Further Education (FE) Colleges are made
for the real world, the world as it is, a world of challenges and
complex problems.
Schools are easy – they educate people of a
defined age 4-18. Universities are easy too it’s just their
description isn’t about age ranges, but the level of qualification
as they deliver undergraduate degrees and above.
FE is different, and unique. We deal
with people of all ages and abilities.
At Bedford College we teach adults to read and
write, and we also teach young people University level Rocket
Science. Our youngest students are 14, our eldest are in
their eighties.
We send more people to University than all the
upper schools in Bedford put together, we have more students with
A*-B grade GCSEs than any local sixth form, yet at the same time we
serve more students with disabilities and learning difficulties
than any local special school, and give hope to the majority of
pupils who do not achieve that well at school.
Colleges are most often identified with this
latter group, and even though this gives a misleading picture (as
shown above), it is vital for our economy and for our community
that we serve this group well.
Social mobility is high on every recent
government’s agenda, and quite right too. Great strides have
been made in the last 20 years in improving equality of
opportunity, but if people are brought up against or face barriers
that do not allow them to grasp that opportunity, then it is of
little comfort.
A key part of our engagement with those with
bad experiences of education, or those with limited horizons, is to
change their mentality. It is very common for such students
to start out as what I would term “People Like Me Don’t….”
people. “People like me don’t get rich/ get the coolest
friends/ get the best jobs/ get a job at all/ get famous / get a
nice house/etc”. Our job is to develop a clear route to
transforming that perception.
It doesn’t mean, however, we tell them; “you
are wonderful” when they aren’t, students have to produce
high quality work and embrace excellence as standard. But they need
to believe that they can first.
Many of our students leave us to earn more
than their teachers, most students with advanced level vocational
qualifications will earn well above the national average salary,
especially our engineers, plumbers, electricians, beauty
therapists, designers.
This week London hosts the World Skills
Olympics www.worldskillslondon2011.com,
the biggest festival to be held prior to the real Olympics.
Young people from over a hundred countries are competing in a huge
range of skills competitions, highlighting the importance of
vocational education.
As a Council member of City & Guilds
www.cityandguilds.com I had the
great privilege of both meeting our new President HRH Princess Anne
and attending the event and seeing skills events at close
quarters.
Even better Bedford College is one of six
colleges jointly building an Eco-house in 4 days outside the front
entrance of the exhibition at ExCel London www.excel-london.co.uk a great
way to promote our college and Bedford too.
We in the UK are very fortunate to be hosting
the event and I’m sure every single one of the expected 100,000
visitors will go away knowing that “People Like Me Can…”!