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:

FE News #OnLocation #AoCConf21 - Day 2
Gavin speaks to Nadhim Zahawi

#AntiRacismInAction - West Midlands - Episode 6

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...

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...

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...

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.

#AntiRacismInAction: Wales Episode 4