hive worcesterCash secured for graduate jobs
8:20am Monday 28th February 2011
By Alicia Kelly » @aliciakellyWN #WENews FIVE graduate jobs will be created in Worcestershire with the help of £148,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund.
The positions will be part of a project called Nurturing Worcestershire’s Treasures.
The jobs will be at the Elgar Birthplace Museum, the Hurd Library at Hartlebury Castle and University Research Collections, Worcester Cathedral Library and Archive, George Marshall Medical Museum and Worcester Porcelain Museum.
The museums and libraries will form a partnership with Worcestershire County Council and the University of Worcester to create the positions. The graduates will specialise in curatorial skills, digital archiving, marketing, creating exhibitions and fund-raising.
After a three-month induction, the graduates, who will be taken on under the university’s current salaried graduate internship scheme, will spend a year on the job while completing a postgraduate certificate.
The scheme is possible after funding from HLF’s skills for the future scheme.
Catriona Smellie, curator of the George Marshall Medical Museum, said: “For us, this project will allow an individual to spend 15 months working on a project that will help ensure the future of the collection by linking it to health targets and agenda.
“For a small, independent museum like this, with a usual staff body of one, the addition of team members is always an exciting thing.”
David Morrison, librarian and archivist at Worcester Cathedral Library, said: “I am delighted that Worcester Cathedral Library will be part of a joint project to teach the skills required for people interested in a career in the heritage sector.”
The 15-month project starts in July and also has the support of VisitWorcester and Ironbridge Gorge Museum.
Anne Jenkins, head of the Heritage Lottery Fund in the West Midlands, said: “When the recession kicked in we thought very hard about how HLF could make a difference to people’s lives.
“The answer was an innovative and ambitious programme focusing on equipping people with practical skills to help them secure future employment.”
Positions will be advertised online at www.worcester.ac.uk.
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Monday 28 February 2011
Cash secured for graduate jobs
Sunday 27 February 2011
Gheluvelt Park
Gheluvelt Park
Gheluvelt Park, in Worcester, was built in honour of the 2nd Battalion Worcester Regiment, who had 190 men killed or wounded during the First World War.
Friday 25 February 2011
Involving students at all levels of university development is vital for success
hive worcesterThe new arrangements for higher education funding mean that the active involvement of students at all levels of university development and decision making will become even more important in the future, Sir Alan Langlands, Chief Executive of HEFCE told a conference today.
Speaking at the annual Dearing Higher Education Conference at the University of Nottingham, Sir Alan said it was essential that work on quality improvement in higher education satisfied present and future students, and that concerns in Parliament and the wider public were properly addressed.
'From top to bottom university governors and staff have a responsibility to ensure that the potential of all students is realised, and institutions involve students directly in their efforts to improve quality and standards', he said.
On the transition to the new funding settlement Sir Alan said:
'We have an internationally respected higher education system, derived from a progressively reformed 'public-private' funding mix. There is a clear case for change based on questions of affordability to the state, benefits to individuals and the need for continuous improvement. This change needs to be carefully handled – building on existing strengths, investing for the future where possible and tackling weaknesses head-on.'
Sir Alan said that, in framing legislation and organisational change, institutional autonomy was the bedrock of success.
'In working towards the new arrangements we do need regulation that will protect the interests of students and the wider public, but this has to be carefully judged: whilst it should not be intrusive, there must be mechanisms to intervene when institutions are facing financial or other difficulties. This is an important balancing act and we need to get it right.'
Sir Alan said that despite the bruising effect of recent cuts in higher education, a preliminary review of universities' 2009-10 accounts showed that total income in higher education actually increased by 5.7 per cent on the previous year.
'Universities posted very respectable financial results with good levels of cash and reserves. The outlook for 2010-11 (despite further in-year reductions) is manageable for most institutions.'
He said the aggregate effects of all the recent changes would be very different in different institutions, and that HEFCE would work in the interests of students to support institutions which have to change their business models, and perhaps their size and shape, in response to higher levels of financial risk.
Sir Alan said the scale of the competitive challenge and the opportunities for collaboration with universities and education and research funders across the world reinforced his view that the Government must return to the question of public investment in universities - particularly science and research - as the economy improves, 'especially if it can be shown, as I am sure it will be, that universities and colleges are actively contributing to the process of recovery and growth'.
hefce.ac.uk
HEFCE : News : 2011 : 17 February 2011
Thursday 24 February 2011
University 75th in survey
The University of Worcester has come 75th out of 113 in a poll which asked students about the quality of their university experience.
The Times Higher Education Student Experience Survey 2010 asked more than 13,000 undergraduates to rate thir university on 21 factors - from the quality of teaching to the social life on campus.
In Worcester, between 30 and 50 students were polled.
Topping the list for the fifth year running was Loughborough, while the University of Westminster was in last place.
University of Worcester registrar and secretary John Ryan said,
"The university scored well in many areas.
"We are very pleased that a large number of those students who responded said they would recommend the university to a friend and also that our facilities were rated highly, along with the personal relationship students have with teaching staff and the high quality of staff and lectures."
Worcester News, Thursday Feb 24th 2011
Construction Open Day 28th Feb 2011
Construction Open Day & Trade Challenge
Monday 28th February 2011
11am - 7pm
All are welcome to come and visit our Construction facilities in Malvern and speak to tutors about courses.Find out about courses and apprenticeships in all construction trades: Brickwork
Carpentry & Joinery
Painting & Decorating
Electrical
Plumbing
Construction TechnicianTrade Challenge competition
See our students from Brickwork, Carpentry and Painting & Decorating compete for prizes in a Trade Challenge Competition!For more information call 01905 742345.
Worcester College of Technology.
Wednesday 23 February 2011
Students mark ‘go green’ week (From Worcester News)
hive-worcesterStudents mark ‘go green’ week
12:22pm Wednesday 23rd February 2011
STUDENTS at the University of Worcester have been learning how to go green.
The students have taken part in a host of activities themed around food, energy, waste and travel for Go Green Week.
Among them were ideas such as Can Film Festival, where students received free entry to a film by turning up with cans for recycling, and a Keen Green Karaoke where students were given a free drink for singing Sting songs.
The week started with pledges and button badges while branded coins were also circulated and a student-led campaign was promoted to show people how small changes can make a big difference.
Katy Boom, director of environmental sustainability at the university, said: “The You Count campaign was developed a couple of years ago by design students and includes a series of nine information posters, giving information to students about how they can reduce carbon.
“The statistics and images on the posters are all pertinent to the campus, depicting for example the university’s own recycling bags, and the First UniBus to try to make it feel real.”
Students also chatted about their vision for sustainability at the university’s first World Café and there were cooking demonstrations.
Student Charlotte Taylor, who is part of the organising committee, said: “We have all been very keen to get involved not only because we see it as our responsibility to help to reduce the impact of climate change but also because it’s fun.”
During the week, Worcester Produce sold boxes of locally grown vegetables and Worcestershire County Council’s Choose How You Move team donated 100 goody bags to give out.
Tuesday 22 February 2011
Youngsters from ethnic minorities miss out on apprenticeships
Ashley Thaw Ashley Shaw ended up being apprenticed to his father. Photograph: Martin Godwin for the Guardian
Ashley Thaw left school with five good GCSEs and designs on being a plumber. But his attempts to find an apprenticeship proved fruitless. "I must have phoned around 100 firms," he says. "I got an interview with a big firm, but the minute I walked into the place, I could tell they didn't think I'd fit in. I didn't get the job."
Michael Nyamekye left school with two A-levels, but his attempts to find an apprenticeship scheme were also unsuccessful. Over an 18-month period, he applied, and was turned down for, over 150 jobs and apprenticeships. "I was mainly applying for accountancy and administrative roles but, in every interview I walked into, I was the only black guy there. I was very conscious of the fact I was different from all the other candidates."
It is a familiar story, says Jeremy Crook, director of the British Training and Enterprise Group (Bteg), a national charity that works to improve education, skills and employment outcomes for black, Asian and ethnic minority communities.
There is disagreement about how many people from black and minority ethnic backgrounds are taking up and completing apprenticeships. Unionlearn, the lifelong learning arm of the TUC, puts the figure at around 6%. Recently released government data suggests 7%. Meanwhile, the National Apprenticeship Service (NAS), the government-led agency that works with employers to increase and promote apprenticeship opportunities, estimates 8%. But there is agreement that this is an area that needs attention.
According to Crook, employers' attitudes are part of the problem. Although there have been improvements in some areas (such as childcare and business administration), young people of BME origin are still poorly represented in areas like construction, engineering and hospitality, a trend that can be put down to "an element of racism", says Crook.
Linda Clarke, professor of European industrial relations at Westminster Business School, has carried out extensive research into obstacles for ethnic minorities in accessing vocational training in the construction industry. She says: "The reality is that many employers still want to work with people like themselves. So if they are white and male, the chances are they'll look to recruit similar types."
Educating employers is vital, says Tom Wilson, director of Unionlearn. "Unions are attempting to negotiate equality and diversity training for managers and to promote recruitment strategies that directly target BME candidates, for example in the black press. Employers should go out of their way to offer work experience and open days to BME pupils."
Young people's perceptions are also important, says Crook. "Some black or ethnic minority young people fear they won't 'fit in' in a workplace where their colleagues are predominantly white."
Thaw also believes not enough candidates are applying because they don't see role models doing the same. "Many of the friends I grew up with in Nottingham were brought up by single mothers and had no working male role models around."
But he thinks employers' behaviour is down to stereotyping. "There are so many negative images of young black men. I think some employers are worried about how it might be seen if they send a black guy round to a customer's house."
Crook points out that not only are young people from black and ethnic minorities under-represented in apprenticeships, those who do make it tend to be concentrated in programme-led apprenticeships (sometimes known as pre-apprenticeships). These are generally counted as apprenticeships in official figures, but they do not always lead to a job.
In employer-led apprenticeships, young people are paid by their employer and stand a good chance of getting a job at the end of the training. In programme-led apprenticeships, they start out with a college or learning provider, but many never manage to secure a paid apprenticeship.
Geography also plays a part. Crook explains: "In areas like Yorkshire, which has a strong history of manufacturing industries, there may be more apprenticeship opportunities, while urban areas, which have a bigger population of ethnic minority young people, tend to have far fewer."
Frustrated by his lack of progress, Thaw enrolled on a level 1 plumbing course at his local college, which without a suitable work placement was "less than useless", he says. A year later, when he still hadn't managed to secure an apprenticeship, he relocated to Surrey to live with his father, a self-employed plumber, who agreed to take his son on as his own apprentice.
Thaw, 18, now works with his dad four days a week and attends North East Surrey College of Technology (Nescot) in Epsom one day a week, where he is working towards a level 2 apprenticeship and is "once again, the only black guy in the class". Afterwards, he hopes to progress on to a level 3 qualification.
Nyamekye, who is now 23, was claiming jobseekers allowance for over 18 months before he heard about an opening at the outsourcing and asset management company Mitie, on their employability scheme, which provides paid training and work experience to young people from disadvantaged backgrounds. This led to a full-time job in sales and marketing.
"We can't emphasise enough the importance of mentoring for boosting aspiration and providing career guidance for people from a black, Asian and minority ethnic background," says Sandra Kerr, national campaign director of Race for Opportunity, an organisation (of which Mitie is a member) that is committed to improving employment opportunities for ethnic minorities across the UK.
The government has pledged to create 75,000 new apprenticeships over the next four years. But with plans to phase out programme-led apprentices, BME participation in apprenticeships could sink lower. Proportionally, BME students have already have been hit hard by the scrapping of the education maintenance allowance (EMA). Government figures from 2008 show that while 43% of all 17- to 18-year-old full-time students received EMA, 67% of Black African and 88% of Bangladeshi students were in receipt of this allowance.
Crook believes the NAS needs to do more."The NAS needs to show some leadership. Instead of setting ineffective targets it should be in dialogue with apprentices, employers and learning providers asking 'how can you help improve this situation?'"
But an NAS spokesperson says: "The National Apprenticeship Service strongly believe that apprenticeships should be open and accessible to all, regardless of gender, ethnicity, disability or learning difficulty. However, we do not have the remit to compel employers to recruit one potential apprentice over another. We are committed to a wide range of activities to promote equality in apprenticeships."
Sunday 20 February 2011
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One in five 16-to-24s are unemployed. An enterprise strategy might improve things
"I am the one in 10," UB40 sang in 1981, when unemployment hit 10% in Margaret Thatcher's Britain. Today the group, which took its name from the unemployment benefit form of the day, would need to sing of the "one in five" 16-to-24-year-olds seeking work. And they would find the bitterness of their generation at being "a statistical reminder in a world that doesn't care" is as deeply felt by today's youngsters struggling to find a first job.
It's not just the huge numbers: almost a million young people actively looking for work – think of the entire population of Birmingham queueing at Job Centres. It's not even that this is the third month in a row that unemployment has risen. The alarming trend is that the proportion of young people on the dole is rising at a faster rate than other age groups. The percentage of those of all ages seeking work hovers at 8%, but the rate for 16-to-24-year-olds has passed 20% and is still rising. So, while the increase in unemployment over three months was 44,000, the number of jobless 16-to-24s rose by 66,000.
This spells disaster for a generation. It has had the Educational Maintenance Allowance taken away, although this would have kept some teenagers at school improving their skill base at low cost to the taxpayer. The Future Jobs Fund has gone – which, though not perfect, allowed youngsters to acquire skills at low cost. Replacing it is a Work Programme, which depends on private contractors matching claimants with vacancies, while trying to make a profit. Some are already complaining that the terms of business aren't attractive.
Getting a million young people into work needs a government strategy. There isn't one. All the evidence suggests that young people who don't get that first entry-level job never catch up. David Blanchflower, former Monetary Policy Committee member and academic, wrote in 2000 of the "permanent scars" that blight a generation when young scientists, archaeologists, designers and teachers simply fail to get on the career paths for which they have (expensively) qualified.
For several months last year, on behalf of the charity New Deal of the Mind, I examined the problems facing young people seeking work in the creative sector (still one of the few expanding areas of the economy). In that time I never met a 20-something graduate who did not want to work. Huge numbers wanted jobs so badly that they were prepared to work for free. So, how do you find work for a million young people? Actually, there are answers. Most need a small amount of money and a large amount of faith.
Back in UB40's heyday, Thatcher needed to sanitise the rising unemployment statistics. She wanted people off the dole queue and starting their own micro-businesses. She was willing to let claimants keep the support they would get in unemployment benefit. Her Enterprise Allowance Scheme lasted from 1983 to 1991. In the year following its introduction, a quarter of a million more people than expected became self-employed. EAS alumni include people now Turner Prize winners, top music producers and a well-known fashion label. Martin Bright, co-author of the report and founder of NDotM is another. Forget the politics, Thatcher's strategy worked.
This government has a New Enterprise Allowance in the offing. It's a lacklustre scheme, requiring a period on the dole and then being monitored and working to time limits. Even so, it offers more hope than this latest obsession with welfare cheats. The real hope, however, is that more and more young people will turn away from the mean-spirited visions of the future they are being offered and create something different for themselves.
Make a Job Don't Take a Job by Barbara Gunnell and Martin Bright, is available at newdealofthemind.com
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
Saturday 19 February 2011
Thursday 17 February 2011
Young people are already turning their backs on university | Education | The Guardian
Young people are already turning their backs on university
If you take a proper look at the university application figures, it's clear that many 18-year-olds are already shunning degrees and applying for apprenticeships
- Mike Baker
- guardian.co.uk, Monday 14 February 2011 16.30 GMT
- Article history
A survey of 500 companies by City & Guilds showed 52% of those already recruiting apprentices believed they offered greater value than graduates Photograph: Alamy
Are young people being turned off university? This may seem an odd question when the latest figures showed a record number of applicants. But closer analysis suggests that UK school-leavers are behaving differently from other groups over university admissions.
Indeed there is mounting evidence that apprenticeships are becoming a more attractive proposition for many 18-year-olds. And if that happens, then some universities could be in for a serious financial squeeze in the years ahead as the government forces them to rely on fee income instead of central grant to fund undergraduate courses.
On the face of it, the UK university application figures look healthy, showing an overall rise of 5.1% at the notional January deadline. This prompted the usual headlines about "record numbers" seeking university places. As this is the last year before the tuition fee cap is raised threefold, a surge in applications was expected.
Indeed it's precisely because commentators expected a rise in applications that they did not interrogate the figures. But if they did, they would find a different picture. For a start, the rise in applications is much smaller than at the same point in each of the last two admissions cycles. It is also much lower than as recently as last November, when applications were rising by 11.7%. Since then applications have nose-dived. By the summer there could even turn out to be no rise at all in UK-based applicants.
So what has happened? On 9 December parliament backed the government's plans to raise the tuition fee cap to a maximum of £9,000. The subsequent student protests ensured that everyone now knows about the fees rise. Add in widespread media coverage of graduate unemployment and perhaps some of those school-leavers decided not to fill out their Ucas applications after all.
Even though the fees rise does not affect this year's applicants, it has affected the debate about the value of a degree. This explains why applications from England were up by only 3.7% compared with applications from outside the EU (17%) and from non-UK countries within the EU (up 7.7%). Scotland, where the fees changes do not apply, had a rise of 6.5%.
When broken down by age, the differences are even starker. Indeed, the number of applicants aged 18 or under from England actually fell marginally, from 202,104 to 202,045. There were also falls from 18-year-olds in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
It's true that there are 3% fewer 18-year-olds in this year's cohort. But when there was a similar demographic decline in 2010, applications from 18-year-olds still shot up by almost 16,000. And with higher fees looming, it might have been expected that more school-leavers would delay their "gap year" and go for immediate entry.
One possible explanation for the slowing of applications might be that UK school-leavers are applying to universities on the European mainland, where fees are much lower and where several institutions are targeting UK applicants by offering courses taught in English.
But it's more likely that 18-year-olds are hearing what employers are saying. At a conference on employability skills, Jane Scott Paul, the head of the Association of Accounting Technicians, reported that "more and more of our employers are changing their recruitment policies, switching from graduates to training up their own school-leavers … could this be the tipping point for apprenticeships?"
Karen Liddle, who oversees financial recruitment at Procter & Gamble, says that, unlike many graduates, school-leaver recruits "genuinely want to be there, do not have unreasonable ambitions, and have no preconceptions". Applications to the company's finance apprenticeship for school-leavers doubled last year. Liddle says the pass rate for the apprentices is "much higher than for our graduates".
School-leavers are certainly applying in droves for apprenticeships. Last year 24,000 applied for the 220 places at BT and 65,000 applied for 600 apprenticeships at British Gas.
Of course, job scarcity partly explains these high figures. But there are other signs that employers are shifting to school-leaver recruitment. A survey of 500 companies by City & Guilds showed 52% of those already recruiting apprentices believed they offered greater value than graduates.
The government has promised to create 100,000 new apprenticeships. Not all will lure those who would otherwise apply for university, but the application figures for both apprenticeships and universities suggest we could indeed be at a tipping point.
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Comments in chronological order (Total 18 comments)
Staff
Contributor
All well and good but in the long term will an apprenticeship from British Gas still have the same currency as a half decent degree from a half decent university? I doubt it.
My dad completed a good apprenticeship in toolmaking in the 50s but was made redundant in the early 80s and found it very difficult to turn his hand to anything else. Sure we need both routes but the lack of anything such as a job for life these days also means that the apprenticeship route does not hold all of the answers. We need both routes and plenty of education options throughout life to facilitate a flexible workforce with the capability for lifelong learning.
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Actually it's parents that are turning their backs on university. The recent education boom was largely enabled by proud willing parents agreeing to support their kids, in what they considered a prestigious opportunity which many of them missed.
Now attitudes have changed towards a degree's value. The vast majority of students do not qualify for means-tested maintenance loans. And students need to prove themselves financially independent for five years before their parents income ceases to be regarded as their potential "means." This basically leaves parents with a de facto veto, as the student support system is based on the expectation that they will be financially contributing. If they believe a degree is a bad idea, they have the economic leverage to persuade their kids against it.
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Hold the front page!
When broken down by age, the differences are even starker. Indeed, the number of applicants aged 18 or under from England actually fell marginally, from 202,104 to 202,045.
There's a 0.029% decrease in applicants. Quick draw a trend, shout More Means Worse, run for the hills....
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Many employers are belatedly beginning to realise that for the type of work they do, a degree is not necessary. A case in point is chartered accountancy. Trainee accountants spend at least 3 years on formal courses. The qualification they gain is much more valuable in the employment market than a degree.
A degree in Maths or English won't be of much help in passing the exams, not will it be of much use in the world of auditing and tax reporting.
The so-called transferable skills argument is vastly overstated. These skills are inherent in anyone who is capable of getting to a university. At university, they will remain dormant.
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As parental incomes contract, bills increase, and the possibility of a part-time job for the student to use to support themselves recedes, the gap between the student loan and the student living costs becomes too wide for parents to bridge. I do not think it particularly good parenting to reward my child's hard work by consigning my child to three years of dubious-quality part-time study while living on less than income support and incurring £40,000 of debt. Better to simply have them stay home, sign on, and try for real jobs or training, or possibly an OU or other distance-learning degree.
The university sector may do well- or may the next collapsed economic sector.
It depends how fast the ConDems take fright at the youth unemployment figures, really.
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FumerTue
A degree in Maths or English won't be of much help in passing the exams, not will it be of much use in the world of auditing and tax reporting.
But isn't that just it? What if the world of tax reporting isn't all there is to life?
H G Wells wrote:
A University stands not for material but for mental interests. It should function as the brain of a social body. Its business is with ideas. It maintains and develops the idea of the human community through its thinkers and investigators,
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So we've finally arrived at the point where learning is valued solely in terms of its 'earning potential'.
The words 'decline' and 'civilisation' look increasingly inseparable.
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Loredan
Right now, we have far too many students with little interest in HE beyond scraping a decent second class honours. I meet very few students who are interested in any form of postgraduate study, and these are students that enter with 3As. So please don't lecture me sanctimoniously about what HE should be. Whether you or I like it or not, most students (even the best) see HE as a route to high-earning employment.
In any case, I would challenge your assumption about the currency of a degree. If you decide to change direction, how exactly would what little understanding you have left of Lebesgue measure or Galois Theory help? Outside doing research or going into a highly specialised role that requires a PhD (which would really limit your choices), I don't see how it would help at all.
A chartered accountancy qualification, on the other hand, makes you much more flexible and employable in many areas of the financial and public sectors. All companies, e.g., need accountants, financial officers, fund managers, etc..
We have to lay to bed this silly notion that a degree in X will equip a person for life to do all things under the sun. That is not meant to be the purpose of a degree, no matter what the propaganda in university prospectuses says. The idea of transferable skills was dreamed up by university administrators to get bums on seats and keep the cash flowing in.
Graduate employers have to question whether their employees actually need a degree to perform their work adequately. I suspect most don't.
Students simultaneously have to ask themselves if a degree in an academic discipline is the best way to gain the kind of employment they want.
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@FumerTue
Good post. I work with many kids who have been fed this line that the only way to succeed in life is to get a degree. They sign themselves up for extremely academic courses, despite having little interest in reading, writing essays and doing experiments, which is essentially what university is about. The scientists assume that there will be a job at the end of it, as we all 'know' that the country is short of scientists. I hope that the prospect of leaving university £40k in debt should focus the mind, although without honest careers advice, these kids could end up doing nothing. However, this is better than accruing a £40k debt and then being able to do nothing...
I am an Oxbidge Science graduate. I entered into this degree as I found it fascinating, and fully intended to do postgraduate work. Sadly, whilst at university I became clinically depressed, leaving with a 2:2. I will not be allowed to do a PhD, I am not elligible for most graduate schemes and a pure Science degree carries no accreditations to do jobs in industry or for the state. (I cannot afford to do a Masters, and doubt whether it would get me anywhere). Whilst I loved my course, if a tutor had told me (a naive working class kid, the first of my family to go to university) just how unemployable I'd be, I may have left and either returned once I'd recovered, or done something vocational. The best a careers advisor could say was, "Don't you know someone who can get you a job?" Nope. I don't have those type of connections.
In today's market, a poor degree from an excellent university is not much use. I expect the same is true of average degrees from poor univerisities. One good side of the £40k degree may be that people ask more questions, consider where it will get them and whether it is value for money. I wish I had!
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FumerTue
That's the point - currency or even transferable skills can't be what a great degree should consist of. Learning to learn is what we should be doing: in that way, those parts of the curriculum you've learnt at the cutting edge won't matter if you don't keep them up. Only graduates that stay with their disciplines could do that.
A law graduate has learnt more than the law - many practice law and stay up with it daily. Many will never touch cases or statutes again.
Degrees that pretend to be apprenticeships can be phased out. Now that is not more means worse talk - that's saying that if it is higher education it ought to be higher.
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I don't know anyone personally that did an apprenticeship as such, but I do have a number of friends that went into full time employment straight from school as an alternative to continuing on to university. They are all doing better professionally than most of the graduates I know. Maybe the three years spent at uni are just three years late into the employment market! I blogged about it here http://studentstew.wordpress.com/2011/02/09/apprenticeship-or-degree/
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At last...the country is beginning to wake up to the fact that a degree doesn't give someone a God given right to walk into a highly paid job or a junior management role. In many cases employers actually prefer the skills gained in an Apprenticeship to those 'academic' skills gained at University.
I was talking to an (unemployed) graduate yesterday who wanted to join the Police after leaving university...after finishing their degree in 'American Studies'. They now want to become an Accountant.
A laughable situation where the lack of guidance has been frightening - but at least the school, college and university got their ticks in the 'job well done' boxes.Now will someone please tell the schools that herding as many young people down the A-Level and University pathway (without giving them all of the options) is going to create some major worklessness issue in a few years time? Already 1 in 5 graduates are unemployed.
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beafsteak
I wouldn't give up so easily on doing a PhD if you really want to. PhD students can be extremely difficult to find, even when the funding is in place. Almost always, the funding is restricted to UK/EU, whereas the majority of applicants in science/maths are overseas.
It is true that many universities will not accept a 2.2, even if the potential supervisor is willing. There are, however, many universities that would. A good thing to do is send your CV to the named contact for advice on whether to apply, but check the requirements on the department website first.
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@FumerTue:
OK, in open competition your 2:2 isn't going to shine, but I know people with 2:2s on full-time funded PhDs (1+3s so covering MAs) ...
It's a case of putting yourself out there so that people know you exist - but I don't ythink ou need to worry about getting bogged down in some intense networking task.
But if you want to undertake a funded PhD you will need to appraoch a few people directly and get them onboard (potential supervisor/s and perhaps head of dept) - and I think this is entirely possible.
Best of luck.
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FumerTue, are you an accountant? Genuine question.
The chartered accountants I know did their degrees in Law and English respectively, and I know neither of them wishes they'd gone straight into accountancy from school. They both feel that their degrees helped their ability to focus and retain large amounts of information, and would have found their accountancy training much, much harder without it. They also wouldn't have been capable of going straight in at the level graduate accountancy trainees start at, where they are expected to take a lot of responsibility very early on. A non-graduate accountancy traineeship is structured very differently.
I am going to be very interested to see whether the big accountancy firms start recruiting school-leavers, though, and if so, how they go about targeting them. It's already the case that the Big Four focus their marketing and recruitment on a fairly narrow selection of universities, and I wonder whether one of the appeals of the graduate recruitment is simply more people in fewer places.
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StudentStew,
I must be one of the few people who has experience of an apprenticeship and a university education and career. I left school at 16, did an apprenticeship as a Coppersmith (a fancy term for a pipefitter and welder) in Portsmouth Naval Base, followed by 3 years as a qualified craftsman. I then went to Ruskin College in Oxford (up the workers!) followed by a university degree in Politics and History and a PhD in Politics. I have worked in a university since 2001 as a Politics Lecturer and in the Careers and Employment Centre. What have I learnt? Some of the most creative, intelligent, innovative people I have ever met worked in the Naval Base; some of the most stupid, ignorant, conservative, nay reactionary, people I have ever met studied or worked at the university. One more thing - If I hear the patronising, "...but we need more plumbers/painters/electricians (so long as we understand that I'm not talking about my little Aarabella or Tarquin)..." argument I will combust...
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holzy
It's beafsteak you need to direct the advice to.
flaneuse
I'm not an accountant now but I was once (never finished the qualification).
I think your friends would have got through anyway. They clearly had the ability to retain large amounts of info before doing their degrees if they got through their A levels.
Not that long ago, A levels and O levels were enough to get into accountancy. Many senior managers and partners don't have degrees. It is clearly no barrier to success. The students who went straight from A or O level were no less able than most graduates of today; there simply wasn't the pressure on them to continue onto degree level.
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I graduated from University with a degree in History in 2008. For my chosen career as an Archivist a degree was essential as to get onto a Masters programme in order to be a qualified Archivist, you need to have completed a years traineeship and every single traineeship required a degree in a related subject. I did find a real difference between my Masters which trained me for a specific vocation and my degree. To start with the number of lectures is staggeringly different. For my Masters I was in University 4 days out of 5 and for my Batchelors if I was lucky I received 6 hours of lectures per week.
I think the skills I gained at University have been invaluable though- involvement in societies (as President of two of them), interaction with people, budgeting and time-management (I worked two jobs in addition to my degree). All of these enable me to show at Interviews and in job applications that I have a good skills-set. Consequently I have been in my current job for 6 months and my employers stated that they picked me over more experienced candidates who did not have a degree, because the skills I had gained at University meant I could pick things up quickly, suggest new ways of doing things and communicate with Stakeholders. The experience of living away from home is also invaluable-there were students in my First year who couldn't even boil an egg, but by the time they left had developed sufficient skills in the kitchen. All of which if you're living at home at 18 there is no incentive to develop.
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Wednesday 16 February 2011
Colleges must become job brokers
A new government programme designed to cut the number of benefit claimants will place the financial burden on further education colleges
Colleges are by now used to getting paid by results. Their funding depends in part on students gaining a qualification at the end of their course, and training schemes for unemployed people can pay as little as 40% of money upfront.
Later this year, though, the stakes for colleges and other training providers will become even higher, as the first learners enrol for a new programme designed to reduce the numbers claiming jobseekers' allowance and other benefits.
Under the Work Programme, which will replace Flexible New Deal and other welfare-to-work schemes this summer, just 10% of money will be paid upfront. As part of a growing trend requiring training providers to find jobs for learners as well as teach them skills, the rest will be staggered over the next 18 months – and then only if the learners remain in employment. Within three years, all payments will be performance-related.
Given the economic climate and rising unemployment, you might think that colleges would be reluctant to take the risk of receiving only a fraction of what they hoped for because individuals do not find jobs or quit after a few months.
But, instead, there is disappointment in the sector that just one college – Newcastle – made it on to the shortlist of prime contractors. Others, such as Carlisle College, are hoping to work as subcontractors for the mainly private firms selected by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to bid for contracts in each region.
Newcastle's involvement in the Work Programme is based around Intraining, the college's private training arm set up three years ago.
Last year, about 40,000 learners participated in welfare-to-work programmes at Intraining's 60 centres across England. Its managing director, Phil Bonell, is upbeat about the new programme and optimistic it can achieve results by giving learners personal support before and after they find work.
The emphasis on payment by results, says Bonell, may come as a shock to some colleges, but reflects a trend in work-based learning over recent years. "For certain sectors such as FE, being paid in this way will be new if they've not been involved with the DWP in the past."
The Work Programme is being funded from savings the government hopes to make in the overall welfare bill. Claimants who refuse to take part could lose their benefits, with sanctions likely to be stepped up once job seekers' allowance and other income-related benefits are replaced by universal credit after 2013.
Jacq Longrigg, employment services manager at Carlisle College, says finding work for learners will be a challenge even though the jobs picture in Cumbria is better than in other parts of the country. "We have developed relationships with job centres and employers and feel quite confident," she adds.
As a college, Carlisle recognises that it is increasingly being judged on "hard economic outcomes", but sees these programmes as an important source of funds. "We have to generate income to survive," says Longrigg.
Carlisle is lined-up as a "job broker" by G4S, one of 35 prime contractors that will submit bids to the DWP over the coming months. Sean Williams, managing director of G4S's welfare-to-work team, says colleges "are very much part of the picture".
Those working for G4S as job brokers, by offering training and help finding work, will be paid by results in the same way as the prime contractor. But providers that offer specific vocational training and other advice may be paid upfront by G4S.
Funding for the Work Programme is the subject of an inquiry by the House of Commons work and pensions select committee. Strong criticism has come from the Association of Learning Providers, which warns that some trainers will be dissuaded from working as subcontractors.
Graham Hoyle, the ALP's chief executive, says: "There is anxiety that a programme that bears considerable financial risk for the prime contractor may also transfer an inappropriate amount of that risk down the supply chain."
Only organisations with a turnover of £20m were considered as prime contractors. A further eight college-led bids failed to make the DWP shortlist, including a consortium of 27 colleges in south-west England led by Petroc. David Dodd, the college's principal, says it was disappointed by the outcome and noted that "none of the college groups new to this type of scheme were awarded contracts".
Teresa Frith, senior skills policy manager at the Association of Colleges, says there is a "nervousness" in the sector, with many colleges waiting to see how things work out. But colleges generally are in a stronger financial position than other learning providers and could use alternative income to cover short-term costs.
Success will depend on the difficulties colleges and others face in finding jobs for learners. Payment by results, says Frith, is only fair if the goals are realistic and achievable. "The results have to be in the gift of the provider," she says.
How it will work
Under the Work Programme, providers receive an attachment fee for each learner, plus a lump sum when the individual completes six months' work. Further payments are made every four weeks if the person remains in work.
For 18- to 24-year-olds on job seekers' allowance, providers will initially receive £400, followed by £1,200 when the person has been in work for 26 weeks, and up to13 'sustainment' payments of £170. For over-25s on JSA, 'sustainment' payments are worth £215.
By 2014, the attachment fee will be phased out so that all payments depend on job outcomes. A maximum of £14,000 will be available for people on incapacity benefit but, for those receiving JSA, payments will be about £3,000-£4,000 per learner.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
National Geographic Young Explorers Grants
Young Explorers Grants (YEG) offer opportunities to individuals ages 18 to 25 to pursue research, conservation, and exploration- related projects consistent with National Geographic's existing grant programs, including: the Committee for Research and Exploration (CRE), the
Expeditions Council (EC), and the Conservation Trust (CT).
research, conservation, or exploration should be submitted as it pertains to the proposed project. Funding is not restricted to United States citizens---foreign nationals are invited to apply. Researchers planning work in countries abroad should make great effort to include at least one local collaborator as part of their team. For more information, visit:
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/field/grants-programs/yeg-application/
http://on.natgeo.com/gyYWoh
Tuesday 15 February 2011
The Complete University Guide | A last minute course? Unis offering winter starts
hive-worcester
Latest University NewsWed, 9 Feb 2011 13:08
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Thu, 20 Jan 2011 11:12
Featured ArticlesThu, 3 Feb 2011 11:36
Tue, 30 Nov 2010 18:10
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Thu, 26 Aug 2010 10:17
Want a postgrad degree? Get ready to live in poverty | Andre Walker | Education | guardian.co.uk
Our drinking days are well and truly behind us. Photograph: Graham Turner for the Guardian
Ask all your friends what their favourite day of the month is and they will tell you it's payday. A year ago I felt the same way, but these days it's torture for me. Instead of being a day of abundance it's the day Birkbeck College (University of London) swallows my entire disposable income. Welcome to the £350-a-month world of a part-time postgraduate journalism student.
I don't want to sound negative but I miss my undergraduate life. As a late teen at Royal Holloway, my key interests were drunken chats, random sex and hangover-induced bunking off. At Birkbeck it's all about hard work, deadlines and getting out of the office in time for the evening lectures.
When I walk past the University of London union – of which I was chairman in 1999 – these days I'd be more likely to visit the welfare office than the bar. I wonder if any of the shiny attractive undergrads realise that, as a mid-ranking civil servant, my course is forcing me to run a moratorium on clothes shopping.
When I was younger I'd have mocked the woman who brought her daughter to our lecture last week. But these days we're far more worried about failing than we are about any personal childcare shame. This is our world, and it's a world where every lecture costs around £80.
Every essay mark is feared, every lecture word is clung to, and every experience of our classmates is valued. We can't afford to fail. There is no mummy and daddy to pick up the pieces if it all goes wrong – and it plays on our minds.
So I think I have a duty to warn everyone how hard this life is. Yet it's worth it, despite the hardship. I'm learning so much, and I freely admit to being a postgrad evangelical. In my class we're way too mature to add each other on facebook, but I wish we did. These people are worth knowing. The lecturers are not lofty academics: they're real journalists with knowledge of the business.
My life is a financial mess and it's hard, but I wouldn't swap it for the world. My advice for anyone considering doing a postgraduate degree is to take the plunge and study part-time. It's a nightmare, but you'll secretly love it.
ICAE VIII World Assembly | ICAE
The ICAE World Assembly is a forum that brings together people and organizations working on lifelong learning and adult education around the world and it takes place every four years, as a celebration of the importance of adult education for the construction of just and equitable societies. The first one was held in 1976 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, under the presidency of Julius Nyerere.
ICAE World Assembly is open to members, partners, and friends and also to all those networks that work or are linked to the adult education movement promoting adults’ right to learn. It will be an excellent opportunity to reflect on the changing current context and the challenges for the education movement.
It will take place from June 14 to 16, back to back with the General Assembly of the European Association of Adult Education (EAEA), a Swedish national conference on Popular Education and a Conference of the Nordic Folk High Schools (NFR).
Objectives:
- To provide a collective space to strongly affirm the right to lifelong learning and education for all and to assert the immense value of adult education and learning in enabling citizens to build a world worth living in.
- To identify the priorities of lifelong learning and education and to develop proposals for action at a global, regional and local level.After this global event ICAE General Assembly will take place on June 17 where new authorities will be elected.
The International Council for Adult Education, ICAE, formed in 1973, is the main global network promoting Youth and Adult Education and Learning and doing advocacy for the right to learn of young people and adults.
It provides support and operates as a link for cooperation and solidarity among national and regional networks. While supporting capacity building for nongovernmental agencies in the area of Youth and Adult Learning –in line with objectives 3 and 4 of EFA (Education for All) - it also plays a role in development processes in the South. ICAE is an NGO in formal consultative relations with UNESCO and with consultative status to the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).
ICAE is formed by NGOs, associations, sectoral, national and regional networks as well as individuals, in more than 75 countries and has regional members in 7 regions: Africa, Arab Region, Asia, Caribbean, Europe, Latin America and North America.
You will find more information about the assembly at: VIII WORLD ASSEMBLY ICAE Facebook, www.icae.org.uy, ICAE Facebook, ICAEWA2011 YouTube and through our electronic bulletin: Voices Rising.
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News from Apprenticeship Week in Worcester
http://www.hive-worcester.co.uk
Sunday 13 February 2011
Education UK | Shine! 2011 International Student Awards
Get ready to Shine!
- Do you play an active role in the life of your institution, or get involved in your local community?- Has your new life in the UK changed your outlook or the way you think?- Have you developed new interests since arriving, overcome personal challenges or achieved any long‐held ambitions or goals?If you can answer yes to any of these questions, then we’d love to hear your story.— Find out more about Shine! 2011
Award ceremony for the Shine! 2011 International Student Awards is on 13th April 2011.
Valentine Messages from around Worcester
Hi, Sandie here, check out the brand new micro blogger on the brand new hive-worcester website, leave a short message for your Valentine (keep it clean!)
The first 3 messages will be posted on the home page of the hive-worcester website, along with a further selection of posts we like.
Cloud Computing Investment for English Universities and Colleges
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