DIUS FE and Skills e-Newsletter

Audience: FE college principals/governors, training providers, voluntary providers, school 6th forms (all post-16 providers); staff and managers of FE college and independent providers, and national partners/stakeholders; local authorities and their partners, LSC, local partnership teams.

An ambitious target for 2.25 million people to achieve their first national qualification in basic skills such as reading, writing and numeracy has been achieved two years early, John Denham, Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills announced on 23 June.

Since 2001, more than 2.27m learners have achieved their first Skills for Life qualification in literacy, language or numeracy - improving the life chances of millions of people and in many cases paving a way into work or improving job prospects.

Skills for Life provides free literacy, language and numeracy tuition for adults in England who have skills below Level 2 (broadly equivalent to a GCSE at grades A* - C.).

Mr Denham said: "These qualifications give people so much more than just a certificate. Gaining basic skills like reading and writing are a vital step towards getting a better job and life.”

• Click here to see the DIUS News Article
• Click here to see the DIUS Skills web page

Audience: FE college principals/governors, training providers, school sixth forms, local authorities, voluntary providers and national partners/stakeholders

A new national initiative to help improve the health and wellbeing of students and staff in further education colleges has been announced. The National Healthy FE initiative, funded by the Department of Health, and with support from DIUS and DCSF, will be developed with further education colleges and representative bodies to improve access to health related advice, information and guidance through the colleges.

The Healthy FE initiative will build upon what a number of colleges have already been actively encouraging, by providing them with even more tools and support to address the health and wellbeing needs of their students and staff.

Minister for FE, HE and Lifelong Learning, Bill Rammell, said: “We want this initiative to be owned and led by the further education sector and I urge college principals to get involved and to work with local partners to further enhance the support available to students through their local colleges.”

• http://www.healthyschools.gov.uk/beyond-further-education.aspx

Audience:

• All staff and managers of FE colleges and sixth forms, and national partners/stakeholders
• Local authorities and their partners, LSC, local partnership teams

The National Audit Office report on the Further Education capital investment programme was published on the 11th of July. The report concludes that grant funding from the Learning and Skills Council is enabling the sector to make good progress in modernising its estate. Relatively poor facilities have been replaced with modern, high quality facilities that meet the needs of learners.

Head of the National Audit Office, Tim Burr said:

“The capital programme for further education is enabling colleges and the Learning and Skills Council to achieve together what neither could have achieved on their own, and is delivering high quality buildings. The sector has taken on a higher level of debt, and therefore risk, but the cost should be manageable. If the second half of the programme can maintain the success achieved in the first, further education will be well placed to offer enhanced value for money.”

• National Audit Office

Audience: FE college principals/governors, training providers, school sixth forms, local authorities, voluntary providers and national partners/stakeholders

Harnessing Technology 2008 was launched to senior leaders in education and skills at the ICT for Education conference on 3 July 2008 following an extensive consultation with education and skills professionals.

The revised strategy sets out a commitment to ensuring every school, college, university and training provider is ‘technology confident', placing particular emphasis on achieving this through engagement with learners and parents as well as the professional development of teachers and trainers. Becta is now tasked with leading and working with education and skills providers, Government and national partners to ensure this ambitious strategy is delivered by 2014.

Stephen Crowne, Becta Chief Executive, said: “The updated Harnessing Technology Strategy is about technology enabling improvement, not technology for technology's sake... Over the next six years, we all need to work together to change culture and behaviour so technology can add value to learning by meeting the needs of all children, young people and adult learners.”

• For more information and to download the strategy go to: www.becta.org.uk/publications/harnessingtechnologystrategy

Audience: FE college principals and provider chief executives, HR directors, staff development managers and all FE and skills teachers, tutors and trainers

More than 900 people took part in a series of 18 regional events hosted by the Institute for Learning (IfL) in June to showcase innovative examples of continuing professional development (CPD) in FE and skills. Participants included staff development managers, lecturers, chief executives and others with responsibility for CPD in their institutions.

The workshops were based on a set of eight case studies, representing a diverse mix of providers:

• Oaklands College
• EAGIT Training
• Richmond upon Thames College
• City of Wolverhampton College
• Mid-Cheshire College
• West Nottinghamshire College
• Thanet College
• Knowsley Community College

New regulations require all teaching practitioners in Learning and Skills Council-funded institutions to demonstrate that they remain in good standing through an annual commitment to CPD. Part of IfL's role as the professional body for teachers, tutors, trainers and student teachers is to provide the support they need to engage in CPD.

• Institute for Learning

Audience: FE college principals and governors, training providers, senior leaders and national partners/stakeholders

The first ten college principals to complete the Principals' Qualifying Programme received their certificates at an awards ceremony hosted by the Centre for Excellence in Leadership (CEL) on 23 June, 2008.

The successful candidates were:

• Mark Dawe, Oaklands College
• Bill Fearon, West Kent College
• Kevin Finnigan, formerly Ealing, Hammersmith and West London College
• Stephen Grix, Mid Kent College
• Peter Hillman, New College Pontefract
• Jacqui Mace, Stanmore College
• Graham Morley, Cannock Chase Technical College
• Martin Penny, Stratford upon Avon College
• Frances Wadsworth, East Surrey College
• Dawn Ward, Royal Forest of Dean College

The Principals Qualifying Programme is one of the key outcomes of the Further Education and Training Bill 2007. It has been designed to support both new and established principals to lead and shape a complex and changing sector. To date, more than 90 principals have embarked on the programme.

• Click on the link to see the full news article
• Centre for Excellence in Leadership

Audience: Leaders, staff, learners and representatives throughout the FE and skills sector

The Centre for Excellence in Leadership (CEL) hosted its second annual Leading the Learner Voice Awards ceremony in London on Thursday, 3 July, 2008. More than 100 learners, guests and sector representatives gathered to celebrate the achievements made by individuals and organisations in the further education and skills sector.

CEL's Leading the Learner Voice Awards 2008 were presented to:

• Student Governor of the Year: Louise Sanderson, Warwickshire College
• Student Liaison Officer of the Year: Jennifer Hope, Castle College Nottingham
• Most Improved Provider of the Year: Exeter College
• Community and Social Cohesion: Blackpool and The Fylde College
• Principal or Senior Leader of the Year: Dawn Ward OBE, Royal Forest of Dean College
• Promoting Religious Dialogue and Interfaith Understanding: The North East FE Interfaith Forum
• Representative Organisation of the Year: National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (Niace)
• Provider of the Year: Cornwall College
• Leading Learner of the Year: Santi Modhvadia, Leicester College
• Outstanding Contribution to the Leadership of Learners: Ruth Cole, Fareport Training Organisation Limited
• The Tony Burgess Award 2008: James Belmont and Oaklands College

• Centre for Excellence in Leadership

Audience: All with an interest in skills and employment, people working in Skills for Life, union learning reps, employers, Skills for Life practitioners and providers, anyone with an interest in literacy or numeracy

We have recently completed a significant research report as part of our project to develop a workplace literacy, language and numeracy training evaluation toolkit.  

The Workplace Literacy, Language and Numeracy Evaluation Toolkit (WoLLNET) project aims to research, trial, pilot and develop a web-based, user-friendly toolkit to enable employers, providers and unions to evaluate the impact of basic workplace skills training programmes on learning, individual work performance and organisational performance.

The overall purpose of the underpinning research presented in this final report is to collate approaches and models currently used in impact evaluation at all stages in the training process. The report provides a n analysis of current theory and practice in training impact evaluation with recommendations for the development of the toolkit . A copy of the report is available via our project website. Register online to receive our bi-annual e-newsletter update.

• WoLLNET

Audience: FE college principals/governors, training providers, school sixth forms, local authorities, voluntary providers and national partners/stakeholders

The Quality Improvement Agency's (QIA's) interactive language teaching resource, Cliffhanger Studios, has won the prestigious Innovation in Education prize at the Royal Television Society's (RTS) 2007 Educational Television Awards.

Cliffhanger Studios, produced for QIA by Illumina Digital, supports teachers, tutors and trainers in delivering inspirational and modern foreign language learning sessions. It uses video clips of a specially filmed soap opera in French, Spanish, German and English as a stimulus for role play.

Each soap opera clip ends on a ‘cliffhanger', allowing learners to imagine possible outcomes. An interactive storyboard creator is provided to enable learners to build and record the remaining dialogue between the characters.

Markos Tiris, programme director for QIA's Teaching and Learning Programme, said: “Cliffhanger Studios is already a huge success with practitioners across the further education and skills sector and the resource is being used in more than a thousand organisations. A new Italian version of the resource was launched in June.”

The Cliffhanger Studios resource is available in CD-ROM format and for download from the Teaching and Learning resources section of the QIA Excellence Gateway at:

• http://excellence.qia.org.uk

Audience: FE college principals/governors, training providers, school sixth forms, local authorities, voluntary providers and national partners/stakeholders; Skills for life practitioners, teachers, support; all with an interest in skills and employment, employers, voluntary organisations

London's first online course prospectus for teenagers - a searchable, up-to-date directory of the 25,000 courses and programmes offered by London's schools, colleges and work based training providers - is now live.

www.mychoicelondon.co.uk is designed for the 500,000 14 to 19-year-olds living in London, and is fully integrated with London maps and Transport for London for easy journey planning to course and training venues.

“The new Choice service is a big step forward but we're not stopping here,” said Sean McMahon, the 14-19 Director of Learning & Skills Council for London. “We'll continue to invest in developments to support young people in planning and managing course and career choices better.”

Site features include a job planner, career matching quiz, action planner, CV builder, and career search.

• www.mychoicelondon.co.uk
• www.choicefriends.org

Audience: FE college principals/governors, training providers, school sixth forms, local authorities, voluntary providers and national partners/stakeholders

Continuing their programme of visits to FE colleges and providers, ministers and DIUS senior officials have recently been to:

• 23/6 MANCAT College - Prime Minister
• 23/6 South Thames College and on 25/6 Hills Road Sixth Form College - Bill Rammell, DIUS Minister of State for Lifelong Learning, Further & Higher Education

Following publication of the ‘Raising Expectations: Enabling the System to Deliver' White paper on 17th March 2008, the Government carried out a twelve week formal consultation, which concluded on 9th June 2008.

We received 443 written responses, from a wide range of groups and individuals; these responses, together with feedback from the nine regional consultation events, have been analysed carefully and are being taken into account during development of our plans to implement these proposals.

We aim to produce a summary of the consultation in July with a more detailed response in the autumn. Although the consultation has now closed, both DIUS and DCSF remain committed to ensuring that stakeholders are kept involved with, and informed about the progress of these reforms.

DCSF have published two new reports to help deliver 14-19 reforms in rural areas including an announcement on extra funding. Details are available on the department's website: Delivering in Rural Areas.

Audience: FE college principals/governors, training providers, local authorities, voluntary providers and national partners/stakeholders and all with an interest in skills for employment – as users or providers

The Learning and Skills Council and Association of Colleges announced the first version of their Framework of Excellence at two conferences in June 2008.

At the same time, the LSC published a policy document titled Framework for Excellence: Putting the Framework into Practice. This sets out details of how the Framework for Excellence will operate over the coming 08/09 academic year.

The document provides guidance to providers on putting the Framework into practice and outlines plans for further development. It also sets out arrangements for publishing Framework results and data as well as the ways learners, employers, providers, stakeholders etc will be able to make use of the Framework and its results.

The policy document is complemented by a web-based guide for colleges and work-based learning providers, which sets out more detailed information on the operation of the Framework for providers.

The framework rolls-out in all FE colleges and work-based learning providers from summer 2008, which also sees Version 2 of the Framework piloted to other provider types and provision.

• Further information on the Framework for Excellence is available at: http://ffe.lsc.gov.uk
• Framework for Excellence policy document available at: http://readingroom.lsc.gov.uk/lsc/National/Framework_for_Excellence-Putting_the_Framework_into_Practice.pdf
• Provider Guide available at: http://readingroom.lsc.gov.uk/lsc/National/Framework_for_Excellence-Provider_Guide.pdf

Audience: All staff and managers of FE college and independent providers, and national partners/stakeholders, local authorities and their partners, LSC, local partnership teams, all with an interest in skills and employment, people working in skills for life, college staff, union learning reps, employers, voluntary organisations

For the first time, Innovation Nation opens up the prospect of the FE system helping to deliver the Government's aim to make the UK a world leader in innovative business and public service.

Funding has been allocated for a number of pathfinder projects to promote knowledge and technology transfer within networks. The prospectus that will invite bids to run these projects is due to be launched on the Learning and Skills Council website on July 7th. The deadline for receipt of expressions of interest is early September.

Bids can tackle issues such as:

• What are the strengths and weaknesses of your networks?
• Where do you most need to build your knowledge transfer capacity? Could you do more by working collaboratively or by drawing in other stakeholder voices?
• Most importantly, could you signpost the way for other specialist networks to follow?

• Learning and Skills Council

Audience: FE college principals/governors, training providers, local authorities and their partners, LSC, local partnership teams, voluntary providers and national partners/stakeholders

On the 3 July 2008, the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families wrote to local authorities and stakeholders about the next steps being taken to implement the Children's Plan.

Three consultation documents were published including one on potential legislation to strengthen Children's Trusts, and extending the duty to co-operate to colleges and other front-line providers of 16-19 education to give them more influence over strategic arrangements and better support from statutory partners.

The Secretary of State's letter and accompanying discussion document on the legislative options to strengthen Children's Trusts can be found on the DCSF consultation website at:

• Delivering the Children's Plan

Audience: FE college principals/governors, training providers, school sixth forms, local authorities, voluntary providers and national partners/stakeholders (i.e. everyone in the FE system); local authorities and their partners, LSC, local partnership teams

The Bringing Learning to Life Diploma marketing campaign for 2008/2009 will be launched in September. The new campaign is aimed at parents, young people and key influencer audiences. It will use radio, press and poster advertising, PR, advertorials, internet resources, road shows, leaflets and DVDs.

We will be sending out a sample pack to FE partners delivering Diplomas from 2008 and 2009 in early July. It will contain;

• Leaflets for young people, parents, schools, colleges and employers;
• DVDs for young people, employers and on the Extended Project;
• A4 posters;
• Banner stands (for consortia communications contacts only);
• Marketing support tools including campaign images, visual identity guidelines and a key messages guide.

Order what you need by phone through the DCSF order line on 0845 60 222 60; text phone 0845 60 555 60. See the 14-19 website for more details –

• Diploma campaign publicity materials

Audience: Leaders and managers at all levels throughout the FE and skills sector, senior women, equality and diversity directors and managers, HR and staff development directors and managers

With many college leaders, mostly men, due to retire in the next five years, the sector faces a number of challenges. Women represent around 60 per cent of the workforce, but only 28 per cent of principals in England are women. In order to succeed in building capacity for succession, it is important to ensure that women who aspire to leadership roles receive the support and encouragement they need in order to thrive.

The Women's Leadership Network (WLN) was established in 2007 and is for women who hold or aspire to leadership and management roles at all levels in the further education and skills sector.

Nearly one hundred leaders and managers took part in the Network's first conference in June. WLN's schedule of programmes and events for 2008-09 was announced at the conference, and the first programmes will start in October.

Programmes and events: http://www.wlnfe.org.uk/events.html

Leaders and staff at all levels in the sector are invited to take part in a survey that will inform the planning of future programmes, services and events.

Online survey: http://www.wlnfe.org.uk/survey.html