched today, 4th October, with the first of 9 Episodes.
The launch episode was introduced by Shaid Mahmood, Chair of the Association of Colleges (AoC) and Chief Officer Transformation and Change, Leeds City Council who spoke powerfully about what #AntiRacismInAction means to him – personal accountability; common purpose; proactive, conscious, determined effort to tackle racism in all its multidimensional forms, and to eradicate it.
Co-anchors Gavin O’Meara (CEO and Head of Digital, FE News), and Robin Landman OBE, BFELG Executive Member were in conversation with the featured Guests, Mandeep Gill, Principal and CEO, Newham Sixth Form College (NewVIc), and Dr Sam Parrett CBE, Group Principal and CEO of London South East Colleges (LSEC). Both CEOs were early signatories to the BFELG ‘Open letter’ and both institutions have affiliated with the BFELG. Board Chairs, Stephen Howlett CBE, DL (LSEC) and Martin Rosner (NewVIc), are strong supporters and allies of the BFELG.
In a wide ranging conversation, Guests talked about their engagement with the BFELG, the particular Race Equality opportunities and challenges for the FE sector and their respective organisations, and touched on specific FE system leadership actions necessary to make rapid progress.
Mandeep Gill touched on why data no longer matters and honesty does. The never-ending cycle of looking at data, getting shocked into action, the data shifting slightly and people patting themselves on the back for a job-well-done, only to come back to the data (often a few years later), getting shocked… is not having impact.
Rather than the data, answer honestly the question: are we absolutely confident that we are treating each other fairly and respectfully? If not, then do something about it.
A topic of discussion was LSEC’s experience of developing a sustainable and long-term diversity and inclusion strategy which has led to the creation of their ‘Enough is Enough – Tackling Racial Inequality’ ten-year grants programme.
The idea behind this programme is to enable students and staff to develop their own projects, tackling issues that are important to them. The College Group has committed funding over a 10-year period; sufficient time to bring about real, lasting change.
To mark the launch of Edge’s new grant fund – the Edge Innovation Fund – Jane Samuels, Director of Projects and Operations at the Foundation joined Gavin O’Meara to talk all things funding.
The Edge Innovation Fund is a new approach to funding for Edge. The fund, which opened on 14th September 2021 will stay open until the end of 2025. There is £300k available for the balance of 2021 and then the fund will be refreshed every 1st January until 2025. The minimum amount available is £20k and the maximum for a one year project is £100k. Projects which run for multiple years (up to a maximum of 3 years) can bid for up to the entire amount in the funding pot.
Edge is looking for disruptive innovators with ideas and plans to challenge the current approach to education in the UK. All projects must support Edge’s strategic aim for a broad, flexible and engaging curriculum, providing high quality vocational and professional education which is employer and community engaged. More details about the Fund, the criteria and how to apply can be found here.
In the first episode of Edgy Thinking, Jane and Gavin discussed the new grant fund and how important it is to provide a source of funding for innovative education. They were joined by two organisations previously funded by Edge. Stefano Pacelli, at Blackburn College talked about their two successful bids, one centred on automotive engineering and one on eco-construction. Stefano stressed the Edge funding had allowed the College to not only develop state of the art facilities but also to provide lecturers the time and resources to develop deep and long-lasting employment engagement. This enables the College to put learners at the heart of relationships with local and national employers and engage with their community,
The second guest was Harriet Bird, who is Senior Trusts and Grants Manager at the Barbican Centre. Harriet spoke about Edge’s support for their Careers Rewired programme which looked to raise awareness and understanding of careers opportunity within the creative sector. Edge funding allowed the Barbican to develop a new approach to engagement with local schools which brought inner city students to the Barbican Centre for the first time and took creative professionals into the classrooms.
Both Stefano and Harriet spoke about the challenges of securing funding and of the impact that the projects had had. Measuring the impact and evaluating the success of grant funded projects is key to Edge, who have recently released an Impact Report on the whole of their Grant Funding programme.
In this episode, Aman Merchant, the Co-Founder and Chief Provocateur at Radicle, a futures lab that delivers transformative solutions, discusses why he co-founded the RewirEd Sandbox. This global platform is set to transform education systems and will help bring together pioneers, leaders, and innovators within and beyond the education sector to design ‘RewirEd Provocations’, the solutions to some of the biggest challenges facing the education system globally today.
With 1.6 billion children missing out on an education – the RewirEd Sandbox will help create the RewirEd Provocations, north-star statements or questions that will help to move current thinking from the usual to the unusual and address systemic, complex, and structural challenges impacting the education system. The RewirEd Sandbox and Provocations will help shape the new global narrative for the education sector, and will be presented on a global scale at the RewirEd Summit during Expo 2020 Dubai.
For more information on the RewirEd Sandbox and Provocations, visit: https://provocations.rewired2021.com/home
The RewirEd Summit will be held on December 12th to 14th, 2021 at Expo 2020 Dubai.
Due to the pandemic we have seen drastic changes within the World of Education, changes to the World of Skills, changes to the workplace and new skills required by employers. The pandemic has shone a spotlight on traditional qualifications, employability for young people and disadvantaged groups, mental health and wellbeing and as a result of the pressures of the pandemic, the fourth industrial revolution has become a reality; so Gavin from FE News chats with David Gallagher about the future of education, the future of work and employability.
They also discuss the future of qualifications, the currency of qualifications and what the future could be for qualifications. They also discuss how the sector can come together to offer impactful change to learners, employers and to communities.
Juliet Kyobweine, Deputy Program Manager at Educate talks about the need to equip young people in Africa with the skills to attain further education, overcome gender inequities, start businesses, get jobs, and drive development in their communities.
NoLearnerLeftBehind - Welcome to the first @FENews #Livestream in conjunction with @CognAssist
We all know that learner dropout is a serious issue. Approx 35% of Apprentices drop out. The big question is, how do we prevent apprentices from dropping out?
Your host is Gavin O’Meara, CEO of FE News and your panelists are:
Dr. Louise Karwowski, Director of Education, Cognassist,
Sally Dicketts, AoC President and CEO Activate Learning, and
Helen Wilson, Science Communication Manager, Cognassist and handbook author of How to Prevent your Apprentices from Dropping out.
The panel explores how recent events have impacted dropout rates of Apprentice completion rates. We explore if non-completion rates are an age old problem and the panel shares successful tactics reduced Apprentice dropout, particularly for learners with Additional Learning Support needs.
The panel then explores the recent updates from the ESFA and the new rules added for August 2021. These are updates from ESFA to Apprenticeship Rules 21-22, the panel in particular focus on the new rules about Additional Learning Support and how the ESFA is discouraging blanket screen learners, which appears counterintuitive.
The panel discuss the new ESFA recommend changes and how this will have an intended knock on effect for learner outcomes and Apprentice drop out rates.
How would the proposed ESFA changes could impact the ability of colleges and ITPs to properly fulfil their legal requirements of the Equalities Act 2010 and how the changes could impact the Ofsted requirement to establish starting points and tailor delivery to all learners?
Check out the livestream with Gavin, Sally, Louise and Helen who explore how to Prevent Apprentice Dropout, particularly with learners with Additional Learning Support needs
RewirEdSummit - Dr Tariq Al Gurg, CEO @DubaiCares, joins this @FENews podcast episode to discuss RewirEd; a Dubai Care's led initiative in partnership with Expo 2020 Dubai and in close coordination with the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MoFAIC), delivered in partnership with global stakeholders.
This first of its kind global platform is calling on the international community to rethink and reimagine the future of education, for a prosperous and sustainable future, by encouraging disruptive dialogue and empowering new and diverse voices as pillars of a future-ready global education ecosystem.
Dr Tariq Al Gurg discusses the current global problems the education sector faces, the potential solutions to "rewire" education and the current initiatives in place by RewirEd to take action, including the upcoming RewirEd Summit; a ground-breaking 3-day global education Summit taking place in December 2021 in the UAE, which will bring together key education stakeholders from around the world to collectively tackle education challenges by exploring entirely new approaches as well as offering participants a unique opportunity to agree on a shared vision and concrete action.
Welcome to Episode 4 and the final instalment of the #ExploringNeurodiversity podcast, a co-produced podcast mini-series brought to you by @FENews and @CognAssist.
In this episode, your hosts Gavin O’Meara from FE News and Louise Karwowski, Head of Science at Cognassist are joined by Charles Dall'omo, CEO of Train Together and his colleague Nicola Clark, Senior Learning Coordinator at Train Together.
This episode of Exploring Neurodiversity is called Implementing Inclusivity. We are joined by Charles who will share some ideas and tips from a CEO or Leader perspective and Nicola from a delivery and operational perspective. Nicola is an Inclusivity Champion, so it is fantastic to hear from someone who has lived and successfully breathed successful inclusivity implementation.
Charles discusses how communication is key, not just with the team and staff members, but also with key stakeholders. Charles shares some tips on how they successfully rolled out an inclusive model in their Training Provider.
Nicola then shares how to support individual Neurodiverse learners, but most importantly how to equip and support all of the team to support learners.
Please check out the podcast below to hear how Charles and Nicola have Implemented Inclusivity to support Neurodiverse learners, so #NoLearnerIsLeftBehind:
Welcome to Episode 3 of the #ExploringNeurodiversity podcast, a co-produced podcast mini-series brought to you by @FENews and @Cognassist.
In this episode your hosts Gavin O’Meara from FE News and Louise Karwowski, Head of Science at Cognassist are joined by Karl Bentley from RSM to discuss Neurodiversity Funding Fears. Karl has over 20 years in the FE sector and is a funding, data and audit specialist.
We explore what additional funding is available to support Neurodiverse learners and how the funding is available to support all learners from levels 2-7.
Louise explains that from over 100,000 learner assessments completed so far at Cognassist, that on average one in three Apprenticeship learners at level 3, are being identified as requiring additional support for Neurodiversity. So this is a massive challenge and need and highlights the importance of providers utilising the additional funding to support their Neurodiverse learners.
Karl and Louise then explore why Training Providers and Colleges could be hesitant to take this additional funding due to funding clawback. Karl shares some best practice tips to evidence additional support for Neurodiverse learners, particularly around Assessment of Need, Planning and Evidence of Activity for the learner.
Karl explains how colleges and providers should evidence additional learning for Neurodiverse learners and the importance of all of the team working together to evidence additional support and the importance of quality compliance. Karl also explains the importance of data, how long to keep the data for each learner, data security and the importance of planning for the long term security of your data.
We then explore what an actual Audit looks like and what an auditor will be asking for and how to start preparing the evidence and impact of the additional funding support for learners.
Exploring Neurodiversity Podcast – Steps to Outstanding with Marina Gaze
Welcome to Episode 2 of the Exploring Neurodiversity podcast, a co-produced podcast mini series brought to you by FE News and Cognassist. In today’s episode your hosts Gavin O’Meara from FE News and Louise Karwowski, Head of Science at Cognassist are joined by Marina Gaze to discuss Steps to Outstanding. Marina is an expert in quality processes and used to be the Deputy Director for Further Education and Skills at Ofsted.
Marina shares her views and insight for Providers, Colleges, Individual educators and teams to be outstanding everyday when supporting learners with Neurodiversity, not just when thinking of Ofsted of the new Education Inspection Framework.
In this Exploring Neurodiversity podcast we explore what steps we can take to encourage teams to be outstanding when we support learners with Neurodiversity. Marina and Louise explore how to start to remove the stigma and encourage everyone to be open and comfortable talking about Neurodiversity and supporting Neurodiverse learners.
Marina explores Providers responsibilities around quality, particularly with Ofsted in mind whilst supporting Neurodiverse learners. She also unpacks the recent Education Inspection Framework – (EIF), changes, particularly for supporting Neurodiverse learners. As the key changes came in September 2019, which was only about 6 months before the pandemic and the lockdown measures came into force in the UK.
As Covid-19 has transformed education delivery, we explore moving forward into the next stage to the response to the pandemic, how can we ensure that no learner is left behind? We also explore what the future of hybrid learning, online learning and face to face learning could be in FE and Skills, and what lessons can be learned whilst supporting Neurodiverse learners.
Marina then provides some helpful advice and insight as to what happens in an actual Ofsted Inspection (she used to be the Deputy Director for Further Education and Skills at Ofsted) and discusses data and what is a ‘Deep Dive’ when it comes to an Ofsted inspection and what should providers, their teams, so basically everybody be evidencing and keeping as data from now to prepare for this.?
To close the podcast we discuss how we can encourage high quality provision everyday and by everyone across the sector for every learner, particularly neurodiverse learners and to ‘keep it real’, not just for an Ofsted tick box or aiming for the Ofsted quality badge.
Check out the Exploring Neurodiversity – Steps to Outstanding podcast:
Exploring Neurodiversity – Mythbusting and removing barriers
Welcome to Episode 1 of the Exploring Neurodiversity podcast. Episode 1 is with Dr. Louise Karwowski, Head of Science at Cognassist and is all about Mythbusting in Neurodiversity and is all about removing barriers for learners, educators, teams and leaders. Exploring Neurodiversity is a brand new podcast four part mini-series that is co-produced by FE News and Cognassist.
Louise explores the common myths and barriers that surround Neurodiversity, firstly exploring Cognassist’s data from over 100,000 learner assessments that highlights that 1:3 learners have a Neurodiversity. With this in mind, almost every educator will have several Neurodiverse learners in their cohort or class, so we then explore some of the barriers and myths faced by Educators. Louise then shares examples of best practice and helpful advice for educators starting with working with learners with a potential undiagnosed Neurodiversity, things to spot and look out for in undiagnosed learners.
How Educators, Teams and Leaders can support Neurodiverse learners
Time is always in short supply for Educators, so Louise discusses some tips and advice for Educators to tailor delivery for Neurodiverse learners and how Teachers and Trainers can support neurodiverse learners and how to importantly evidence this support. She then moves onto Teams and how supporting Neurodiversity is everyone’s role, not just SEND specialists and ways that Leaders can support their teams.
Louise then dives into some mythbusting around Learning Styles and the notion that some people just can’t grasp certain subjects.
Supporting Learners who may be reluctant, defensive learners, learner denial or embarrassed learners
Supporting Learners with Neurodiversity is key, so Louise shares some tips on supporting individual learners pre and post-assessment. Louise explores how to support learner reluctance, particularly how to support learners who have just been told they have a Neurodiversity and may be reluctant to complete the additional work and support around the core of their qualification. She goes onto share some tips with defensive learners, learners in denial over their Neurodiversity, or embarrassed learners or disruptive learners.
Music: www.bensound.com
Exploring Neurodiversity
What does it really mean to think differently?
We all have our own perspective on the world. Each of us thinks and learns in our own way. It’s the job of educators to teach people new information, which gives them the skills, knowledge and behaviours they need to succeed.
But how often do we give people the skills, knowledge and behaviour they need to learn this information in the first place?
Exploring Neurodiversity is a new mini-series which will be answering these questions and more across four episodes:
Mythbusting
Steps to Outstanding
Funding fears
Implementing inclusivity
Join Dr. Louise Karwowski, Head of Science at Cognassist, Gavin O'Meara, CEO at FE News and guests for this latest podcast mini-series brought to you by FE News.
VirtualCoffee with Kirstie Donnelly - NAW, White Paper, learning all lifelong and a joined up and flexible future
Anthony discusses the changes in educational delivery from before Covid, to these now During Covid times. He then discusses the future of blended learning.
Anthony then shares some interesting examples of best practice of digital transformation in education and what the future of online learning and education could be and how the trend has moved to developing skills.
Coursera had a recent Global Skills Index report earlier in the year . Anthony discusses the trending skills in the UK right now and how these compare to Europe and across the World. He then discusses why it is important that people continue to learn for life. He then discusses the future of lifelong learning and stackable skills.
Then Anthony explains what his personal vision for the future of education and online learning could be and how education is a force for good.
Brought to you by the Education & Skills Funding Agency (@ESFAGov) and Federation of @AwardingBodies: Employers and assessment the EPA podcast mini-series
This episode of Employers and Assessment welcomes Cathy Weston (Toni and Guy).
Every episode, we speak to an employer about their experiences of EPA and they share their knowledge of how apprenticeships have been working for their business.
Other Episodes Include:
Employers & Assessment #1 - Jim Murphy (Iceland Foods)
Employers & Assessment #2 - Kathryn Marshall (Lloyds Banking Group)
Employers & Assessment #3 - Amy Barber (Severn Trent Water)
Employers & Assessment #4 - Ruth South (Capgemini)
Employers & Assessment #5 - Cathy Weston (Toni and Guy)
Don't miss the Future of Apprenticeships Conference on 5th November to find out more: https://www.futureofapprenticeships.com
Brought to you by the Education & Skills Funding Agency (@ESFAGov) and Federation of @AwardingBodies: Employers and assessment the EPA podcast mini-series
This episode of Employers and Assessment welcomes Ruth South (Capgemini).
Every episode, we speak to an employer about their experiences of EPA and they share their knowledge of how apprenticeships have been working for their business.
Other Episodes Include:
Employers & Assessment #1 - Jim Murphy (Iceland Foods)
Employers & Assessment #2 - Kathryn Marshall (Lloyds Banking Group)
Employers & Assessment #3 - Amy Barber (Severn Trent Water)
Employers & Assessment #4 - Ruth South (Capgemini)
Employers & Assessment #5 - Cathy Weston (Toni and Guy)
Don't miss the Future of Apprenticeships Conference on 5th November to find out more: https://www.futureofapprenticeships.com
Brought to you by the Education & Skills Funding Agency (@ESFAGov) and Federation of @AwardingBodies: Employers and assessment the EPA podcast mini-series
This episode of Employers and Assessment welcomes Amy Barber, Apprentice Programme Manager at Severn Trent Water.
Every episode, we speak to an employer about their experiences of EPA and they share their knowledge of how apprenticeships have been working for their business.
Other Episodes Include:
Employers & Assessment #1 - Jim Murphy (Iceland Foods)
Employers & Assessment #2 - Kathryn Marshall (Lloyds Banking Group)
Employers & Assessment #3 - Amy Barber (Severn Trent Water)
Employers & Assessment #4 - Ruth South (Capgemini)
Employers & Assessment #5 - Cathy Weston (Toni and Guy)
Don't miss the Future of Apprenticeships Conference on 5th November to find out more: https://www.futureofapprenticeships.com
Brought to you by the Education & Skills Funding Agency (@ESFAGov) and Federation of @AwardingBodies: Employers and assessment - the EPA podcast mini-series.
This episode of Employers and Assessment welcomes Kathryn Marshall, Senior Manager of Apprenticeships at Lloyds Banking Group.
Every episode, we speak to an employer about their experiences of EPA and they share their knowledge of how apprenticeships have been working for their business.
Other Episodes Include:
Employers & Assessment #1 - Jim Murphy (Iceland Foods)
Employers & Assessment #2 - Kathryn Marshall (Lloyds Banking Group)
Don't miss the Future of Apprenticeships Conference on 5th November: https://www.futureofapprenticeships.com
Employers and Assessment with Jim Murphy (Iceland Foods).
Employers and assessment is a mini podcast series brought to you by the Education & Skills Funding Agency and Federation of Awarding Bodies. Every episode, we speak to an employer about their experiences of EPA and they share their knowledge of how apprenticeships have been working for their business.
FE News chat with Chris Quickfall, CEO and Founder of Cognassist to unpack Reasonable Adjustments in Apprenticeships and Skills.
Our brains are more unique than a fingerprint but far more complex!
We all think, learn and experience the world differently. And whilst we’ve made progress in accelerating inclusivity in education, significant barriers exist for many learners.
Put simply, reasonable adjustments are the measures taken to make learning, education and, more broadly, the world equally accessible to everyone.
Think left-handed scissors.
If you want to get technical: (Source)
“A reasonable adjustment relates to an adjustment that helps to reduce the effect of a disability or a physical or mental health condition, which may place the apprentice at a disadvantage compared to others.”
What is crucial is that employers, training providers and EPAOs have a legal duty, under the Equality Act 2010, to provide reasonable adjustments. The Higher Education sector has been executing reasonable adjustments to a high standard for years, it’s time the FE sector did the same.
In this discussion, we’ll be unpacking reasonable adjustments in detail, discussing the recent changes in guidance for apprentices and sharing practical insights into how to implement reasonable adjustments for your learners.
FE News have a really interesting international podcast for you unpacking the skills for the Future of Work with Nazrene Mannie from GAN (the Global Apprenticeship Network) and Bettina Schaller from Adecco Group. Both Nazrene and Bettina are members of the B20 (Business 20) Future of work and education task force that advises the G20.
As well as looking into the skills for the Future of Work, we also unpack two reports the recent B20 Future of Work and Education 2020 Policy Paper that is a set of recommendations from the B20 to the G20 and Adecco’s recent report on Resetting Normal – Defining a new Era of Work.
We explore with Nazrene and Bettina how the skills for the future of work are changing. We explore lifelong learning, the Digital Skills gap, automation, the importance of meeting future labour market needs, diversity and future work skills such as autonomy for leaders and staff during this new era of work with physical distancing measures. Nazrene also shares some interesting findings with physical distancing measures and what this means for Apprentices across the globe.
Please check out the podcast to hear what Nazrene and Bettina have to say about the skills for the future of work.
FE News chat with Jonathan Mitchell, Deputy Director for Apprenticeship Development at the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education and Zuza Wnekowska, who is an Apprentice Panel Member and is also completing an Apprenticeship in aerospace engineering to unpack the recent Apprenticeship survey.
We discuss the Apprenticeship survey, what it's aims were, and the results. Three of the most striking responses to the survey were around Apprenticeship Pastoral Care, entitlement to 20% off the job training and Apprentices being prepared for End Point Assessment.
The report was completed during the height of the lockdown, but this also provided valuable information on how to support Apprentices during either potential local or a second national lockdown in response to the Covid crisis. As 58% of Apprentices who responded to the survey explained that their Apprenticeship was impacted by Covid-19, 35% who provided a qualitative response on this topic said they stopped receiving off the job training for some or all of the pandemic.
Check out the Apprentice Survey findings and recommendations on this podcast unpacking the Apprenticeship Survey.
Robin and Amarjit unpack their 10 point plan and explain how an inclusive curriculum is key , to promote anti-racism in Further Education, for learners, staff and leaders.
Amarjit and Robin then discuss how they have been engaging with the FE sector so far to explore solutions to help the sector be more inclusive. We then discuss the early impact, particularly how different sector groups have started to work with the Black FE Leadership Group and we particularly unpack the response from Apprenticeship and Skills Minister Gillian Keegan as to next steps to help increase diversity of Black and BAME educators, leaders, Boards and Governance.
Robin highlights at the moment there is a reduction in the amount of data around Black and BAME staff and leaders and how this needs to be addressed to then help the sector progress in being inclusive with the diversity and particularly to try and re-balance the number of Black staff in the FE Sector.
Amarjit also shares a personal story how non-black FE leaders mentored and helped him in his career and how we need to continue this across the sector to increase the diversity of teams in the sector and how the sector can rally together to address diversity in the FE Sector, particularly around increasing more Black and BAME educators and leaders in the sector.
Here is part two unpacking the operational running of the WorldSkills UK Centre of Excellence, in this episode we chat with Joan Scott, Assistant Principal of the Trafford College Group and Frazer Minskip, WorldSkills UK Centre of Excellence High Performance Skills Coach and a WorldSkills UK Training Manager for the Automotive sector.
We unpack how the High Performance Skills Coaches will practically support Providers. The scheme will roll out in January and will be with the pilot of 20 colleges . As all of the High Performance Skills Coaches are a part of the Team UK and have all of the high performance experience from the WorldSkills and EuroSkills competitions, they will be sharing this knowledge with Providers across the sector to drive up quality, delivery and performance of the teams. So it is a really interesting coaching and knowledge transfer partnership to the entire sector.
As Frazer explains, it would be as if the Team GB Olympic team came into schools to run PE sessions, the High Performance Skills Coaches are all part of the elite Team from WorldSkills UK and will work with groups of colleges and in the future Training Providers to work with the senior leadership team and also the Practitioners, so with individual Lecturers, Trainers and Tutors across all curriculum areas.
Joan explains that from a college perspective, having the knowledge transfer partnership from the Centre of Excellence helps drive up performance, quality and the CPD of not just the senior leadership team, but also the individual practitioners and delivery staff, which will then help to continually improve the operational delivery in the college and then across the entire sector.
Check out the podcast with Frazer and Joan to unpack how the High Performance Skills Coaches will be a part of the strategy to help improve performance and operational delivery across the sector.
FE News caught up with WorldSkills UK CEO Neil Bentley Gockmann and NCFE CEO David Gallagher about the Centre of Excellence and the potential impact on the FE Ecosystem.
Many people may not understand what the Centre of Excellence actually is, so Neil and David both break down what the Centre of Excellence (CoE) is, and how the CoE will help deliver World class training and mentoring to Colleges and Providers in the future.
Neil explains that the CoE is not just for Skills competitions, but for the whole FE system. It is like bringing the Team UK Olympic team to deliver PE in schools, the High Performance Skills Coaches are the Training Managers from Team UK, working with groups of Educators and Senior Leaders.
Initially this is in colleges, but in the future also in Training Providers, to help deliver excellence and raise quality in curriculum delivery.
After initial research from Oxford Univiersity and Skope, which highlighted the need to move from Competence to Excellence, David and Neil explained that they looked at other WorldSkills nation’s Centres of Excellence and explored how this could be adapted to help the entire FE and Technical education system in the UK. They particularly looked at South Korea and the Russian Centre of Excellence, particularly how they positively impacted their entire Technical Education system.
We then explore the longer term plans for the CoE and the partnership between NCFE and WorldSkills UK. Particularly improving the quality of delivery and helping the UK levelling up or social mobility with learners. At the moment the CoE has a pilot of 20 colleges and 35 colleges as a part of the WorldSkills Innovation Network, but Neil and David explain how this three year project will then expand into a provision for both providers and colleges.
We then discuss the upcoming FE White Paper, and how the Centre of Excellence model could be interesting for Gavin Williamson.
@FENews chat with @GillianKeegan, Under Secretary of State for Apprenticeships and Skills, about #TLevels
We unpack T Levels, particularly with the pilot T Level programmes starting this September, many learners would be starting the first T Levels this week.
Gillian chats about how the Covid pandemic has affected T Level delivery, particularly the industry placements and the measures put in place to help learners achieve their 315 hours of industry placements (at least 315 hours, some T Levels on the pilot programme, such as those around Education, have significantly longer work experience options). She also explains what happens if the 315 work experience hours are not possible.
We then go onto discuss how DfE are helping employers and careers advice and guidance specialists be educated about T Levels, and goes onto explain the major differences between Apprenticeships and T Levels.
The Minister then explains how T Levels are a helping with the levelling up agenda for regions and socially disadvantaged groups and the BAME community. We also discuss the future plans for T Levels, such as potentially including adults and the key priorities for DfE with T Levels over the coming year.
The FE White Paper - Which international education and skills systems are good inspiration?
FEReform - @DavidPriceOBE discusses which international education and work systems could be a good inspiration for the upcoming FE White Paper.
In the Autumn of 2020, the much anticipated FE White paper is due to be released. Education Secretary Gavin Williamson has hinted that he is taking inspiration from the German Education system.
In his July #FEReform speech Gavin Williamson said:
“That’s why this autumn I will be publishing a White Paper that will set out our plans to build a world-class, German-style further education system in Britain, and level up skills and opportunities”
So we asked David Price OBE, has just completed an international research project for his recent book the Power of and asked for his opinion on which international education and work systems could be a good inspiration for the upcoming FE White Paper.
David Price OBE, is an expert in organisational learning for a complex future. He writes, talks, trains and advises, around the world, on some of the biggest challenges facing business, education and society: solving the problems of employee, student and civic disengagement; maximising our potential to be creative, innovative and fulfilled citizens, and understanding the global shift towards open organisations, and systems of learning
So here are some ideas and inspiration that David thought would be interesting to share with the FE News audience.
David Price OBE discusses The Power of US
@DavidPriceOBE launches new book "The Power of Us: How we connect, act and innovate together"
This book launch has an interesting time being during the Corona Crisis, Gavin @FENews took the opportunity to chat with David about what the education system, the future of work and what we can learn from the current world situation:
Exploring how the education system needs to change and take inspiration from the 17-yr old high school dropout who created the world's most used Covid tracking app, but was seen to be a failure in his education system, to how the World of work is evolving.
Dr Heidi Alaskary, Lead Co-Chair of the Task Force on Economy, Employment and Education in the Digital Age and Paul Grainger, Co-director of the Centre for Education and Work, UCL, and Co-Chair of the G20 Task Force on Education and Skills discuss the impact of COVID on education and skills in the fourth industrial revolution.
Helping a “lockdown generation” transition to labour markets post COVID-19
As GAN Global (@GAN4Skills) "What can we do to collectively help a #LockdownGeneration transition to labour markets post COVID-19?" is the main issue we wanted to address with high-level stakeholders from public and private spheres and youth representatives from across the globe (Online discussion - 17 July 2020).
A deep economic and social crisis is linked to the COVID-19 pandemic; all of the speakers in the discussion agreed that innovative approaches are required to ensure youth have access to work-based learning opportunities, as a viable pathway towards a decent job.
For several groups, especially the marginalised and youth, across all countries and several sectors, 2020 is a year that marks lost economic, educational and labour opportunities.
This is the second part in a series on articulating new solutions and innovations to drive youth employment Post COVID 19.
Helping a “lockdown generation” transition to labour markets post COVID-19
As GAN Global (@GAN4Skills) "What can we do to collectively help a #LockdownGeneration transition to labour markets post COVID-19?" is the main issue we wanted to address with high-level stakeholders from public and private spheres and youth representatives from across the globe (Online discussion - 17 July 2020).
A deep economic and social crisis is linked to the COVID-19 pandemic; all of the speakers in the discussion agreed that innovative approaches are required to ensure youth have access to work-based learning opportunities, as a viable pathway towards a decent job.
For several groups, especially the marginalised and youth, across all countries and several sectors, 2020 is a year that marks lost economic, educational and labour opportunities.
This is the first in a series on articulating new solutions and innovations to drive youth employment Post COVID 19.
@NUSScotland responds to Digital Poverty fund
NUS Scotland President, Matt Crilly responds to the Digital Poverty fund announcement.
Beth Curtis, Protocol discusses recruiting End Point Assessors and Dual Professionalism at EPA Live.
Beth discusses the two routes to attracting End Point Assessors:
One from the instructors and assessors who were delivering Frameworks, but as Beth explains End Point Assessment is very different and the importance of occupational competence and particularly logging CPD of occupational competence is key for End Point Assessment organisations.
The second group is to attract people from industry, but a lot of work needs to be done to raise awareness of Apprenticeships to professionals. There is also the potential problem that in some occupations the salaries will be very different in some roles and the sector needs to think about how they can become an attractive employer to industry professionals moving into FE and Work Based Learning.
Check out the podcast to hear what Beth has to say.
FE News chat with Lucy Hunte, National Programme Manager, Apprenticeships Talent for Care, with Health Education England about scaling Apprenticeship and T Level delivery at #EPALive in Wembley.
The NHS is the largest employer in the UK, with a £200 million Apprenticeship Levy pot. So we asked Lucy to give the sector advice on how to deliver Apprenticeships and T Levels with a large employer with over 350 roles mapped in their organisation, but as the NHS is also made up of 263 NHS trusts and 7000 SME's in the supply chain, how to work with a diverse and complex organisation.
Lucy discusses the growth in the volume of starts at the NHS from 8,000 two years ago to 24,000 and nearly 28,000 this year and how the NHS is on track to spend all of their £200M Levy pot this year.
With this volume of Apprenticeships starts, we asked Lucy for advice on 20% off the job on this scale of learners. We then went into T Levels and in particular industry placements in T Levels.
Richard Meredith, from OneFile discusses Ofsted at EPA Live in Wembley.
Richard discusses evidencing learner progress for Ofsted and explained that he was recently attending the Ofsted review for 16-19 and how Ofsted are now particularly interested and making a shift to the impact on a learner. He explains this is particularly around the learner journey, where have they progressed from, where are they now, what are they progressing into. With this in mind and particularly looking at the Three I's of Ofsted (Intent, Implementation and Impact) Richard makes some helpful recommendations and useful ways to evidence a learners progress.
FE News chat with Lucy Dunleavy, Founder and CEO of LearnBox about the modern learner and the future of learner engagement at the EPA Live conference.
Lucy explains that the modern learner is time shy, easily distracted and needs bite sized training to meet their needs. Lifelong learning is changing, the non accredited lifelong learning route could involve Googling a problem or watching a YouTube video to learn something like DIY or to solve a problem such as fixing a boiler.
When then explore what the FE and Skills sector can learn from the modern learner and how we can engage them with accredited training, particularly how to engage learners out of the classroom. Lucy explains that bite sized micro accreditation is a fantastic way to build an accredited lifelong learning strategy.
LearnBox are best known for using video to deliver bite sized training for Functional Skills, and the results / outcomes have been incredibly positive. We ask Lucy, what can the sector learn from this, particularly with new ways of engaging learners. She explains that the World Economic Forum list the most important skills for the future are Creative thinking, critical thinking and problem solving and Lucy highlights that these should be taught and drawn out in schools, if not in adult education to enable these core skills for the future.
We then ask Lucy for her views on how to teach learners to learn to learn, to be ready for the jobs and skills requirements of the future.
FE News chat with Leonie Thompson, EPA Manager from NOCN at EPA Live 2020 about the systems and procedures that are a part of the End Point Assessment process from an End Point Assessment Awarding Organisation (EPAO perspective).
Leonie also chats about aligning curriculum to Apprenticeship Standards, Planning for a successful Gateway and finishes with some top tips to ensure a successful End Point Assessment
Richard Atkins unpacks the FE Commissioners Annual report
FE News chat with Richard Atkins, FE Commissioner, to unpack his 2018/19 annual report. We discuss timings on the report, due to the election and purdah the report has come out later than Richard would have hoped, as the original aim was to release the report during the 2019 AoC Annual conference, but this was in the middle of the run up to the general election.
Richard then unpacks each of the sections of the report, from Formal Interventions, Diagnostic Assessments, Structural reviews, Quality Improvement, the strategic college improvement fund (SCIF), the number of visits by the FE Commissioner team.
We also discuss lessons learned, particularly from Hadlow and how the sector can learn and move forward. Please check out the full and detailed podcast below, we have also transcribed the interview as Richard goes into a lot of detail about the report and we thought this would be really helpful for the sector.
Richard Marsh, Apprenticeship Partnership Director, Kaplan Financial, discusses the biggest challenges for employers and providers moving to Standards and End Point Assessment at NOCN's #EPALive conference.
Richard explores some of the practical things to consider ranging from materials and guidance, as previously with Apprenticeship Frameworks Awarding Organisations provided materials to support this.
Richard explains that no one has 'cracked it yet' and we are all still learning, but he discusses somethings that they have learned and experienced. He explores new operational delivery models, in particular do we need to consider new delivery models, roles and titles from Coaches to Tutors rather than the old Assessor model for Frameworks.
He also discusses the practical things to consider around Apprenticeship quality and timescales to take into account with the End Point Assessment process.
Lack of Knowledge Puts Promising Potentials Off Police Work
68% don’t believe a career in the police force is accessible to all, almost one in five (18%) people aged 18-24 are put off pursuing a career in policing as they don’t know what job roles are available to them.
More than two thirds (68%) of UK adults don’t believe a career in policing is accessible to everyone. Even though the variety of roles are so broad in law enforcement, such as a police officer or constable, behind the scenes as an evidence technician or victim advocate, a custody officer or court reporter, 49% of people still believe it’s a career choice that’s only accessible to a certain group or type of person.
Half of all 18-24 year olds surveyed have never considered a career in the police force, with the biggest barriers to joining the profession being the perceived dangerous nature of the role (53%), along with a lack of knowledge on both what roles are available (18%) and the career progression (15%), according to research from The University of Law (ULAW).
To tackle this, ULAW have launched a Professional Policing (BSc) degree, allowing students to develop a comprehensive knowledge of possible careers in policing before having to apply, and providing them with a foundation for further study areas such as criminology and law.
FE News chat with Salome Verrell, Senior Tutor at ULAW, for more details about how they plan to support the The Police Vision 2025 to develop a professional police workforce, equipped with the skills and capabilities necessary for policing in the 21st century:
- What is the best way for the police service to attract a representative mix of people with the right skills, knowledge and potential, behaviours and values to deliver this policing vision?
- The police force has roles for many other positions than just Police Officers. To get the right mix between officers and staff, how can the police force attract new talent, and what are the best ways of finding out about other potential career opportunities within policing?
- What are the benefits of creating a culture that values difference and diversity, which empowers individuals, and is more representative of the communities they serve?
- For policing to innovate at the pace required, how can changes to the culture and leadership of the police service best be introduced?
- Recent research has shown that 50 year careers are now becoming the norm, meaning that continuous professional development and lifelong learning are more important than ever. How can the police service support CPD whilst adding critical new skills to the police service?
Tom Burton talks to FE News at EPA Live 2020.
Excited to be at @wembleystadium today for #epalive with @LearningBoxed
@Protocol_Rec @FENews @NOCNGroup and @OneFileUK
FE News chat with FE Commissioner, Richard Atkins about his role as the FE Commissioner, particularly how the majority of his role which is supporting and developing the 240 FE Colleges across the sector:
Richard explains that although his role is perceived to be all about dramatic college interventions with failing colleges, this is incredibly rare and only happens on a very small handful of minor cases. The majority of Richard's role is developing a consultancy support service for colleges to continually develop and improve the 240 FE Colleges that are incorporated.
Richard discusses the National Leaders of FE and National Leaders of Governance and the Diagnostic Assessment service rolled out by his team to over 60 colleges.
This is a free service to help high performing colleges as well as colleges that are struggling or looking to improve. Richard explains that it takes time to deliver long term sustainable improvements (it took him 7 years in his previous College Principal role) and he sees this as the norm for it to take time to deliver excellence.
Richard goes on to explore how we can continually support and improve the sector, whilst trying to remove the stigma of asking for help and support. He then goes onto give some recommendations from the best strategies and processes he has seen in colleges.
After hearing about all of the many support structures in place for FE Colleges, we then go onto ask Richard for his own views to see if a support structure should be in place for Training Providers.
Subscribe to the FE News podcast or visit Gavin's Newsroom on FE News.
FE News chat with Dr Jay Derrick from UCL. Jay is a Senior Lecturer at UCL, IOE - Education, Practice & Society and Institute of Education. He is also a Senior Lecturer on an Engineering MSc encouraging lifelong learning and agile skill sets for engineers.
Jay discusses how to develop the foundations for learners and professionals to develop stackable skills to prepare for the jobs of the future or new roles that they will progress into.
We have also recorded another podcast with Jay discussing informal lifelong learning
FE News chat with Dr Sam Duncan from UCL about her recent research project called RABiT (Reading Aloud in Britain Today).
The funded project explored hundreds of adults reading aloud behaviours across England, Scotland and Wales and covered a wide range of ages, genders, ethnicities, faiths, educational backgrounds in both urban and rural locations to explore if there were any patterns or stark differences in adults reading aloud practices.
Sam explains the RABiT project, particularly the importance of documenting and analysing adult reading aloud practices.
Sam unpacks the research to explores when and why adults read aloud and why this is important and how this can change in different communities, context, languages or stages in a person's life.
Sam then explores the RABiT findings to investigate the potential impact that adults reading out loud has when looking at neurodiversity.
Subscribe to the FE News podcast or visit UCL's Newsroom on FE News
FutureofEducation - Dilemmas, dualisms and dialectics
FE News chat with Martin Doel to discuss his upcoming (20 Feb) valedictory professorial lecture for his Professorship at UCL, and is titled 'The Future of Education: dilemmas, dualisms and dialectics'. This is an extension on his first lecture on 'Defining FE'.
Martin thinks about the system of the future and learning from what the sector was looking at back in 2010 and when he was the Chief Executive of the Association of Colleges (AoC) and they were thinking about 'College 2020'. Instead of saying what the system will be over the next 10 years,
Martin asks: What are the key questions people might want to be asking themselves over the next 10 years.
Martin highlights questions like: should we collaborate or compete?, should Colleges and providers be specialist or generalist?, local or national?, for the system to be simpler or more complex?
Martin also explores the challenges of the now and the potential challenges of system of the future.
Martin's lecture on 'The Future of Education: dilemmas, dualisms and dialectics' is on the 20th February at UCL.
FE News catch up with Dr Jay Derrick to chat about informal Lifelong learning. Jay is a Senior Lecturer at UCL, IOE - Education, Practice & Society and Institute of Education.
Jay has a particular passion for lifelong learning and reflects on the many recent reports around the importance of Lifelong learning. Jay then goes onto discuss the importance of lifelong learning policy, particularly informal lifelong learning.
Jay unpacks the recent UNESCO report that quotes "Adult learning infrastructure as a central feature of a healthy democracy" and how the traditional infrastructure that was developed in the UK is becoming harder to access for adult learners.
Check out what Jay has to say about Lifelong learning and particularly the importance of informal lifelong learning.
FE News chat with Graham Griffiths, Director of Post Compulsory PGCE at UCL
Graham heads up a specialist PGCE FE teacher training division at UCL in London. We chat with Graham about FE teacher training and how the developments in policy have affected specialist FE teacher training.
We also discuss the challenge of maintaining CPD in the sector, developing a dual professionalism strategy for certain practitioner roles and the FE teacher Identity crisis... what do we call FE teachers, practitioners, coaches, tutors, trainers, lecturers, practitioners, educators?
Check out the podcast to hear what Graham has to say about FE teacher training.
FE News chat with Paul Grainger, Co-director of the Centre for Education and Work, and Head of Innovation and Enterprise for the Department of Education, Practice and Society, UCL.
We caught up with Paul just as he was preparing to jet off to Saudi Arabia for the 2020 G20 taskforce summit to discuss the future of work.
Paul discusses the future of work, particularly the influence of AI (Artificial Intelligence) and the skills required for the future.
He emphasises which skills that are required for the future to compliment AI and which areas of education that promote collaboration and creative skills to work alongside AI.
Previously a Principal of an FE college in Liverpool, Paul's research concerns local skills systems leadership, the complexities of regional training, skills and employment patterns, the potential impact of the 4th industrial revolution and transitions from education to work. He is a member of the G20 Task Force on the Future of Work.
FE News chat with Rob Bosworth, Vice Principal at Exeter College about what the college of the future could look like? Rob discusses blended learning, the pros of groups of learners gathering together to pedagogically discuss topics, to digital transformation and community based learning.
FE News chat with Sally Dicketts, Group Chief Executive of Activate Learning. Sally Dicketts discusses the future of the FE system, particularly Collaborative systems and how thoughtful use of technology will help both the FE system, teachers and learners.
Sally hopes the FE system of the future will see more collaboration with employers and the world of work. She explains that with thoughtful use of 'Big Data' we can improve on the data we have already, then make better decisions about curriculum design and with improvements in technology this should also reduce the workload on teachers. Sally explains if we use technology more wisely, learning will be able to be more tailored and personalised to the learners and employers needs. She also hopes that if all of the above can fall into place then more money and energy can be spent on well being for staff and learners.
Sally also calls for more collaboration in IT and digital systems to meet the sector needs, with a requirement for a joined up approach to digital systems to meet the sector and multiple provider needs to create a more joined up system. We could then work more collaboratively, offer more time for learners to practice and collaboratively have more staff working with employers to understand what industry needs and wants through learning.
Check out the podcast from Sally to hear what she has to say.
FE News chat with Association of Employment and Learning Providers CEO, Mark Dawe at the Association of Colleges 2019 annual conference. We dream big with Mark, and discuss the future of the FE System. Mark discusses the different component parts of the FE System and sees the future as being more about collaboration than competition.
He then also reflects on his travels around the World (this year he has investigated the American, and Australian systems, whilst he also had a good explore of the leading Skills systems in the World when he visited Russia for WorldSkills 2019). Check out the podcast below to hear what Mark has to say about the FE System of the future.
FE News podcast with Mark Wright, Head of Leadership and Development at the Education and Training Foundation. Mark explains that the leadership succession pipeline is quite damaged at the moment, so ETF are working on repairing this at the moment with the sector.
Mark discusses the Leadership and development plan for Executive level and middle management which is the 'engine room' of the sector. Mark then discusses how coaching is being utilised in the future of leadership and development for the system and sector.
FE News chat with AoC's Chief Executive David Hughes about T Level Industry Placements at the #AoCConf 2019.
David discusses how some Industry Placements will be more straightforward that others, eg Childcare and Agriculture, compared to challenges of a 16 year old on a building site for construction. David explains that DfE may need to enable greater flexibility on the industry placement for certain specialisms as long as the intent and integrity of the placement is the foundation of the flexibility.
Check out Association of College's Chief Executive, David Hughes discussion on T Level Industry Placements.
FE News podcast with Cath Sezen, Senior Policy Manager - Further Education with the Association of Colleges. We caught up with Cath at the AoC Annual conference 2019. Cath chats about the T Level programme to date and what the future developments could hold.
Please check out the podcast below to hear what Cath has to say about T Levels:
FE News podcast with Martin Doel, Visting Professor and Associate Director Post 14 Centre of Education and Work at UCL Institute for Education.
We caught up with Martin at the #AocConf 2019 after he led an interesting breakout session at the Association of Colleges conference on How to Avoid Education Administration, which was a session primarily aimed at Governs to help them better understand Education Administration.
Martin shares his tips and advice in the podcast below. Martin's main tips are to triangulate information across the Principal and Finance Director and another source to have a balanced picture of the college. To enable the board to have independent sources of information within the college, consider the Financial Director's well being and enable them to have leave, and potentially to explore an audit whilst they are away to have an open look at the finances. Martin also recommends the Board to have space to have private conversations to discuss the progress or any concerns how the organisation is functioning, without the Executive present.
Please check out Martin's podcast below:
FE News chat with Lewis Cooper, Director, Independent Commission on the College of the Future at the Association of Colleges annual conference 2019. We chat with Lewis about the progress of the commission on exploring the College of the Future.
Lewis discusses the progress to date and gives some examples of their findings so far.
Click below to hear what Lewis has to say about the College of the Future.
SkillsSurvey - IET launches its latest Skills and Demand in Industry report
The IET’s latest Skills and Demand in Industry report, published earlier this week (18 Nov), reveals that 60% of employers report recruitment of engineering and technical staff with the right skills the biggest anticipated barrier to achieving their business objectives over the next three years.
FE News catch up with Joanna Cox, Head of Policy at the Institution of Engineering & Technology to find out more about her views on how higher level technical training can help fill the Tech Skills Gap:
~How much of a role should employers have in supporting the development of skills that they are finding hard to fill?
~How could T Levels help?
~How can employers be encouraged to offer industry placements?
~How has the introduction of the Apprenticeship Levy helped support an increase in higher level technical training, and what are the challenges with this?
~Which is more important, bringing in new talent, or upskilling existing staff?
Subscribe to the FE News podcast or visit Gavin's Newsroom on FE News
FE News catch up with @MatthewSyed at the #AocConf 2019 annual conference.
Matthew discusses Growth Mindset and Diverse Thinking for leadership teams.
Check out what Matthew has to say on the podcast below:
FE News chat with David Hughes at the AoC Conference 2019 as he discusses the importance of collaboration for an FE Renaissance in 2020
FE News chat with Steve Mariadas, Chief Executive Officer of the South West Institute of Technology. Steve discusses the now and the future plans for the whole South West region of the IoT, from meeting learner needs, to delivering higher level technical skills to meet employers needs.
Check out the podcast below:
Marie- Claire O'Brien discusses 'hard to reach' learners and how to get involved in offender learning at the #SETConf2019
FE News chat with David Didau about 'Analogue Learning' at the Society for Education and Training annual conference.
We often hear about the latest innovations in EdTech and how adopting technology improves the learning experience, increases access and enables continual learning. David chats about the power of traditional Analogue learning at the #SETConf19
FE News chat with Vikki Liogier, the Education and Training Foundation (ETF) Head of Learning Technologies and Angela Sanders who is an Associate Consultant at ETF about Digital Skills, particularly Essential Digital Skills for CPD.
Vikki and Angela discuss strategies to make digital skills CPD accessible to all Practitioners across the sector.
Check out the podcast below.
FE News chat with David Didau at the SETConf19 to discuss his top tips for Practitioners, Teachers, Trainers, Lecturers and Assessors to progress their career and also how to gain the skills that employers are looking for.
FE News chat with Teresa Carroll, the Education and Training Foundation (ETF) Head of Well-being and Inclusion about the new report on SET members Mental Health and Well-being findings that were released at the annual SET Conference 2019.
Teresa discusses the reporting findings, some of the interesting initial outcomes were that newly qualified and practitioners nearing retirement were the most positive. Interestingly, those newly qualified practitioners in years 1 and 2 post-qualification stage were at the greatest risk of being under stress. Teresa also pointed out that those teaching staff with real-world experience and particularly those with disabilities flagged a negative experience and Teresa flagged that this is an area in particular that the team are interested in exploring more and addressing this to make it a more positive teaching experience.
Teresa then gives some practical tips to help practitioners with their mental health and well-being.
Please listen to the podcast below to hear more information from Teresa.
Geoff Petty discusses his top tips for new and existing practitioners at the #SETconf2019
Deborah Millar, Group Executive Director of Digital Learning Technologies at The TEC Partnership talks to FE News about Educating the Educators and the role of EdTech in supporting staff and learners.
FE News chat with Sally Dicketts, Group Chief Executive of Activate Learning about the importance of Coaching for Practitioners and Leaders at the SET 2019 annual conference.
ETF's David Russell discusses how the 2019 General Election could impact FE practitioners
FE News catch up with Education and Training Foundation's CEO, David Russell at the SET (Society for Education and Training Foundation) 2019 conference. We chat with David about how the election could potentially impact the sector and practitioners.
These are uncertain times and depending on the outcome of the election and which Political party wins, or whether a potential coalition Government of multiple parties comes into power after the 12th December election, David explores what could this mean for the sector. David chats through what he anticipates would remain as the delivery models after the dust has settled after the election.
Subscribe to the FE News podcast or visit Gavin's Newsroom on FE News
Over the next three weeks FE News are going to be running a mini series on "The Quality of Education", and have the great pleasure to be chatting about this with one of Her Majesty's inspectors for Ofsted, Chris Jones.
Join us this week as we discuss Impact:
Chris is a specialist advisor for further education and skills, with a special interest in apprenticeships.
Over the next three weeks he will be talking to us about the quality of education, and within that "the three Is" which are:
~ Intent
~ Implementation, and
~ Impact
Subscribe to the FE News podcast or visit Gavin's Newsroom on FE News
Over the next three weeks FE News are going to be running a mini series on "The Quality of Education", and have the great pleasure to be chatting about this with one of Her Majesty's inspectors for Ofsted, Chris Jones.
Chris is a specialist advisor for further education and skills, with a special interest in apprenticeships, and he will be talking to us about the quality of education, and within that "the three Is" which are intent, implementation and impact.
Last week Chris discussed Intent.
Join us this week as we discuss Implementation.
Over the next three weeks FE News are going to be running a mini series on "The Quality of Education", and have the great pleasure to be chatting about this with one of Her Majesty's inspectors for Ofsted, Chris Jones.
Chris is a specialist advisor for further education and skills, with a special interest in apprenticeships, and he will be talking to us about the quality of education, and within that "the three Is" which are intent, implementation and impact.
Join us this week as we discuss Intent.
The IET commissioned CHILDWISE to explore what factors inform parents’ and children’s opinions of engineering and technology as potential career areas.
David Lakin, The Institution of Engineering and Technology's (IET) Head of education joins us to discuss the full report, and what can be done to ensure the UK has an incoming fleet of STEM students.
Read the full details on FE News: https://www.fenews.co.uk/press-releases/33909-gcseresultsday2019-why-is-science-still-a-turn-off-for-school-kids
Dr Jamie Mackay talks to @FENews about the importance of soft skills and the newly released Skills Study by @Instructure on day 2 of #CanvasCon
@the_psyentist @makemeavideocv #Skills2030
The explosion of social and informal learning brings new challenges to educators, join us as David Price OBE explains his vision of the #FutureofEducation
Talking to FE News at this year's Labour Party Conference, Joe Dromey is deputy director of research and development at Learning and Work Institute shares his thoughts on the Lifelong Learning Commission and where its priorities should lie.
Talking to FE News at this year's Labour Party Conference, Zamzam Ibrahim, President of the National Union of Students (UK) shares her thoughts on the Lifelong Learning Commission and where its priorities should lie.
Talking to FE News at this year's Labour Party Conference, Matt Waddup, Head of policy and campaigns at the University and College Union (UCU) shares his thoughts on the Lifelong Learning Commission and where its priorities should lie, followed by Douglas Chalmers, President at UCU who summarises the 3 key points raised by the recent Lifelong Learning Commission's interim report.
Talking to FE News at this year's Labour Party Conference, Mark Dawe, Chief Executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) shares his thoughts on the Lifelong Learning Commission and where it's priorities should lie.
Talking to FE News at this year's Labour Party Conference, Dr Graeme Atherton, Director, National Education Opportunities Network, shares his thoughts on the Lifelong Learning Commission and where its priorities should lie.