Milking the Cash Cow

I first become aware of this phrase when working in Further Education and I confess to being completely disgusted by it. The cash cow in this particular case being the coffers of the LSC which of course have been filled via the treasury via your hard earned cash paid in taxes.

In this particular case it is being discussed in different terms. Milking the cash cow is now moving towards cutting out the middle man. Not taking your taxes to pay for educational establishments to deliver NVQ's but paid direct from you to Colleges and Universities as the Americans begin to move in and buy up some of our educational establishments and turn them into for profit organisations.

Naturally this will open the debate of the quality of provision. Although in my experience there is no reason to suppose that for profit organisations will compromise on the quality any more than is happening now. In my personal experience some of the best courses I have ever done have been provided both by independant educational establishments and in some cases as distance learning programmes. By contrast some of the worst managed courses I have ever attended have been those delivered by traditional colleges as vocational course or franchised courses awarded by a University.

Perhaps this is just the refresher that British Education needs. Who knows, employers might actually be able to tap into training that is meaningful and moves the workforce forward. Lord knows we need it. Perhaps we should start with training the managers in education.

Times Higher Educational

Honey I'm home!!!

Well, I'm back. After spending nearly one month in the wilderness (and close to a thousand pounds)I've paid my dues and I'm back in the blogging room and raring to go. You may have already gathered that my first attempt at satire didn't go too well. Or did it? My contacts at Private Eye tell me that they get sued for libel every other day. Thing is they just pay up because they have a 'fund'. I wish I had known that before I spent my £750 quids worth. I might have taken some legal advice about what I can and can't say before I posted. Still at least PE are now very interested in the case You see I got it all wrong. Apparantly you can write that someone is a complete and utter tosser and nothing can be done. But if you say someone is a complete and utter tosser breeding a new generation of toadies that is not allowed. Or at least that's what Adam Porter says. Oh dear silly me. I guess I shouldn't tell what I think of that programme the apprentice. That for me it epitomises all that is wrong with management in the so call civilised world. Grubby little narcissists creating nasty little products that no one needs and selling them for ridiculous prices. They'd kill each other stone dead just for their 15 minutes of fame or a few bob in the bank. How cynical is that?

Still lessons have been duly learned and it is onwards and upwards.Keep your eye's peeled. I plan to bring you some exciting news about what is going on in the world of academia. The war on malignance continues and is stronger than ever!

Living the high life

I'm sure you will be interested to know that these are the calibre of people who are now running our educational establishments. Lord knows its hard to get by these days without running into another overblown bully or their toadies but I have to ask where will it end. Have we become so cynical and jaded that even those charged with educating our next generations can't be trusted to keep their fingers out of the till.

An investigation has been ordered into multi-million pound bill run up by a university's staff on official credit cards, including exotic foreign trips by the controversial vice-chancellor's wife.

Around £5million was spent over a two-and-a-half year period on everything from tickets to the Olympic Games in China to payment for a professor's parking fines, it has been revealed.

The cards were used to fund trips to Bavaria, Ethiopia, Thailand and France by Patricia Lee, wife of the £300,000 a year Leeds Metropolitan

University boss - Simon Lee - who resigned in January amid allegations about his treatment of staff.

Mrs Lee, who has no official post at the university, went on some of the foreign trips without her husband and the full cost of her travel to the taxpayer has not been disclosed.

The university, which has around 30,000 staff, receives half its £160million annual budget from public funds.

Details of the high spending at public expense have emerged from the disclosure of credit card statements to the Yorkshire Post under the Freedom of Information Act. It has prompted the university's management to ask its auditors to carry out an investigation into credit card spending by staff.

But the university claimed spending using official purchasing cards - intending to cut through red tape and reduce administration costs for business purchases - was in line with other universities.

An interim report has indicated no serious problems with expenses and no evidence of fraud or misuse of funds, a university spokesman said.

Last summer Mrs Lee went with a group of staff and students to Bangkok to 'rub shoulders with champions of Indian cinema' as part of the preparations for the Bollywood awards ceremony - the equivalent of the Oscars.

The £1,324 cost of the flight appears on a PA's credit card and the cost of Mrs Lee's accommodation is not known. A week later Mrs Lee was with 24 graduate trainees and staff in Bavaria for a trip costing £8,000.

The university helps fund a centre in the foothills of the Alps which provides leadership and management training.

Leeds Metropolitan University has asked its auditors to carry out an investigation into credit card spending by staff. She wrote on the university's website that the trip to the beauty spot was 'the realisation of a teenage dream.'

The party also visited Schloss Neuschwanstein, one of the world's most famous and spectacular castles.

A month earlier in May Mrs Lee accompanied her husband to Ethiopia at the invitation of athlete Haile Gebrselassie, in connection with the university's African partnership programme.

Six months later she returned with a party of staff and students but without Mr Lee, following another invitation from the world record breaker, this time in connection with the Great Ethiopia Run.

The £1,671 cost of her accommodation at the Addis Ababa Hilton hotel was reportedly on a staff member's credit card who also went on the trip. Her remaining travel costs and who paid for them are not known.

The report also details a trip in February 2007 to Limoges, France, which Mrs Lee went on with two members of staff. The £500 credit card costs did not include accommodation.

The university is still awaiting further information about the £20,000 spent by Mr Lee the outgoing vice-chancellor. It includes £1,000 spent on three meals at a restaurant called Brio.. Other spending by 190 university card holders between May 2006 and December last year included the payment of at least six parking fines.

Leeds Met said it spent £40,000 sending staff to the Olympics to raise the university's profile as a coaching centre of excellence (£8,000 on tickets were put on one card alone).

The university was a sponsor of the Rugby League Challenge Cup Final at Wembley and it spent £2,550 on tickets for the August event - which did not include the 400 tickets it received under the sponsorship deal.

Among the biggest single transactions were £8,500 for the purchase of a VW campervan, used as a mobile exhibition unit at music festivals and events, and £11,800 on publicity material for the crowd at the Leeds

The university was a sponsor of the Rugby League Challenge Cup Final at Wembley and it spent £2,550 on tickets for the August event - which did not include the 400 tickets it received under the sponsorship deal.

Among the biggest single transactions were £8,500 for the purchase of a VW campervan, used as a mobile exhibition unit at music festivals and events, and £11,800 on publicity material for the crowd at the Leeds Rhinos v Melbourne World Club Challenge rugby league match it sponsored.

One faculty PA spent £671 on 42 bottles of Champagne for staff leaving the university. And £179 was spent at Debenhams on a suit for a chef.
David Willetts, the shadow Innovation, Universities and Skills Secretary, said: 'These are very serious allegations which do cause me concern. It is important the spending on these is clarified as quickly as possible.'

From: http://www.dailymail.co.uk

An Apology

On 26 February 2009 at 00:43, I posted a blog entitled “The King is dead! Long live the King!”

This blog made various references not only to Telford College of Arts and Technology but also to its Principal, Doug Boynton OBE and the Vice Principals, Janet Ellis, Ann Griffiths and Chris Scott.

I accept unreservedly that the comments I made about each of them were untrue and defamatory and I withdraw them. I have removed the blog and I will not post anything further about them on this or any other website in the future.

I wish to apologise for any hurt or offence that I caused and I have agreed to make a payment in relation to damages for the harm I have caused to their reputation and in relation to costs.

The wolf and the lamb

Once upon a time a Wolf was lapping at a spring on a hillside, when, looking up, what should he see but a Lamb just beginning to drink a little lower down. 'There's my supper,' thought he, 'if only I can find some excuse to seize it.' Then he called out to the Lamb, 'How dare you muddle the water from which I am drinking?'

'Nay, master, nay,' said Lambikin; 'if the water be muddy up there, I cannot be the cause of it, for it runs down from you to me.'

'Well, then,' said the Wolf, 'why did you call me bad names this time last year?'

'That cannot be,' said the Lamb; 'I am only six months old.'

'I don't care,' snarled the Wolf; 'if it was not you it was your father;' and with that he rushed upon the poor little Lamb and 'WARRA WARRA WARRA WARRA WARRA' ate her all up. But before she died she gasped out

'Any excuse will serve a tyrant.'


Borrowed from Australian story telling. Hope you don't mind guys, it just is very apt at the moment. I will probably take it off later.

Conspiracy Theory - Paper is Power

The distribution of paper is at the very heart of the global economic crisis. IMHO anyway. This morning I received a letter from Lloyds bank telling me that their insurance policy on loans has changed as at 1st of April. Along with this letter came three glossy paged stapled booklets that outlined the new policy. They were called, “your payment protection cover policy document”, “your payment protection cover insurance policy summary”, and “important changes to your protection insurance cover policy document”. Why three pamphlets and why three subtly different subjects I don’t know, and I never will. You see I will never read them. Why? Because I don’t bank with Lloyds anymore, haven’t done for over a month and therefore don’t have the need for any insurances. Is it just me or does it occur to you what a ludicrous situation this is. Here we are in the western world steeped in money and comfort to such a degree that we will give not so much as a second thought to the number of trees we cut down and pulp into paper so that we can send three explanatory documents out to someone who doesn’t need them and won’t read them. Not just one someone, probably many thousands of someones. Is it me…or does this just scream, WASTE WASTE WASTE. Where does these trees come from. Why the third world of course. Where food, wood and water are commodities that are so expensive your average person struggles to afford them. Who’s lives have been irrevocably changed by the chopping down of their forrests, a change that for some has been so devastating, leaving them so displaced that just feeding their children is an all consuming task. It’s not just banks that send out these unecessary documents (many of which are designed to get you to lend money that you cannot afford to buy things which you do not need to impress people that you do not like) but it is way too many organisations. I can attest to this, because on a monthly basis I cart a huge containers down to the recycle bins to re-pulp this unecessary destruction of resources. What about educations. With the advent of the NVQ I can tell you that the wastage of paper is enough to make you cry. Every NVQ gets printed with dozens of modules in a complete pack, although the learner only has to choose a number of them, somewhere between four and ten. The rest get stripped out and thrown away. In additon to that there is all of the handouts, and printouts and many other pieces of paper that get copied and put into ‘portfolio’s’. Is it me….doesn’t anyone worry about this use of paper. When you calculate the hundreds of thousand of tonnes of paper that are generated and then discarded from the production of NVQ’s not to mention the hundred of thousands of certificates that get printed off an a yearly basis this means that we in the western world, with out welfare state, national health, community policed, warm, comfortable and well fed society are educating ourselves at the expense of the third world. Is it me…..I must stop saying that.

NVQ - Is it worth the paper it's written on?

Let us think logically about an NVQ. The purpose of an NVQ was to widen participation in education. It came to light that not everybody learns well in an environment where information is to be taken on board and then regurgitated in exam format. Thus and NVQ gets born, a format in which the learner can be observed in the workplace, can produce evidence of works completed and can obtain testimony from those people who are in a position to make judgements about the quality of the work.

One of the questions that I often got asked when I was a trainer assesor is “what is it worth to me”? In other words, if the student passes an NVQ what is that certificate worth. The answer to the question certainly in my mind is that an NVQ acts as a kind of currency. The purpose of the NVQ is to help the government achieve it’s target of raising the standard of competence in the workplace to give us a better place in the global market place. An NVQ opens doors for the person who holds it. Because it places a benchmark upon the workforce that says that someone has achieved a certain level of competence and understanding over a range of circumstances that will occur in the workplace. Simple.

But hang on a minute. If you flood the market place with thousands of NVQ certificates that supposedly benchmark these qualities what have you actually achieved? Have you actually input any more knowledge and understand into the student. Has the level of competence actually been raised. Or can it be said that some of those colleges and learning providers that have cottoned on to the large amounts of government funding that can be drawn down to help provide staffing for such purposes have become much more interested in developing their assets and improving their land and property stakes. If this is so then this is at the cost of the credibility of an NVQ. The fact is that if everybody in the country has an NVQ level 2, what then has been gained. You cannot improve the economy of a country simply by printing more money. The country has to have reserves of gold against which this money is to be printed. Likewise an NVQ certificate. Unless the student actually learns something, improves competences and understanding then nothing has been achieved. All too often now greedy training providers are targetting NVQ’s at such a voracious rate it calls into question just who exactly is being served by this wholesale handing out of certificates. Not the learner certainly, handing out certificates with gay abandonment does in fact devalue its currency. If everyone has one, how then does the holder have an advantage in the job procurement stakes. If you are thinking of doing and NVQ, or you are an employer who has been told they can avail themselves of NVQ qualifications for their staff then let me appraise you of some questions you should ask.
• Who is funding this
• How much money is the training provider getting into their coffers
• What training is the provider supposed to offer. (You can garuantee that Learning and Skills Councils, through which the funding is reached will have requirements about the hours and level of training to be provided)
• How much of the training is actually class room based
• Can the provide define the on the job training that will be available
• How much of an actual involved will significant others have in the work place (Known as expert witnesses)
• How many hours face to face meetings will the provider provide
• What are the Guided Learning Hours.
• What is the workload of the individual assessor
• How many certificates on a yearly basis does the department hand out.

Armed with this information you will be able to avoid some of the pitfalls of the Train 2 Gain wave of training currently being offered.

Things to avoid.

• If your assessor tells you that the qualification should take about 12 weeks to complete. Most NVQ’s carry with them GLH of 70 or more. 12 weeks in what the individual provider would like to have because they can achieve more thereby draw down more funding
• If you see your assessor once a fortnight for 40 minutes or so
• If you are not offered any class room based training.
• If you are asked to fill in a booklet as a method of ‘training’
• If your assessor comes and ticks a few boxes and then asks you to sign something
• If you assessor gives out pre printed Witness Testimonies, or asks you to get a Witness Testimony from someone without first discussing with them the reasons for the testimony and what it should include.
• If your staff tell you that they have no idea what it is they are doing for their qualification or why?
• If the assessor frequently re-arranges appointments due to illness or pressures of work.

What you want from and NVQ

• You want to know what work you had to put into it, and what you have achieved in terms of personal development.
• You want it to upskill you in those areas that you or others have identified as needing upskilling.
• You should feel as though you have ownership of the qualification
• You want to have a personal relatilonship with your assessor.
• Your assessor visits regularly. Explains what the visit it for, conducts
the assessment and then explains very clearly what has been achieved so far.
• You will have an up to date and ongoing action plan
• Your learning is reviewed at regular intervals.

Happy learning!

For more information on nationally recognised qualifications see www.onlinecoachingpartnerships.co.uk