Blog Archives: March 2014

When I first entered Q6, I had no idea what to expect of my week here at NCFE. Thoughts of the best possible scenario alongside the worst made me a bag of nerves sitting at the reception. I’ve never had an in-depth experience of marketing and PR, so I was really entering the unknown in quite a few aspects. I tried to find out whatever I could about the organisation beforehand. However, I knew that however much I researched, nothing could prepare me for stepping into the world of work. I can happily say that my best case scenario thoughts were right; friendly and approachable staff and tasks that challenged me but wouldn’t give me a migraine. As the week went on, I gained more and more knowledge of the marketing world and I felt more confident and comfortable within the workplace.

Welcome to the first ‘English and maths Made Easy' column by Bolton College! Over the next few months, Pat Harrison, Director of 14 – 19 and Strategic Lead for English and Maths, and Catherine Langstreth, Advanced Practitioner and English and maths Tutor, will be dispelling myths about the two subjects, providing hints and tips to help you in everyday life, as well as telling some inspirational stories about how developing maths and English skills has transformed the lives of people in Lancashire – at home, at work and when out and about in their home town. Most of the time we don't think about maths and English – but the funny thing is, they're everywhere we go. At home: paying for bills, reading letters, reading instructions on how to cook something. At work: communicating with colleagues, customers, calculating our wages, booking holidays. In our social life: reading road signs, paying for shopping/petrol, sharing a bill in a restaurant, reading a menu. Sometimes, it's the simplest things that stump us, but it doesn't have to be that way. The two subjects combined can open up a whole host of opportunities – promotions at work, new interests in life and jobs we thought that weren't possible.

3 in 10 senior members of staff in schools are planning to leave according to recent workload figures. The official figures show that head teachers are working on average 63 hours a week with 82% of staff claiming their workload has increased since last year.

Looking to the future, the landscape of educational delivery is far from clear, particularly with regards to the use of technology in education – a hot topic on everyone’s lips at the moment. This month, a report was published by the Further Education Learning Technology Action Group (FELTAG), making a number of interesting recommendations to Skills Minister Matthew Hancock regarding their vision of a digital future.

The start of 2014 showed some promise with unemployment figures decreasing in the UK. The number of people out of work in the UK fell by 63,000 to 2.33 million which is definitely a positive sign, however 17.9% of young people aged 16-24 who aren’t in full time education are still unemployed. The figures show there are more opportunities for employment, however it may be difficult for young people to capitalise on them and secure a job if they aren’t fully prepared for what’s ahead of them.

The Welsh government have suggested that parents need to change their negative attitude towards mathematics in order to encourage their children to not only pursue the subject, but to realise its true value and ensure they excel in it. A poll commissioned by the Welsh government showed that 29% of parents admitted to making negative comments about maths in front of their children, such as “don’t ask me to do maths, I’m rubbish at it.”

A Cambridge University professor, Mary Beard, has expressed concern that online open courses are in "danger" of creating divisions in society. Professor Beard has said that these courses risk setting apart the "privileged few", who receive face-to-face teaching from the "unprivileged mass" who learn via a screen. At NCFE, we’re committed to providing learning opportunities to individuals from all backgrounds and we feel that the option of online and blended learning actually helps us to do this by granting a wider access to education and a more flexible approach. That's why we offer distance learning solutions.

As you’re aware, the SFA recently announced changes to its funding rules meaning that a number of adult qualifications may no longer be publicly funded. This story has hit the wider press this month with reports stating that around 5,000 adult vocational courses will be cut in order to "simplify and streamline" the adult skills system in England. Skills and Enterprise Minister Matthew Hancock took to Twitter to announce that the current system is ‘hard to understand’ and the Government will be binning ‘low-value’ courses such as self-tanning, balloon artistry and instructing pole fitness in order to focus on qualifications that employers value. Nearly £200m of the department's adult skills budget will now be redirected towards what the Government considers to be the ‘most relevant’ qualifications.

The Department for Education (DfE) has recently made some significant changes to the way that secondary school performance is measured, having an impact on schools up and down the country. The aim is to reform the way that schools and colleges are assessed so that all pupils, regardless of background, can make progress and find success across a broad choice of subjects and study programmes. The government’s vision was to reward schools that set high expectations for the attainment and progress of all their pupils, provide high value qualifications, and teach a wide variety of subjects across a balanced curriculum. The focus was to ensure that accountability became “the servant, not the master, of excellent teaching”. In other words, the accountability system should work with and not against teachers’ main objective – to help their pupils gain the skills and qualifications they need to succeed in their future.