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2Bridging the GapCentral Bedfordshire College has been selected as one of the Further Educations Colleges to provide qualifications and training for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Can we add something about Get Set

Apprenticeships

The Employer Apprenticeship Incentive Scheme: Bedford BoroughAn incentive of up to £5000 worth of support is available for eligible companies who sign up for the Apprenticeship scheme for the first time

Childcare Awarded Outstanding GRADE 1

Engineering qualifications in conjunction with High-Tech EngineeringCentral Bedfordshire College has launched some new Engineering qualifications in conjunction with local company, High-Tech Engineering, ensuring students are receiving industry ready skills and qualifications

Adult Learners Week Winners – Learning Through PartnershipTour and Andersson were presented with the Learning Through Partnership award through their ongoing work with Central Bedfordshire College

Employer FeedbackWe would like to hear your views!

Governments comprehensive spending review on Further EducationHow the October spending review will effect Further Education

Apprenticeship WeekDetails about the Employer Open Day, as well as a new initiative for 2011 - the Apprenticeship Road Show

Opening of THE Store

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Bridging the GapCentral Bedfordshire College’s business division, Chiltern Business Training, has been selected as one of the Further Education Colleges to provide qualifications and training for the 6000-8000 workforce required for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Chiltern Business Training courses will be focused towards the security staff needed for the Games. The “Award in Understanding Stewarding and Spectator Safety” course will enable candidates to learn and be observed in their own workplace. The scheme will recruit qualified personnel from Higher Education institutions and from the unemployed, through national schemes including Job Centre Plus. The individuals will have worked with security companies on a variety of events leading up to the London 2012 games.

The Bridging the Gap project combines key objectives for employability, security, diversity and industry/education partnership. It is the London 2012 Olympics that works as the catalyst to bring all of these elements together.

For further information about these courses please contact 01582 861607 or visit www.centralbeds.ac.uk/chilternbsinesstraining

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Apprenticeships are the proven way to train your workforce. Apprenticeships can make your organisation more effective, productive and competitive by addressing your skills gaps directly.

So what are Apprenticeships

Apprenticeships are a mixture of on and off the job training designed around the employers needs. Apprentices work alongside experienced staff in the work place to gain job specific skills. Apprentices receive off the job training from a learning provider to acquire the knowledge to underpin their practical work-based skills. Apprenticeships are funded by the government

Apprenticeships – the solution for you

Train existing staffHelp you find new staffTraining tailored to your business needsFlexible training methodsLearning put into practice in the workplace

Apprenticeships ensure that your workforce has the practical skills and qualifications your organisation needs now and in the future. The mixture of on and off the job learning ensures they learn skills that work best for your business. Companies offer apprenticeships because they understand the benefits that apprentices bring to their business – increased productivity, improved competitiveness and a committed and competent workforce.

Training and Funding Most of the training is “on the job” at your premises. The rest can be provided by a local college/learning provider. As the employer you must give your apprentice an induction into their role and provide on the job training. You are also responsible for paying your apprentices wages.A learning provider will provide am employer representative who will be able to support and guide you. They will work with you to:

Help you decide which apprenticeship is right for you.• Agree a training plan with your Apprentice.• Recruit an apprentice or support your existing staff into Apprenticeships• Manage the training and evaluation and ensure national quality standards are met and deliver integrated, coherent training. Continued.....•

5Funding Apprenticeship funding is available from the National Apprenticeship Service. The size of the contribution can vary. If the apprentice is 16-18 years old you will receive 100% of cost training. 19-24 years old, you will receive up to 50%. If they are over 25 you may only get a contribution depending on the sector and area you operate.This is paid directly to the organisation that provides and supports the Apprenticeship.

Types of Apprenticeships Apprenticeships are available in a wide range of industry sectors with employers from large national companies to smaller local companies.

Recruitment made easy online Apprenticeship vacancies is the official online recruitment system for Apprenticeships and is managed by the National apprenticeship service. The system enables quality vacancies from employers to be viewed and applied for by candidates that register on to the system. Apprenticeship vacancies lets candidates search for your vacancy such as location, occupation, job roles and keywords. The system can be managed by learning providers on your behalf and is designed to manage the recruitment process from beginning to the successful appointment of your apprentice.

To find out more about Apprenticeships please look at :

www.apprenticeships.org.uk

Employer Apprenticeship Service* The Employer Apprenticeship Incentive Scheme: Bedford Borough

Aims:

To increase the number of 16-18 year old Apprentices within the public & • private sectorTo provide progression for young people progressing from a • pre-apprenticeship training programmeRaise the profile of Apprenticeships within Bedford Borough • The incentive can offer up to £5000 worth of support to eligible companies • such as those that have not signed up any apprenticeships in the past, or within the last six months, or existing employees in jobs without training and they are now moving on to an Apprenticeship. The incentive is also supporting young people on pre-Apprenticeship training programmes.

Payments will be made in staged payments once the learner has been on the programme for 24 weeks.

For further information please contact Terry Few on 01582 861607.

*Limited places available

6Childcare Awarded Outstanding GRADE 1

Chiltern Business Training – Business Division of Central Bedfordshire College manage the Train to Gain vocational area of Childcare Learning and Development. Following a recent standards verification visit by Philip Girling the External verifier for the awarding body CACHE the College achieved the highest grade in 31 areas of verification. Mr Girling commented “Student retention is very high and achievement is excellent.

The College currently has 65 adult learners in the workplace undertaking their Childcare qualifications in various Nursery’s, Pre-Schools and Schools throughout Central Bedfordshire.

Lesley Pickup, the Lead Internal Verifier and Assessor, commented, “the work based learning assessor team have worked extremely hard to achieve outstanding delivery of this qualification and are passionate about delivering excellence in learning and ensure the students are fully motivated into their journey”.

If you are currently in a Childcare setting and want to gain a qualification contact David Meager at Chiltern Business Training on 01582 861607.

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Central Bedfordshire College Engineering Student Success within Local CompaniesCentral Bedfordshire College has launched some new Engineering qualifications in conjunction with local companies to ensure students are receiving industry ready skills and qualifications.

The latest qualifications to launch are the first of many that take inspiration from external organisations. The Level 2 Diploma in Engineering has been developed with local Houghton Regis based company High-Tech Engineering. Students will benefit from developing their skills and abilities through company visits, presentations and work experience. This provides students with support from the College and the business.

Some areas of the Engineering industry have struggled in recent years due to an aging industry workforce and skills shortages. Added to this are the recent spending cuts and unstable job market, it now more important than ever to ensure that the skills gaps are met by a new workforce to ensure buoyancy in the future.

Barry Nappin, Line-Lead for the qualification commented, “By working with High-Tech Engineering to devise the structure of the course we can ensure the qualification is industry relevant and up-to-date. The rewards for the learners are very exciting, with the company already stating that employment for some of the learners a real probability. MD Steve Tickner of High-Tech Engineering believes the companies involvement with the Diploma is of major benefit to the economy, as well as being fundamental to their yearly intake of new engineers; “There is a major skills shortage throughout Aerospace and Manufacturing in general. We have addressed this with our collaboration with Central Bedfordshire College. It offers us the opportunity to identify suitable candidates for a steady stream of killed engineers essential in our plan for sustainable growth”.

The College is always looking for new companies to become partners to ensure the course provision is industry relevant. If you are a local business and you are interested in working with the College on this initiative, please contact Barry Nappin on 01582 477776 or bnappin@centralbeds.ac.uk

8Adult Learners Week Winners – Learning through PartnershipTour & Andersson were presented with the ‘Learning Through Partnership’ award due to their ongoing work with Chiltern Business Training, to identify skills gaps and to train their existing staff to improve the business as a whole. Tour & Andersson employ 25 staff from the local community all of whom require a variety of skills.

Central Bedfordshire College have been working in partnership with them to develop links across the two organisations and offer learning opportunities to both College students and the company’s own employees.

Over the last two years Tour Andersson has been committed to offering work-based placements to College students within their marketing and engineering functions, as well as promoting their own global graduate scheme. They are always willing to work with us to support students in gaining work-based experience through on site placements as well as live project briefs.

Central Bedfordshire College has also worked with the company’s management team to develop a full Business Review to identify any skills gaps within their own organisation. The Management team have been the first to take up the learning opportunities. It was acknowledged in order to deal with the changing needs of the business and the challenges that faced them, both internally, locally and the pressures applied from their international headquarters in Sweden.

Further to this it was identified that in order to ensure the sustainability of the local company and safeguard jobs, the management needed to further ensure they had the skills to manage change in a very difficult economic recession.

The project was in three stages: Information TechnologyImprove the IT skills of key members of staff to improve the day-to-day operation of the company IT processes and system.

Workplace Learning ChampionsTwo senior members of staff to embark on the Workplace Learning champions programme

Leadership & Management programmeThe entire Senior Management Team to attend a Leadership and Management programme, focussing on strategic planning, improve/maintain success and managing people through change.

9The Management Team felt the entire programme was completely relevant and has greatly assisted them with dealing more effectively and efficiently with their current and future plans.

By taking the lead this demonstrated to all staff the determination of the Management Team to ensure they had the skills to move the company forward and utilise all resources to safeguard the future of the local company base.

Central Bedfordshire College’s students have benefitted from both increased opportunities for work placements and work-based learning to support their vocational courses. Also through the partnership between the two organisations’s the College can be more responsive to the needs of local employers thereby offering a better service to our students with a vocationally focussed course offering.

These projects enable the College students to develop their skills and become aware of their own self development. Companies like this, who are proactive in creating local opportunities and partnerships, are vital for the development of learning opportunities and in turn economic regeneration in up skilling young people.

It is difficult to find companies on an international scale who are willing and commit themselves to supporting their local college with student work placements.The employees at Tour & Andersson also benefit through increased development opportunities within the company and a more positive culture of learning and change management.

All the staff training needs analysis will now be completed in-house by the two qualified work place learning champions and all future staff development will focus on ensuring world class skills are achieved and matched to the individual and the business objectives providing real measurable benefits. Tour Andersson were able to gain a greater understanding of their role, not only as an international organisation, but also as a local business and how the actions that they take will have a positive impact on those around them.

The learners within the organisation achieve an understanding of strategy and how this fits into the future of the business; the management skills that can be applied to move the business forward more effectively, and learn how to manage change through the people it employs.

Two cohorts of students from the National Diploma in Business & Administration at Central Bedfordshire College have benefitted from opportunities for work experience within the company. One cohort of students from the National Diploma in Engineering worked with the company on a project to solve a real working issue. The students worked on a solution to rectify a problem within one of their engineering systems. Two students designed four prototypes, carried out various tests and came up with the final solution. They then drew all the engineering drawings for it and made the prototype, which was a major addition to their course. One of the students, Mohammed Sadiq, commented, “The project has helped provide a valuable insight into the work of a mechanical engineer. The challenge made us think more about how individual components in a system work and what the main concerns of the engineer are – primarily finding and accessing the

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valves quickly.”

From the Business Review the company have already drawn up a new strategic plan for the business which provides a clear understanding for all. As a team they have developed a pro-active approach as opposed to one that was more leaning towards reactive.

New processes have been implemented with training records now online and staff assessments have been developed together with a new staff induction process.

As a result there is a real a real positive and optimistic feel within the company. Mr Samuel Coe, Training Co-ordinator at Tour Andersson, who worked on the project with the students providing logistical support where needed, commented, “In addition to building on our own social responsibility agenda, the scheme enabled us to pass on useful industry knowledge to the next generation of building engineering professionals. The students were eager to take part and were successful in developing a butterfly valve balancing technique that exceeded the expectations set out in the initial brief. As a result, TA has been able to take these ideas on board to help develop solutions based on the students’ suggestions.”

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Employer FeedbackThey are a number of ways that we would like to hear your views. Perception Surveys - both internally from the College and externally from the Skills Funding Agency are used to continuously monitor and improve our service.For companies that have been involved in learning with us evaluation forms will be coming out to you in January. Those from the Skills Funding Agency will need to be returned directly to them. We appreciate your support and feedback. Employer Forums - allow you to get involved within the sector areas, so that we can respond to your needs and develop our curriculum to meet the needs of your industry. Please contact Terry Few on 01582 861607 if you would like to get involved. Learner Voice - process within the College allows your employee to have their say on their experiences.

12Government Comprehensive Spending Review on Further Education.The outcome of the review in October has resulted in some changes to the Further Education Sector as with other areas of the public sector. Central Bedfordshire College will still continue to deliver high quality training to young people, adults and employers. The Review will allow us to continue to develop and support the Apprenticeship provision to include learners over the age of 25.

Boosting Support to Apprenticeships In recognition of the high economic returns to adult apprenticeships, the Government will boost spending on adult Apprenticeships by up to £250 million a year by the end of the Spending Review period, relative to the level of spending inherited from the previous Government.

Train to Gain to be abolished The Government will significantly lower the overall cost of the Further Education system by abolishing Train to Gain and by reducing spending on budgets which do not directly support learners. Meanwhile, the balance of funding will be shifted from the taxpayer towards the individuals and employers who benefit, including though the introduction of student loans, and by exploring mechanisms to increase employer contributions such as voluntary training levies.

Increasing the participation age for young people For 16 to 19 learning, the Spending Review will support further increases in participation, while moving towards raising the participation age to 18 by 2015. This will reduce the proportion of young people not in education, employment or training and ensure more young people from all backgrounds have the support they need to fulfil their potential in the labour market and improve social mobility.

Loss of EMA in its current form The Government has made tough choices to secure overall resource savings in DfE’s non-schools budgets of 12 per cent, including through a 33 per cent reduction in central administration and from abolishing five Arms Length Bodies. In the context of raising the participation age, there will be unit cost reductions in the 16 to 19 participation budget and the support currently provided by Education Maintenance Allowances will be focused on the most disadvantaged children, saving around £0.5 billion.

13Apprenticeship Week 2011Get involved in this year’s Apprenticeship Week, Monday 7th Feb – 11th Feb 2011. The aim of the week will be to highlight the talents and skills of apprentices and celebrate the value of Apprenticeships. Various activities will be taking place all over the country in order to promote the apprenticeship scheme.

Central Bedfordshire College will be promoting Apprenticeships in a number of ways

Open dayAn open day at the Houghton Regis Campus will be held on Wednesday 9th February, 16.00-19.00

We would like to invite employers to join us and find out how apprenticeships can support your business and provide a valuable opportunity to the learners and current employees. The evening will include a presentation and a tour on Kingsland Skills Institute and an opportunity to speak to sector the specific staff.

Road ShowThat we will be running a road show promoting Apprenticeship in the community alongside information advice and guidance and ‘Get in Apprenticeship’ workshops

If you would like to get involved please contact Terry Few on 01582 861607

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Opening of THE Store

Friday 26th November saw the official VIP launch of THE Store, Central Bedfordshire Colleges new Higher Education Centre based in the heart of Dunstable at the Grove complex.

THE Store was officially launched by MP Andrew Selous, and the event was attended by local dignitaries, Colleges Governors, school representatives and local businesses.

This new Centre will focus on the provision of Higher Education programmes up to degree level and will be a hub for the Art and Design courses, as well as high end computing programmes including Apple Mac Final Cut Pro and mainstream PC training. The high spec facility is situated next to the main Dunstable Campus on Kingsway, and near to all of the leisure facilities. The centre also hosts gallery space to showcase student work.

This exciting new venture for Central Bedfordshire College demonstrates its commitment to delivering courses of all levels within the community. It also provides an ideal opportunity for progression for Further Education students, enabling them to gain a Foundation Degree or BA (Hons) Degree from their local College. This will provide major benefits such as cost savings and it will also help to ensure that students are equipped with the necessary skills and experience for the local community once they complete their qualifications.

Chris Vesey commented, “The College is opening this Centre to mark our commitment to the local community and economy. We want to ensure that the best facilities and career development opportunities are available right here in a prime accessible location in the centre of Dunstable. It will look great and I’d like to invite everyone to pop in and have a look. The opening exhibition, which will feature student work will provide an exciting opportunity for people to view and possibly purchase an original piece of artwork created in the College and should be of interest to everyone”.