Have you noticed how specialist football management is now? The very top clubs in Europe recruit from a tiny pool of elite managers who have exceptional expertise in motivating the most expensive, egotistical talent and getting them to win the top competitions against other similar teams. Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola is their man of the moment.
Other clubs who have slipped up look for a different skill: managers who can quickly change the club’s fortunes and get them promoted back to the big time. Neil Warnock has an impeccable record here, but then doesn’t seem to possess the skills to stay in the top flight. Finally, there are clubs struggling to avoid relegation. They seek out managers like Tony Pulis or Sam Allardyce (pictured), men who seem to know how to win the dogfights with others in a similar position, though never by playing football to set a purist’s heart racing.
Further education colleges are finding life tough. Much as I admire the initiative to launch the Association of Colleges on TV, I can’t see it generating huge Sky-type rights deals for colleges. Our funding is Conference league, but should that stop us trying to produce a Champions league service to our communities?
No premium for colleges
An “outstanding” from Ofsted leaves a warm glow but does not seem to generate any sort of premium for a college. Student numbers rarely go up and often stall, as management attention is focused on inspection. In turn, this means little impact on college finances. The public seems to care far less about Ofsted judgements of colleges than they do about judgements on their local primary school.
In contrast, an “inadequate” inspection can be disastrous. Colleges are prevented from growing, lose their apprenticeship provision, often lose their principal and chair. Their best staff look for a different employer to avoid damage to their reputation. In short, the impact is huge and not short-term. It is easy to understand why a corporation might place not failing an inspection above chasing a great inspection given probabilities and risk.
This is even more rational when you consider that if a secondary school is better than its three neighbours it is likely to be judged outstanding (24 per cent of secondaries are so judged). Half of all primary schools in the worst 20 per cent by performance will still be judged good or better (only 10 per cent of primaries are judged less than good). Achieving such grades in a college is much harder. The system does not encourage that as an aspiration.
Principal pay
If there is no major student recruitment or financial benefit to a college, perhaps chasing Ofsted glory carries personal benefits?
The Tes coverage of the pay of college principals suggested those paid the most were not, as you might expect, always those in charge of the largest institutions. The highest paid certainly weren’t running the best colleges as judged by Ofsted either. Principals of “outstanding” colleges were conspicuous by their absence from the list.
In a world where money is tight and the price of a bad inspection is significant, it is likely that corporations will increasingly prize principals who can ensure they avoid relegation. We have created a sector made for the Sam and Samantha Allardyces. The bigger question is whether this is a desired outcome?
Despite Big Sam delivering continued Premier League football and accruing more points than all but the very top teams during his reign, he was summarily dismissed by Everton and never enjoyed the affection of their supporters.
If the country wants to produce people with world-class skills, to experiment, to provide a great student experience, surely we will fail if, for understandable reasons, we play safe, play mean, play the (achievement) percentages, stifle our staff?
Just because we are in an era of Dickensian hard times do we really all have to become Thomas Gradgrinds? FE is a beautiful game. Our students deserve a chance to be champions.
Ian Pryce is chief executive of Bedford College
