DIUS FE and Skills e-Newsletter

Audience: FE providers and employers

A week-long celebration of Apprenticeships will take place from 25th-29th February across England. The week seeks to raise the profile of Apprenticeships and encourage more employers to recruit them.

The week will include events, interviews, webchats and activities throughout the country. The week's key event will be the Apprenticeships Summit, to be held at the Congress Centre in London's West End, on Tuesday 26th February. If you would like to attend, please visit the Apprenticeships Summit website or call 020 7407 6656.

Later in the week, the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) will co-host an event with SkillsActive. Meanwhile a number of employers will be using Apprenticeship Week to explain why Apprenticeships have such a vital role to play in today's world. They include BT who will be hosting a seminar to promote the benefits of Apprenticeships to their supplier companies.

If you are planning an event to mark Apprenticeship Week, please let the LSC know via the helpline 020 7413 3400 or email us at skillscampaign@lsc.gov.uk

• Apprenticeships Summit website
• Apprenticeships website

Audience: FE college principals, staff and training providers

SORTED, the sustainability online resource and toolkit for Education, has been launched by the Environmental Association for Universities and Colleges (EAUC) in partnership with the Learning and Skills Council (LSC).

The new website helps those working in further education and work-based learning to understand why sustainability is relevant to them and important to their organisations. The site also gives inspiration and practical ideas to help learning providers take their first sustainable steps and directs users to key resources, tools and case studies.

EAUC and the LSC are keen for the FE system to develop a sense of ownership of the resources, and encourage users to submit ideas for new resources and case studies online.

• SORTED website

Audience: : FE college principals and vice-principals, chief executives of training providers, heads of department - especially those responsible for data management, and governors

DIUS is seeking to assess the impact of the FE reforms on end users (learners, employers and local communities), colleges and providers. We have commissioned a study to help us gain an understanding of the views of a broadly representative sample of colleges and providers in the FE system.

Through structured interviews, the study will collect evidence on the impact of the reforms of the FE system which have already taken place or which are about to be introduced, and opportunities for further deregulation. Interviews will be held during February and March. If you would like to participate please contact Sue Rogers at susan.rogers@dius.gsi.gov.uk by 22 February.

The types of issues to be discussed are those covered by the FE section in the DIUS Simplification Plan which was published in December 2007.

• DIUS Simplification Plan

Audience: : FE principals, chief executives, governing bodies, staff, students and community partners of FE providers with an interest in how FE providers can contribute to community cohesion

On 11 February 2008 DIUS launched a national consultation on the role of FE providers in promoting community cohesion, fostering shared values and preventing violent extremism.

To view the consultation document visit the DIUS website. You can respond to this either via the DCSF e-consultation website at or by attending one of four consultation workshops taking place in March:

• South West, Bristol, 3rd March 2008
• Midlands, Birmingham, 5th March 2008
• North West, Manchester, 7th March 2008
• London, 11th March 2008

• DIUS consultations
• DCSF e-consultation website
• Consultation workshops

Audience: FE college principals and staff and training providers

DCSF is consulting on the new independent regulator of qualifications and tests in England announced by Ed Balls in September 2007.

The Office of the Qualifications and Examinations Regulator will build on the QCA's work to safeguard standards of assessment while the QCA will become a development agency for curriculum, assessment and qualifications. Establishing an independent regulator will help to strengthen public confidence in the standards of qualifications and assessment.

Confidence in Standards: Regulating and developing qualifications and assessment sets out proposals for the powers and responsibilities of the new regulator and the agency. It also includes proposals on issues such as governance, appeals and the operational relationship between the two organisations.

You can read Confidence in Standards and respond to the consultation online. The consultation runs until Monday 10 March.

• Confidence in standards consultation

Audience: LSC delivery partners, FE college principals and governing bodies and training providers

On Wednesday 30 January 2008, the LSC published its proposed statutory intervention policy for consultation. The policy sets out the proposed actions and processes it will take, if it seeks use the powers of intervention conferred to it under the Further Education and Training Act 2007. The consultation began on the date of publication and will complete on 2 May 2008.

Along with the actions and policies associated with the document Identifying and Managing Underperformance (published January 2008), the policy forms the central activities of the LSC’s work towards eliminating underperformance.

• Intervention Policy
• Identifying and Managing Underperformance

Audience: FE colleges, providers and employers

On 28 January the Prime Minister, along with the Secretary of State, other ministers and business leaders attended the Ready for Work, Skilled for Work conference, to examine how Government and employers can work together to unlock Britain’s talent.

At the conference, the Government published World Class Apprenticeships, setting out ambitious plans to ensure that all qualified young people have access to an Apprenticeship place by 2013 and significant growth in apprenticeships for older learners. Key recommendations include:

• A National Apprenticeships Service responsible for the delivery of the apprenticeship programme, with a field force to support employers and apprentices.
• Matching service so that Apprenticeship vacancies can be matched to suitable candidates.
• Entitlement to an Apprenticeship to school leavers who meet the entry criteria.

Two other documents were also published:

Ready to work, skilled for work sets out:

• how the Government is enabling employers to drive change in the employment and skills infrastructure
• how employers can gain accreditation for their own training programmes, and
• how Local Employment Partnerships provide tailored support for employers’ recruitment needs, in return for their considering recruits from the least advantaged backgrounds.

A leaflet, Unlocking Britain’s talent, lays out the opportunities available to employers through engaging with our policy programmes.

• World Class Apprenticeships
• Ready to work, skilled for work
• Unlocking Britain’s talent

Audience: FE principals, independent providers, specialist colleges, sixth form colleges, voluntary providers, national partners and stakeholders

The EAUC 12th Annual Conference will be held at the University of Exeter from Monday 31st March – Wednesday 2nd April.

There is now huge pressure on university and college staff and students to become more engaged with sustainability and sustainable development practice. Yet most staff development programmes and academic curricula still fail to deliver the competencies, knowledge, skills and attitudes needed if the goal of sustainability is to be achieved.

As the key annual sustainability event for UK further and higher education, this important conference will encourage and inspire to identify essential skills and knowledge and go on to equip them to embed skills for sustainability in their own staff and students.

For more information about the conference, including how to book and pay online, visit the EAUC website.

• EAUC website

Audience: FE college principals and their management teams; FE staff teaching courses leading to professional qualifications

Licence to Operate – Licence to Practice (LTO/LTP) is a working paper which seeks to address the following questions:

• Why should we be interested in licence to operate (LTO) and licence to practice (LTP)?
• What are the drivers for LTO/LTP?
• What is the current extent of LTO/LTP?
• What are the related developments to LTO/LTP?
• What are the forms of LTO/LTP?
• What is the cost of LTO/LTP?
• What are the learning points from the current development in LTO/LTP?

The complete document can be downloaded from the Navigate website.

• Navigate website

Audience: FE college principals and staff and training providers

Since the start of 2008, DIUS Ministers have visited three colleges:

• Telford College
• Eastleigh College
• College of North East London

Bill Rammell and David Lammy attended a meeting of the Ministerial Standing Group on FE on 8 January. Items discussed included progress on FE reform, the principles that will guide the Machinery of Government funding changes (published in November), qualifications reforms and developing and deepening links between employer and learner needs.

Audience: FE college principals, staff and training providers

Young Gifted & Talented (YG&T) is the new name for the national programme for gifted and talented education (NPGATE) in England. YG&sT is managed by CfBT Education Trust on behalf of the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF).

The YG&T vision is that all gifted and talented learners in England identified by their schools and colleges have the opportunity to reach their full potential, and in so doing create benefits for their fellow learners, places of learning and the wider community.

For gifted and talented young people aged 16 – 19, including former members of the National Academy for Gifted and Talented Youth (NAGTY), YG&T provides specific opportunities through its website. Some Higher Education residential events on offer are suitable for students considering going to University but who may be uncertain about what to study. Other events are available for young people more certain of their future paths.

• Young gifted and talented website
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