Agenda item

Report of the Strategic Director, Communities and Environment and Strategic Director, Care Wellbeing and Learning

The Committee were advised that this was the second evidence gathering session for the Review to Address Skills Shortages and Increase Employment opportunities.

 

The Committee were advised that at the first session they heard from Early Years and the North East LEP about Careers.  The Committee were advised that today’s session would hear from Matthew Waterfield, Principal, Emmanuel College, Kevin Marston, Assistant Principal, Gateshead College and Kevin Pearson, Principal Learning Skills Manager, Gateshead Council.

 

The Committee heard from Matthew Waterfield, Principal at Emmanuel College.  Mr Waterfield explained that the school has been very successful but has been criticised for being separate, however, he advised that this was something the school were working on changing.

 

The Committee heard that the Government’s vision is

 

·         To build a world class careers system that will help young people and adults choose the career that is right for them.

 

The Gatsby Foundation advised in their Good Career Guidance Handbook that:

 

·         Good career guidance is the key to social mobility:  it is about showing young people, whatever their social and family background, the options open to them and helping them to make the right choices to set them on the path to rewarding future careers

The schools vision is that:

 

·         Students may go on to achieve considerably more than they might have imagined possible.

 

98% of Emmanuel students leaving KS4 in sustained education, apprenticeship or employment destination (this figure is 94% nationally).

96% of Emmanuel students are staying in education (86% nationally).

94% of Emmanuel students staying in education or employment after Level 3 study (this is 89% national).

 

The School is working towards achieving the 8 Gatsby Principles and the Head outlined some of the challenges which are they are faced with within each principle.

 

Principle 1 – A Stable Careers Programme

·         Forming a single and unified strategy know and understood by pupils, parents, teachers and employers.

·         Ensuring every child accesses their entitlement in this area regardless of their background

 

Principle 2 – Learning from Career and Labour Market Information

·         Intentional engagement with information about the labour market – helping students understand when they are receiving input

·         Engagement with parents on aspiration and ambition – the challenge to broaden understanding

 

Principle 3 – Addressing the needs of each pupil

·         Patchy to date particularly regarding those students who have already left

·         The need to track progress through careers advice pathways from Year 7 onwards

 

Principle 4 – Linking curriculum learning to careers

·         Ensuring that we meet the benchmark in respect of:

o   Every pupil – including those who do not see themselves as ‘STEM people’

·         Finding effective but efficient ways of STEM departments leading on careers alongside the pressure to achieve the best possible grades with new reformed GCSE course

 

Principle 5 – Encounters with employers and employees

·         Opportunities for students to talk face to face and benefit from mentoring and guidance

·         Opportunities within particular sectors (such as retail)

 

Principle 6 – Experience of workplaces

·         Smart and effective ways of directing students to right experiences

·         Changing the mind-set amongst students to ensure that they understand that work experience is principally aimed at exploring career opportunities and expanding networks and thus, put students in the driving seat

 

Principle 7 – Encounters with further and higher education

·         Helping students to navigate the market place of HE and to evaluate the quality of apprenticeship opportunities

·         Exploring university with parents including the value of non-STEM course particularly with some sub-groups

 

Principle 8 – Personal guidance

·         Maintaining expertise and up to date information across the staff team

·         Raising awareness across the staff of the importance of individual conversations

 

It was queried if the school kept a record of the parents they were reaching.  The school advised that parents register when they attend events and efforts are made to bring the Year 7 parents in.  It is seen as an important part of the success of the school and where parents have missed information they are contacted, and it becomes established as a culture of parental engagement.

 

The Committee welcomed the school and asked about the test and whether the school felt they were representative of the area.  The school predominantly takes students from its catchment area, two thirds of which are therefore from deprived communities. It is also demanded of the College that the social mix of the catchment area is fully reflected within each intake. This is done with reference to the Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index (IDACI). There is still an entrance test, however this is not something which can be passed or failed. Emmanuel College takes students of all abilities and all children who apply take a non-verbal reasoning test which is used to provide an indicator of their ability, in order that they take children from the full range of abilities into each year group.

 

The Committee queried whether there is an issue with young people going on to university and getting a degree and then not being able to get a job, in particular in terms of the advice they are given on the course they choose.  The school advised that it is difficult and that it is important for young people to experience more and not just a one to one in a school.  Work experience does help in this area but young people should be connecting with other forms of education to identify potential opportunities.  The head advised that young people should be engaged at a much earlier age and given the opportunity to look at what different environments offer.

It was queried whether we project our aspirations for the North East (Gateshead) to be a place for people to come back to if they go away to University.

 

It was queried whether we project our aspirations for the North East (Gateshead) to be a place for people to come back to if they go away to University.

 

The head felt that there was an issue in that we don’t do enough to tell our story.  The school have a couple of alumni who work with the school and who have jobs in the finance sector.  The head felt that young people want to be ambitious and that just meeting someone who has gone before can give them a boost.

 

The Committee heard from Kevin Marston, Assistant Principle, Gateshead College about the introduction of new T Levels into Sixth Form and FE Provision.  The new T Level Programmes will be delivered over two years and will contain common core and specialist units.  They will include, knowledge, skills and behaviours with up to 1800 hours in total over the two years.  There will be contextualised numeracy/literacy and digital skills.  They will include behaviours and transferable skills and will be aligned to the latest apprenticeship standards.

 

The reason for the change is based on recommendations from the Wolf report (2011) and the Sainsbury’s Review (April 2016).  They have come from the DfE Post 16 Skills Plan (July 2016).  Research has been undertaken in European and Scandinavian models.  They will have a parity with A Levels.

 

T Levels are a Level 3 Technical Study Programme and will equip learners with:

 

·         Knowledge

·         Skills

·         Behaviour

·         Progression

o   Employment

o   Further technical training or L4 Apprenticeships

 

Not all curriculum sectors will be included.

 

Each T Level programme will include 1800 hours over two years and consist of five key components.

 

1.    Level 3 technical qualification for each pathway – 15 strands

2.    Work Placement – 45-60 days (min 315 hours)

3.    Maths, English and Digital

4.    Other occupation-specific requirements eg licence to practice

5.    Employability, enrichment and pastoral

 

Gateshead College had to apply to be an Early Adopter from 2020 there were three routes for early adopters

 

·         Digital (Production, Design and Development)

·         Construction (Planning and Design)

·         Childcare Education

 

54 were selected nationally, only 4 in the North East region, 2 colleges and 2 6^th form colleges, only 40% general FE colleges and those who applied had to be rated Outstanding or Good by Ofsted.

 

The government has made a commitment to work placements in its 2016 Skills Plan as it accepted the 34 recommendations from the Independent Panel on Technical Education and includes the following;

 

·         Every 16-19 year old learner undertaking a college-based technical education route will be entitled to a high quality, substantial work placement.

 

Where work experience is usually 1-2 weeks as part of a study programme and aims to help students gain ‘general’ employability skills and more of a ‘work taster’ and is often the first employment linked experience for many.  Work Placements will be a minimum of 45 days and will be occupationally specific and will be focussed on developing technical and practical skills, it will need to be with an employer in a real working environment.

 

Change has been identified as being needed as currently work placements are not common place and it is known that employers want students to leave college equipped with practical skills for specific roles, as well as general employability skills.

 

Some challenges have been identified following feedback from the pilots and the LMI;

 

·         Employers feel overloaded

·         SMEs under significant financial constraints

·         Some sectors are harder to crack than others – Digital Sector

·         Flooding the employer pool

·         Pre-16 Careers / IAG patchy

 

·         Small employers have limited resources to commit to work placements including:

o   Equipment space and IP

o   Staff Time

o   Finances

·         There is an overwhelming preference for the block model

·         Impact on providers

o   GCSE’s

o   Funding

·         Financial Costs for Parents/Guardians

 

The college need to work to engage learners and they do this by, setting expectations, motivating and enthusing learning, they look to anticipate potential issues early on (eg paid part-time work, travel, bursaries).  They work hard to match learners to placements.  The college work with the learner to make sure they are ready to begin a placement.

 

The work that is done in terms of matching employers is to adapt the approach and marketing materials based on the employers we are engaging with currently.  The focus is on this being a different model for work experience that will add value to the business and that employers joining at an early stage will be helping to create the future for work placements.  Work needs to be done to manage warm leads and regional networks and to manage employer expectations.

 

The Government has announced a £38m investment for the first wave for capacity building.  The Spring Budget in 2017 pledged £500m.  21 colleges selected maths as centres of excellence.  These colleges are expected to receive £40m over the next five years.  Gateshead College is the only college in the region to be selected.

 

It was queried why construction wasn’t included in the first set.  The college advised that the expected number of learners for construction courses would not make the course viable and the college wanted to see a significant number of level 3 learners.  The college advised that in 2023 construction would be included in the scheme.

 

It was noted that whilst it is appreciated that there is a lack of soft skills there is a lot of pressure on young people to have a pre-determined plan and what is being described by the college isn’t necessarily the same as what is coming from schools.  It was therefore queried whether there could be practical conversations between the college and schools.  It was noted that there is a lot of challenges, including some within the secondary sector, however, this scheme is very much college driven and the college want to see students in the region prosper and the region prosper.  The college advised that they would love to extend the window and develop more collaboratively with secondary schools. 

 

The college were congratulated on achieving their outstanding ofsted in particular given the lack of economic investment and it was suggested that there will come a point where government needs to be lobbied for funding, it was queried whether the college was working with other colleges in the region to lobby for funding.  It was noted that the Principal of the College is constantly working at government level and working with cross parliamentary groups.  The principal also works with the DFE and ESFA on development of programmes and she also works with other colleges.

 

The Committee heard from Kevin Pearson, LearningSkills, Kevin advised that there are currently 13000 Gateshead people of working age who have no educational qualification.  There are 36500 Gateshead people of working age without a full level 2 qualification.

 

Total enrolments for 2017 – 2018 were at 12200 which was an increase of 21.7% on the previous year.   There are 1884 learners who are unemployed, 501 who have a learning disability and 1321 who have a physical disability.  There are 470 from the BME Communities and 111 from LGBT groups.  There are 1033 aged 16-24 and 291 who are in the 50-65 age range who are unemployed.  Currently, Gateshead are 14^th in the country in NEET. 

 

The service is funded by the ESFA and are now supporting an increasing number of people with learning and physical disabilities, 75% of learners are from deprived wards in Gateshead.  There has been a 30% decrease in adult learners, this is due to the funding being complex and not cost-effective.

 

There has been a 35% decrease in apprenticeships.

 

Some challenges that have been identified include, Social Support and Mental Health, the hourly rate for delivery hasn’t gone up in 5 years, the devolution of the adult skills budget, and the apprenticeship turmoil.

 

There are still some reasons to be optimistic, young people are more productive and have an amazing capacity to learn.  FE staff are resilient, imaginative and committed and FE delivery has improved beyond all recognition in the last 10 years.

 

The Committee were concerned that there is not any investment put in place for our young people to achieve their full potential.  

 

 

RESOLVED -  (i)         That the views of the of the Committee be noted in the final                                     report

                        (ii)        That the focus of the next evidence gathering session be agreed.