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FE Week ~ subscribe now to ensure you receive first edition
Following the two pilot editions of the FE Week newspaper the weekly edition will hit desks on September 12th. Subscribe now at https://www.eventsforce.net/lsect/34/register to ensure you receive your copy. Subscribers will also immediately receive an email containing the link to all seven of the latest Lsect resources: http://www.feweek.co.uk/resources/

Attending AoC Annual Conference? Secure 1st night hottest ticket in town
Lsect will be hosting a glitzy black tie dinner and charity auction in partnership with Tribal and NCFE, with all proceeds going to the Helena Kennedy Foundation. It will be held on 15th November at the Birmingham City Hall (the first night of the AoC Annual Conference). Tickets are expected to quickly become like gold dust, so secure your place/s here: http://www.feweek.co.uk/index.php/auction (where you can also start bidding for items now).

Making sense of who does and does not have to pay
To the surprise of most BIS put out a press release on the 9th August 2011 saying they were giving colleges more freedoms from existing budgets to “provide fully subsidised courses for people on benefits” providing “the training is to help them enter employment”. (read it in full here: http://tinyurl.com/3qplh6b). The press release quotes the Minister John Hayes saying this “marks a new phase…of action to lessen bureaucratic restrictions". This is impressive spin given it was John Hayes’s policy announced in November 2010 (and since heavily criticised) which planned to stop these subsidies in the first place!

The Skills Funding Agency then rushed to catch-up with this partial u-turn by producing an update to their funding guidance on the 12th August (here: http://tinyurl.com/4yrzh3t and here: http://tinyurl.com/3pcxy4m). However, this still left questions unanswered, like whether ESOL learners where included, and what about dependants of those remaining eligible? To my knowledge the SFA have yet to publish any further clarifications, but FE Week has published communication from the SFA to the AoC, which confirms that ESOL learners are eligible for this ‘local discretion’. Click on this link to read the article: http://tinyurl.com/3ogzpev

Do you know of any learners that might be considering quitting their full or part time jobs to become eligible for full funding following these late changes? If so please email me.

ESOL funding u-turn?
Following the late policy changes (see above) Chris Taylor from NIACE has written an excellent piece for FE Week on the implications (read it here: http://tinyurl.com/3ozkwnb). There are also some good comments that are worth a read, and if relevant please add your own.

SFA 2011/12 allocation spreadsheet published
On the 5th August the SFA published the first spreadsheet with 2011/12 provider allocations, which is always worth a look (click here: http://tinyurl.com/3wowjba). Unfortunately, as is so often and predictably the case, the format has changed from 2010/11 (three separate columns for 19+ LR, 19+ Apprenticeships and TtG have been replaced by a single column for all 19+) making comparisons difficult. There are 1,081 prime contractors listed alongside their 2011/12 allocations, the smallest of which is Age Concern Milton Keynes with £3,000 and the largest is UfI Ltd (currently being sold by the Government) with £122m. In total there are 227 providers with allocations below £500k (incl. ESF), which suggests the Minimum Contract Level of £500k has not been applied very strictly. However, with 471 fewer prime contractors than the 1,552 in 2010/11 Quarter 3 spreadsheet (click here: http://tinyurl.com/3wczeg4) the average contract size has risen from £2.7m to £3.5m.

FE Loans Consultation ~ how would you do it?
After BIS first published in November 2010 their intention to scrap grant funding for Level 3 and above from 2013/14 the sector has been waiting nervously for the detail. For example, just how would this work for employed apprentices? Well, nine months after the announcement BIS have ask you for the answer via a 36 page consultation that they published on the 16th August 2011 (could there be a worse week of the year to get attention when announcing an education related consultation?). Read it here: http://www.bis.gov.uk/newchallenges. Please do leave your thoughts at the end of the related FE Week article and respond by the 21st October: http://tinyurl.com/3p4dcoc. Based on previous years I would expect BIS to publishing more on the policy in mid-November during the AoC annual conference. If so, I’m a little dubious as to whether there would be enough time to consider the consultation responses fully.

Head of the UKCES calls me to clarify his ‘accusation’ comments
Michael Davis, the new Head of the UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES) was quoted on the front page of the FE Focus under the blazing headline ‘Colleges accused of failing to provide consumer data…suggesting they have something to hide’. This led my newspaper FE Week to publish a response from the well know FE researcher Mick Fletcher, challenging Michael Davis’s comments (read both articles here: http://tinyurl.com/3mpbs4x).

Michael Davis then called me to say that whilst the words quoted in the FE Focus article were accurate (captured on tape), he felt they were ‘taken out of context’ and he ‘had not expected the interview to even lead to an article, let alone one about colleges hiding data’. Unfortunately, the UKCES have not set the record straight via Twitter not any other communication channel – so I thought it worth a mention here. Also, Michael Davis has said he will submit an article to FE Week outlining his views on college satisfaction data in the near future.

Despite talk of more ‘freedoms’, are colleges about to face new red tape?
The Skills Funding Agency accounts were not signed off by the National Audit Office (thus ‘qualified’) owing to a change in the way colleges are classified by the government. For future accounts to be signed off, the SFA will probably need colleges to submit accounts on a financial year basis (in addition to the current academic year one). Read more about this from FE Week Expert Bob Deed and add your comments: http://tinyurl.com/4xqstln

Plenty of news on FE Week website before weekly launch
Although the weekly printed editions of FE Week won’t roll off the press for another week, we have been publishing articles online in the last few weeks, including:

~ A visit to South Thames College on A Level results day: http://tinyurl.com/3bnmoy9
~ The call from AELP for NAS to market apprentices better: http://tinyurl.com/3bnvou9
~ Ofsted calls for a review of post-16 LLDD provision: http://tinyurl.com/4ypa4mr
~ Number of NEETs continue to hit a record highs: http://tinyurl.com/3pgfrdx
~ Unreachable targets put the Work Programme at risk: http://tinyurl.com/3wyd7zp

FE Week podcasts (AKA online video)
In edition to regular tweets (www.twitter.com/feweek) and posts on Facebook (www.facebook.com/FEWeek) we have created a YouTube video channel (www.youtube.com/FEWeekPodcast) and have already had over 1000 views across 12 videos. They can be viewed on screen in standard or high definition, and even via your smart phone. Get the IT department to give you access (if it’s needed) and join the revolution!

Comment on the FE Week website to win mug
There have already been over 100 comments posted on the FE Week (www.feweek.co.uk) website, and I would encourage you to leave one when you have something to contribute. If having your say is not enough incentive, each month a randomly selected commenter will win an exclusive FE Week contributor mug.

Agendas being finalised, but book now to secure place
The agendas for both the Autumn Data Conference and the Level 3 Access to HE Funding Summit are being finalised and will be added to the website shortly. In the meantime, if you have not already done so book your place now to secure it. Bookings can be cancelled up to a week before at no cost, so what have you got to lose?

~ Book the Lsect Autumn College Data Conference here: http://tinyurl.com/3gk3g9w
~ Book the Lsect Access to HE Funding Summit here: http://tinyurl.com/3tuswjm

And finally...how do you spell ‘bitten off more than you can chew’ in XML?
The summer has not gone well for the Data Service, as in mid August (after the start of the 2011/12 academic year) they have had to announce a delay to the release of both the 2011/12 Online Data Collections Portal and the offline Learner Information Suite software. This has significant implications to payment values for those expecting to be paid based on their data returns. Read more about this via FE Week here: http://tinyurl.com/435us7g

Kind regards and have a great 2011/12,

Nick
www.twitter.com/nicklinford

P.S. Do you have a story for FE Week? Is there something you want to us to help you share with others, or have us investigate (such as good or poor use of public funds)? If so then please get in touch with the FE Week news-desk by emailing news@feweek.co.uk