Lack of apprenticeships key issue for vocational students at Stourbridge College

Students and staff at Stourbridge College confirmed apprenticeships, vital for workplace learning, had dried up as a result of the recession. More students are studying full time for longer in response to the lack of opportunities in the workplace.

Margot James, Conservative Candidate for Stourbridge, welcomed David Evennett MP, Shadow Minister for Innovation, Universities and Skills to Stourbridge College where he met principal Lynette Cutting, vice principals Elaine Giles and Andy Sylvester, Head of the Advanced Technology Centre (ATC) Kevin Stevens, lecturers and students.

Margot said “We are very proud of the College’s success in Stourbridge but it as great to see how impressed David was as he is visiting Colleges all over the country and compared us very favourably with performance elsewhere.” Of particular note at the College were:

• The ‘Job Shop’ which the College has recently opened at both the ATC and the Hagley Road sites to help match students to the job opportunities in the local area. The College has very good contacts with the local business community and has developed, with no outside funding, an in house Jobcentre to help students find opportunities in the workplace.
• The quality of the training and facilities available at the ATC where David and Margot met students training as plumbers, mechanical engineers, carpenters and decorators.
• The one to one mentoring of students by staff. Every student has the opportunity of working out their goals and how to improve their grades on an individual basis with teaching staff.

David Evennett highlighted the direction of Conservative Policy to improve opportunities for young people and free Colleges up to do an even better job:

• A £2,500 subsidy for small to medium sized employers per apprenticeship.
• A ‘national insurance holiday’ for business start ups on their first ten employees for two years.
• A streamlining of finance for Colleges, simplifying the many funding streams Colleges have to grapple with and reducing bureaucracy.
• A re-focussing of Train to Gain and New Deal budgets to get money straight to Colleges and employers for the provision of more apprenticeships, training places at Colleges, mentoring and work sharing opportunities.
• A reaffirmation of the importance of workplace learning for young people aged 14 years and upwards.

Further Education Colleges are facing challenging times following the loss of financial control at the Learning & Skills Council (LSC). The system which is to be imposed on Colleges to replace the LSC is even more complicated involving a proliferation of organisations Colleges must liaise with and report to:

• Local Authorities
• The Young People’s Learning Agency
• The Skills Funding Agency

Of particular difficult is the arbitrary division of 14-19 year olds and over 19 year olds, a mix of whom might be in the same class. This split is also on the Conservative agenda for review along with the sheer number of organisations with whom Colleges must deal at considerable cost in management time. Costs that are taking funds which should be used at the front line in training and education.