NEWSLETTER FOR COLLEGE STAFF SUMMER 2019

COLLEGESUNISON in

Delivering the #LoveOurColleges Valentine’s Day card to the Chancellor

If you have an issue about further education that you would like Leigh to cover in future newsletters, please email: education@unison.co.uk

Light at the end of the tunnelby Leigh Powell, UNISON national officer for further education

It’s been another tough year in FE, but we’re finally starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel.

Whilst pay in England continues to lag behind other sectors of education, the good multi-

level deal reached in Scotland earlier this year and the extra funding injected into FE in Wales, ring-fenced for pay, show us what can be done when the political will is there. We’re now seeing politicians of all parties piling on the pressure in Westminster for increased funding in FE. 164 MPs sent a letter to the Treasury back in February to demand extra funding for colleges and in April the House of Lords released a report crying out for increased funding in further education and skills.

At the end of April the Social Mobility Commission stated that social mobility has all but ground to a

halt in this country and investing in post-16 skills and vocational education is urgently needed to address it. Whatever happens with Brexit, the one thing we know is that the skills gap in this country needs to be tackled, and investing in colleges is the way forward.

In this edition of the newsletter, we concentrate on our most recent seminar in Newcastle. If you’ve never been to a seminar, please do consider coming next year – delegates have great fun and learn lots of new things to take back to their colleges.

We want to hear what you want from UNISON over the next year. Let us know by completing our 2019 Keeping in Touch Survey which has been emailed out to all members for whom we have details. If you did not receive the email, then please let us know by contacting the team on education@unison.co.uk.

The Further Education and Sixth Form SeminarThis year we hit the road and held the annual seminar in Newcastle. It was a packed programme with lots of interesting speakers. UNISON’s Northern regional secretary Clare Williams got the ball rolling with an inspiring introduction on why the FE sector is such an important part of our national infrastructure, needing urgent investment to deliver the skills the UK wants and needs.

This led nicely into our first keynote speech of the day, from David Hughes, the CEO of the Association of Colleges (AoC). The AoC is the employers’ representative for colleges in England and was invited this year to talk about the unprecedented joint work between unions, employers and students this year in the campaign, Love Our Colleges. David talked eloquently about the desperate need for more funding in colleges to allow them to make a decent and fair pay offer to staff. He outlined all that the AoC has been doing to try to secure extra funding. David’s talk was very well received and whilst we did not agree with all of his views, delegates were pleased to have the opportunity to hear a different side and question it.

Next up we heard from Mark Wright of the Education and Training Foundation. He has been doing a lot of work on ethical leadership – something we’d all like to see. Mark gave a great presentation on what good leadership should look like and why it is so important.

Our final external speaker was Newcastle’s first black MP, Chi Onwurah, currently serving as Shadow Minister for Industrial Strategy Science and Innovation. She gave an inspiring speech on her own educational experiences and what Labour is doing to forward the further education agenda at the national level.

Of course, no UNISON FE and Sixth Form seminar would be complete without the renowned quiz night – laughs all round ended the first day on a high note leaving everyone ready for more to come on Saturday.

Despite the early morning slot, we heard a really inspiring presentation from Owen Jones of Hope not Hate on how to handle difficult conversations such as “I’m not a racist, but...” It was a thoroughly enjoyable session giving us all plenty of food for thought. This was followed by a passionate speech from Simone Aspis of the Alliance for Inclusive Education (ALLFIE). A small organisation with a big voice, ALLFIE is calling for all colleges to become fully inclusive educational institutions to allow students with special educational needs and disabilities and their non-disabled peers to flourish.

Between the morning and afternoon workshops, we heard an interesting panel discussion of the careers strategy across all four nations and found ourselves (once again) envying the Scottish system. Whilst not perfect, it shows what you can do when your heart is in the right place and you’re prepared to invest.

Next year, we’ll be returning to London for the annual seminar. We hope to see you there! Ask anyone who’s been – as well as being a great source of information they are great fun and you’ll get to meet lots of new people. If there is anyone you would like to hear talk at one of our events, then please contact the team at education@unison.co.uk and we’ll do our best to get them along.

On 23 May this year the ballot boxes opened in 14 colleges across England asking UNISON members to vote ‘yes’ to industrial action to try to secure a decent pay rise. Once again in 2018/19 we saw a paltry pay recommendation of 1% or £250, with recognition that many colleges will not make any pay award whatsoever.

Although members voted in favour of strike action in nine of these colleges, turnout was not enough to meet the threshold for strikes set out in the 2017 Trade Union Act.

UNISON’s further education and sixth form committee considered the result and stated: “We would like to thank those activists, branches and regions that put in significant work to achieve the result. Unfortunately, and frustratingly, the trade union laws, which impose a very high turnout threshold, mean that we are not able to fulfil our members’ wishes.”

UNISON will keep fighting for the decent pay rise you need and deserve.

College of the Future CommissionUNISON is delighted to have met with Paul Nowak, Deputy General of the TUC, to contribute to the College of the Future Commission. The Commission will ask one simple question: what do we want and need from our colleges in 10 years’ time? There are so many things that will change in the next 10 years: technology; demographics; labour market requirements; and attitudes and expectations, meaning colleges will need to adapt and evolve. UNISON is working with the commission through the TUC to make sure that support staff are placed at the centre of these discussions. You can follow what is happening at www.collegecommission.co.uk

Local government conference – Liverpool Further Education will have lots going on at the local government conference so if you’re intending to go or feel that members in your branch would benefit from knowing more about FE, make sure you come and see us!

On Sunday lunchtime the FE and 6th Form committee will be running a fringe event talking about how we got to where we are and what needs to happen. On Monday you’ll be able to ‘Play Your Cards Right’ at the FE stall in the Unizone and be in with a chance of winning a great prize too.

The FE and 6th Form Committee have submitted two motions to conference: one to bring back the Education Maintenance Allowance for young people whose families have low incomes and another to make colleges the only providers of apprenticeships. Hope to see you there!

Further Education

Ballot in England

Let’s Bridge the Gap in our collegesUNISON is the union of a million women, so when it’s time for organisations to report their gender pay gap, we’ve got more than a keen eye on it.

Along with other organisations that employ 250 or more members of staff, colleges in England, Scotland and Wales are required to report the difference in pay between the men and women they employ. 177 colleges had reported their gender pay gap by the 2019 deadline at the end of March.

We’ve crunched the numbers and found that the average gender pay gap for all colleges was 10.8%, meaning that for every £1 earned by a man, a woman earns 89p. When we look at the median average (the median removes the skewing effect of a few very high and very low paid) was 16.25%, meaning that for every £1 earned by a man, a woman earns 84p. In only two colleges were women paid on average more than men.

So how does this gap arise in the first place? Across all jobs, men tend to take up the majority of more senior roles (although nearly 80% of colleges had more women than men in the highest pay bracket) and women’s time out to have and care for children impacts their career progression. Discrimination and bias in hiring and pay decisions plays a large part in creating the gap, but a huge driver is the fact women are more likely to work in lower-paid jobs in general – 62% of those earning less than the living wage are female, according to the Living Wage Foundation. This rings true in FE: every single college had more women than men in the lowest paid quarter of jobs in their colleges, so swingeing attacks on college funding disproportionately affect women in the jobs that are typically more vulnerable to cuts.

Now we’ve got the data, what can we do with it? UNISON fights every day for equality in the workplace, but everyone can get involved! We’ve produced an accessible bitesize guide to help you start a conversation with your employer about practical workplace changes that can help to bridge the gap. It’s available at www.unison.org.uk/bridgethegap.

The gender pay gap isn’t just a women’s issue – it’s something we all need to tackle together – but if you’re keen to get involved in other campaigns aimed at improving women’s lives, why not get involved in UNISON’s women’s self-organised group? https://www.unison.org.uk/about/what-we-do/fairness-equality/women

We all know that support staff are the backbone of any college, and here, Michael Wilson, of Sunderland College, tells us more about the vital role science technicians play in delivering STEM skills.

A proactive, well-trained and experienced technician is a boon to a science department. They know where everything is, they understand both the methodology and the science behind practical work and can assist with, and sometimes lead, sessions. It is not just putting things out and away again!

An excellent technician will always be on the lookout for innovative ways to run practical work, allowing both staff and students the opportunity of new experiences. They test and maintain complicated and expensive pieces of equipment, saving departments many thousands of pounds. They keep abreast of new developments and find ways of inputting them to the curriculum.

But, but, but……

In the last few years science technicians, in common with other support staff, have seen their role diminished in many ways. Technician numbers have been reduced in many institutions to the point where they now have only time to manage the very basic duties of the role, lowering the quantity and quality of crucially important practical work.

Training bursaries for technicians have been slashed. A short-sighted strategy that will impact on the recruitment of science lecturers who will now be need to take on work that technicians do at present.

Science education is sometimes seen as too expensive. The bad news is that it is only going to become more expensive as technology develops.

Datalogging, instrument analysis and biotechnology all have their place in the modern curriculum and capital investment is urgently needed in colleges for this - impossible without government investment.

Funding and science technician training must be prioritised to stop us falling behind in the competitive world in which we live and from a complete collapse of science teaching and training in this country.

UNISON is proud to support #TECHOGNITION

an annual celebration of science technicians around

the country. Find out more at https://techognition.org

The life and times of the science technician

Not in UNISON? It’s time to join the experts!

UNISON represents only support staff in colleges – all of our further education resources are directly focused on securing the best for support staff and the specific issues that you have.

By joining UNISON, the UK’s largest union, you will have the backing of:

• Expert legal advice should you need it • Our annual college seminar discussing the issues

that matter to you • Advice for you about workplace problems and

representation when you need it • Professional expert and guidance including

publications on issues that matter to you • Regional learning programmes helping you to make

your voice heard • Specialist advice on pensions, health and safety,

equalities and discrimination • A national FE and 6th Form Committee which agrees

the union’s priorities and leads in negotiations • Regular updates on the latest college issues across

England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

All UNISON members have access to:

• UNISON’s charity ‘There for You’ to help when times get tough – offering debt advice and financial assistance like school uniform grants

• UNISON’s very own family-friendly Croyde Bay holiday resort offering 15% discounts for members, rising to 50% discounts for low-paid members

• Discounts on shopping, insurance, car breakdown cover and independent financial advice

• Free accredited training

Join online at joinunison.org or call 0800 171 2193

Find us on Twitter @UNISON_FE and on Facebook: UNISON Campaigning in Further

Education and Sixth Form Colleges

Save Stourbridge College!Gavin Cartwright is one of our West Midlands national committee representatives and Chair of the Birmingham Colleges UNISON branch. Here he tells us about the urgent campaign being launched to save a college that was given just two and a half months’ notice of closure.

Stourbridge College joined the BMet Group of colleges back in 2013. BMET now finds itself in significant financial distress and has been the subject of intervention by the FE Commissioner to look for a way to get the group back on a financially viable footing. We anticipated that

Stourbridge College was not going to be part of BMet for much longer and were waiting for an announcement of which local Black Country College was going to take it over – we were not expecting what came next.

With no consultation it was suddenly announced on 3 May that the College would be shut down and all students transferred to nearby colleges in Dudley and Halesowen in September! Can you imagine how it must feel for staff, students and their parents to suddenly have this news thrown at them – at a time when all efforts should be on preparing for exams.

We knew we could not tolerate this and began with a public meeting on 22 May hosted by our excellent local councillor, Pete Lowe. Along with colleagues from other unions, I was asked to speak to a packed house about why we cannot allow this to happen. This is a college that was judged as in the top 10% in the country five years ago and had £5 million invested in facilities just four years ago. This closure will not save money – leaders intend to sell off the site for around £2.6m. Stourbridge will be left with no further education provision and students will see their journey times greatly increased. Some staff will be offered jobs in the other colleges – but we don’t know how many or who.

We cannot allow this to set a precedent and are doing all we can, including legal redress, to stop this from happening. You can support us: join us on 29 June to march through Stourbridge to stop this rushed and ill-informed decision. Details will be on the UNISON website nearer the time. If you can’t make it, please help by signing our petition: t.co/oAAELXFEkJ