When I read Andy Mitchell’s piece - A plea to FE providers: we need you to do more - my initial reaction was of the blood boiling variety. It felt like an unwarranted attack on the sector I love working in, an affront to the colleges that I know do so much to help young people from disadvantaged backgrounds. And this, I fumed, coming from someone who works in a school? The sector that too often reveals a patchy, and even selectively amnesic, approach to advice and guidance about post-16 options where colleges are concerned. The audacity of it!

As I began to calm down, I started compiling a mental list of the evidence and statistics with which I could refute such wide of the mark criticism. I reminded myself that at my own college 57 per cent of students come from the most disadvantaged super output areas (compared to 40 per cent of the resident population); that nationally 45 per cent of the total 16-18 population from the most deprived wards study at colleges, whereas only 20 per cent of college’s students come from the most affluent areas.

Once I got past the knee-jerk venting and building of points for a strong counter-argument, I returned to a key technique that we regularly use at City College Norwich to help us challenge ourselves to make good decisions. I’ve come to treat Andy’s article as a great example of the devil’s advocacy approach - someone who says the unpalatable or deliberately challenges the perceived norm or proposed course of action so that you can reflect on whether your thinking on the matter is correct or not.

Is FE doing enough for the disadvantaged?

So what are the real issues underpinning Andy’s article? To pin them down I took up his challenge and asked myself: am I doing enough about the issue of working with disadvantaged young people and their families?

• Redoubling our outreach efforts: Every year we attempt to visit over 70 schools which are feeders to my college. However, there are a few schools who we don’t visit as either they do not feel it appropriate to invite in the local college or their just haven’t made space for us in their assembly schedule or open evening. I’m going to go and visit the head of each of these schools and ask what more we can do to support their young people to understand all the options in front of them.
• Reaching parents: The recently published report from the University of Warwick (sponsored by the Edge Foundation and City and Guilds) added to the literature that asserts that parental influence is one of the key deciding factors for young people attending college or getting an apprenticeship. Parental influence is much more important indeed that any careers advice received, in or out of school. Two years ago we started publishing a parent’s guide to our college to try and demystify some of the confusing FE aspects and speak directly to parents, but have we done enough? Are we reaching those more disengaged parents? We need to think creatively of new ways of cracking this challenge.
• Overcoming financial barriers: It amazed me that Andy’s article cited financial barriers as an issue as I know that in my own college around £1 million annually is provided directly to hundreds of students via bursary funds. But is this money reaching the young people it needs to? Are we providing it in a way that ensures it tackles the key barriers they have? And how do we find out from young people not at our college because of perceived financial barriers, how these funds could be even more effectively targeted?
• Clarity of information: Every summer at the college we run an advisor day where we invite in the careers advisory staff from all the local schools to update them on our programmes, share changes in policy and answer questions they may have. I think it is a successful use of time, much appreciated by those colleagues who attend. But should it be necessary? Shouldn’t the information we provide on the pathways and choices in post-16 education and training be so clearly presented that every advisor, parent and young person immediately understands them? Whilst the proposed skills plan and associated routes might help this, can we afford to wait that long to check we are doing all we can to make the options clear? Time to review the prospectus and website and make sure the key messages are crystal clear.

So thank you Andy for playing devil’s advocate, for engaging me in your debate in a way that has provided me with even more opportunities to improve what we are doing. If there is one thing I know about my colleagues here at City College Norwich, and those in the wider FE sector, it is that we are always up for the challenge of doing more to help those who most need our support. 

Jerry White is deputy principal of City College Norwich. He tweets at @JerryWhiteCCN

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