Key Speakers:
Jackie Fisher CBE
The conference opened with a highly stimulating presentation by Jackie Fisher CBE, Chief Executive of the Newcastle College Group. The Newcastle College Group encompasses three highly successful educational companies, which all follow a profit-making business model. One of the companies was bought by the Group from administration - an action that Jackie was keen not to encourage others to follow.
Some critical success factors that she identified:
- Communication and cross fertilisation of good practice between the three organisations
- E-enabling communication was identified as a critical success factor in making such a large multi-site organisation work. Staff in each of the three organisations regardless of geographical proximity to Newcastle, have the same access to the single computerised system.
- Hard working staff that deliver results and which do not bring politics or patronage into the system
powerpoint presentation: Jackie Fisher - 26 May 2010
Frank Coffield
Professor Emeritus Frank Coffield of the Institute of Edudcation followed Jackie with a distinctly different focus. He eschewed a profit-making business model for education. Education is a process, he intoned. "It should not ape business". It is cooperation, not competition, that is the business of education.
A "back to basics approach" was needed, he said, which focused on achieving excellence in teaching and learning. ICT was a "false god", he proclaimed: it is only as good as the teacher using it. And he cautioned against the education system becoming an exams factory relying on spoon feeding to get results.
powerpoint presentation: Frank Coffield - 26 May 2010
Lesley Griffiths AM, Deputy Minister for Science, Innovation and Skills - 27 May
In her short address, opening the second day of the conference, Lesley Griffiths assured delegates that skills were at the top of the Welsh Government's agenda. She also suggested that a sharp focus will be turned on basic skills, given that the Welsh Government's investment in basic skills had not yet delivered the results that had been hoped for.
David Rosser, Director CBI Wales - 27 May
David Rosser raised a laugh as he opened by reminiscing that he had last been invited to address a ColegauCymru annual conference a whole ten years ago. He suggested that it had been his "challenging" presentation to blame for being left out in the cold for the intervening ten years. "Boy, do you hold a grudge" he joked.
However, he then went on to quote from a recent CBI survey of its members, which reported very favourably on FE colleges. He thanked colleges for their hard work and for responding well to employer demands in training over recent years.
John Graystone
Dr John Graystone, ColegauCymru / CollegesWales Chief Executive opened with a brief examination of the education policies of the new UK coalition government before returning his focus to Wales.
Here in Wales, rates of attainment and successful completion of qualifications have improved over recent years. Colleges are delivering; they are successful. At the same time, FE colleges have also become more efficient, he said. Shared services was an avenue now being pursued that promised to deliver further efficiencies, he claimed, though possibly not better effectiveness.
Colleges had also responded positively to the Welsh Government's Transformation agenda, he claimed, with college mergers past, present and potential likely to reduce the number of colleges from 30 in 1994 to 19 by 2013. Finally, with a quick tour of various models of governance, John Graystone concluded that the current stakeholder model of governance had served FE well, but that if other models were put forward that offered further improvements, he was certain that colleges would give them proper consideration, following their strategy of improving quality through self regulation.
powerpoint presentation: John Graystone - 27 May 2010
Leighton Andrews AM, Minister for Education and Lifelong Learning
Leighton Andrews, Minister for Education and Lifelong Learning, drew the conference to a close with a highly positive speech. He said: "I want to congratulate further education institutions for the way in which they have responded to our agenda for change. They have supported skills development, broadened curriculum options for young people and offered learning opportunities to a huge range of people of all ages, background and experience. They have made an enormous contribution to our ambition to improve social justice and enhance the skills base of the Welsh workforce”.
In order to ensure that colleges could realise even more successes in future, he continued, he intented to set up an expert panel under the chairmanship of Rob Humphreys to look at models of governance. He stressed that it was not his intention to return colleges to local authority control, but that he wanted to "build on [colleges’] success and ensure that further education institutions have governance arrangements that will continue the progress that further education has made since incorporation 17 years ago."