Our assessment of the new Post-16 Education and Skills White Paper

Written by Jim Jack on October 21, 2025. Posted in News, Uncategorized

The government has published a set of wide-ranging new proposals for further and higher education.

The White Paper includes plans to introduce new technical qualifications, V Levels, and implement a more targeted, data-driven approach to plugging skills gaps in key areas.

There are also proposals to provide greater intervention and support for young people not in education or employment (NEET), and to raise annual university fees automatically, linked to inflation.

Our senior leaders have been carefully analysing each of the report’s main points to weigh up their merits and see what the implications are likely to be for our members.

Matching skills to industry

On labour market alignment, Bill Jones, our CEO Designate and Executive Principal Leeds City College, said: “A skills system that more closely connects education and employment into priority sectors is long overdue.

“Skills England’s national coordination, combined with devolved local planning, could maximise the role of skills as a genuine engine of economic growth, but only if colleges are effectively resourced to deliver and respond quickly to changing demand.”

Recruitment plans

Turning to FE teacher recruitment, he added: “Recruiting and retaining specialist FE teachers remains one of the greatest challenges facing further education.

“The proposals for professional development and industry exchange are welcome, but they must be matched by a funding settlement that allows colleges to offer competitive pay. Without tackling that gap, we risk losing the expertise that an ambitious and effective skills system depends on.”

Action on NEETs

On reducing NEET rates, group CEO Colin Booth said: “We welcome the commitment to make sure no young person is left without a place in education or training.

“But that ambition won’t be achieved unless post-16 capacity keeps pace with demand. Across Leeds and in many other cities, colleges are already at maximum capacity, and the number of 16-to-18-year-olds is still rising.

“The Youth Guarantee, the automatic allocation of college places and improved data sharing on learners at risk of becoming NEET are all positive steps forward, as is the strengthened role of secondary schools in supportive effective transitions into post-16 education. Without sustained investment into teaching space, staffing and support services, however, we risk seeing more young people left without a suitable place to learn.”

Qualification reforms and V Levels

On V Levels and qualification reform our Deputy CEO, Gemma Simmons-Blench, said: “Clarity and consistency in qualifications will help students, employers and providers alike.

“The move toward a smaller suite of high-quality Level 3 routes, including V Levels, is sensible, provided it protects progression opportunities and recognises the diverse needs of learners. Level 3 qualifications in scope for defunding should only be removed when a similarly accessible alternative is in place. Reform should simplify and enhance choice, not narrow it.”

Funding formula ‘must recognise realities’

On the review of the 16-19 funding formula, Gemma added: “A review of the 16-19 funding formula is long overdue.

“Colleges are educating record numbers of young people on funding levels that simply haven’t kept pace with inflation, pay pressures, or the growing complexity of learner needs. The current formula doesn’t reflect the higher delivery costs of technical programmes, industry placements or support for SEND learners.

“If the Government wants the post-16 education and skills system reform agenda to succeed, the updated formula must recognise the real cost of delivering high-quality education and provide the stability for greater flexibility and planning.”

More details needed on English and maths shake-up

She also had these reflections on the proposed English and maths reforms: “It’s right that the Government wants every learner to leave education with solid English and maths skills that provide the foundation for employability.

“It’s extremely positive that the Government have recognised the issues that face further education providers, but the detail behind the proposed new Level 1 qualification will be crucial. We need to understand how it will differ from existing functional skills, which learners it will be available to, what progression routes it will support, and how it will be funded and assessed.

“We also need to know whether this new qualification will be ring-fenced for post-16 students or accessible at an earlier age, as is the case with functional skills.

“Alongside these reforms, it would also be extremely beneficial for dedicated post-16 GCSE English and maths papers to be introduced, built specifically for resit students. Colleges deliver the bulk of this provision, so getting the structure and resourcing right will determine whether the reform genuinely raises attainment or simply rebrands what already exists.”

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Conservatoire students are ‘going wild’ for sustainability

Written by Jim Jack on July 9, 2024. Posted in Environment, News, Partnerships, Teaching and Learning, Uncategorized

Leeds Conservatoire students have been recording the sounds of nature as part of a sustainability push by Yorkshire’s higher education (HE) institutions.

The Conservatoire initiative is featured in a new Yorkshire Universities (YU) report which describes an array of sustainability projects that are being undertaken by local HE providers.

The Good Practice Guide for Engaging Students with Sustainability through Service Learning also highlights how the regional HE sector’s collaboration efforts with external partners are helping students obtain real-world opportunities to use their skills to address local sustainability issues.

The guide is designed as a blueprint that can be used by other institutions wishing to drive student engagement with sustainability. It is the culmination of a 15-month, £20,000 pilot project funded by the UPP Foundation which included an audit of the extent to which the 12 YU member institutions embedded sustainability in their curricula.

Learning from the great outdoors

As part of the pilot, all 12 YU member institutions were given £1,000 to use towards boosting Sustainability Service Learning activity and providing experiential learning opportunities. Leeds Conservatoire enabled its students to carry out environmental field recordings and the feedback was very positive.

One said: “I really enjoyed exploring Leeds through a new lens and perspective, as well as having the opportunity to take field recordings through a variety of types of microphones which included zoom, shotgun, hydrophone and contact.

“I found exploring the way the natural world changed as we drew closer to the centre of the city especially interesting, and the discussions that it provoked were highly useful in creating a greater understanding of our relationship with nature.”

A further £3,000 was assigned as prize money to a Multi-University Challenge Day, organised in December 2023, which brought together 36 students – with a diverse set of skills and backgrounds – from across the 12 regional institutions.

The students were asked to form groups and develop ideas on how to engage more learners with sustainability – a topic that directly aligns with the Yorkshire and Humber Climate Commission Regional Climate Action Plan. The winners were then invited to give a presentation at the annual Student Sustainability Research Conference.

An inspirational pilot to engage more students

Monika Antal, Assistant Director at Yorkshire Universities, said: “YU is proud to have led this pilot and we hope this guide will inspire other institutions to learn from what works in our experiences across the region.

“The project demonstrated there is significant value for universities working in partnership to address sustainability challenges through Service Learning, which benefits communities as well as offering students valuable real-world opportunities and experiential learning.

“We also discovered that community partners benefit from a diverse range of student perspectives and small amounts of funding can help to engage a wider range of students who would otherwise not have got involved.”

Richard Brabner, Executive Chair at the UPP Foundation, added: “Embedding local sustainability projects within the curriculum is great news for the towns and cities universities are from, great news for students who learn vital skills for the workplace, and great news for universities as it improves their reputation. We were proud to fund this project and warmly welcome the report. We hope it inspires more student sustainability initiatives across the higher education sector.”

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Scrutinising free schools and colleges

Written by Jim Jack on November 7, 2024. Posted in News, Uncategorized

The country’s finances, as the autumn budget has just starkly reminded us, are in dire straits – which means how we choose to spend public money is more important than ever, writes Kevin O’Hare, Principal of Keighley College.

That is especially true in the under-resourced field of state education, which has such a key role to play in equipping our young people (and adults) with the skills the country needs.

That is why we at Keighley College – along with the Association of Colleges and many schools and academies – welcome the new value for money review of proposed new ‘free schools’ that has been announced by Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson. This will involve scrutinising 44 proposals that were approved, in principle, by central government under the previous administration. Those include plans for New College Keighley, an academic sixth form college that would be run by the New Collaborative Learning Trust (NCLT) and increase sixth form provision in the district by 1,000 places*.

Announcing the review, Ms Phillipson made it clear that her focus will be on avoiding the ‘over-supply of places’ which, as well as representing poor value, ‘can be detrimental to the other, more established’ schools and colleges in the relevant areas.

And this touches upon the very heart of the matter.

Creating a destabilising surplus

Supporters of the free schools programme, championed by the last government, claim these new schools and colleges help to plug educational gaps while raising standards and creating fresh opportunities.

Those arguments may have some merit in specific circumstances, but only if these new institutions are actually needed in the areas concerned in the first place. That is precisely what the new review will be considering.

A report by Schools Week last year showed that around three in five planned free school places were scheduled to open in areas that had increasing numbers of surplus places. That national picture is reflected locally: in Keighley, for example, we know that currently we only have around 800 sixth form students across the district. So quite how those 1,000 extra places that New College Keighley is targeting will be filled, is a mystery. 

Indeed, a recent Bradford Council document –  Post 16 Sufficiency Assessment for Bradford – noted that not only was there already more than enough A level and other Level 3 qualification provision, but that what the local authority area is actually crying out for is more educational places for lower level courses. The report states that while ‘supply of Level 3 provision is…now broadly in line with need’, there is ‘significant demand for pre-Level 3 provision’.

Redirecting urgently needed funding

For Keighley, and the Bradford District, the additional A Level places that would be created by the proposed new college are not only not needed but would risk destabilising other local education providers and, ultimately, wasting public money. That is not just our view but one shared by the leaders of eight local schools and three further education colleges.

By creating an over-supply of educational places and aggressive competition, we would be facing a situation where either the new college fails or student numbers drop away at one or more of the existing colleges, thereby threatening their survival.

Any of those scenarios would represent an unacceptable waste of public funds and risk damaging, rather than enhancing, the level of local academic attainment by spreading the number of student places – and so funding – too thinly.

The value for money review offers the Department for Education the chance to identify and cancel such expensive red herrings and, instead, look at where the money could be more wisely spent. We would contend that supporting the growing demand for T Levels plus other vocational or technical qualifications, which will help tackle the country’s skills gap, would be a great place to start.

Education for all

When we campaigned last year, as a member of the West Yorkshire Consortium of Colleges, against the then-government’s free schools plans, we and our partners raised the very same concerns that Ms Phillipson is now seeking to address.

We are confident this review will support our contention that, for most areas, these free schools and colleges would represent an unnecessary and costly distraction.

If so, we hope the Education Secretary will follow the logic of her argument and redirect the funds that are saved from scrapping such projects into our existing post-16 education provision: with a sharp focus on where additional places are required to meet local need.

A push for ‘elite’ provision, rather than local demand, was actually behind the previous government’s support for many of the new free sixth forms it approved in principle – which included proposals by Eton College and Star Academies Trust.

By conducting a thorough review, based on what represents the best possible value for public money, the new government can cancel some of these unneeded projects and put the funds to much better use. That would represent an important affirmation that raising the educational bar for the many, and not just a select few, is at the heart of its mission.

This thought leadership piece was recently published in The Yorkshire Post.

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Sustainability award for Luminate Education Group

Written by Jim Jack on January 23, 2024. Posted in Environment, News, Uncategorized

Members of Luminate Education Group have had their sustainability credentials recognised through a Green Gown Award.

The group was part of a successful entry that showcased the collective impact of action by West Yorkshire Consortium of Colleges’ (WYCC) seven members.

The bid outlined the scores of varied initiatives that each of WYCC’s partners have been undertaking to promote Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – the 17 global targets adopted by the United Nations to tackle poverty and protect the planet.

The members’ work over the past year has spanned all of the SDG categories which include Climate Action, Affordable and Green Energy and Responsible Consumption and Production as well as Reduced Inequalities and Quality Education.

Environmental action across the group

Some key examples included:

• Leeds City College, Keighley College and Harrogate College taking part in Planet Earth Games – with Keighley, which produced an indoor greenhouse and a suit of armour welded from waste metal, being crowned the national winner
  
  
• Running an array of sustainability-focused courses, with 86 including specific net zero or sustainability content, across multiple fields including digital, business, motor vehicle and travel, food and drink
  
  
• Harrogate College embedding sustainable practice across all of its provision, while consolidating its position as a green skills leader
  
  
• Leeds Sixth Form College’s staff and students leading litter picking sessions and community clean-ups, using the gathered rubbish to create a sculpture at Park Lane campus
  
  
• Engineering students visiting DRAX power station to learn about the sustainable biomass it now uses as its primary fuel and the company’s research into carbon capture technologies

Inspiring first steps towards net zero

Luminate Education Group’s Deputy CEO, Bill Jones, said: “Lessening the impact of the climate emergency is one of our top priorities and something we can only effectively do through collaboration with our partners.

“There is a huge amount of work to be undertaken to make all of the changes we need to become, as we have pledged, net zero carbon by 2035. So it has been inspiring to see the commitment, passion and professionalism of our staff and students – along with those of our partner colleges – as they’ve thrown themselves behind this.

“We’ve made a great start and winning this Green Gown Award is a testament to that and will motivate us as we forge ahead with more sustainability improvements.”

The power of collaboration – and estate-wide improvements

Luminate Education Group Consultant, Jennifer Miccoli, added: “We did a huge amount of sustainability work as part of the WYCC bid, which was led by Shipley College. The collaboration with other colleges, and sharing of resources, was great and enabled us all to pick up some fantastic ideas.

“Our efforts included everything from small student-led community projects right through to reviewing our group-wide processes, particularly regarding our buildings, so we can target what will make the biggest difference in terms of our carbon footprint.”

In terms of the group’s buildings, a new advanced management system has been set up across each site to record and drive efficiencies in the use of energy, water, and heating. A range of multi-million pound infrastructure / rebuild schemes are also in the pipeline, including at Harrogate College and Leeds City College’s Mabgate campus, where the work will be completed to meet the BREEAM (Excellent) sustainability standard.

The installation of solar panels at Leeds’ Printworks campus meanwhile, due to be completed by this summer, is expected to save some 370,000 tonnes of annual CO2 emissions. Leeds Conservatoire is also, thanks to a £1.6m award from the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme, on course to slash its carbon footprint by upgrading its heating and cooling systems, windows and lighting.

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Using the seven pillars of STEM to create tomorrow’s workforce

Written by Jim Jack on August 19, 2024. Posted in News, Teaching and Learning, Uncategorized

The Labour government has made economic growth its top priority, but to drive this it will need to address skills shortages in the STEM sector which are holding us back to the tune of £1.5bn per year, writes Ann Marie Spry, our Vice Principal of Adults.

Colleges and higher education institutions like ours clearly play a vital role in addressing this problem – but not only through teaching the technical skills our learners need to succeed.

After analysing employer reports about recruitment in STEM fields a few years ago, what came over loud and clear was that while many of the students had the knowledge needed for the job, they didn’t have the necessary – and equally vital – behaviours.

So looking through a number of documents that mapped out the key characteristics that STEM employers were looking for, we whittled them down to create what we have called STEM 7. These are the attitudes and behaviours that underpin not just the science and tech industries but all kinds of jobs, from pastry chefs to fashion designers.

A skillset that transcends boundaries

STEM 7 consists of: creative thinking, problem-solving, communication, collaborative working, intellectual curiosity, flexibility and data-driven decision making. Just about all of those concepts are actually relevant regardless of the subject. Everybody these days has to use digital technology and maths in one way or another, and if you think of the design approach and problem-solving inherent to engineering, most jobs require creativity too.

Our challenge, as educators, is to ensure our curriculum provides opportunities for students to step out of their comfort zones and take on tasks in some of those STEM 7 areas they may struggle with. Engineers, for example, are known for having many important qualities – including problem-solving and, through their design approach, creativity. But they are not traditionally renowned for their collaborative approach or communication skills, both of which are  invaluable in the workplace.

That’s something our approach can help students with before they join the world of work, by stretching and developing them to ensure they have some of those transferable skills that businesses of all types really value.

And we know it’s working. We included some of our partner employers, like tech consultancy BJSS, in the first discussions about our STEM 7 strategy to make sure they were on board, and they’ve been nothing but supportive.

Opening minds

Introducing this concept has meant challenging both ourselves and our students to broaden how we think about STEM. As someone with a science background I feel strongly that many people tend to have a fear of ‘science’ and the STEM subjects, but that’s something we can and will change because it’s all around us in everything we do daily. 

One key way of doing so is through revising how we teach and moving away from the thoroughly unhelpful old perspective that saw technical and artistic courses as being entirely separate. Thankfully, there is an increasing awareness that both disciplines depend on each other and share many underlying principles, not least when it comes to creativity and intellectual curiosity.

The shorthand for this new perspective is STEAM (essentially, STEM plus the Arts) and Computer Game Design and Development is a classic example of STEAM in action. We teach the subject at Leeds City College as part of our very broad offering from the School of Creative Arts, at Quarry Hill campus – and it is the epitome of a field where technical know-how and creativity are equally important.

An immersive approach

Combined with this more open-minded perspective on what actually constitutes a STEM topic is the need to exploit emerging immersive technologies like AI and VR.

Such tools can offer great benefits to our students and the industries they want to enter. If you are studying healthcare, for example, you really want to learn on a hospital ward and we can offer that; indeed it will be one of the many new facilities that Harrogate College will provide following its £22m rebuild.

What VR does though, is give you so many additional options – in this case it allows you to change ward layouts, for example, and patient scenarios so that students are exposed to a wider set of challenges and leave college with a deeper understanding of what their jobs will entail.

We are already successfully using VR in welding at Keighley College, while across our group emerging technologies are helping us enhance the teaching of everything from science to electric vehicle infrastructure.

By combining these high-tech teaching aids with a STEM 7 approach, which also delivers those in-demand ‘softer skills’, we will start to plug those STEM-shaped holes in  the country’s economy.

This thought leadership piece was recently published in FE Week.

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Scoring high on student satisfaction

Written by Jim Jack on September 7, 2023. Posted in News, Teaching and Learning, Uncategorized

Student satisfaction rates at University Centre Leeds (UC Leeds) and Leeds Conservatoire have once again been ranked as some of the best in the country.

UC Leeds outscored other local higher education providers – including Leeds Arts University, Leeds Beckett University, Leeds Trinity University and the University of Leeds – in six of the seven categories in the 2023 National Student Survey (NSS).

Those included quality of course teaching (93%), learning opportunities (88%), academic support (92%) and assessment and feedback (just under 92%).

UC Leeds was ranked above the national average in most areas of the survey too, including on a newly introduced question about mental wellbeing support. Over 88% of its students, compared to 81.6% nationally, said they were happy with the information that was provided about such services.

Glowing feedback ‘a credit to our teams’

Dean of Higher Education at UC Leeds, Dr Sarah Marquez, said: “We are really pleased with this fantastic feedback, which is a testament to the hard work of our teaching and support teams. It is wonderful to hear that so many of our students have been pleased with the quality of our courses and instruction.

“It is particularly pleasing to see improved ratings in several areas where we were already scoring highly, including teaching and academic support. Satisfaction in learning resources, meanwhile, jumped by nine percent – from 72.5% to 81.6% – which reflects our recent investment in facilities like our fantastic new digital hub.

“Our goal is always to deliver high calibre education along with outstanding experiences, including talks from inspiring speakers and visits to outstanding workplaces, to our students.

“These wonderful survey results show how much such initiatives are valued and will spur us on to even greater things.”

Hitting the high notes

Leeds Conservatoire, meanwhile, achieved the highest scores of any UK conservatoire in two of the survey’s categories – for assessment and feedback, and organisation and management. The specialist provider of higher music and performing arts education also scored above the national average for conservatoires in all seven areas.

Those results were music to the ears of Leeds Conservatoire Principal, Professor Joe Wilson. He said: “We’re so proud of this year’s NSS results and are thankful to our staff for their continued commitment, and to our students for recognising the conservatoire with this fantastic feedback.

“Leeds Conservatoire has a national and international reputation for creativity and innovation, and for being a truly contemporary specialist teaching institution.

“Our staff and industry partners are at the cutting edge of their creative disciplines, and our students are encouraged and supported to explore their individual artistic identities.”

More than 339,000 students took part in the 2023 NSS to rate their experiences of higher education.

The Office for Students, which manages the survey, updated the format this year following a public consultation.

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