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June 2005 |
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What's been happening with you this month? Apart from busy? Nothing? Well, relax, sit down with a cup of your favourite beverage, and read about what has been going on in the world around you while you've been busy. I know that for some "being busy" has meant seeing rather more of the inside of a hospital – either as a patient or a visitor – than was desirable and hope that all is progressing well. Dawn and I seem to have spent rather a lot of time avoiding stories about flagships, identity cards and academies. Flagships aren't easy to ignore when it seems that every new initiative introduced by this present administration is "a flagship which must not be allowed to sink". As for ID cards and academies, you'd have to have multiple physical deprivation successfully to have avoided either. We have, of course, included some stories about both the cards and these new English schools but have tried not to swamp you.
Staying with schools and England, my attention was caught by an article in Community Care (16-22 June) which reported on the Local Government Association's reaction to the "Extended Schools" proposition. While the LGA welcomed the announcement from the DfES, it warned that the sum of £680 million is not a lot when shared across over 20,000 schools. It amounts to just £30,000 per primary and £50,000 per secondary school. The LGA also expressed concerns about how extended schooling would be staffed. I did some sums. £30,000 will pay for two support workers during term-time – more if these people only do the breakfast club or the after-school club, but there are other costs. What do the children do? Sit still and watch TV or a video? If they are to be involved in any activities then there will be a cost to the school of providing paint and brushes, playdough, paper and pencils etc, maybe even a computer or two for games. At £50,000 per secondary school the figure becomes even more derisory – there's not much you can buy with that amount that would interest young people. And who pays for the heating and lighting, cleaning and caretaking? The answer is likely to be "the school", which will mean that there is less money for the prime activity of the school – educating our young people.
Depending on whether you start at the back or the front of this publication, you will have read, or are about to read, something particularly interesting – or which is important for work – and you want to read more. Perhaps it's a Joseph Rowntree Foundation publication or maybe it's the latest report from the EOC, Women in Non-Traditional Training and Employment. But ... it's 72 pages long ... and you haven't really got time to find it on the internet, print it out, staple it together etc. Anyway you really only want to glance at it, like browsing in a bookshop or library. If you can afford to wait a couple of days to do your browsing then send an email <info@adset.org.uk> or pick up the phone and speak to Pippa or me in the office (01536 410500) and tell us what you want to read. Hard copy will wing its way to you by snail mail. (Wings on snails? Now that is a whimsical idea.) Cost? Enclose the postage cost in small(ish) denomination stamps when you return it. I really can't face the idea of making a set charge for this service and as for raising an invoice to cover post and packing, it is not worth the time and effort. Would it be useful to list on the website everything that we've put into the ADSET library? This month? The last three months on a rolling basis? What time-scale would be useful to you?
Hazel Edmunds, Editor
A survey of pupils in the first 11 privately sponsored academies found that four out of five children were aware of bullying at their school. The report, by the consultants PricewaterhouseCoopers, called for further investigation to see whether academies were tackling bullying effectively. Overall, it suspended judgement on the scheme, saying the jury was still out on how much it had improved standards.
Richard Garner, Education Editor, The Independent 16 June
Update comment: Is this any worse than at other schools? If bullying exists at all then surely 100% of pupils would know about it, wouldn't they?
The government is to press ahead with its plan to expand the academies programme, despite receiving a "mixed" report from PricewaterhouseCoopers. However, the plans will now be amended in light of "significant problems" exposed by the report. The report found that, while the new academies had largely won the support of pupils and parents, they still faced a number of problems, including widespread bullying. School Standards Minister Jacqui Smith said that headteachers will be given a longer "lead-in" time of five full terms before a school's opening to give them more time to prepare and recruit staff, and will also be given better training. The report was also highly critical of academies' "bold statement" buildings, describing them as "inappropriate for the more practical requirements of modern teaching and learning spaces". A separate evaluation of the buildings has now been launched.
Rebecca Smithers and Lucy Ward, The Guardian 16 June
Academies Evaluation
full report (PDF 47pp): http://tinyurl.com/a4csu
DfES response (PDF 20pp): http://tinyurl.com/8tbr9
Jacqui Smith, Schools Minister, has welcomed an independent evaluation published today (15 June) that shows the strong enthusiasm of parents and pupils for academies, and the progress they are starting to make in raising standards and extending opportunities. Commenting on the PricewaterhouseCoopers report Jacqui Smith said: "This is a positive endorsement of the academies programme and gives ground for optimism for the future. If I were to pick out a finding from the report that points to the long-term success of academies then it would be the huge backing from parents and pupils – particularly in how academies are led. Something the schools they replaced never had."
Copies of the PwC report and the government's response are at www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/academies
DfES press release (applies to England) 15 June
Client ref 2005/0063
Ministers have been accused of "misleading" the public over the city academies programme in England. A report from The Education Network (TEN) argues that, while the PricewaterhouseCoopers evaluation published earlier this month indicated parental approval, the questions asked were loaded. Respondents were asked if they were in favour of sponsors bringing more money into their schools, rather than asking if parents minded that businesses and other organisation were to be involved in the school's administration. The report also claims that the government was "disingenuous" in the way it presented the report's findings. The DfES said the PwC evaluation showed that three-quarters of pupils felt behaviour was better at their academy than its predecessor. But TEN said the figures were inaccurate and "misleading". However, the TEN report states: "In fact, PwC reports that 69% of pupils disagreed with the statement that 'my behaviour is worse now than before I came to this academy', which is not the same thing at all. Such manipulation of the data is disingenuous and the removal of those replying 'don't know' also presents a misleadingly favourable impression." The report accused the government of "taking the most favourable view possible", when it should be launching an extensive investigation into the academies programme.
BBC News Online 1 July
Full report (PDF 14pp): www.steerbriefing.org.uk/ten/PB33-05.pdf
Academies have succeeded in attracting middle-class children, but have failed to improve standards any faster than schools in similar circumstances, according to official figures released to Parliament. The figures show that most academies have fewer deprived pupils on their roll than the schools they replaced, suggesting that they have been successful in persuading middle-class parents to choose an academy. Supporters of the programme believe that the influx of middle-class children is playing a key part in raising achievement.
Jon Slater, The TES 1 July
A city academy criticised by inspectors for "failing" its pupils has received an extra £1.4 million extra from the government to help stabilise its budget. The Unity City Academy in Middlesbrough was the first of England's 17 academies to be placed in "special measures". A spokesperson for the DfES said that additional money given to the academy was part of a "financial recovery programme". He said: This was a specific financial recovery plan for Unity City Academy; there is no question of it having any bearing on other academies."
BBC News Online 20 June
The US Supreme Court has ruled that file-sharing companies are liable for the piracy on their networks. The surprise ruling could start a legal assault on the creators of file-sharing networks such as Grokster and Morpheus. The case was brought by 28 movie and music makers who claimed that rampant piracy was denting profits. The Supreme Court judges were expected to rule in favour of the file-sharers because of legal precedents set when video recorders first appeared. The unanimous ruling is a victory for recording companies and film studios in what is widely seen as one of the most important copyright cases in years. In the ruling Justice David Souter wrote: "The question is under what circumstances the distributor of a product capable of both lawful and unlawful use is liable for acts of copyright infringement by third parties using the product. … We hold that one who distributes a device with the object of promoting its use to infringe copyright … is liable for the resulting acts of infringement by third parties."
BBC News Online 28 June
US Supreme Court ruling: MGM Studios Inc. et al v Grokster Ltd. et al (PDF 55pp): http://tinyurl.com/d7gb5
Update comment: I caught the tail-end of a programme of Radio 4 last week about the Assets Recovery Agency [Authority?] (ARA). There does not have to be any proof of guilt before the ARA can seize assets which it believes have been acquired as a result of criminal activity. Copyright law is criminal law – if you steal my intellectual property you are as guilty of theft as someone who breaks into my house and takes my physical property. So, file sharing is theft and if you make money out of it in the UK then you could have your assets seized – and handed back when, and only when, a court of law has proved your innocence.
A mother whose teenage daughter was caught illegally downloading thousands of music files to her computer is being sued after the family were targeted by lawyers acting for the music industry body, the British Phonographic Industry (BPI). The BPI insists that, as the internet account is in the mother's name, she is liable for the £2,500 settlement fee. The mother said that she had no idea her daughter was doing anything illegal, as she is completely unfamiliar with computers. She said: "I don't know how to use a computer. I've never even switched one on. I just pay the bills."
Helen McCormack, The Independent 21 June
Update comment: That statement seems to sum up parental irresponsibility as far as ensuring that children are not only safe when using the internet but are also acting legally. And you should, of course, never sign up to anything without knowing what you are letting yourself in for!
"Live in such a way that you would not be ashamed to sell your parrot to the town gossip."
Will Rogers, humorist
In the second part of an article for Internet ScamBusters (Issue 130 (8 June)), Anne P Mitchell, Professor of Internet Law at Lincoln Law School of San Jose, highlights the seven most common mistakes that internet users make when considering online security:
In the first part of the Professor Mitchell warns that the increase in public wi-fi hotspots has led to a new scam – the Evil Twin hotspot. An "Evil Twin hotspot" is a hotspot that mimics a legitimate public wi-fi hotspot. Users are tricked into connection to the internet via the Evil Twin hotspot, which then provides hackers with access to everything that they type. Professor Mitchell highlights her own experience with Evil Twin hotspots to explain: "Just last week I was sitting in my local Starbucks, where they offer wi-fi hotspots from T-Mobile. In order to log into a T-Mobile hotspot, you must have an account with T-Mobile, for which you must pay. Even though I don't use the T-Mobile hotspots, I always check (with my laptop) to see what wi-fi hotspots are available at any given location because, well, that's part of my beat. Sure enough, users at that Starbucks who opened their laptops and searched for a local wi-fi internet connection were presented with the option of 'T-Mobile Hotspot', as they should be, but were also presented with a second option, called 'Free wi-fi from Team Wi-Fi', which I am 99% certain was an Evil Twin (and indeed Starbucks confirmed that there was no special offer going on which would have otherwise explained that second hotspot)."
A UK-based American citizen has been jailed after stealing an estimated £6.5 million through identity fraud. Douglas Havard made fake credit cards with stolen bank details. Havard admitted conspiracy to defraud and conspiracy to launder money. His co-accused Lee Elwood was jailed for four years for the same offences.
BBC News Online 30 June
Whether it's in pottery, upholstery or Cantonese cuisine, there's something "as quintessentially British as Radio 4 or baggy shorts" about evening classes. But now many are being axed as funds are diverted elsewhere. In an article for The Guardian (14 June), self-confessed evening-school junkie Sue Arnold (skilled in thumb-pot jugs, aromatic duck and speed Finnish) laments their demise.
Full article: http://tinyurl.com/8rwhg
Update comment: Great fun!
Concern is deepening over the future of adult learning after a letter from the Director of Resources at the LSC admitted that the post-19 budget may have to be cut by as much as 10%. This is the equivalent of 300,000 adult places. David Russell wrote to college principals to let them know that the budget cuts will be "higher than anticipated". Julian Gravatt, Director of Funding at the Association of Colleges, said that the announcement vindicated the AoC's estimates of the loss of 200,000 places, which were dismissed by ministers as "scaremongering". Mr Gravatt said: "The cuts in adult learning are unacceptable and we will take up the issue with the DfES and the LSC."
Steve Hook, The TES FE Focus 10 June
Update comment: Unacceptable to cut 300,000 places in adult education? Of course it is BUT... how do you persuade the government to cough-up more money? Blood out of stones comes to mind.
This Specification provides existing nextstep contractors with information about contracting with local LSCs during the operational year 1 August 2005 to 31 July 2006. In particular it describes the role of the Council-convened and chaired Strategic Board for Information, Advice and Guidance (IAG) in delivering the vision and strategy for all IAG provision in the local area and the contribution the Contractor will make to the strategy, including the production of a one-year Delivery Plan for 2005/2006 covering all Council Information and Advice programme funded activities.
LSC email update 18 June
nextstep Service Delivery Specification 2005/2006
(PDF 40pp): http://tinyurl.com/8zx3n
Update comment: I will admit that I have yet to find time to read this but will remedy the omission before next month's update so that I can tell you a bit more about what's in it – if appropriate.
Reading University is offering financial incentives to encourage students to enter its science courses. It will give £2,000 scholarships for "high achieving" students who accept places on a number of courses. It also plans to offer "performance-related pay", which will give "achievement rewards" to students in their second and third years.
BBC News Online 22 June
Figures released by the Learning and Skills Council reveal that colleges have met their targets for students' success two years ahead of schedule. The figures show that 72% of students successfully completed their studies this year, compared with 65% a year ago. The LSC also reported improvements in the success rates for vocational and work-based courses, although pass rates are still low, at 46%. Other evidence suggests that the number of students has risen by 20% since 1997, with some 41% of the student population now being drawn from the lowest three socio-economic groups. Highlighting the improvements, Further Education Minister Bill Rammell said that they clearly indicate that the government is "giving the right financial support to colleges". He accused the Association of Colleges of "crying wolf" over the supposed financial crisis, and warned that their perpetual exaggeration may lead them to being ignored by the government. He said: "I want the AoC to have real influence on what we do, but we need grown-up dialogue for that to happen. I don't think the 1970s-style campaigning of throwing stones from the sidelines actually influences anything."
Joseph Lee, The TES FE Focus 1 July
Update comment: Three weeks after the LSC spokesman says "cuts could be as much as 10%" the minister says that the AoC is crying wolf. That wolf looks fairly real from where I'm sitting – and throwing stones at it will not make it go away.
An investigation conducted by freedom of information watchdog Richard Thomas suggests that the Freedom of Information Act has done little to break down "the entrenched culture of secrecy" in Whitehall. Mr Thomas revealed that, just six months after the Act gave the public the right to ask, his office is investigating almost 1,000 complaints concerning failure to disclose material. Complaints include government departments losing requests or failing to comply with deadlines for answering enquiries. The government, however, has hailed the legislation as a huge success, claiming that 10,000 pieces of new information [surely this should be 10,000 new pieces not new information?] had been released since January. Lord Falconer, the Lord Chancellor, said: "A presumption of openness has been created. Putting citizens on a level playing-field with the institutions that serve them. Raising the quality, accuracy and completeness of public debate. Bringing government closer to the people. Greater transparency. Greater accountability. Greater engagement. A radical and lasting change in the relationship between citizen and government."
Robert Verkaik, Legal Affairs Correspondent, The Independent, 17 June
Update comment: That is the spinniest piece of spin-doctoring I've seen in a long time – and it ain't even good grammar!
The Department for Constitutional Affairs is to review the current legal obstacles restricting public bodies from releasing information under the Freedom of Information Act, with over a hundred further statutory bars currently placed under review. Lord Falconer, the Lord Chancellor, described the move as a demonstration of ministers' commitment to "pushing the boundaries of openness" under the freedom of information regime. Of more than 400 provisions which could act as potential barriers:
Of the remaining 183 statutory bars, the government has committed to repealing, amending or introducing "sunset clauses" into 72 provisions. This means that 111 will be retained or are still currently under review.
eGOV Monitor Weekly Issue 171 (20 June)
Review of Statutory Prohibitions on Disclosure
(PDF 66pp): www.egovmonitor.com/reports/rep11605.pdf
Whitehall departments have not responded to a quarter of Freedom of Information requests within the statutory deadline, which the Home Office missed in six out of ten cases, new government figures have revealed. The first report on the government's performance during the first three months of the new FOI regime shows "wide variations in performance across the main departments". Findings include:
eGOV Monitor Weekly Issue 172 (27 June)
Freedom of Information Act 2000 - Statistics on Implementation in Central Government Q1: January – March 2005
(PDF 29pp): www.egovmonitor.com/reports/rep11659.pdf
Citigroup, the world's largest financial services group, has expressed "deep regret" over the loss of computer tapes containing personal data relating to 3.9 million US customers. The company admitted that the tapes had been mislaid during transportation to another location, but would not be drawn on the details of the information that was lost.
David Teather, The Guardian 7 June
The Japanese branch of investment bank UBS has become the latest financial services company to reveal that it has lost sensitive customer data. UBS has admitted that it lost a hard disk containing the banking details of 15,500 of its customers – including individual and company customer names, addresses, phone numbers and details of transactions carried out between 1994 and 2004. The loss came to light during a software upgrade programme at its Tokyo and Hong Kong offices.
Abi Carter, Infoconomy Bulletin 1 June
The National Consumer Council has suggested the need for tougher data protection laws, to protect privacy in the face of an "explosion" in organisations collecting and using personal information from their customers. The NCC said that the Office of the Information Commissioner, Britain's personal information regulator, should be given increased powers to audit companies to ensure they are complying with data protection laws.
Maija Pesola, IT Correspondent, The Financial Times 14 June
In a controversial deal due to be signed in at the beginning of July, a database containing details of every birth, marriage and death in England and Wales since 1837 is to be transferred to India. This is one of the biggest offshore contracting deals ever to be signed by the government, and will go ahead, despite attracting a wealth of criticism from MPs, peers and trade unions. The contract will be managed by the Office for National Statistics, although most of the work will be undertaken in Madras. A spokesperson for ONS said that computerised records from individual registrars would be scanned in the United Kingdom and then sent by an encrypted link to India to form part of a new digital database. Critics believe that the move could put people's personal data at risk, and point out that the deal has already been slated by two parliamentary committees. Mark Serwotka, General Secretary of the Public and Commercial Services Union, said: "Not only is this highly irregular, but it is outrageous that a government will so readily dismiss the concerns of both houses of parliament in handing over the records of 250 million people to a third party halfway across the globe. Ministers need to intervene, stopping ONS playing fast and loose with such valuable and sensitive information, and ensure that the population's personal information remains in the hands of the public sector."
David Hencke, Westminster Correspondent, The Guardian 23 June
Update comment: This could be the biggest "oops" this government has ever perpetrated.
The two key government bodies responsible for public sector IT have signed a Memorandum of Understanding which clarifies their respective roles and responsibilities. The MoU between the Office of Government Commerce and the Cabinet Office e-Government Unit covers areas including efficiency, e-government and "mission critical" projects. A spokesperson for the OGC explained: "Broadly, OGC will lead in commercial, financial and contractual delivery process issues, while eGU will lead on strategic, architectural, technical and operational delivery, together with performance issues."
eGOV Monitor Weekly Issue 169 (6 June)
A summary of roles and responsibilities is at www.egovmonitor.com/go?169d
Update comment: Clear? No? Am I surprised? Not really. If you understand it please let me know.
Plans for a single national infrastructure of property addresses, which could transform how public services are managed and delivered in the UK, have been unveiled by the government. The National Spatial Address Infrastructure is intended to replace the thousands of separate lists and databases held across parts of government, taking over from the government's abandoned national address infrastructure project known as "Acacia". This similarly aimed to pull together data from sources such as the National Land and Property Gazetteer (NLPG) and Ordnance Survey. Announcing the venture, Local Government Minister Phil Wollas said the project would "help to drive the knowledge economy as well as improve the quality and efficiency of vital public services."
eGOV Monitor Weekly Issue 168 (31 May)
More information: www.egovmonitor.com/go?168j
According to the Oxford Internet Survey 2005, internet take-up has hit a "virtual plateau" of 61% in the UK, increasing by just 3% since 2003. This means that a third of the population is unlikely to get online, a figure which pours cold water on the government's plans for e-government take-up. However, the research also suggests that there is a "huge untapped market" of potential users among those who are already online. Three-quarters of users polled have never used an online public service, while less than one in 20 had used the internet to transact online with a public body, such as paying taxes and fines. The report suggests that the government makes an effort to target existing users, as well as those who are not enthusiastic about using the internet.
eGOV Monitor Weekly Issue 172 (27 June)
Full report (PDF 136pp): www.egovmonitor.com/reports/rep11641.pdf
Update comment: If government websites were more accessible in terms of navigation then perhaps more of us would use them.
The Mylocal service will provide free access to government information, as well as advertising local commercial services, from interactive, touch screen kiosks across the UK. There will be a mix of local authority kiosks, ITboxes in local pubs and members' clubs and Mylocal kiosks in sub-post offices, leisure centres, libraries and hospitals. The plan is to have 7,000 kiosks in operation by the end of 2005, and 18,000 by the end of 2006.
URL: www.mylocal.org.uk/index.htm
Info@UK Issue 51 (June 2005)
A Florida judge has ordered the Morgan Stanley bank to pay the full $604.3 million claim made against it by billionaire financier Ronald Perelman. Mr Perelman had accused the bank Morgan Stanley of defrauding him of this amount following a series of business transactions in 1990. The judge ordered the payment (and a further $850 million in "punitive damages"), not because he believed that the bank was guilty, but because Morgan Stanley repeatedly failed to locate and hand over email correspondence deemed vital to Mr Perelman's case. The judge decided that this failure had occurred as a result of both email archiving mismanagement and deliberate attempts to suppress evidence.
Information Age June 2005
In an article for the Financial Times (29 June), Ben King reports on how the British Library is struggling to fulfil its mission to preserve the nation's knowledge in the digital age. Lynne Brindley, Chief Executive of the BL, explains that preservation of digital material is more problematic than the preservation of printed matter, even though physical storage space is less of an issue. Ms Brindley notes that it would be impossible for the Library to keep a working example of every different type of computer hardware necessary to make sure that the digital material is accessible. She outlines some solutions on how to fulfil the BL's ultimate aim of archiving the entirety of the UK web domain, including the development of software emulation programmes. Emulations are new programmes that "pretend" to be old ones. However, this is not the complete answer, as emulation programmes will, themselves, become obsolete over time.
Museums, libraries and archives are concerned that 90% of their digital collections are externally funded and therefore have no guarantee of long-term support to preserve public access to them, according to a survey. The survey, from the Museum Libraries and Archives and the Digital Preservation Coalition, will inform the development of a digitisation strategy for cultural resources.
E-Government Bulletin Issue 189 (24 June)
There has been a growth in the number of lenders offering secured loans to people with credit problems, including those who have been bankrupt or have CCJs (County Court Judgements) against them, and for purposes such as debt consolidation. This research investigated the emergence of such "sub-prime" lending and considered its implications for sustainable home-ownership. Findings include:
The full report, Lending to higher risk borrowers: Sub-prime credit and sustainable home ownership by Moira Munro, Chris Leishman, Noah Kofi Karley and Janet Ford is published by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (ISBN: 1-85935-334-7, price £12.95).
It is also (PDF 84pp) at http://tinyurl.com/8p79j
An overview of the research is at www.jrf.org.uk/knowledge/findings/housing/0275.asp
JRF mailing list 27 May
MORI conducted face-to-face interviews with a demographically representative sample of 2,089 adults, in their homes. They were asked to complete ten basic skills tasks which were the kind of things customers would do when using financial institutions. Key findings include:
This research shows the links between poor basic skills, financial exclusion and social disadvantage. People with poor basic skills do use financial products such as bank accounts, and therefore may need appropriate help from financial institutions in order to make the most of those products. Those with poor basic skills are also more likely to be socially disadvantaged, although it is not possible to tell whether social disadvantage and poor basic skills are a cause or effect of financial exclusion.
National Literacy Trust News (May 2005)
A copy of the study can be obtained free of charge by
contacting the Basic Skills Agency quoting stock code A1189
tel: 0845 60
222 60
It is also (PDF 12pp) at http://tinyurl.com/axlen
Editor's note: Sorry about the white space but I thought these two stories really needed to be together. Hazel
A fifth of older people in Britain live in poverty – the same proportion as when Labour came to power in 1997 – according to research published by the National Pensioners Convention (NPC). The annual NPC Age Audit revealed that some 2.2 million older people are living on incomes which are below the poverty line, with 1.5 million malnourished or at serious risk of malnourishment. In addition, 1.5 million older people said their house was too cold in winter, with 22,000 people dying as a result of the cold last year. However, the Audit estimated that older people save the UK around £24 billion each year through doing voluntary work and providing unpaid social care and childcare. Joe Harris, NPC General Secretary, said: "Being older in modern Britain can mean that you feel trapped in your own home and don't have enough money to eat or put the heating on. Even those above the poverty line struggle to pay rising council tax bills, meet the costs of care and buy presents for their grandchildren. The scale of inequality affects every older person in one way or another."
The Guardian 6 June
Research from the Pre-School Learning Alliance has warned that men are being deterred from getting involved in childcare as fathers or workers because playgroups and nurseries are dominated by women. The study examined the extent and nature of father involvement in childcare, and found that:
The report suggests that women could be more proactive in encouraging men to take a greater role in caring for their children. It also proposes that playgroups arrange sessions specifically targeted at fathers at the weekends, for example on Saturday mornings.
Lucy Ward, Social Affairs Correspondent, The Guardian 7 June
For further information or a copy of Fathers
Involvement in Early Years Settings: Findings from Research contact Andrew
Fletcher, Press Manager
tel: 020 7278 9037
email:
andrew.fletcher@pre-school.org.uk
If you did, you are in the minority according to research by Friends Reunited. The website asked its members to remember back to their first day in secondary school and say what they wanted to be when they grew up. Old stereotypes rung true, with nurse coming out on top (23%) as the most-dreamed-of job for girls and scientist for boys (18%). Teacher and hairdresser came in second and third for girls respectively with soldier and then footballer for boys. However, little over a quarter of respondents said they had fulfilled their childhood ambition. Half of those that missed out on securing their dream job said they had simply "changed their mind", 14% said they "failed to meet the grade", while 10% of women and 5% of men cited "family commitments" as the reason. Overall 6% had not given up on their early plans and were still working in their chosen field.
HRLook Daily News 2 June
The Equal Opportunties Commission has published a new report as part of its investigation into why women and men continue to work in traditional jobs. Women in Non-Traditional Training and Employment "captures the perspectives of women who have succeeded in entering training or employment in the non-traditional sectors of plumbing, construction, engineering and information and communications technology (ICT)". It identifies the benefits of training and work in non-traditional skills sectors, along with obstacles that hinder the take-up of non-traditional occupations. It also suggests a number of actions which could help to "re-address the needs of women entering training and employment in non-traditional skills areas". They include ensuring that:
EOC email update 1 June
Full report (PDF 66pp): http://tinyurl.com/8ppjn
The Equal Opportunities Commission has produced a list of organisations working to tackle sex stereotyping in education and in the labour market.
EOC email update 1 June
More than one in three teenagers eligible for a government grant to help them with their studies have shunned the scheme, according to official figures. When ministers first announced the Education Maintenance Allowance, worth up to £30 a week, they said 353,000 16-year-olds would be eligible this year. However, since the scheme began in September 2004, just 227,000 have applied for the grant.
Edinburgh Evening News 3 June
The European Commission has designated 2007 European Year of Equal Opportunities for All. This will form part of a concerted effort to promote equality and non-discrimination in the EU, forming the centrepiece of a framework strategy designed to ensure that discrimination is effectively tackled, diversity is celebrated and equal opportunities for all are promoted. Core themes in 2007 will be rights, representation, recognition and respect.
Changing Times News Number 59 (9 June)
The government has attached great importance to tackling anti-social behaviour (ASB), and has introduced a range of new measures to deal with it. This study, by King's College London, looked at public attitudes towards ASB nationally and examined the problems and solutions in three case-study neighbourhoods with high levels of ASB. It found that:
The full report, Anti-social behaviour strategies:
Finding a balance by Andrew Millie, Jessica Jacobson, Eraina McDonald and
Mike Hough, is published for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation by The Policy Press
(ISBN: 1-86134-763-4, price £13.95).
It is also (PDF 72pp) at http://tinyurl.com/d6zo7
An overview of the research is at www.jrf.org.uk/knowledge/findings/housing/0305.asp
JRF Mailing List 7 June
A High Court judge has ruled that an anti-social behaviour order (ASBO) banning a 15-year-old from committing any crime is unlawful. The judge said that the terms of the ASBO mean that the child would be punished twice for the same offence; once for the crime and once for breaching the order. The judge ordered that the child be charged for the theft alone.
Community Care 16-22 June
Critics of anti-social behaviour orders (ASBOs) are "not living in the real world", according to the head of the government unit tackling the issue. In an interview for The Guardian, Louise Casey, Director of the Home Office Anti-social Behaviour Unit, argued that critics should accept there is strong public support for the sanctions in addressing "a culture of intimidation". She notes a MORI poll which found that 82% of respondents are in favour of the orders. While one in five believe ASBOs could create more problems than they solve, 70% say they send out "a clear message that action will be taken to combat anti-social behaviour". Ms Casey commented: "Sometimes I wish people like ASBO Concern and some of the people who write letters to The Guardian could just see it from the point of view of the people in the communities. … [ASBO] is a byword for the country wanting something done about a guy who is 50 and looks 70 who gets gobbed on and has stuff thrown at him by a group of teenagers when he leaves the house for a night shift."
Lucy Ward, Social Affairs Correspondent, The Guardian 10 June
Human rights group Liberty has called for a judicial review of the curfew and dispersal orders introduced as part of the 2003 Anti-social Behaviour Act. Responding to a High Court case, in which a teenage boy argued that the creation of "dispersal areas" in his neighbourhood infringed his human rights, Liberty challenged the law, describing the new measures it introduced as "draconian". The boy told the court that, because he lives in a dispersal area, he is prevented from doing "ordinary" things, such as catching a bus home in the evening, walking the dog and running errands for his mother. Alex Gask, Liberty's legal officer, argued that the curfew infringes four articles of the Human Rights Act: the right to liberty, respect for private life, the freedom of assembly and freedom from discrimination. He commented: "These are important parts of growing up. Small journeys to the shops are important stages in developing independence from the family. There is a real danger of sweeping 'anti-yob powers' demonising an entire generation of mostly decent kids."
Patrick Barkham, The Guardian 27 May
Sixth-form colleges are worried that the new academies will put them at risk of "uncontrolled competition". They are concerned about the freedom afforded to academies to expand without the permission of local authorities and that they do not have to follow the priorities as set by the LSC.
Francis Beckett, The TES FE Focus 1 July
Figures released by the Office for National Statistics show that more than 8,000 girls under 16 became pregnant in England and Wales in 2003, an increase of 2.5% on the previous year. The statistics reveal that, while conception among girls under the age of 14 has fallen, there has been a marked increase in 14 and 15-year-olds conceiving. Children's Minister Beverley Hughes said that the government has reached a "sticking point" in its ability to reduce under-age pregnancy. She said ministers can do no more to change young people's behaviour without "a stronger contribution from parents". However, family planning advisers criticised the government for failing to make sex education a formal part of the curriculum. Jan Barlow, Chief Executive of Brook, said: "Making comprehensive sex and relationships education a compulsory part of the national curriculum would guarantee that the vast majority of young people received the information they needed and had the opportunity to discuss wider issues such as how to resist peer pressure to have sex too early."
John Carvel, Social Affairs Editor, The Guardian 27 May
In an article for The Guardian (27 May), Madeleine Bunting argues that the government campaign to reduce underage pregnancy is rooted in "one of the most widespread and pernicious misuses of social science". Ms Bunting says that the argument which is most often used to justify the campaign – that a baby "ruins a girl's life and brings dire consequences, ranging from educational under-achievement and depression to alcohol misuse, drug abuse and poverty" – could not be further from the truth. Studies conducted by experts in this field reveal that, when comparing like with like, teenage mothers will not fare significantly worse than girls who have had similar life experiences, but not had children. The non-parents are equally likely to have a low-paid job, or no job at all. They are as likely to marry a low-paid male, live in poor-quality housing and drop out of education as their teenage parent counterparts. In short, a teenage pregnancy has a negligible effect on a person's life chances. Ms Bunting writes: "When a girl at 17 decides to go ahead and have a baby, there is no tragedy of lost opportunity other than the local checkout till waiting for her low-paid labour. Why is it that in Labour's crusade against teenage pregnancy, it can't recognise that some of these teen mums are making reasonable – even moral – decisions about what they value in life, and what they want to do with their lives? How did opting for baby and motherhood over shelf-stacking ever become a tragedy?"
A new ESRC report uses the seven deadly sins – pride, anger, lust, avarice, gluttony, envy and sloth – as a way of looking at some pressing issues of modern life: religious conflict, rage in kids and adults, sexual behaviour, corporate greed, binge drinking, rising personal debt and political apathy. The report brings together studies by a group of leading social science researchers using large-scale data resources – like the three big birth cohort studies of 1958, 1970 and 2000/1, the British Household Panel Survey, the General Household Survey, the National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles, and the British Election Study – to provide invaluable insights into the patterns of our lives in the early 21st century.
Pride: Northern Ireland: in-group pride and out-group prejudice.
Anger: and irritability and hostility in children and adults.
Lust: changing sexual behaviour in the UK.
Avarice: executive pay in the United States.
Gluttony: "binge drinking" and the binge economy.
Envy: debt: envy, penury or necessity?
Sloth: Turnout: a crisis in UK politics?
ESCR Press Release 18 June
To order a copy of the report, contact Becky Gammon,
PR Officer, ESRC
tel: 01793 413122
email:
becky.gammon@esrc.ac.uk
Officials at Glasgow City Council have decided to introduce lessons in basic social skills for primary school pupils because they believe parents are failing to teach their offspring how to behave. Under the scheme, known as the Nurture Class Initiative, pupils will be taught how to sit at a table, to eat in a group, to share with others, to say "please" and "thank you", and how to form basic relationships. Margaret Orr, head at the City Council's special educational needs service, said the scheme was vital because increasingly pupils were coming to school without having the basic building blocks of social behaviour the majority took for granted.
Andrew Denholm, Education Correspondent, The Scottish Herald 26 May
Prime Minister Tony Blair has apologised for the "unintendedly harsh and unfair consequences" suffered by poor families as a result of mismanagement of the Treasury's tax credit system. However, the government rejected demands for "a complete amnesty" on efforts to reclaim £1.5 billion in overpayments.
Michael White, Political Editor, The Guardian 23 June
Two million families are being forced to repay £2 billion to the government after new figures revealed that a third of all awards were overpaid. The figures, released by Revenue and Customs, show that out of a total of 5.7 million tax credits made to families in 2003-04, 1.9 million were overpaid. Critics say families are suffering great hardship and many are falling into debt as a result of the "boom and bust" of their personal finances. A spokesperson for Citizens Advice said: "Even where Revenue and Customs acknowledges its error, claimants must dispute the recovery and demonstrate it was reasonable for them to have thought their award was correct before they will consider writing it off. In the meantime they are struggling."
Phillip Inman, The Guardian 2 June
Pressure was mounting on the government last night (21 June) to write off tax-credit cash mistakenly paid to families after Ann Abraham, the parliamentary ombudsman, criticised the scheme. Ms Abraham said the tax credits system operated in a way that could have "unintended harsh and unfair consequences" for vulnerable people. She called on officials to consider writing off all tax credit overpayments resulting from Inland Revenue errors since the system began two years ago. Ms Abraham noted other problems, including:
Rupert Jones, The Guardian 22 June
Government regulations and the total tax burden are now the top two problems facing Britain's small firms, according to the latest NatWest/SERTeam Quarterly Survey of Small Businesses. Whilst the impact of government regulations has been the number one problem for 18 months, the tax burden has now jumped into second place for the first time in 3 years. On a more positive note, however, the general economic climate, which was the top-ranked problem for most of 2003, is now only fifth-ranked and is no longer a top problem for any industry sector. Optimism about the future is also good, with sales and employment both expected to improve in the coming months. The ability to recruit employees with the required skills remains a burning issue for many small businesses, particularly construction firms, where 25% report that this is the biggest single problem facing them.
HRLook Daily News 14 June
This EOC research report, by Fran Bennett, examines social security benefits/tax credits in the UK and discusses ways in which they may reinforce inequalities between women and men. It argues for a more explicit focus on gender when considering the benefits/tax credits system. Key findings include:
Full report (PDF 130pp): http://tinyurl.com/bmd9d
EOC email update 15 June
Employers would be willing to extend paid maternity leave and introduce more flexible working rights, says business group the CBI. However, it has urged the government not to introduce any further changes during the present Parliament. Director-General John Cridland said: "This is the first test of the government's recent promises on regulation. Employers have been challenged to accept new family-friendly rights. In return, we have a challenge for government – demonstrate your commitment to smarter regulation by reducing the burden on employers alongside introducing these extra rights. Employers have been active in implementing new family-friendly employment rights, and are willing to go the extra mile with further extensions to these benefits. But this will inevitably add to the burden, particularly for smaller businesses, and our members expect the extended rights to be introduced in a balanced way, and to be the last for some time."
BBC News Online 6 June
Schools are failing to follow up on work experience placements to reinforce a link between the classroom and careers, a survey from educational charity Edge suggests. The survey of pupils aged 15 to 16 found that 70% of those who had completed a placement thought it had been not been well-managed. Moreover, 58% said that they had not been given the opportunity to discuss their experience on return to school. Commenting on the findings, Mariska Van Der Linden, Senior Policy Adviser for Employment and Skills at the CBI, said that employers need more feedback from schools. She said: "Employers are committed to providing the work experience which can help young people gain valuable skills but, as the findings from Edge confirm, too many employers and students are finding it difficult to make placements a worthwhile experience. … We need more support and guidance for employers – and students – to turn the goodwill into a really worthwhile experience."
BBC News Online 27 June
Dr John Graystone, Chief Executive of FFORWM, has argued that there is "a clear responsibility" on politicians and society as a whole to promote the status of vocational training. In a speech to the Welsh further education sector's annual conference, Dr Graystone said more must be done to encourage young people "to experiment with the whole range of exciting vocational opportunities available at college", adding that this can only be achieved by "tackling student perceptions at an early age". He said: "There is clearly work to be done to convince those advising young people of the real benefits of vocational training – particularly parents, who value academic above vocational, and school teachers, who often have little vocational experience themselves."
Jenny Rees, The Western Mail 26 May
Jane Davidson, Education and Lifelong Learning Minister for Wales, has announced that Wales will have its first Vocational Skills Champion. The Skills Champion will promote the importance of employers and learning providers in encouraging the take-up of vocational learning routes, improve the esteem in which they are held and increase the numbers of learners and employers who support them. Rachel Jones, SSDA Manager in Wales, said: "The Skills for Business network in Wales welcomes this announcement. … We are working hard to promote vocational learning pathways, and are particularly keen that employers are able to influence the 14-19 Learning Pathways agenda."
SSDA INvolve Issue 87 (31 May)
Further information: www.ssda.org.uk/ssda/default.aspx?page=824
The Workplace Basic Skills Network (WBSN), founded in 1993 and based at Lancaster University, is a national organisation dedicated to workplace language, literacy and numeracy provision. It builds professional capacity in workplace basic skills through sharing and disseminating good practice, continuing professional development and supporting basic skills professionals to meet the language literacy and numeracy needs of the changing workplace.
More information: The Workplace Basic Skills Network,
CSET, Lancaster University, Lancaster LA1 4YL
tel: 01524 593 405
URL:
www.lancaster.ac.uk/wbsnet
t Magazine June 2005
London teenagers with top-grade GCSE passes in maths and English are having to be tested again when they look for a job because so many lack basic skills, according to a report published by the Corporation of London. The report suggests that many school-leavers are unable to complete simple tasks, such as writing a business letter or working out basic sums without the aid of a calculator. It calls for schools to set time aside to coach pupils in specific administrative skills such as letter-writing and the application of numbers. The report also showed that employers in the capital still rely on GCSE and A-level results as a measure of intelligence. Very few said that they were actively seeking applicants with vocational qualifications.
Richard Garner, Education Editor, The Independent 29 June
The BBC Key Skills website has just launched the first of a series designed to complement Modern Apprenticeships. The first is for Health & Social Care and has a selection of Flash activities that put the user in the position of a Key Worker in a residential care home. The activities combine NVQ criteria with Level 2 Key Skills. At the end of each activity, users can print out the results of their work to include in both NVQ and Key Skills portfolios.
More information: www.bbc.co.uk/keyskills/apps/care/app_index.shtml
BBC Skillswise Issue 176 (1 June)
The UK will drop further behind other countries unless it can bring more young people into engineering, Lord Broers, President of the Royal Academy of Engineering, has warned. The academy has been talking to ministers about how to attract more students into engineering and applied science. Lord Broers said: "If we don't get the best young minds into this, we're going to gradually slip back and back, and we have slipped in a lot of industrial fields."
Alison Maitland, The Financial Times 23 June
A new partnership – Progress GB – to help employers overcome skills shortages and support refugees and migrants develop and adapt their skills for the UK labour market, has been launched. Progress GB is led by the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE) and supported by partner organisations across the country. Research by NIACE has demonstrated that refugees and migrants have a wide range of skills and qualifications in a variety of professions, including business and vocational fields. However, they frequently experience unemployment or only gain low-skilled, casual employment. At the same time employers in the UK are unable to fill vacancies in a variety of areas such as construction, transport, engineering, and health and social care. In addition to this, research from the Home Office has revealed that it takes an average of 20 years for migrants in the UK to reach the same level of employment as UK-born workers with similar skills. Sue Waddington, Progress GB Project Leader, said, "Refugees and migrant workers are often highly skilled and highly motivated but can find it very difficult to find progress in the UK workplace. Progress GB will be able to develop new approaches to benefit both employers and refugees across the UK. We will help refugees into jobs, predominately where there is a current shortage of skilled workers."
NIACE press release 15 June
More information: http://tinyurl.com/afz45
Many homeless people see volunteering as "a chance to give something back", according to research by homelessness charity Off The Streets And Into Work. The research, funded by Bridge House Trust and EQUAL and the European Social Fund, examined how homeless people view volunteering, what benefits they can gain from it, what potential barriers they face, and how they feel they could be best supported to volunteer. Key findings include:
Community Care 16-22 June
Homeless People and Volunteering
(PDF 17pp): http://tinyurl.com/dhqk8
Whether they are "hoodies" or "chavs", we need to bring the derided back into the human fold with training, writes Patrick Ainley (The Guardian 14 June). Professor Ainley, Professor of Training and Education at the University of Greenwich, argues that society is doing a disservice to an already excluded group by labelling and ridiculing its members. He further believes that the government is underplaying its role in creating the disaffected, hoodie-wearing underclass. He says: "Hoodies are, after all, the ungrateful nemesis of New Labour's educational effort. Drilled by a narrow and repetitive inculcation of literacy, numeracy, facts, figures and SATs, their culture of tat anticipates a workless future without the wit to dramatise it as a punk 'no future'." Professor Ainley advises the government to recognise the way in which education and training interact with each other and with the world of employment. He says: "What the Blair governments have never realised is that education and training cannot work in limbo. It has to prepare for a viable future where what is learned can be applied. Too many vocational routes are dead ends, while everyone knows that academic disciplines, supposedly untainted by practical application, actually lead to the glittering prizes."
Full article: http://tinyurl.com/aykkh
According to OfSTED inspectors, the Increased Flexibility Programme, a scheme which offers disaffected children training in industry, has resulted in high truancy rates. However, inspectors also found that the scheme was very popular with students, and had resulted in significant improvements in performance and engagement among many disaffected students. The report will encourage ministers, who believe a drive to give more vocational training to 14-16-year-olds in further education colleges or in the workplace, is key to improving behaviour and tackling drop-out rates.
Miranda Green, Education Correspondent, The Financial Times 13 June
Research conducted by the Institute of Education, University of London, has concluded that government targets to improve the exam results of children in local authority care look "certain to be missed". The study found that just 59% of children in care managed to sit at least one GCSE or equivalent exam last year. The target for 2006 is 90%. Moreover, less than a fifth of local authorities are hitting the target for 15% of children in their care to obtain at least five good GCSEs. The study blamed "negative stereotypes of young people in care among teachers, as well as the general public" for the low achievement rates.
Joseph Lee, The TES 3 June
The idea that new communities should accommodate a mix of tenures, incomes, ages and household types animates housing and planning policy in Britain today. However, efforts to promote economic integration are less prominent in government strategies for improving deprived neighbourhoods or supporting existing communities. A review of research evidence and policy experience from the United States and the United Kingdom demonstrates that:
Mixed communities in England: A US perspective on evidence and policy prospects, by Alan Berube, is published by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation in electronic format only (PDF 80pp) http://tinyurl.com/bbfn8
An overview of the research is at www.jrf.org.uk/knowledge/findings/housing/0295.asp
JRF mailing list 27 May
Jenny Graham, Rosalind Tennant, Matt Huxley and William O'Connor; National Centre for Social Research
DWP research report no. 245
ISBN: 1-84123-814-7 June 2005
Research published by the Department for Work and Pensions explores the experiences and longer-term impact of work on families with children, following an initial transition from benefits into work. The research was carried out by the National Centre for Social Research, and followed-up two previous DWP studies which interviewed families at the point where they had made the initial transition into work. This study re-interviewed the families, two years on from their original interview.
Key findings include:
A hard copy of this report can be obtained by contacting
Paul Noakes at Social Research Division, Department for Work and Pensions, 4th
Floor, Adelphi, 1-11 John Adam Street, London WC2N 6HT
email:
Paul.Noakes@dwp.gsi.gov.uk
It is also (PDF 132pp) at http://tinyurl.com/av8y2
DWP press release 15 June
According to research published by the Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics, social mobility in Britain has fallen over recent decades to levels well below those of Canada, Germany and the Nordic countries. The research found that children born to poor families are now "less likely to break free of their background and fulfil their potential than they were in the past". The economists concluded that the strong relationship between family income and educational attainment was a key to understanding Britain's low levels of social mobility.
Vanessa Houlder, The Financial Times 20 June
More details about the research, Social Mobility In Britain: Low And Falling, can be found in CentrePiece (Spring 2005).
Update comment: I would have reported this to you from reading CentrePiece in the DfES library but it wasn't there!
In the aftermath of Baroness Warnock's report into education policies aimed at promoting inclusion of disabled children in mainstream schools, the DRC called for a grounded debate based on up-to-date data on the real experiences of disabled children. Research on disabled children's experiences of education commissioned by the DRC found that:
Speaking on the research and the need for a grounded debate the Commission said: "The voices of disabled children and young people who have been in, and are going through, our education system are rarely heard in this debate. Isn't it time we listened and had a debate which responds to what they tell us they want? Young disabled people want the same opportunities as their peers to achieve, to make independent choices about their lives and to take part in all aspects of life. … Whilst the wider policy agenda on education and skills has set clear and ambitious targets to marry the interests of learners with those of employers and higher education, this has frequently and sometimes actively omitted opportunities for disabled people."
DRC press release 10 June
Special educational needs experts have criticised Baroness Warnock for her report on inclusion in education. Lady Warnock's report says the inclusion agenda has had a "disastrous legacy", while special schools are "regarded as little more than places of containment, hospitals, or day centres, but with better educational facilities". She called for "a fundamental rethink of inclusion policies". Mark Vaughan, Director of the Centre for Studies on Inclusive Education, said Lady Warnock has overlooked a fundamental issue with segregated education, namely that it is discriminatory in the extreme. He also argues that she has not kept up to date with recent developments and innovations that have brought about significant improvements. President Jean Salt, of the National Association of Special Educational Needs, responded in defence of special schools. She said: "Our members who work in special schools will be upset by that because of the improvements and the strides forward that have been going on within special schools, particularly for those with profound and multiple learning difficulties."
David Singleton, Children Now 15 June
ELWa, the National Council for Education and Training for Wales, and the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales, have launched a major drive to raise the quality of education and training for teenagers – with a clear warning that action will be taken against those which do not maintain standards. ELWa has issued a new system of quality assurance, along with detailed information about how low standards and poor management will be dealt with. ELWa has stated that from 2008 onwards only learning that is classified as "satisfactory" or above by inspection body Estyn will receive public funding, and from 2010 only provision found to be "good" or "excellent" will qualify. While poor performers will initially be given access to a wide range of support, ELWa's chairperson Sheila Drury warned: "Where this support does not bring about improvements we are prepared to take tough decisions because our learners deserve better."
Jenny Rees, The Western Mail 23 June
The government's drive to raise literacy and numeracy standards in primary schools has failed to make an impact on GCSE results, ministers have been told. An analysis by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), claims that, while there have been significant improvements in SATs scores, this has not translated into equivalent improvements at GCSE level. The paper argues: "Either the gains at 11 are overstated and/or value added (to the pupils' performance) in secondary schools has fallen."
Richard Garner, Education Editor, The Independent 27 June
A quarter of parents are relying on private tutors to give their children the edge in exams, according to a Mori poll. The study found that by the time their children reach 16, 24% of parents in England and Wales are paying up to £25 an hour for extra lessons after school. Families from ethnic minorities were found to be more likely to pay for extra lessons, and maths is the most common subject in which students need extra help. Critics claim that this is a clear indication that standards in secondary schools are falling. However, others blame the increasingly competitive culture children in which are brought up.
Jenny Rees, The Western Mail 20 June
Right and wrong are situational – in the appropriate situation, nothing is wrong – without the appropriate situation, nothing is right – what is right in one case is not right in another – what is wrong in one case is not wrong in another.
Taoist tradition
As more and more people are using computers and the internet for a whole host of different life-tasks – such as shopping, banking and booking holidays – the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE) is conducting a research project to find out how effective learning online is. With over 3,000 courses now available to study online – in subjects as diverse as languages, IT and fork-lift-truck driving – this form of learning is often seen as convenient for learners and, as such, it is anticipated to become ever more popular. However, NIACE is keen to hear about the experiences – good and bad – of learners who have chosen to study online, so future learners can benefit.
For more information, contact Ian Pettit
tel: 0116
204 6986
email: ian.pettit@niace.org.uk
NIACE website 7 June
Baroness Greenfield, the Director of the Royal Institution, has called for an urgent national consultation on the future of learning, "in the face of technological advances that are creating a divide between bookish lecturers and their computer-centred students". Lady Greenfield believes that traditional lectures may soon become a thing of the past, as students become more au fait with technology and more adept at managing their own learning. She argued that the students of the future will be "more comfortable accessing the information they need from talking computers than they will by searching a library for a book". She said that the implications for the teaching and testing of students were "so significant that the government should begin a consultation with academics, IT experts and educationists to consider how the education system should change in response".
Tony Tysome, The THES 17 June
Students at Paisley University are receiving course updates and deadline reminders through their mobile phones as part of a pioneering project. The scheme, which is expected to roll out across the university next year, provides reminders of deadlines for assessments, changes to lecture and tutorial times, and dates when examination results will be published. The university is also considering texting students who fail to attend lectures or seminars. Both students and staff are in favour of the scheme, saying that it enables "closer bonds between staff and the student body".
Martyn McLaughlin, The Scottish Herald 7 June
The Los Angeles Times was forced to withdraw a short-lived experiment which gave readers the chance to edit its editorials on its website. The "wikitorial" was intended to give readers a "voice". The original piece would be published on the website, alongside "a constantly evolving collaboration among readers in a communal search for truth". The idea has a promising beginning, in which readers provided links for phrases in the original piece, as well as links to alternative viewpoints. One contributor split the editorial in half, which was welcomed by the editors. However, the wikitorial had to be withdrawn after it was flooded with explicit photos and other inappropriate material. In a statement, the LA Times said the wikitorial would stay offline while it looked at what happened and how to prevent it from happening again. It said: "We thank the thousands of people who logged on to the wikitorial in the right spirit."
BBC News Online 22 June
Around half of public bodies "do little" to minimise the risk of unlicensed software being installed on staff PCs, with some having "a culture of complacency" about basic IT security, a new report from the Audit Commission claims. The report, ICT fraud and abuse 2004 - An update to yourbusiness@risk, says that new technologies, like the use of handheld devices (PDAs) and wireless networking, are creating fresh risks to which public services are only reacting slowly. Since the last survey in 2001, the new report points to some improvement in ICT security, with security policies in place at 96% of organisations. It also recorded a fall in the incidence of "business disruption" as a result of viruses, hacking or other criminal activities. However, it also notes:
The survey also found that, while three-quarters of organisations explicitly prohibited staff from using unlicensed software, just 43% checked PCs for non-standard software by internal audit or ICT staff.
eGOV Monitor Weekly Issue 170 (13 June)
Full report (PDF 39pp): http://tinyurl.com/agdpk
According to a survey on removable media in the workplace, the IT profession sees the risk of removable media but chooses to ignore it, thereby negating investment on IT security. A survey, conducted by mobile security specialists Pointsec, highlights that a large number of organisations are yet to address the problem of removable media, despite growing numbers of organisations using the devices. To secure your company from the security implications associated with removable media and mobile devices Pointsec recommend that you:
Martin Allen, Managing Director of Pointsec UK, said: "There seems little point in companies spending vast sums of money on information security if, at the same time, they're letting their staff use these devices at work which allow them unhindered access to download vast quantities of sensitive company information."
HRLook Daily News 13 June
Microsoft has announced that it will adopt "industry standard" XML as the file format for popular applications like Word in the next major release of Office. This move will help to develop inter-operability between Office documents and those from competing productivity suites such as Sun Microsystems' StarOffice. The implementation is called Microsoft Office XML Open Format, and will also be published by Microsoft on a royalty-free basis to the industry, potentially opening the format to third parties to develop inter-operability with Office.
Gavin Clarke, The Register
via ITProPortal News Roundup 6 June
St Andrew's College in Dublin has introduced a biometric student registering solution which allows the reading of children's fingerprints without physically storing an image of same. Rather than storing a full image of a person's fingerprint, the scanner is reported to respond to "minutiae points" to verify identity. School head Arthur Godsil said: "Every morning it is the responsibility of the form teacher to register all pupils. This is a time-consuming but necessary process as for safety reasons we need to know the whereabouts of our students at all times. However, if we can place the responsibility of registration directly on the pupils, this will free the individual form teachers' time to provide greater pastoral care to the students at that time."
Lester Haines, The Register
via ITProPortal Midweek Roundup 1 June
A study from AssetMetrix shows that, while the use of Microsoft Windows XP has grown inside corporations, nearly half of business PCs are still running the older Windows 2000. The study shows that older versions of Windows, including Windows NT4 and Windows 95, are falling out of favour. However, the popularity of Windows 2000 remains high, with 48% of business PCs using this system during the first quarter of 2005.
Ina Fried, News.com
via ITProPortal Midweek Roundup, 15 June
Update comment: And some of us (many of us?) are still on 98SE.
Software giant Microsoft has bowed to the whims of the Chinese government and banned the words "democracy" and "freedom" from parts of its Chinese website. According to the Financial Times, the move is designed to avoid offending Beijing's political censors.
Nick Farrell, The Inquirer
via ITProPortal Midweek Roundup 15 June
The Semantic Web Best Practices and Deployment Working Group has released a first working draft of XML schema datatypes in RDF and OWL. Posing questions and answers about XML schema datatypes in the semantic web, the document discusses user-defined datatypes, comparison of values, duration and the use of numeric types. The group invited public discussion and feedback on implementations.
Managing Information (May-June 2005)
More information: http://tinyurl.com/aa8rt
Piglet: "Rabbit, is that you?"
Rabbit: "Let's pretend it isn't and see what happens."
A A Milne
A fundamental and wide-ranging review of further education in Scotland was announced today (10 June). In his final speech as Minister for Lifelong Learning, Jim Wallace indicated there would be four main pillars to the review. These are:
Mr Wallace also said that two new colleges would be formed on 1 August as a result of mergers between:
Scottish Executive press release 10 June
American community colleges could become a model for the future development of further education institutions in the UK, according to the head of a government-commissioned review of the sector. Sir Andrew Foster said that he was interested in taking a closer look at the American system, where community colleges are considered the first layer of higher education, offering two-year associate degrees as a route to honours degree courses.
Tony Tysome, The THES 24 June
FFORWM, the association of colleges in Wales, has revealed details of a "self-regulation" scheme for the further education sector. The pilot, due to start in September, is aimed at raising standards and quality across the sector in Wales. Under the scheme, colleges will assess their own areas of strength and weakness, before inviting specialist teams from the sector to help improve performance. The scheme will rely on co-operation across the sector, as institutions support each other and share best practice and expertise.
Jenny Rees, The Western Mail 9 June
College lecturers and heads have given a mixed response to the launch of a national validation service for foundation degrees. The service is offered by the University Vocational Awards Council through a newly created National Validation Council. Some believe that the service will give further education colleges more freedom to develop courses that local universities cannot or will not validate. However, others fear that adding another player to the validation market will confuse.
Tony Tysome, The THES 1 July
More information: www.uvac.ac.uk
Private-sector companies are queuing up to get UK degree-awarding powers, raising the prospect of cut-throat competition that could threaten university courses and jobs, writes Claire Sanders (The THES 1 July). Ms Sanders tells us that three providers, including the College of Law and professional training company BPP, have applied, using rules introduced by the government which created teaching-only universities. Institutions no longer have to have a research base to have degree-awarding powers. In addition to the three formal applications for degree-awarding powers, the Financial Training Company, part of Kaplan Inc, an international education firm, is considering this route. Michael Shattock, visiting professor at the Institute of Education, University of London, commented: "We have been too frightened of private-sector higher education in this country. In the US, such competition provides quality benchmarks for the public sector. But these new providers will certainly pose a threat to universities, particularly new universities."
Research conducted by The Times Higher and Hobsons UK reveals that the majority of the "top-up fee generation of market-savvy students" expect to go to university. However, in return for their willingness to pay the £3,000-a-year fee, they are demanding much better facilities than their predecessors. The Times Higher-Hobsons UK School Leaver Recruitment Review questioned 16-to-18-year-olds. Findings include:
The survey also revealed that young people are uncertain about their own abilities.
Paul Hill, The THES 3 June
For full report contact: Louise Wringe, Commercial
Mananger, Hobsons Education Research
tel: 0207 958 5075
email:
louise.wringe@hobsons.co.uk
"When you give someone a book, you don't give him just paper, ink, and glue. You give him the possibility of a whole new life."
Christopher Morley, journalist and author
A website urging graduates to refuse to repay their student loans in protest at the government's student funding policy has been branded "irresponsible" by Higher Education Minister Bill Rammell. The anonymous authors of the site have called for "a mass movement of non-repayment" in response to the "dire situation facing students and graduates today". They claim that the campaign was born out of "sheer desperation", and rage against the politicians who have consistently failed to help students financially. The site blurb says: "Those politicians got grants and didn't have to pay any fees. It is the ultimate hypocrisy." The Student Loans Company pointed out that anyone defaulting on payments would face legal sanctions.
Phil Baty, The THES 1 July
A study by education charity The Sutton Trust has concluded that as many as one in four teenagers from single-parent families is deterred from going to university by the prospect of getting into debt. Schoolchildren aged 11 to 16 were questioned about their desire to go to university. While seven out of ten thought that they would go on to higher education, more girls than boys saw themselves studying for a degree. White boys in particular are more likely to be drawn to finding a job rather than staying in education. The overall proportion of young people who said that they were unlikely to go into higher education because they were worried about getting into debt remained relatively low at 17%, although the proportion is higher among single-parent families. However, 48% of young people said that they wanted to "start earning money as soon as possible", with this figure climbing to 59% among children from one-parent families.
Alexandra Blair, The Times Online 30 May
Two universities have sought official permission to improve the bursaries they will offer undergraduates in 2006 amid signs of market forces at work in higher education. Both Nottingham Trent and Sheffield Hallam universities believe that the bursaries they originally planned to offer, as detailed in their proposals to the Office for Fair Access, will not be competitive enough to attract applications. As the revisions will be in the student's favour, it is expected that OFFA will approve the revised bursaries. However, Julian Nichols, vice-president (education) of the National Union of Students, warned that frequent changes to bursaries and fees would cause further confusion. He said: "This is an early sign that market forces are at work in higher education. It remains to be seen what other tricks universities and colleges will pull out of the bag as we move towards 2006."
Paul Hill, The THES 1 July
Increasingly complex methods for student grants and loans could lead to a shake-up of the way the money is delivered and repaid, the government warns. Announcing a review of student finance arrangements, the DfES said that the government is looking for "better value for money" and wants technology to be used to "improve efficiency and customer service". Prospective students should also be given clearer advice. The review follows criticisms levelled at the Student Loans Company and local authorities by universities, which feared a new online system for registration would lead to late delivery of some loans.
Miranda Green, Education Correspondent, The Financial Times 8 June
Universities have launched a campaign to try to tackle the confusion among students and their families over changes to tuition fees and grants. The Payment by Degrees campaign will emphasise that university courses will now become free at the point of entry. Developed by Universities UK, the campaign seeks to send a more positive message to young people considering applying to university.
BBC News Online 8 June
More information: www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/paymentbydegrees/
Editor: Geoff Layer
ISBN: 1-86201-236-9
Price £18.95
Published by NIACE
At a time when the government is aiming to increase the number of students in higher education (HE), a new book offers an analysis of the impact of higher tuition fees for students from low-income families, and looks at how HE is organised in terms of progression for students from "alternative" entry routes. The book focuses on how a more socially inclusive HE system might be secured. It explores the challenges facing higher education as the student-financial-support model increasingly relies on higher fees and delayed debt. The book is a series of papers developed by eminent academics focusing on such issues as:
NIACE, 21 De Montfort Street Leicester LE1 7GE
tel:
0116 204 4216
email: orders@niace.org.uk
NIACE website 6 June
Professor Steven Schwartz, the Vice-Chancellor of Brunel University in London has warned that Scotland's rejection of university top-up fees will "force poorer people to pay for middle-class welfare". Professor Schwartz said that money which could have been channelled into health and schools will now have to be used to pay for higher education instead. He said: "With 'government' funding, the cost of higher education is shouldered by all taxpayers – including low-income earners – while the benefits go mainly to students from high-income families. Students should pay tuition fees – 'free' education is middle-class welfare paid for by the working class."
Alastair Dalton, The Scotsman 27 June
Lord Dearing, the man whose inquiry in 1997 paved the way for Labour to charge undergraduate fees, has warned that part-time students may suffer discrimination once top-up fees are introduced. He argued that, because universities are currently unable to raise fees for part-time students in line with the £3,000-a-year for full-timers, there will be "a financial incentive" to favour full-time students. Speaking in the House of Lords, Lord Dearing said: "With an increase in fees for full-time students effectively guaranteed by the government, it could well be in the interests of universities to substitute full-time for part-time places. And that could be to the national disadvantage." Concerns were also raised about the position of the Open University and Birkbeck College London, both of which take only part-time students and will not benefit from the proposed fee increases. Lord Graham of Edmonton, who said he was the only OU graduate in parliament, said: "There is a growing resentment, at least in the Open University and others, that by comparison with those for full-time students the institutions for part-time students have got the dirty end of the stick."
Donald MacLeod, The Guardian 14 June
This document provides information for all providers receiving learner support funds from the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) and sets out the actions that will need to be taken into account for the application of these funds. There are changes affecting learner support funds that providers should be aware of for 2005/06, and these are covered here. This document is of interest to principals and chief executives of further education colleges, finance directors at further education colleges, executive directors and regional directors of local LSCs, local education authorities and providers.
LSC email update 18 June
Learner Support Funds: Funding Guidance for 2005/06 (PDF 22pp): http://tinyurl.com/bcucj
Welsh Assembly First Minister Rhodri Morgan has been warned that the Assembly's budget will be "voted down" unless a deal is struck over top-up fees. In a debate last month, opposition AMs defeated a bid to introduce the fees. However, a subsequent report recommended permitting Welsh universities charge the same £3,000 fees as their English counterparts from 2007 onwards. An opposition AM told Mr Morgan: "I realise that discussions are ongoing, but the position is clear, there must be no top-up fees for Welsh-domiciled students. Do you accept that your budget will have to reflect this position? If it does not it will fall, and it will deserve to fall."
Tomos Livingstone, The Western Mail 14 June
A leading article in The Independent (16 June) laments the "sad saga" of the attempt to introduce top-up fees in Wales. It reads: "It is sad because politics has taken over and Welsh politicians appear to have little grasp of the serious consequences for higher education institutions. One of the reasons why the USA is so far ahead in the international university league tables is that they invest much more in their universities. Some of the money comes from the public sector but a lot comes from private sources, notably students. And, the more money American universities receive from better-off students the greater is their ability to recruit other students from poorer families. That is counter-intuitive but true. If Wales continues to turn its face against asking students for a bigger contribution it will find that its universities lose out."
... The new arrangements will cost the Welsh Assembly up to £53 million each year. A spokesperson for the Assembly government said it was too early to discuss how the extra costs would be met.
Kirsty Buchanan, The Western Mail 22 June
A leading academic from the Cardiff Business School has warned the Welsh Assembly that students from England, Scotland and Northern Ireland could take legal action over top-up fees charged by Welsh universities. Professor Brian Morgan said that that the decision to not charge domiciled Welsh students top-up fees if they study at Welsh institutions could be construed as being discriminatory. He also expressed concerns that the system would discourage Welsh students from leaving for top universities elsewhere.
BBC News Online 23 June
"I have tried to know absolutely nothing about a great many things, and I have succeeded fairly well."
Robert Benchley
At last a plan's been formulated to close the funding gap between colleges and schools. The thing is, there's no money to make it work, writes Peter Kingston (The Guardian, 14 June). Mr Kingston tells us that, while the LSC has developed a funding model that allows school and college students to be funded equally, and from the same source, it is not clear whether the government will commit to the model or provide the money required to implement it. The bulk of the problem seems to stem from the fact that the common rate for qualifications will be set at more than colleges but less than schools currently receive. In addition, the LSC proposes that a second funding anomaly is closed, namely the practice whereby students at sixth-form colleges may drop a course at no cost to their institution, but FE colleges must reimburse the Council if a student does not complete a course. Again, this will result in less money being allocated to schools, an outcome that politicians would be unlikely to accept.
Full article: http://tinyurl.com/9fvjq
Update comment: More blood out of stones?
Kenneth MacKenzie
Within a year of the Blair Government taking office, Bagehot in The Economist (1998) was accusing them of presiding over "a frenzy of constitutional reform" which needed "to be underpinned by some unifying political vision". This article describes how that situation came about, and surveys briefly how the constitutional reform programme has developed in the meantime. It concludes that the government still shows little appetite for contemplating or presenting constitutional change in the round and finds some of the consequences of its own reforms to be a source of embarrassment or frustration. Nevertheless they have transformed the landscape of governance beyond recognition and, in some aspects, irrevocably, and their achievements in this area seem likely to be a significant part of their monument as an administration. (original abstract)
Public Policy and Administration
Volume 20 number 1 (Spring 2005)
Kenneth MacKenzie is a former civil servant.
This article is based on a lecture delivered in the University of Aberdeen in May 2003
Update comment: It's not just constitutional reform that is going down the "do it now and reform it later" route. Administrative reform, providing new programmes and initiatives which affect our daily lives, has also, apparently, been introduced without looking at an holistic picture.
"That which seems the height of absurdity in one generation often becomes the height of wisdom in the next."
John Stuart Mill, British philosopher, economist (1806-1873)
All it has delivered is one financial scandal after another – but the government remains wedded to the private finance initiative (PFI) writes George Monbiot (The Guardian 28 June). Mr Monbiot notes many examples of agreements which have failed, often at great cost to the government. He cites contracts for council house repairs, the Paddington NHS health campus, a database for car MOT records and the Inverness airport terminal as explicit examples of agreements that have gone completely awry. He asks: "How much longer can this farce carry on? Everywhere the chickens released by the government's private finance initiative are not so much coming home to roost as crashing into the henhouse and sliding down the wall in a heap of blood and feathers. The prediction made in 2002 by The Banker magazine – that 'eventually an Enron-style disaster will be rerun on a sovereign balance sheet' – could be starting to materialise."
Full article: http://tinyurl.com/dnmxq
Public Money & Management (Volume 25 Number 3 (June 2005)) is themed on public transport and the guest editor looks at the problem of public policy trying to drive private provision. The subject is not, I think, of work-related interest. Some of the comments on the government's ability (or lack of it) to deliver its policies through private companies are, however, real corkers.
Update comment: I read the whole editorial substituting "adult guidance" for "transport" and – would you believe it – it made perfect sense!!
"Do not wait; the time will never be 'just right'. Start where you stand, and work with whatever tools you may have at your command, and better tools will be found as you go along."
Napoleon Hill, author
Ministers have been accused of planning to subsidise public services with National Lottery cash previously earmarked for charity. Shadow Culture Secretary Theresa May argues that the government's plans to merge the three bodies distributing Lottery money to good causes into one new fund, the Big Lottery Fund, will give ministers too much power to direct where the money goes. Ms May said: "The government is moving away from the original aims of the Lottery to give money to good causes, heritage, arts and sport. Now the government has been sticking its hands in the pocket of the Lottery and taking money out for things that the taxpayers think their taxes should be spent on." The Big Lottery Fund will be created by merging the Community Fund, the New Opportunities Fund and the Millennium Commission.
The Guardian 14 June
The Public and Commercial Services union has accused the government of paying lip-service to pay equality, after official figures showed that the gender pay gap in the civil service has widened to 25%. The union's national pay coordinator, Geoff Lewtas, said the PCS is taking equal pay tribunal cases on behalf of more than 2,000 women in the Prison Service and other government departments. He warned that the union would step up its campaign to close the huge difference in the pay of men and women in the public services.
The Guardian 9 June
A report from the National Employment Panel, Enterprising People, Enterprising Places, makes a number of recommendations to improve the employment and business prospects of ethnic and faith minority groups. They include:
Working Brief Issue 165 (June 2005)
Enterprising People, Enterprising Places - Measures To Increase Ethnic Minority Employment And Business Growth
Full report (PDF 114pp): http://tinyurl.com/7budn
Executive Summary (PDF 4pp): http://tinyurl.com/a43dm
The Equal Opportunities Commission has published a series of good-practice guides as part of its Action for Change campaign to "open up non-traditional opportunities and choices for all". The guides are aimed at a range of key stakeholders including Learning and Skills Councils, training providers, employers, careers advice professionals and those involved in work-related learning. They provide practical guidance based on examples of actions taken by organisations to open up non-traditional opportunities for women and men.
The guides can also be ordered as hard copies
More information: EOC
tel: 0845 601 5901
email:
info@eoc.org.uk
EOC email update 8 June
A year on from the official launch of the DRC's first Formal Investigation report entitled The Web: Access and Inclusion for Disabled People, the DRC followed up some of the many findings of the investigation. The main finding was evidence that 81% of websites failed to meet the most basic web accessibility standards. The DRC has commissioned the British Standards Institution (BSI) to produce a Publicly Available Specification (PAS). This guidance aims to narrow the knowledge gap of website commissioners and developers. The first draft will be studied by a steering group composed of experts in web technology and a wider review panel. Both groups include representatives of disability organisations. It is expected the guidance will be available in late summer and will be launched at a national conference in the autumn. The audience is likely to include large and small service providers, website commissioners and developers.
More information: www.drc-gb.org/
Disability Rights Commission
Email bulletin number 38 (June 2005)
Writing for The Guardian (31 May), Trevor Phillips, Chair of the CRE, argues that the government's failure to tackle academic under-achievement among African-Caribbean boys could create "a permanent underclass".
Mr Phillips argued that it is "not good enough" to blame institutionalised racism in the educational establishment, and called for ministers and education experts to look at the evidence, debate its meaning, and "come up with some answers" even if they involve controversial proposals such as segregation. He said: "We have to accept that our historical bleating about racist teachers, class barriers and irrelevant curricula has not moved the performance of these kids one iota. We can apply the brakes to this cycle of failure. I for one refuse to sit back and watch another generation fall by the wayside."
Trevor Phillips is right to worry about the under-achievement of black boys – but by focusing on them alone he is guilty of statistical racism, writes Marian FitzGerald (The Guardian 1 June). FitzGerald argues that there are three main reasons why Phillips is in error to focus solely on black boys:
FitzGerald writes: "By grabbing the headlines, crude average figures may usefully draw attention to problems that might otherwise be ignored; but whether we are discussing educational under-achievement or over-representation in the criminal justice system, they do not, of themselves, tell us what the problem is. Taking full account of all other relevant factors, acknowledging the extent of variance around these averages and admitting that many other subgroups within the population are similarly affected might seem to dilute the case for one particular group. However, if we continue to ignore the need for this level of rigour in analysing ethnic data, we might increasingly lend ourselves to what has been called 'statistical racism'."
Full article: http://tinyurl.com/8sfvz
Black Caribbean and Bangladeshi populations are the most under-represented in science, according to a report published by the Royal Society, the UK's premier science academy. The report, compiled by the Institute for Employment, finds that this under-representation applies both to their education beyond GCSEs, and to getting jobs in science, engineering and technology (SET). The report also found that there are fewer white students following science courses than there should have been in relation to the size of the population. In addition, the gender divide was confirmed, with men being approximately four times more likely to work in a SET occupation than women. This ratio was broadly consistent across all ethnic groups.
The Guardian 16 June
Science, Engineering and Technology and the UK's Ethnic Minority Population, by Paul Jones and Peter Elias
(PDF 64pp): http://tinyurl.com/93ega
Tony Blair is facing increased opposition to ID cards amid fears that they will be used to target ethnic minorities. The Muslim Council of Britain has issued a statement expressing concern about the legislation, while the Commission for Racial Equality warned that the scheme could have an "adverse impact on different racial groups". Major trade unions, including Unison and the TGWU, have also expressed opposition. In addition, a group of 21 Labour backbenchers have signed a "reasoned amendment" expressing a series of concerns. Of particular concern is that the identity cards will become "a recipe for discrimination". Home Office research found that support for ID cards is lacking among ethnic minority groups, with many expressing fears that they will be obliged to produce their cards more often than white people. The government has also been forced to deny accusations that it intends to "sell" the information contained in the identity database to private organisations.
Ben Russell and Nigel Morris, The Independent 27 June
A poll conducted by ICM Research has shown a significant fall in support for identity cards. The poll found "rising public hostility" towards the cards, compared with responses to the same questions in December. Support fell from more than 80% in favour to 55% in just six months. The number of opponents more than doubled to 43%. Mark Oaten, Liberal Democrat Home Affairs Spokesperson, commented: "The government [can] continue with this flawed project until 80% of the public turn against it, or abandon it now."
Nigel Morris, Home Affairs Correspondent, The Independent 14 June
Academics at the London School of Economics (LSE) have proposed an alternative to the plans for a national identity card scheme which they claim will be "more secure, reliable, cost-effective and citizen-friendly". The LSE maintains that the government has failed to convince the public of the benefits of ID cards because it has consistently ignore their concerns. To build public trust, the identity system should serve the individual, rather than being seen as a tool purely for government's benefit, it says. The LSE's proposal would make sure that only the bare minimum of information would be held in the central identity database, to prevent "mass identity theft". It would use electronic kiosks to photograph applicants, accept identifying data about them and embed this information into an encoded application form. The form would be signed, in much the same way as the passport application, by two referees. Once the card is ready, the applicant would take it to a "trusted third party", such as a bank, to have the details verified. After this has taken place, all but the essential data would be deleted.
eGOV Monitor Weekly Issue 169 (6 June)
The LSE Identity Project: Alternative Blueprint for a National Identification System
(PDF 12pp): www.egovmonitor.com/reports/rep11532.pdf
The Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) surveyed 100 of its members for their views on ID cards. The survey found that:
HRLook Daily News 1 June
The United States wants Britain's proposed identity cards to have the same microchip and technology as the ones used on American documents. Michael Chertoff, the US Secretary for Homeland Security, believes that using the same technology to record biometric data will ensure compatibility in screening terrorist suspects. However, this will also mean that the information held on British ID cards will be accessible to American authorities. Mr Chertoff has already had talks with the Home Secretary, Charles Clarke, and the Transport Secretary, Alistair Darling, to discuss the matter.
Kim Sengupta, The Independent 27 May
Authors: Martin Fischer, Nicholas Boreham and Barry Nyhan
ISBN: 9-28960-273-2 Price: 25 Euros
Work process knowledge provides a framework for understanding the complex knowledge required by employees in modern organisations. This knowledge is necessary because of the introduction of more flexible ways of working and learning including new technology. The concept of work process knowledge enables us to resolve contradictions between theory and practice and indeed contradictions within work itself. It also provides a framework for forging partnerships between education and training institutions concerned with formal learning and enterprises focusing on work-based learning. This book brings us up to date with current debates about work process knowledge, through presenting the research findings of experts from nine European countries in the fields of learning theory, knowledge development and education and training. Ways of teaching and learning theoretical knowledge that can have a greater impact on professional practice are examined in this book. The book is of interest to researchers, university lecturers, teachers and trainers, curriculum designers, students and policy-makers and managers who wish to understand the nature of learning in modern enterprises.
CEDEFOP Info 1/2005
ACAS has launched its new advisory leaflet, Employing Older Workers, to help employers make the most of older workers. It looks at some of the stereotypes about them and gives practical advice on what to consider when recruiting, planning for the future, and managing older workers.
ACAS press release, 6 June
Employing Older Workers is at www.acas.org.uk/publications/AL09.html
Legislation outlawing age discrimination in employment and vocational training is due to come into effect in 2006. To help employers, training providers and individuals prepare for the forthcoming changes, the Age Partnership Group and Be Ready national guidance campaign have developed a number of resources. A website, newsletter and CD-ROM offer information on age issues, including facts, legislation and "top tips".
More information www.agepositive.gov.uk/agepartnershipgroup/
Age Positive Update 27 May
Internet users with impaired vision often find it impossible to access weblogs, the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) has warned. Research conducted by the AFB found that accessing blogs can often be more difficult than accessing ordinary webpages. Not only does the user suffer the same difficulties that make mainstream sites problematic, but blogs raise additional access barriers of their own. In particular, the requirement to identify graphics as part of a registration process means that people with impaired vision cannot register without help from a sighted person. As part of its research, AFB has published some tips to make blogs easier to use: http://fastlink.headstar.com/afb2
E-Access Bulletin Issue 66 (June 2005)
The DRC has launched a new initiative to translate the key rights information on its website into BSL. The first content focuses on disabled people's rights under the DDA in relation to employment. The work has been carried out in partnership with SignPost, part of Tyne Tees TV. The BSL video can be accessed from the DRC website homepage, or by going directly to www.drc-gb.org/bsl.
Disability Rights Commission
Email bulletin number 38 June 2005
New virtual signing technology was launched by a Norfolk charity during Deaf Awareness Week in May. Guido, an animated figure, which incorporates the Norfolk dialect of BSL, was developed to provide greater accessibility to the Norfolk County Council's website. Some compatibility issues with older computers have been identified during the testing phase but judge the overall effectiveness for yourself at www.deafconnexions.org.uk
Disability Now (June 2005)
Update comment: "That word" makes me cringe. As a noun the pronunciation works (sort of) but then you might need to connex with someone or look at your computer's connexivity. Yeuck!
A survey by Remploy, the country's largest provider of jobs for disabled people, has concluded that people with disabilities strongly prefer to work alongside non-disabled employees in open, inclusive offices. Among the reasons given in the survey for wanting to work in open as opposed to "sheltered" employment were:
The findings indicate that government plans to move people off incapacity benefit and into work could depend on the right kind of jobs.
The Financial Times 13 June
Little more than two months after the Education Secretary assured voters that A-levels would be safe from the ravages of the Tomlinson report, Dr Ken Boston, the government's chief exams adviser, claims that they will "disappear within a decade". Ruth Kelly stated that A-levels were "safe" when she rejected the Tomlinson recommendations, instead proposing that a separate specialist diploma system should be set up alongside them. However, Dr Boston, the Chief Executive of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, said that plans to replace the A-levels with a national diploma embracing vocational qualifications will, indeed, happen. In an address to a conference of headteachers and principals, Dr Boston said: "We now have a new diploma structure. It is wrong to describe it as a vocational qualification and inappropriate to describe it as a specialist diploma. We need to think of a new name for it, say national diploma – and give it the status and value that it deserves. I think the diploma can be developed … as a genuine alternative to the International Baccalaureate appealing to the full ability range of students and having greater breadth at age 18 than A-levels. If we set about this earnestly we'll have a diploma which will be the natural qualification for people to take – A-levels will be out of the door and the diploma will take over. What we have … is an opportunity to build a new qualification and let it earn its spurs and earn its status."
Richard Garner, Education Editor, The Independent 8 June
State school pupils have been banned from taking International Maths GCSE course, which has been embraced by the independent sector because it contains more "real maths". The exam is regarded as being close to the old O-level Maths. State schools have been told, however, that they are barred from entering pupils for the international version because it is not accredited by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, the exam regulator. The QCA maintains that a maths GCSE must contain an element of coursework, and the international qualification does not meet this requirement. David Hart, the General Secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, condemned the government's position, saying that it was "total bureaucratic rubbish". He said: "Just as there is a crying need for lower-attaining pupils to demonstrate functional numeracy, so too it is critical that students going on to take A-levels can sit GCSEs that match their needs. It does not make the slightest bit of sense to stop state schools from entering pupils for this exam."
Julie Henry, Education Correspondent, The Sunday Telegraph 19 June
According to a report from the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, schools are "abandoning English literature GCSE in favour of media studies", a subject which is widely regarded as being an "easier" option. Whereas young people traditionally took two English exams – language and literature – the report suggests that they are being encouraged to sit exams in English and media studies instead.
Sarah Cassidy, The Independent 13 June
Media matters - a review of media studies in schools and colleges (QCA/05/1581) can be ordered from QCA publications on 08700 606015, price £7
A Level 1 qualification in "active, healthy living", which is designed to combat sedentary lifestyles, has been announced by Jason Gardener, the Olympic relay champion. Pupils aged 14 to 16 will study the human body, healthy eating and how to exercise, and will learn how to skateboard, pump iron and eat healthily for a qualification designed to cut childhood obesity. The qualification will be equivalent to a GCSE pass at grades D-G.
Alexandra Blair, The Times Online 9 June
Pupils in several English schools were taught the wrong syllabus for their GCSE English exams this year. Students were either informed of the mistake in the days before the exams or did not find out until they sat down to take them. The Oxford, Cambridge and RSA exam board (OCR) blamed teachers who had not read up on the latest syllabus. Mistakes range from selecting the wrong war poetry to studying Henry IV instead of Hamlet.
Polly Curtis, Education Correspondent, The Guardian 14 June
Creative Commons, the less restrictive alternative to Copyright, was developed in 2001 using an American legal model. Creative Commons licences are proving to be extremely popular, providing a flexible range of protections and freedoms for authors and artists. However, the use of American law as a basis for drawing up the licences often means that they are not compatible with copyright laws in other countries. To address this issue, the International Creative Commons Project (iCommons) was established, and licences have now been developed for 15 jurisdictions outside the US. The licences for use in England and Wales were released at the end of April. It is hoped that consensus will be reached on Scottish licences soon, and work has just begun on licences for Northern Ireland.
Managing Information May-June 2005
More information: http://creativecommons.org/worldwide/
The Bank of England has come under renewed pressure to cut interest rates amid an array of bleak statistics today (6 June) on retail and manufacturing, along with signs of a slump in overall business confidence. The British Retail Consortium has urged the Bank of England to make an immediate reduction in interest rates, after announcing yet another slump in sales. Moreover, a survey conducted by manufacturers' organisation the EEF reveals that Britain's engineering and manufacturing sectors suffered "their weakest performance for two years" in the second quarter of this year. While the EEF did not call on the Bank of England to cut interest rates, it urged the Bank to called on the Bank to "stand ready" to cut interest rates if the overall economy continues to weaken during the summer.
Terry Macalister and Charlotte Moore, The Guardian 6 June
Nurses are being forced to leave the profession because they cannot afford to buy their own homes, the Royal College of Nursing has warned. The government's key worker living scheme, which can help nurses get on the property ladder, was having an impact, the organisation said, but too many were still excluded from applying for help and were having to look for better-paid jobs or take on extra work. The scheme is designed to assist workers in the public sector, but only applies to nurses based in the south-east and nurses employed by the NHS. Those working in other sectors, such as the private and charity sectors and those from overseas on work permits, are not eligible.
Laura Smith, The Guardian 20 June
Nurses from the Philippines, the main source of overseas recruitment to the NHS, have started to shun Britain in favour of higher-paid and less stressful jobs becoming available in the US. A report published by the Nursing and Midwifery Council showed that just 2,521 Filipino nurses joined the UK professional register in the 12 months to March, compared with 4,338 a year before. Moreover, the 2004-05 total was little more than a third of the influx in 2000-01 when the Philippines exported 7,235 nurses to Britain.
John Carvel, Social Affairs Editor, The Guardian 8 June
Some 31% of local authorities have experienced difficulties in recruiting information and communications technology professionals, compared with 58% of private sector respondents to a survey by the local government Society of IT Management. However, the survey found the proportion of authorities experiencing retention problems has risen 6.5% since last year.
E-Government Bulletin Issue 188 (13 June)
The latest edition of this publication (Volume 113, Number 6) is now available. Contents include:
Items on: consultation on topics for the 2011 Census; statistical booklet on older workers; and reports on skills in the UK.
An updated analysis of voluntary and involuntary job separations and the labour market factors that influence these (Daniel Heap, Labour Market Division, ONS)
Detailed analyses of the disputes, and comparison with data from previous years (Joanne Monger, Employment, Earnings and Productivity Division, ONS)
Introduces newly available data on Jobcentre Plus vacancies, and explains their uses and limitations (Russ Bentley, Information Directorate, DWP)
The most recent figures for employment, unemployment, economic activity and S1-100 inactivity, earnings, claimant count, vacancies, redundancies and labour disputes.
ONS website 25 May
Full publication (PDF 139pp): http://tinyurl.com/9dn52
According to DiamondCluster's annual survey of outsourcing providers and their customers, the market for outsourced labour is still growing. However, customer dissatisfaction is also growing. The survey revealed that just over half of buyers have prematurely ended an outsourcing agreement within the last 12 months, compared to 21% a year ago. Contracts were terminated because of:
India and the USA remain favoured destinations for contracts with three-quarters of all respondents sending some IT functions to one or both countries. The survey also highlighted an emerging market in China.
John Oates, The Register
via ITProPortal Midweek Roundup 8 June
David Blunkett, Work and Pensions Secretary, today (15 June) welcomed official figures showing more people in work and fewer people on incapacity benefits and lone parent benefits. He said: "The figures continue to tell a positive story about the British labour market. They demonstrate our success in creating more jobs, in cutting unemployment and moving people into work, particularly people who have in the past been outside the labour market."
DWP press release 15 June Client ref STAT150605-LMS
Figures released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), showing only a small rise in employment in the three months to April, fewer job vacancies, higher claimant unemployment and stable growth in underlying earnings, indicate that the UK labour market is starting to cool. These findings are consistent with the latest quarterly Labour Market Outlook survey from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), which shows that while the immediate jobs outlook remains fairly bright, almost half of UK employers expect to employ fewer people this time next year. ONS first quarter Workforce Jobs data also confirm CIPD and other independent survey evidence on emerging weakness in employment prospects in key consumer services sectors. The distribution, hotels and restaurants sectors registered no net rise in jobs in the year to March 2005 and actually saw net job losses in the first quarter. The consumer slowdown is now taking its toll on jobs, with workers in several consumer service sectors feeling the chill wind that in recent years has mainly afflicted workers in manufacturing.
CIPD press release 15 June
e-skills UK, the Sector Skills Council for IT, telecommunications and contact centres, has published a new issue of the e-skills Bulletin, the definitive summary of IT and telecoms labour market data and trends.
e-skills Bulletin Issue 12 (PDF 12pp)
www.e-skills.com/cgi-bin/wms.pl/1056
The Centre for Economic and Social Inclusion (CESI) has developed a new LMI service which aims to "meet the needs of all organisations that need a comprehensive and detailed overview of their local area". The service will be available from September 2005 and there will be a variety of options and prices available.
For more information, contact Paul Bivand or Will
Macnair
tel: 020 7582 7221
email:
paul.bivand@cesi.org.uk
URL:
www.cesi.org.uk
Working Brief Issue 165 (June 2005)
The globe re-envisioned – by life expectancy, debt, TV ownership, refugee populations, energy consumption, and lots more. A brilliant way to make numerical data meaningful.
URL: http://worldprocessor.com/index_title.htm
Neat New Stuff I Found This Week, 24 June
http://marylaine.com/neatnew.html
© Marylaine Block, 1999-2005
Update comment: I usually put Marylaine's offerings on to the back page as being more suited to general interest than of direct relevance to work. This is both! It's a real WOW!
Ten universities have pledged to battle institutional sexism and make life easier for female scientists by signing a new charter for women in research, writes Anna Fazackerley (The THES 24 June). The new Athena Swan charter aims to raise the numbers of women in science, engineering and technology. Universities signing the agreement will be expected to monitor the number of women on their payroll as well as how their careers are progressing and whether they are being unfairly burdened with administrative duties. The ten founder member institutions are: Bristol, Cambridge, Heriot-Watt, Imperial College London, Loughborough, Oxford, Plymouth, Southampton, Queen's University Belfast and University College London. Others will be invited to follow their lead.
More information: www.royalsoc.ac.uk/athenaswan/
Sir Rod Eddington, the newly-knighted Chief Executive of British Airways, has warned that a sex-discrimination case won by one of the company's pilots will deter airlines from taking on female flight crew. An employment tribunal granted a female pilot the right to fly half her normal hours so that she could care for a young child. The pilot had just under 1,000 hours flying experience, but the airline insists that it is unsafe to allow pilots to work 50% of the time unless they have at least 2,000 hours experience. A spokesperson for the pilot's union said that there is no evidence to support BA's requirement, and accused the organisation of a "deep-rooted" prejudice against female pilots. Of the company's 2,932 pilots, 152 are women.
Barrie Clement, Labour Editor, The Independent 13 June
A poll of higher education support staff reveals that they are among the worst-paid public sector employees in the country, with an average hourly rate of just £5.27. The poll, conducted by Unison, revealed low morale among support staff, as workloads increase without adequate financial compensation. Half of those questioned said that they were considering leaving their position, while a third said they had been harassed by other staff. Jon Richards, senior national official at Unison, commented: "This group of workers is fundamental to the running of universities and colleges. It is a hidden army that suffers low pay, bad conditions and is badly treated by colleagues, managers and students."
Phil Baty, The THES 24 June
"There are souls in this world which have the gift of finding joy everywhere and of leaving it behind them when they go."
Frederick Faber
The amount graduates are likely to earn over their lifetimes compared with those who do not attend university has fallen dramatically, according to researchers from the University of Wales Swansea. The researchers found that, on average, graduates now earn £150,000 more over their career than non-graduates, down from previous estimates of £400,000. They also found that it is more lucrative for women to go to university than men. The wage gap between women who study at university and those who do not is higher than for men. University-educated men earn an average of £143,000 more over their lifetimes, while female graduates earn £158,000. The researchers believe that the fall is largely due to supply outstripping demand.
Liz Ford, The Guardian 31 May
Update comment: This is surely simply research which quantifies what anyone with sense "knew" already – the "go to university and you'll earn more money" of the government's spin doctors is still true – but not by the margins that were originally stated!
Almost half of Welsh graduates are unsatisfied with life after university, according to the Royal Bank of Scotland's Graduate Satisfaction Survey. The survey questioned those who graduated in 2002. It found that engineers are the most satisfied of all Welsh graduates, with an overall satisfaction score of 69%. Workers in the hospitality industry are the least satisfied, with a score of 30%. Other findings include:
David Reynolds, Exeter University's Professor of Education, who lives in South Wales and has advised the Assembly on educational matters, argued that for many students, going to university has become a "shabby" experience. He argues that greater numbers of graduates means that the quality of life and financial rewards afterwards are getting worse. He said: "Less of the funding every university gets is being spent on each individual student. Because so many people now go to university, they are more and more being taught in huge classes and going to huge seminars. The days when it was an élite experience are gone, and the experience is worse now than ever before."
IC Wales 20 June
"What progress we are making. In the Middle Ages they would have burned me. Now they are content with burning my books."
Sigmund Freud
Trade unionists have reacted angrily to the growing use of "wearable" computers that are being used to improve productivity in European businesses, accusing managers of "dehumanising" employees. A recent study by Durham University found that the use of wearable computers – devices worn on the arm or hand that are linked into the local area network – is rising. As many as 10,000 employees are using the devices whilst supplying well-known high street retailers. Unions are calling for more stringent regulation of the devices. A statement from the GMB union said that use of such devices reduced management controls to "degrading levels". Acting General Secretary Paul Kenny argued that they are "damaging staff morale" and "undermining employees' freedom to make their own decisions". He said: "The GMB is no Luddite organisation but we will not stand idly by to see our members reduced to automatons."
Abi Carter, Infoconomy Bulletin 13 June
Update comment: The original article was written from the "isn't the technology good" angle. The Times looks more at the productivity effect of these devices.
"Battery farm" workplaces are springing up in warehouses and distribution centres with employees made to wear electronic wrist tags to monitor and direct their actions, a new report claims. The report, by Mike Blakemore of Durham University, conducted for the GMB general union, said that the use of the wearable satellite devices was growing throughout the logistics industry and had escalated in the past few months. The tags pick up satellite signals that tell employees to move or pick up goods. They also monitor the time taken to perform tasks. The report said that the electronic tagging was one stage along a process towards full automation of certain jobs.
The Times Online 7 June
"Constructive procrastination" is the substitution of a pressing activity for another useful but less urgent activity. It can be likened to clearing out cupboards instead of writing a report or organising files instead of filling out tax forms. You may well be doing something useful but, if you are putting off more urgent jobs, you are still procrastinating.
Helen Kirwan-Taylor, Management Today (June 2005)
Update comment: Oh dear! Just as I thought I was doing so well with the filing I'm told that I should be doing something else instead! Did someone activate my wrist-tag? I'd hate it and I hate the idea that it's happening to other people. Hazel
"Do or do not. There is no try."
Yoda
Britain's buildings and public spaces are encouraging obesity and public health problems, according to the government's chief architecture adviser who has demanded that new developments be designed to improve the nation's fitness. John Sorrell, chair of the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment, said a lack of prominent staircases in new commercial and public buildings, inadequate exercise facilities in schools, and streetscapes that discourage walking and cycling, are putting unnecessary strain on a public health system which is increasingly being forced to cope with disease caused by sedentary lifestyles.
Robert Booth, The Guardian 13 June
In order to combat the sedentary nature of so many jobs, stationery firm Avery has published a free booklet called The Little Book of Office Athletics. The booklet gives tips on healthy working and exercises to develop different muscle groups while sitting at a desk.
To order a copy, call Avery on tel: 0800 805020
workSMART newsletter Issue 35 May 2005
Update comment: I've still got a list of "deskercises" produced by a national newspaper some time ago – trouble is I don't do them – yet more procrasination!
Poor education may be linked to bad health, but simply putting more of us through university will not ensure adults are fit and well, according to new research sponsored by the ESRC. Though highly educated men and women are generally healthier, what happens in childhood and beyond is key to our well-being later in life, says the study led by Dr Tarani Chandola, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London (UCL). In addition, his report found no evidence that better health among more highly educated adults is linked to high intelligence as a child. The study argues that policies on reducing inequalities in health should be aimed at specific areas such as people's working conditions or enabling healthy lifestyles, rather than directly at education. Dr Chandola said: "Education affects health throughout our lifetime. For instance, children with poor health end up less well educated and with poorer health as grown-ups. Higher education also affects a person's sense of control as well as their chances of getting a better, well-paid job. This in turn encourages them to adopt healthy lifestyle behaviours."
ESRC press release 3 June
"You can't stay in your corner of the Forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes."
A A Milne
The experiences of the over-50s in the workforce, the manner in which they "retire" and what they do outside paid work have been the subject of a major research project undertaken by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF). The findings form the basis of a workshop being run by Donald Hirsch, a special adviser to JRF, at the forthcoming Chartered Management Institute National Convention on 27/28 October in Leeds. One of the key findings of the report is that financial factors tend not to be the primary force driving decisions about leaving work. Health and family considerations, together with attitudes to work, combine to create aspirations about when to retire.
More information about the workshop and the full programme of events taking place at the conference is at http://tinyurl.com/9cgvx
The fee for the two-day event is £90
Management News (June 2005)
The Office of the Independent Adjudicator, the student complaints ombudsman, has released its first annual report as a statutory body. The report reveals that students aged 40 or over are far more likely to make a complaint to the watchdog. It stated that a third of the 86 formal complaints it acted on in the first nine months of its existence had been from students aged 40 and over. Moreover, another third were from postgraduates, although the report does not state how much of a crossover there was between the two groups.
Phil Baty, The THES 24 June
The Disability Rights Commission has launched a debate on the future of equality for disabled people in Britain. The DRC is urging that a new agenda to ensure disabled people become equal citizens is established before the commission is absorbed into the Commission for Equality and Human Rights in two years time. In order to stimulate discussion, the DRC has published Shaping the Future of Equality. This paper sets out what the DRC believes are some of the major issues facing disabled people in 2005, and the potential challenges of the future.
DRC email update 9 June
More information www.disabilitydebate.org
A new website allows UK citizens to get in touch with their local elected representative. By inputting their postcode, a person will be provided with a list of the names and political affiliations of their local authority representatives. These can then be contacted by email.
Info@UK Issue 51 (June 2005)
The government's flagship website, which has just been updated, includes numerous improvements, one of which is reducing the number of clicks it takes to get to information, reports Michael Cross (The Guardian 9 June). The website aims "to present consistent and up-to-date information about any government function within five clicks". Mr Cross tells us that, while there remain some shortcomings, such as a lack of online transaction facilities in key areas, the site is an improvement on its predecessors. The new version includes:
URL: www.direct.gov.uk
Update comment: Another flagship? How many has this navy, sorry government, actually got?
The DRC Citizenship and Disability microsite has been short-listed in the public sector category for a New Media Age Effectiveness Award. Billed as "the greatest prize in new media", many in the industry regard this awards ceremony (on 30 June) as the website Oscars. The Citizenship and Disability microsite is a classroom tool on citizenship for Key Stages 3 and 4 and focuses on disability, diversity and equality. It is an easy-to-use resource for teachers to enable them to provoke discussion among students about disability issues. The content supports the award-winning short film "Talk" which can be viewed online. This content was researched and written for the DRC by the Humberside Partnership. The microsite was designed for the DRC by Reading Room.
URL: www.drc-gb.org/citizenship
Disability Rights Commission
Email bulletin number 38 (June 2005)
A free, searchable online archive of social, historic and culturally significant websites, including those of public sector bodies, has gone live. Hosted by the UK Web Archiving Consortium (UKWAC), the two-year project is the first systematic attempt to create an archive of web-based material from the UK.
E-Government Bulletin Issue 188 (13 June)
The DRC legal team has been shortlisted as Employment Law Team of the Year by The Lawyer magazine.
Further information: www.thelawyer.com/lawyerawards
Disability Rights Commission
Email bulletin number 38 (June 2005)
Lantra – the Sector Skills Council for environmental and land-based industries – has launched two careers websites. The sites will help to address the recruitment difficulties facing employers in this sector and provide a valuable resource for individuals looking for information on training, qualifications and the skills required for employment in the environmental and land-based sector.
SSDA Involve Issue 90 (21 June)
For young people: www.ajobin.com
For mature entrants: www.afuturein.com
Update comment: The case studies are the same on both sites but the interface is radically different!
Claire Tyers and Alice Sinclair
Institute for Employment Studies
Brief Number 638
ISBN: 1-84478-481-9 May 2005
This research consisted of a telephone survey of Information, Advice and Guidance (IAG) recipients. It aimed to test whether the provision of IAG makes a difference to the work and learning outcomes of individuals. The research compared recipients of Advice and Guidance (A/G) with individuals receiving information only. Key findings include:
The full report (RR638), price £4.95, is available from DfES Publications, PO Box 5050, Sherwood Park, Annesley, Nottingham NG15 0DJ
Cheques should be made payable to "DfES Priced Publications"
The Research Brief (RB638) is available free of charge
from the above address
tel: 0845 60 222 60
Research Briefs and Research Reports can also be accessed at www.dfes.gov.uk/research/
Further information about this research can be obtained
from Deborah Beck, N611, Moorfoot Sheffield S1 4PQ
email:
deborah.beck@dfes.gsi.gov.uk
The views expressed in this report are the authors' and do not necessarily reflect those of the Department for Education and Skills.
Update comment: This is another piece of research which tells us what we knew – simply providing people with information is not enough. People have to understand how to apply that information, allow it to become knowledge and act on it. Even if the acting on it is to discard the information, this is a deliberate act, not just reading and forgetting.
Graduates are blaming careers services for their failure to get decent jobs on graduation. With student debt and competition for jobs at all-time highs, graduates feel short-changed by their under-resourced careers services and many question the value of university degrees. A research report from the Graduate Recruitment Company (GRC), Lost in Transition, reveals that careers services lack the resources to give students a head-start in their careers. Key findings include:
HRLook Daily News 23 June
Full report (PDF 12pp): www.graduate-recruitment.co.uk/grc_report.pdf
This briefing document for policy-makers, managers of services, practitioners and researchers has recently been published by the European Commission. It describes recent developments in the field of lifelong guidance at European level; provides the political context for such developments; and outlines priorities for action and progress achieved to date.
CEDEFOP Info 1/2005
Full document (PDF 8pp): http://tinyurl.com/ay3v7
The International Centre for Career Development and Public Policy (ICDP) was launched in a pilot phase at the end of 2004. Its aims are to:
The Centre is intended as a resource for policy developers and researchers, in association with social partners and guidance practitioners, in improving career development systems that support lifelong learning and workforce development goals.
More information is available from ICDP, Cedefop,
20
Av. d'Auderghem, Brussels B-1049, Belgium
tel: (322) 233 38 46
email:
jmc@cedefop.eu.int
CEDEFOP Info 1/2005
Research conducted by The Royal Bank of Scotland reveals that the majority of students are still financially dependent on their parents three years after they have graduated. A survey of students who graduated in 2002 showed that 58% are still relying on their parents to help them. Many had moved back home to avoid paying bills. Other findings include:
Richard Garner, Education Editor, The Independent 20 June
The National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) has redesigned its website. The key improvements are listed as "clearer navigation, more advanced search facilities, more project and document information, ability to change the font size, and an online bookshop".
URL: www.nfer.ac.uk/
A new section dedicated to Gypsy and Traveller children has been added to the website of the DfES Ethnic Minority Achievement Unit. The section will feature information from the unit, which works closely with Traveller Education Services and others to make a positive change for Gypsies and Travellers. Users will also be able to read the unit's guidance document for schools: Aiming High: raising the achievement of Gypsy and Traveller children.
The Briefing May 2005
URL: www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/ethnicminorities/
The London Development Agency, the Mayor of London's agency for business and jobs, has awarded the British Library £1 million to transform its Business & Intellectual Property Centre from a successful pilot project to a permanent resource. The Centre offers "arguably the largest collection of market research reports in the world, free access to on-line subscription databases giving up-to-the-minute company information and financial news, and access to the Library's extensive intellectual property resources, including its collection of 50 million patents". The Library is targeting this service at SMEs, entrepreneurs and innovators in London and beyond. It will be seeking commercial funding for future phases.
Access to the British Library's Business & Intellectual Property Centre is free. Users need a Reader's Pass if visiting in person
More information www.bl.uk/business
Info@UK Issue 51 (June 2005)
A pioneering idea to encourage Welsh people with childcare qualifications to look further than the South Wales Valleys in their search for jobs has won an award for innovation. Ann Parker, a course tutor for the Certificate in Childcare and Education course at Ystrad Mynach College, developed the "childcare jobs fair" in response to poor job prospects for successful students in the area. The idea has proved to be so successful that students regularly find jobs – some on cruise ships and others as far afield as the United States – while organisations including Camp America, Thomson and Esprit recruit each year from the student body. Ms Parker won The College Ystrad Mynach Innovation Award at the YMC2.
Jenny Rees, The Western Mail 23 June
The Standing Conference of Principals (SCOP) has announced that it is preparing to "downsize and remould itself into an organisation mainly representing small specialist colleges". SCOP expects that, within the year, its membership will decrease from 40 colleges to just 30.
Tony Tysome, The THES 17 June
Lecturers' union NATFHE fears universities are heaping extra work on already overstretched staff in a bid to tackle high numbers of student dropouts, writes Phil Baty (The THES 1 July). Roger Kline, Head of the Universities Department at NATFHE, said: "Our research has shown that teaching workloads continue to rise. And overworked lecturers are one of the main causes of high student dropout. Increasing workloads further will make the dropout rate worse, as staff morale plummets and students get more cheesed off. You tackle dropouts by hiring more staff and providing more support, not by stretching people further."
Students made 120 formal complaints about questionable exam marks, shoddy halls of residence and accusations of plagiarism to the Office of the Independent Adjudicator (OIA) in the nine months since it opened. The annual report of the new watchdog, which students can call on to settle disputes with their universities, reveals that almost half of the complaints related to academic matters such as students contesting their results. 86 investigations were held and half of those cases were ruled in the students' favour.
Polly Curtis, Education Correspondent, The Guardian 23 June
IOA report (PDF 2pp): www.oiahe.org.uk/docs/OIA_PR_230605.pdf
A computer program that marks student essays for content and style will be used at universities across the UK within a few years, according to James Christie, a computing lecturer at Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen. Mr Christie claims to have developed a programme that is capable of grading "content-rich, factual essays". The programme is given details of the required marking scheme, including information about expected vocabulary, sentence length and grammar. It then creates a formula to grade the remaining essays.
Matthew Taylor, Education Correspondent, The Guardian 6 June
The Open University has launched a new publicity campaign in a bid to "shed its late-night TV and kipper ties image". The Powering People advertising and marketing campaign will run through June and July, using a 30-second TV commercial, to be followed by shorter, 10-second adverts and a campaign of national press advertising and direct mail. A second TV campaign, calling for people to contact the university directly, will follow within weeks. The OU hopes to attract around 15,000 enquiries about its courses.
Jimmy Leach, The Guardian 3 June
Universities could save at least £15 million if government bodies took a more coordinated approach to inspection and data collection, claims a review group set up to cut red tape in higher education. The Higher Education Regulation Review Group, chaired by Dame Patricia Hodgson, believes there are "needless burdens" on institutions caused by different funding bodies across government having developed their own reporting, data collection and inspection or audit requirements. The group is pressing for a concordat between the funding bodies, whereby the Higher Education Statistics Agency would become the single source of base data, and the Quality Assurance Agency would supply basic inspection and quality assurance. The group will seek to broker such a concordat in the coming year.
Donald MacLeod, The Guardian 22 June
Annual report of the Higher Education Regulation Review Group - Less regulated: more accountable (PDF 36pp): http://tinyurl.com/8lsrw
Eric Thomas, the Vice-Chancellor of Bristol University, has warned that many university chiefs lack the skills to "pilot their universities through the emerging market in higher education". Professor Thomas said that this lack of knowledge will put institutions at risk when the cap is lifted from top-up fees in 2010 or before. He continued: "The long-term challenge is what will happen if the cap is lifted in 2010, or before. I don't believe universities have thought seriously about pricing and certainly they do not know the full economic cost of teaching. I am not convinced that Vice-Chancellors are skilled in understanding markets. Some universities have a hyperbolic view of their own brand and competitiveness and this could lead to real institutional failure."
Phil Baty, The THES 24 June
University subjects which are struggling to attract students will have to be taught in larger, national centres, suggested Sir Howard Newby, the head of the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE). Sir Howard rejected the idea that the government should step in to save ailing departments, arguing that university independence should not be sacrificed simply to preserve "19th century disciplinary categories". He also warned against "moral panic" over course closures. He said: "We mustn't hold back innovation by indulging in a moral panic over department closures, when the decision to close might be made for very sensible reasons." Sir Howard was speaking at the launch of the HEFCE report into how "strategically important" subjects might be protected in the university system, as requested by the DfES.
BBC News Online 29 June
Strategically important and vulnerable subjects - Final report of the advisory group (PDF 21pp): http://tinyurl.com/778hd
John Stephenson and Judy Saxton
This paper presents the outcomes of a systematic review of the experience of the first cohorts using UfI's online Learning through Work (LtW) facility to negotiate personalised programmes of study leading to full university awards based on projects related to their everyday work. The concept of learning through work and wider experience of online work-based learning are discussed, and the main features of the LtW programme are described. A grounded theory methodology is used to allow propositions to emerge from the data about user readiness, institutional responses and wider impact on the learners and their work-place. These propositions are presented for discussion in the wider context of learner-managed learning and the use of the internet for university-recognised learning through work.
Industry and Higher Education
Volume 19 Number 3 (June 2005)
Key medical disciplines including pathology and psychiatry are under threat as academic staff numbers continue to fall, according to figures released by the Council of Heads of Medical Schools and the Council of Deans of Dental Schools. The figures show that doctors and dentists are steering clear of academia, leaving a growing hole in the number of teachers. Psychiatry, anaesthesia and surgery have suffered a drop in staff of more than 25% since 2000. Academic pathology numbers have fallen by more than half, and dentistry reports similar difficulties.
Anna Fazackerley, The THES 10 June
A leading sociology professor has warned universities to prepare for an increase in "helicopter parents". Frank Furedi, Professor of Sociology at Kent University, said that demanding parents who refuse to cut the apron strings when their children go to university will ultimately push institutions into accepting their involvement. Professor Furedi highlights the situation in the US, where universities provide parent liaison officers and campus councils that represent parents' interests. He said: "It is only a matter of time before parents have a more active role in undergraduates' day-to-day life."
Michael North, The THES 24 June
"Animals have these advantages over man: they never hear the clock strike, they die without any idea of death, they have no theologians to instruct them, their last moments are not disturbed by unwelcome and unpleasant ceremonies, their funerals cost them nothing, and no one starts lawsuits over their wills."
Voltaire, letter to Count Schomberg, 1769
Sue Ralph and Kathy Boxall - University of Manchester
This paper analyses the portrayal, within UK universities' publicity materials, of disabled students and disability services. Basic public relations practices explain that an organisation should know its audiences and focus its messages accordingly. We argue that recruitment is an issue which cannot be ignored in discussions of learning and teaching. It is a fundamental aspect of higher education: without students there would be no learning, teaching or curriculum. By failing actively to recruit disabled students, universities will miss out on the diversity and valuable contributions of an important group. Our analysis indicates that recruitment of disabled students does not appear to be a priority in many universities. There are significant numbers of prospective disabled students in the community; some universities could be taking more proactive measures to recruit this group of students. (original abstract)
Teaching in Higher Education
Volume 10 Number 3 (July 2005)
As the survey conducted for the Sutton Trust indicates, the fear of accumulating debts is discouraging the very groups of young people whom the government would most like to see improving themselves. A Times Editorial article (30 May) calls for ministerial attention in educating children in single-parent families. It states: "Ministers need to be frank. There is a strong argument to be made that the various schemes for financial support during higher education – public and private – are designed precisely to assist teenagers such as those who do not think that university is for 'the likes of them', or that it will be too expensive. The message has to be directed more forcefully at this audience. For the truth is that not grasping the opening that education offers will be the most costly mistake of their lives."
The vital ingredients that give some universities a competitive edge have been revealed by a survey of the perceptions and preferences of 10,000 undergraduates. The study, by the research company Opinionpanel, gives "the student's-eye view" of how universities performed during the application process. It covered ten key topics, including universities' academic reputation, teaching quality, campus facilities and location and staff helpfulness. While old universities – particularly Oxford, Cambridge and the London-based institutions – featured most strongly in the top ten for most categories, the best overall was Strathclyde University, which received the greatest number of high-ranking positions.
Paul Hill, The THES 17 June
In his regular column for Managing Information (May-June 2005), Kevin Carey offers some food for thought about the relationship between information and the general public. He says: "If you had proposed to an industrialist at the time of Engels that coal, steel or cotton should be given away for nothing because they were the good which defined the age, the industrial age, he would have been shocked. Yet today we are doing precisely the equivalent. We live in the information age, as opposed to the industrial age, and we expect to be given information for nothing, as if it costs nothing." Mr Carey calls on the government and businesses to stop using charities and other not-for-profit organisations as their personal minions, ready to do their bidding for little or no remuneration. He also urges charities to take steps to ensure that their intellectual property is not being exploited by profiteers, by charging a realistic rate for their services.
Kevin Carey is the founder Director of humanITy, a UK-based charity specialising in IT and social inclusion
Reports are emerging of an agreement between a number of European national libraries to make a stand against the deal struck by Google with five major libraries in the US and the UK. The deal permits Google to digitise thousands of texts, creating "a world-dominating global library". Around 20 European libraries are thought to be backing a similar project, mooted by France's President Chirac, to put European literature online and "preserve its culture and heritage". In a statement from the Elysée Palace, Chirac announced that the French culture minister, Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres, and the president of the National Library of France, Jean-Noel Jeanneney, will study the viability of such a plan.
Research Information (May-June 2005)
The Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) has recently published a report of public library usage for 2003/04 across the UK. The report finds that visits to public libraries have increased by nearly 14 million, the second consecutive annual rise. However, this is not reflected in book borrowing which dropped by 5% to 341 million. Taken together, these figures suggest that libraries are now used for many more activities than book borrowing, including accessing the internet, and borrowing music CDs, talking books and videos.
Info@UK Issue 51 (June 2005)
Public libraries spend less than 10% of their budget on books and are losing borrowers at such a rate that they will all have closed in 15 years, according to a former Managing Director of Waterstone's bookshops. In an article for the Daily Telegraph (reported by Catriona Davies, 4 June), Tim Coates, a consultant who produced a report 14 months ago on the "cumbersome" management of libraries, said he was exasperated by the lack of progress since. Mr Coates welcomes the assurances of Libraries' Minister David Lammy and the Department of Culture, Media and Sport that they would address these issues. However, he claims that, unless libraries are able to access the same deals as private companies, there could be catastrophic consequences for the service. He is concerned that libraries have improved their visitor numbers at the expense of the "core business" of lending books, adding: "The service is being lost because it is run by technophiles who don't understand the basics of libraries. We are seeing a complete collapse in the collection of books. Only half as many people are borrowing books as 10 years ago. Libraries say that doesn't matter because they are no longer only about books, but the other services should be as well as, not instead of, books. We really have to worry about the decline in book borrowing, because it's almost in freefall."
Full article: http://tinyurl.com/9kzlk
In a letter to the Daily Telegraph, Dave Hayward, a public librarian, comments on a previous report, Libraries will be closed in 15 years (June 4), in which "libraries were said to almost invariably pay full price", while the bookshop customer, "takes advantage of discounted offers". He explains that almost all library book purchases are discounted, and bookshops mainly discount very popular titles and ones that are difficult to sell. In his conclusion he questions whether Tim Coates, former Waterstone's director, and the Department of Culture's spokesperson "have sufficient library work experience to try to shape policy?"
A new mobile library service is set to replace nine branch libraries closing at the end of the month in the North Eastern Education and Library Board area of Northern Ireland. The new service will operate one day each week over the summer. A spokesperson for the board said: "The Board's original intention had been to phase the closure programme between now and October but after meetings with staff it was decided to press ahead with the reorganisation at the end of June. We agreed with the staff that there is no point in prolonging the agony. There is nothing to be gained by allowing the situation to drift."
Kathryn Torney, The Belfast Telegraph 15 June
The Centre for the Public Library and Information in Society (CPLIS) at the University of Sheffield has conducted research into the public's perceptions of archives, libraries and museums in modern Britain. The draft report, Relevant repositories of public knowledge? Perceptions of archives libraries and museums in modern Britain, is now available. Key findings include:
Info@UK Issue 51 (June 2005)
CPLIS draft report (PDF 113pp): http://tinyurl.com/bcnu8
Patrick C Sommers, Sirsi Corporation
This paper aims to extend remarks made during a keynote speech at the Australian Library and Information Association conference in September 2004. Mr Sommers looks at the idea of change – from the dinosaurs to the present time. Those who adapt to changing conditions survive, those who don't will ultimately die – as people or organisations. This is particularly true for libraries in the present age of rapidly changing technologies, fierce competition and increasing customer expectations. Is our brain human or lizard? Can you adapt? If you can then you need to adapt and multi-task to the extreme:
And, remember always that if you call a spade a b----y shovel you won't find it again.
The Electronic Library Volume 23 Number 2 (2005)
Martin Harris, Department of Accounting, Finance and Management, University of Essex
The new information and communications technologies (ICTs) have stimulated a wide-ranging debate on the future of learning institutions in the age of the "network society". Recent academic commentary has tended to equate globalised information networks with commodification, the delocalisation of learning, and threats to the public service traditions of higher education. This paper investigates the extensive programme of digitisation now under way at the British Library (BL), one of the world's largest knowledge providers and a key player in the UK research libraries network. The findings presented in the paper do not reflect the belief that the spread of global information networks will undermine the public service remit of large knowledge providers such as the BL – but the evidence does show that these providers are becoming more connected to other players in the digital environment, with inherently complex and potentially far-reaching implications for the production of knowledge in the emergent "network society".
Information, Communication & Society
Volume 8 Number 2 (June 2005)
Michael Welton
ISBN: 1-86201-242-3
Price £18.95
Published by NIACE
"Learning is not an essentially good thing", "power and money distort learning in civil society", "the emergence of a knowledge or learning society cannot be accepted as either new or good"; and "learning is harnessed in the modern world to the money-code and channels human energies and capacities in destructive directions", are all ideas discussed in a new book, Designing The Just Learning Society: A Critical Inquiry. The book examines the history of the concept of the learning society. It argues that, if adult education has a significant role to play in the 21st century, then some formidable road-blocks have to be confronted along the learning journey.
NIACE, 21 De Montfort Street Leicester LE1 7GE
tel:
0116 204 4216
email: orders@niace.org.uk
NIACE website 14 June
Lifelong Learning UK is the sector skills council with responsibility for setting training standards in the post-compulsory education and training sector. In an article for The TES FE Focus (Steve Hook reports on 10 June), its new chair John Hedger said that he wants the body to be "recognised as doing some good" for employers and employees alike. Mr Hedger said: "In five years, I hope LLUK will have given employers a sense that they really influence the development of their workforce."
Part-time and mature students are more likely than others to drop out. In an article for The Guardian (6 June), Huw Richards looks at an ESF report showing how universities could look after them better. The report, Retaining Non-traditional Students in Higher Education, was compiled by Diane Nutt, the head of Teesside University's student retention team. Figures released by the Higher Education Funding Council reveal that, while funding for student retention strategies has attracted increased funding as the issue moves up the political agenda, drop-out rates themselves have remained largely unchanged. The HEFCE figures show that non-completion rates for undergraduates have stayed at around 17%-18%, including 10% who do not continue after their first year. The ESF report concluded that the higher education sector should spend less time trying to make students "fit" the system and more time finding ways to reach non-traditional students on their own terms. It stated: "It is not necessarily appropriate to try to change students to fit into a traditional student box. We need to build strategies into our institutions that better fit the students we have, to support their retention and success."
Full article: http://tinyurl.com/af6hk
The full report will be available shortly
Children in England are studying languages [other than English] for as little as a month of their school life. Languages are no longer compulsory after the age of 14 but schools are also abandoning them for younger secondary pupils. According to a survey by the Association for Language Learning, 12- to 14-year-olds in one school are taking the subject for 50 minutes a week – less than half the time recommended by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority. Most secondary pupils in Europe study languages for an average of 2½ hours a week, rising to 5 hours a week in Denmark, Malta and Germany's most academic schools.
Helen Ward, The TES 1 July
Update comment: It has been said before, and no doubt will be again, that learning someone else's language may be polite but brings little ultimate benefit to most people. If you learn to speak German you can converse with Germans, French with the French etc. If these people learn English they can converse with Americans, Canadians, Australians as well as the British and people from many other countries where English is the first language. And that does not include anybody from a country where English is the second language spoken – or even the Netherlands where English is now the first language of business if not of life.
"The only goal you can't accomplish is the one that you don't go after."
Vilis Ozols
According to a study from Eurydice, the EU educational research organisation, children in Scotland are being placed at a serious disadvantage because of Scotland's "arrogance and woeful record in teaching foreign languages". The study revealed that Scottish pupils begin learning foreign languages much later, and are given much shorter periods of study, than their European counterparts. While children in some countries receive nine years' compulsory foreign language tuition, a Scottish pupil receives just two. Moreover, they will be offered fewer languages to study. Professor Roger Stephenson, a senior researcher on the project, said: "Scotland and the rest of Britain is the laughing stock of Europe when it comes to learning foreign languages. We are resented for our arrogance in assuming that people should speak English. If only for economic reasons, the government and the Scottish Executive must realise that you need to require people to learn a language. There cannot be a choice, because pupils will usually take the easier option, which is never languages." Responding to the findings, academics and the business community called for a government rethink to redress the growing language barrier with the Continent.
Arthur Macmillan, Scotland on Sunday 5 June
This report summarises the key findings from a review of English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) provision undertaken on behalf of the Skills for Life Strategy Unit and the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) by KPMG. It considers both previous and current provision and makes recommendations for consideration for future delivery.
KPMG Review of English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) for the DfES Skills for Life Strategy Unit and the LSC (PDF 15pp): http://tinyurl.com/9zbq4
LSC email update 8 June
The Prison Service has announced that it is to give governors the discretion to end the tradition of supplying free newspapers to inmates. The original order allowed one free newspaper to be shared by ten prisoners each day. A spokesperson for the service described the change in policy as the "result of a money-saving proposal from a member of staff" and as "reflecting the increasing availability of in-cell television as a source of information". However, the Prison Reform Trust condemned the "penny-pinching" decision, arguing that the free newspaper is a vital tool in the drive to improve literacy standards among inmates.
Eric Allison, Prisons Correspondent, The Guardian 10 June
"Please don't ask me what the score is, I'm not even sure what the game is."
Ashleigh Brilliant, British philosopher, author (b.1933)
Ours is an age where the value of education and training is acknowledged worldwide. Its contribution to individual, economic and social capital is eagerly sought. We know the importance of devising and delivering quality opportunities for learning, throughout life, and we try to create the right conditions for this to happen. CEDEFOP's third report on vocational education and training research, The Value of Learning, addresses current research into these matters. It focuses specifically on evaluation of reforms and measures and on the impacts of education and training for society, individuals and enterprises.
More details: http://tinyurl.com/7sgop
ETV email update 13 June
Jobcentre Plus is piloting nationwide access to its jobs database via interactive digital television (IDTV). Jobcentre Plus customers who subscribe to NTL, Telewest or Sky TV will be able to search the database from home. Users switch to The Job Channel, press the interactive button on their remote control and follow the on-screen instructions. The pilot is planned to run until September. If successful it will become permanent.
For more information, contact Pat Knox
email:
pat.knox@jobcentreplus.gsi.gov.uk
Touchbase Edition 39 (June 2005)
A comprehensive school in Kent has been described as "failing" by OfSTED inspectors, despite scoring well above the national average for pupils gaining five or more high-grade GCSEs. The school was placed in special measures in 2003, following a poor inspection report, and must remain so until it is inspected again in late 2005. OfSTED rules dictate that any school which is deemed to be failing must be re-inspected two years later, and must have made significant improvements. However, a two-day HMI inspection in December produced an excellent report and GCSE and SATs results compare well with the national averages. The headteacher commented: "If good exam results and a good inspection do not get you off the list, what does? It is ridiculous."
Stephen Lucas, The TES 10 June
US-style yellow school buses should be introduced across England to improve pupil safety and ease traffic congestion, according to education charity The Sutton Trust. The Trust argues that such a service would cost the taxpayer around £124 million a year to run. However, it would reduce the 40 deaths and 900 serious injuries caused annually by the school run. Moreover, it would allow poorer families more choice of where to send children and help tackle truancy, as well as reducing congestion and improving punctuality at work.
BBC News Online 16 June
A shortage of skilled craftspeople is threatening the future of Britain's historic buildings, warns a report from the National Heritage Training Group. The report, backed by ConstructionSkills and English Heritage, argues that there is a shortfall of some 6,500 craft workers which are essential to the preservation of Britain's built heritage. Almost a quarter of contractors report outstanding vacancies, particularly for specialist bricklayers, carpenters, roofers, stonemasons and thatchers. Indeed, the report warns that many skills, including drystone walling and thatching, will die out in the next 15 to 20 years if nothing is done.
The Guardian 9 June
Traditional Building Craft Skills - Skills Needs Analysis of the Built Heritage Sector In England 2005 (PDF 148pp): www.nhtg.org.uk/assets/pdf/Heritage_NHTG.pdf
Nearly half of working people in their 20s said their education had not prepared them well enough for their first job, according to a poll conducted by OfSTED. The poll found that 53% of working adults aged between 20 and 30 said they were well-prepared for their first job, while 45% said they were not. Two-thirds of those polled felt more could have been done to prepare them for the world of work, with 23% suggesting they would have benefitted from more work experience and 8% believing that more vocational training would have been useful. OfSTED's director of corporate services, Robert Green, commented: "Businesses need employees with a 'can-do' attitude, a willingness to take on responsibility, a creative and innovative approach to solving problems and the ability to cope with uncertainty. The question is how do we ensure young people develop these skills?"
Donald MacLeod, The Guardian 13 June
Author: Susanne Liane Schmidt
ISBN: 9-28960-270-8
Price: 25 Euros
In a rapidly changing environment early identification of skill needs is becoming increasingly challenging. The pace of technological change and innovation entails demands for new skills and competences on the labour market. Availability of reliable and accurate information on skill trends is a precondition for a timely response to new and changing training and education needs. This publication highlights some challenges and solutions for early identification of skill needs and analyses results, their relevance and transfer to policy and practice. It gives some examples of good practice in identifying, anticipating and monitoring changing and emerging skill needs at national, sectoral and regional levels, and for specific target groups.
CEDEFOP Info 1/2005
Married couples with children are penalised by a tax and welfare system that "subsidises family break-up", the Centre for Policy Studies claims. The research, undertaken for the CPS by a Cambridge University economics professor, shows that many couples with children would be better off if they split up, rather than stayed together. Prof Bob Rowthorn, a fellow at King's College, Cambridge, said: "The long-term cost of subsidising family break-up is unsustainable."
The Daily Telegraph 22 June
Workers are being urged by the TUC to sit down with their employers to find ways of making their companies and organisations more environmentally friendly. A new report, Greening the workplace, warns that climate change is one of the most pressing problems facing the planet but says there is a real opportunity for unions to make a difference before it is too late. The report says that our insatiable demand for energy resources is driving climate change towards dangerous and unpredictable events. It's therefore crucial that unions make sustainable development of the companies for which they work a top priority in the coming years. Greening the workplace reveals that:
TUC press release 6 June
Full report (PDF 64pp):
www.tuc.org.uk/economy/tuc-9996-f0.pdf
England and Wales are continuing to jail offenders at a higher rate than any other major country in western Europe, new research has found. The research, conducted by the International Centre for Prison Studies (ICPS), indicates that the government's use of prison as its main tool of penal policy has increased by 15% since 1999, despite concerted efforts to reduce it. England and Wales have a prison population rate of 142 per 100,000, which remains higher than France, Germany, Italy and Greece. In addition, Amnesty International estimates that 25,000 asylum seekers were locked up last year in the UK.
Eric Allison and Hugh Muir, The Guardian 27 June
The leader of a new flagship centre designed to boost leadership skills in local government has quit after just six months. Wendy Thomson has left her chief executive post at the Leadership Centre for Local Government just one month after it was officially launched. Ms Thomson said that she will leave her post at the end of August to take a professorship in her native Canada. The £12 million Leadership Centre was launched by Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott to "improve the calibre of political and managerial leadership across councils".
Hélène Mulholland, The Guardian 27 May
Kent Institute of Art and Design (KIAD) is pursuing one of its former academics for damages of at least £300,000 after he left to set up a rival architecture school at neighbouring Kent University. KIAD has issued a writ against the lecturer, citing conspiracy, trespass and breach of contract. It also alleges that he compiled lists of addresses, telephone numbers, salaries and grades of staff, and passed them on to Kent's Vice-Chancellor.
Faisal al Yafai, The THES 1 July
Employment Relates Services Association (ERSA) is a new representative body for providers of publicly funded employment programmes. ERSA's founding membership is made up of a cross-section of organisations, including Remploy, The Shaw Trust and Reed in Partnership. It seeks to provide "a strong representative voice that will be dedicated to influencing welfare-to-work policy". ERSA will:
More information www.ersa.org.uk
Debbie Scott and Chris Melvin, Working Brief Issue 165 (June 2005)
Lifelong Learning UK (LLUK) was officially launched on 15 June at an event at the House of Commons. David Hunter, Chief Executive of LLUK, said the period between LLUK starting to operate and the official launches has allowed the organisation to consolidate itself and listen to the opinions of employers in the sector. He said: "The launches [are] a celebration of what we have achieved to date as well as providing opportunities to reflect on the hard work that lies ahead."
SSDA INvolve Issue 88 (7 June)
More information: www.lifelonglearninguk.org
Training quality in the UK is suffering because the private sector is unable to compete on a level playing-field for European and UK government funding for the provision of business-related training courses, a training provider has claimed. Mike Gardner, Managing Director of Midlands-based WMG Associates, says that smaller providers are often unable to access central funding, meaning they are unable to compete fairly against colleges and other public-sector suppliers when tendering. Mr Gardner said: "Private providers do not have the restrictions a college has: they can run a course when and where the client wants it – at their premises and overnight if it is required for the night shift, for example … By making more funding available to private providers to offer courses as well as colleges, the whole of British industry will benefit through more flexible, outcome-focused training."
t Magazine June 2005
According to research conducted by OfSTED, two-thirds of 20-somethings feel that their schools, colleges and universities could have done more to prepare them for the workplace. The poll conducted by the education watchdog also showed that close to half (45%) felt that their education had failed to prepare them for their first job. Respondents wished that they had been given instruction in problem-solving, team-working and the ability to meet deadlines. However, in contrast to the complaints from the Confederation of British Industry, four out of five believe that schools and colleges had done more than employers to tackle literacy and numeracy.
Jon Slater, The TES 17 June
Update comment: I can't quite understand why employers should have to do anything about literacy and numeracy. Is that not the job of educators?
Victoria Carrington, The University of Plymouth
This paper begins with the author's recent participation in an Australian radio interview on the topic of SMS txting. It takes this as an entry point for an analysis and discussion of the discourses around txting to be found in a series of newspaper articles and taken up in the radio interview. Moving on from the initial analysis, the paper addresses some of the underlying tensions that come into play as new technologies and new literacies are taken up by young people and move with them into classrooms with existing institutional traditions around text and literacy.
Cambridge Journal of Education
Volume 35 Number 2 (June 2005)
The Learning and Skills Council has announced the completion of its initial procurement exercise to select lead providers for the new Offenders' Learning and Skills Service. The exercise attracted considerable interest from a range of organisations, and successful bidders are now engaged in post-tender negotiations in advance of the start of the new service in the pilot areas from August 2005. The aim of the new Offenders' Learning and Skills Service is to ensure that offenders both in prisons and supervised in the community should have access to learning and skills development to enable them to hold down a job and play a positive role in society. By boosting skill levels, the aim is to enhance the employment prospects of offenders, increasing their chance of securing employment and reducing the risk of them re-offending. The Offenders' Learning and Skills Service will be in place nationally from August 2006 and the process of selecting lead providers in the remaining regions in England will be undertaken during 2005 and 2006.
LSC press release 27 May
More information: www.dfes.gov.uk/offenderlearning/
This title leads into an article about the new Tribunal Service which has "sprouted early". The new service will take on its full responsibilities from April 2006 to provide a unified administration of most government tribunals (including the Appeals Service which will transfer from the DWP).
Further information from www.daa.gov.uk (via links for "the legal system" and "tribunals") and www.tribunalsservice.gov.uk
Welfare Rights Bulletin 186 (June 2005)
The Singapore government has launched a scholarship scheme which will pay for some 400 of its students to study for a science degree in another country. The scheme also offers big cash incentives of up to £300,000 for those who go on to take science PhDs. The move is part of Singapore's drive to be at the forefront of biomedical research. While the scheme appears to be a boost for the UK market for overseas study, just three institutions are considered to be suitable destinations for the students, compared with 30 in the US. A spokesperson for Singapore's Biomedical Research Council explained: "More than half of our scholars go to the US. In the UK we would consider Cambridge, Oxford and Imperial. We believe these universities offer a very good training environment." Brian Ferrar, the First Secretary for Science at the British High Commission in Singapore, says that the UK needs to demonstrate the range of world-class research undertaken in UK institutions. He said that other countries are already active in promoting their researchers and institutions.
Anna Fazackerley, The THES 10 June
A report from a group of mathematicians released today (28 June) is calling for drastic action to save the subject in schools and universities. Tony Gardiner, the report's author, says there is a consensus among mathematicians that the situation in maths education is "much more serious than the government, schools and universities seem willing to admit". Dr Gardiner called for a national debate into the crisis. He said: "Students in general are no longer required to combine simple techniques in the most basic ways – so they no longer understand that the power of elementary mathematics lies in the integration of simple techniques into larger wholes. Modularisation has encouraged this trend, which has reduced school mathematics in England to an unappetising substitute for what elementary mathematics should be."
The Guardian 28 June
Where will the next generation of UK mathematicians come from? (PDF 15pp): http://tinyurl.com/756fj
Sources at the Treasury warn that the Chancellor is considering a claw-back of a significant proportion of the science funding that it committed in its ten-year review of science last summer. The Treasury had announced that the government intended to double the science budget over the next ten years, with spending rising by 5.75% a year. However, a senior source within the Treasury claims that the department no longer feels able or willing to keep to this pledge. He said that the 5.75% annual increase would now be described as a target to "move towards".
Anna Fazackerley, The THES 24 June
The potential impact of England's extended schools scheme on disadvantaged neighbourhoods will be limited by a lack of funding and the absence of any requirement to sign up, the government has been warned. Critics argue that the money will be spread too thinly among the country's 23,000 primary and secondary schools to have any real impact. Moreover, Alison King, chair of the Local Government Association's children and young people board, said that the lack of compulsion would hinder progress. She commented: We are concerned that there is no obligation on schools to engage. If headteachers do not want to take part, then it makes it difficult for councils to deliver, as schools are often the obvious and most convenient place to site pre- and post-school care. Giving schools a duty to co-operate with local authorities in delivering this service would help ensure that all parents really have a viable choice for the care of their child outside school hours that provides good-quality outcomes for children."
Austin Macauley, New Start Hotnews 15 June
Ruth Kelly, Education Secretary, today (13 June) announced the publication of the Extended Schools Prospectus which sets out the government's vision on what schools could offer their communities. She also revealed local authority funding allocations for the development of Extended Schools. The Extended Schools Prospectus sets out the government's vision for extended schools. The government wants all schools to offer extended services by 2010, with half of primary schools and a third of secondary schools doing so by 2008. The National Remodelling Team (NRT) has been appointed to support schools and local authorities in developing extended services. The NRT has led on the work with schools on reducing teacher workload. Their appointment will ensure that the development of extended services complements that strategy.
The Prospectus is at www.teachernet.gov.uk/extendedschools
More details on the NRT is at www.remodelling.org
DfES press release (applies to England) 13 June
Client ref 2005/0061
A new report from the HSE detailing the extent of work-related ill-health reveals an annual loss of 1.3 days per worker across the working population. While the main "headline" figures were released in November 2004, full results for 2003/04 are now available. Key findings include:
The report, Self-reported work-related illness in 2003/04: results from the Labour Force Survey, can be accessed (PDF 486pp) at www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/causdis/swi0304.pdf
HRLook Daily News 1 June
More than half of Britain's employees claim to have experienced one or more symptoms of over-work or "burnout" in the last six months, according to a new report from global recruitment and human resources consultancy Hudson. According to the survey, workplace burnout is seen to be having a direct impact on the bottom line and corporate reputation of one in six (15%) UK businesses. The report found:
Yet there seems to be a worrying state of denial among employers.
When asked how they should tackle the incidence of burnout in the UK, employers agreed that building better support networks, providing better guidance on roles and delivery expectations and helping employees build additional skills would help. However, simply giving employees more time off or urging them to work fewer hours were the least recommended solutions.
HRLook Daily News 3 June
According to new research by the law firm Peninsula workers admit to spending an average 4 hours a day checking eBay and other websites while working. The survey reveals that male workers will spend on average 4 hours of their working day checking the internet. This is double the time spent by females who admit to clocking up to an average 2 hours a day. e-Bay is the favourite site for both sexes, with almost three-quarters admitting that they use work resources to bid for e-Bay items and do so on a regular basis.
HRLook Daily News 3 June
Update comment: I do not know who these researchers are talking to but I do not, personally, know anyone who spends that amount of time on the internet whilst at work – unless it's doing research for work!
A survey by Mercer Human Resource Consulting reveals that fewer than 6 in 10 employees (58%) feel free to report instances of harassment in the workplace. Other findings include:
HRLook Daily News 17 June
One-quarter of employers in the UK withdrew at least one job offer in the last year after discovering someone had lied or otherwise misrepresented their application. Moreover, almost twice as many (23%) dismissed someone who was already in post for the same offence, according to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development's annual Recruitment, Retention and Turnover Survey. The survey also asked employers how often they carried out various checks on candidates' applications, and found that many employers do not carry out routine checks on the people they employ:
Rebecca Clarke, Recruitment Adviser at the CIPD, said: "Employers need to be careful. A strong economy and low unemployment means many employers are struggling to find applicants. But there are risks that go with rushing candidates in to fill vacancies without pausing to make basic checks."
CIPD press release 6 June
The CIPD has published a free fact sheet on references to help employers put in place appropriate systems for checking that applicants are not misrepresenting themselves when applying for jobs.
Traditional job references could soon be a thing of the past because of the overwhelming threat of litigation, a survey from specialist law firm Employment Law Advisory Services (ELAS) reveals. The survey found that only one in ten small businesses was happy to write a full reference for former staff. Some 69% said they would only confirm a former employee's position, history and absences, while a fifth of firms claimed that even that was too risky and had decided never to act as referees.
HRLook Daily News 7 June
Ruth Simpson, Brunel Business School
This article explores the experiences of men in non-traditional occupations. In particular it focuses on the dynamics of career entry, career orientation (namely, a preference for intrinsic or extrinsic rewards) and the possible existence, nature and consequences of role strain. Four occupational groups are examined: nurses, cabin crew, librarians and primary-school teachers. The results suggest that men fall into three main categories: seekers (who actively chose the "female" occupation), "finders" (who did not actively seek a non-traditional career but who found the occupation in the process of making general career decisions) and settlers (who actively chose the occupation, often as a result of dissatisfaction with a more "masculine" job, and who then settled in their non-traditional career). Settlers, in particular, are associated with a more intrinsic career orientation and express a desire to remain close to occupational and professional practice. Role strain is prevalent in men's experiences in their non-traditional career. The potential sources of such role strain and the implications for career aspirations and career choices are explored.
Gender Work and Organization
Volume 12 Issue 4 (July 2005)
The TUC has called for workers in the West to be given paid time off to study. According to TUC research, many workers are desperate to learn new skills – but can't find the time to do it because they are either overworked or have childcare responsibilities. More than three in five (63%) workers in the region said they wanted their employer to provide more training, and two in five (42%) said they would like to take up training outside work. In the light of the survey, the TUC has re-issued its call that bosses should give their staff time off from work to learn new skills – a move the unions believe would benefit both parties.
TUC press release 6 June
"There are many humorous things in the world, among them the white man's notion that he is less savage than the other savages."
Mark Twain, Following the Equator, 1897
The Equal Opportunities Commission has called for paternity leave to be doubled from two weeks to one month after the birth of a child, paid at a rate of £200 a week. The organisation is delivering Father's Day cards to politicians including Tony Blair calling for a "Daddy's month" of leave.
The CBI has criticised the proposal, describing it as "a step too far". A spokesperson said: "We need to maintain a balance between parental desire for flexibility and employers' need to get the work done."
BBC News Online 16 June
According to a survey carried out by online travel agency Expedia, there is a substantial number of employees who will not be taking any annual leave this summer. One in eight respondents said that they rarely take holidays, while a third claimed that the long hours working culture in their workplace meant people were too afraid to ask for the time off. Commenting on the findings, Carolyn Jones of the Institute of Employment Rights called on managers to do more to make sure staff take the breaks they need to recharge, and not try to cut costs by squeezing free work out of people. She said: "This human subsidy needs to be regulated out of the system if we are ever to achieve a decent work-life balance."
workSMART newsletter Issue 35 (May 2005)
Information about holiday entitlements is at http://tinyurl.com/b83gu
Almost half of people who work from home say that their isolation from the office makes them feel alienated, under-appreciated and mistrusted, even though they often work harder than their office-based colleagues. A study of 350 remote workers across Europe by IBM's Institute for Business Value and the Economist Intelligence Unit also found that four out of ten feel that colleagues believe they are slacking by working from home.
Changing Times News Number 59 (9 June)
In search of personal fulfilment, many city-slicking PAs are swapping the high life for less pay but more job satisfaction in the charitable sector, writes Cath Janes (The Guardian 27 June). Ms Janes interviews a number of people who have left lucrative positions to discover what motivated them to do so, and whether their move has met their expectations.
Full article: http://tinyurl.com/dvyy6
Having a dull job may increase your risk of a heart attack, researchers have found. Dull, steady, unexciting work is associated with a faster and less variable heart rate, which, in turn, is linked to heart disease, according to a team of researchers from university College London.
Changing Times News Number 60 (29 June)
Konstantinos J Papadoulis, University of Thessaly
If you understand the terms "postmodernism", "positivism" and "relativism", and can explain the difference between "social engineering" and "social science", you'll enjoy this article. If like me (Hazel) you find these words and concepts confusing then you'll probably try to skip the whole article. That would be a mistake. In an article where I understood nine out of ten words – but not what the underlying ideas were behind these words in this order – I was immensely relieved to read that Noam Chomsky wrote, in a review of post-modern literature, that he never quite managed to grasp what the papers meant by "legitimacy of rationality", "science" and "logic". Unfortunately the article is not only littered with words which, in their context, I do not understand but also with typos which attract the eye and diminish readability still further. What Mr Papadoulis seems to be asking is whether administrators should do what the evidence indicates is required or what seems to be ethically acceptable? Society can be "engineered" through the use of particular administrative programmes – should this happen?
Public Policy and Administration
Volume 20 number 1 (Spring 2005)
Scotland's first "schools of ambition" have been unveiled in a move that "paves the way for greater use of private money in the state education system". The 20 secondary schools will receive £100,000 a year from the Scottish Executive, plus additional donations from private companies and philanthropists. In return, each school pledges to drive up standards, improve leadership and identify at least one area of the curriculum as a specialism, such as sport, music, performing arts, languages or vocational studies.
Andrew Denholm, Education Correspondent, The Scottish Herald 28 June
Update comment: Aren't these just Academies by another name? Dawn
Maybe so, but Academy is the word used in England – you wouldn't expect Scotland to call something by the same name even if the underlying philosophy is identical, would you? Hazel
Pregnant women in Scotland are more likely to suffer from workplace discrimination than those elsewhere in the UK, says Equal Opportunities Commission Scotland, which found 54% of pregnant working women in Scotland had experienced discrimination. The Commission is urging the Scottish Executive to take steps to protect the country's pregnant workers.
Changing Times News Number 60 (29 June)
Women's job satisfaction is in decline for the first time, even though the opportunities open to them are unparalleled, government-funded research showed. The research, conducted by Professor Michael Rose of Bath University, revealed that, having historically enjoyed work more than men, women are now just as disillusioned. The "collapse" of job satisfaction is even more acute for part-time workers. Professor Rose argues that women who work part-time are often undervalued, with many people believing that they are working for "pin-money". However, these women regard themselves as sharing the role of breadwinner, and are no longer prepared to take on "low-grade jobs for poor pay and conditions".
Sarah Womack, Social Affairs Correspondent, The Daily Telegraph 28 June
Andrew McCoshan, Mary Costello and Manuel Souto Otero; ECOTEC Research and Consulting Ltd
Brief Number: RBX04-05
June 2005
The government launched the Success for All strategy in November 2004 to transform the quality and responsiveness of the learning and skills sector in England. One of the key themes of Success for All, and more recently the Skills Strategy, is the need for providers to better respond to employer needs and meet national and local skill needs. Whilst the views of employers are comparatively well understood, those of providers have been the subject of much less research to date. Key findings include:
This Research Brief (RBX04-05) is available free of
charge from DfES Publications, PO Box 5050, Sherwood Park, Annesley Nottingham
NG15 0DJ
tel: 0845 60 222 60
Research Briefs can also be accessed at www.dfes.gov.uk/research/
Further information about this research can be obtained
from Deborah Beck, N611 Moorfoot Sheffield S1 4PQ
email:
deborah.beck@dfes.gsi.gov.uk
The views expressed in this report are the authors' and do not necessarily reflect those of the Department for Education and Skills.
The Common Assessment Framework for Children and Young People (CAF) is a new, standardised approach to assessing children's needs for services. It has been designed for practitioners in all agencies to help them to communicate and work together more effectively. It is particularly suitable for use in universal services (health and education), to tackle problems before they become serious, and is a key component of the Every Child Matters: Change for Children programme.
Revised CAF materials are at www.dfes.gov.uk/isa
The Briefing May 2005
Richard A Chapman, University of Durham, writes about the work of the Civil Service Commissioners. Most of the article will be of little interest but I (Hazel) was drawn to the paragraph which commences: "It should be noted that the Commissioners are, perhaps, typical of people who dedicate themselves to part-time service – and this is not quite the same as saying that they are a statistically acceptable sample of the general public". The issue is whether the general public expects bodies such as the Civil Service Commission to consists of "people like us". "General public" implies "ordinary" or "Clapham omnibus". This doesn't really apply to Baroness Anyname CBE, Chancellor of X University, Chair of Y Trust, or to Mr Anyothername, Trustee of the BBC, non-executive director of a large publishing company etc. Whilst it would, of course, be difficult to find members of "the general public" to serve on the Commission, the appointment of those who serve in this way is at the discretion of the first Commissioner. Mr Chapman asks whether this is in the public interest.
Public Policy and Administration
Volume 20 number 1 (Spring 2005)
Scrapping testing for Welsh children will fail unless it is backed with enough cash, according to Professor Richard Daugherty, the expert who recommended SATs be abolished. Professor Daugherty said that the funding saved by not undertaking the tests must be reinvested in professional development for teachers to order to develop their skills in assessment. He argued that years of SATs testing has undermined teachers' confidence in their ability to assess pupils' work. He added that such investment would help to keep standards high, as it would mean that assessment is consistent among teachers. Geraint Davies, of NASUWT Cymru, commented: "We've always had a concern about teacher assessments, as a union, because they could lead to an increased workload for teachers. Teacher assessment needs to be fully funded, and there is a danger that if done on the cheap, the increased burden will fall on the teachers."
Jenny Rees, The Western Mail 25 June
In an article for The Independent (9 June), Steve McCormack considers how gaps in school teachers' teaching skills, may have resulted in the failure of almost 40% of 11-year-olds to reach the writing standards set by secondary schools. Mr McCormack uses examples of glaring errors in education reports to indicate that some teachers may not have a particularly good grasp of grammar and punctuation themselves to be able to teach it adequately. Examples include:
He comments: "We shouldn't really be surprised by this, as many of today's teachers have been produced by an education system that still does not seem to value the ability to write grammatically particularly highly.
The Statistics Commission has published a report on the way in which key opinion-formers view official statistics, as part of its wider investigation into public confidence in official statistics. Key findings include:
Managing Information (May-June 2005)
Official Statistics: Perceptions and Trust (PDF 57pp) http://tinyurl.com/7uqqr
A European group has been set up to research the potential of biometrics – the use of a body part to identify individuals and access their personal data – for people with a disability. The Social and Environmental special interest group of the European Biometrics Forum, which will also look at ethical and usability issues, will have its first meeting this summer. The group will also produce best practice guides for creating accessible biometric systems, covering areas such as interface design.
E-Access Bulletin Issue 66 June 2005
More information: www.eubiometricforum.com/
Strathclyde University has been voted top of a UK-wide survey of students across the higher education sector. The university was deemed to be the best place to study, as well as being a "strong performer" in terms of employment prospects, course content and quality of life afforded to students in the local area. In coming top, Strathclyde beat off opposition from University College London (second), King's College London (third), and Oxford (fourth). Cambridge was ninth.
Andrew Denholm, Education Correspondent, The Scottish Herald 17 June
Thousands of Scottish pupils are being denied access to information on sexual health because school computer filters are blocking the relevant websites, according to youth information organisation Young Scot. A spokesperson for the organisation said that, despite there being no unsuitable content on its website, school internet filters were preventing access to it. She said: "I can understand local authorities are concerned and nervous about inappropriate materials, but there is a wider issue here about supporting and educating young people and helping them make informed choices for themselves."
Lucy Christie, The Scotsman 30 May
RNID, the charity representing deaf and hard-of-hearing people in the UK, is offering free deaf and disability training awareness training to small organisations. The charity is concerned about recent research which revealed that over three-quarters of SMEs are risking court action by failing to comply with the requirements of the Disability Discrimination Act. Organisations have until November 2005 to apply for the training.
More information: RNID Training Services
tel: 0207
296 8060
textphone: 0207 296 8050
email:
training.services@rnid.org.uk
t Magazine June 2005
Eight out of ten people in the UK say that work-life balance considerations play a crucial role in their decision to stay with or leave their current employer. The WorkUK Survey by consultants Watson Wyatt found that more than four out of ten employees are actively considering finding a new job with a different employer, and nearly eight out of ten employees believe work-life balance to be a very important consideration – if not the key consideration – in deciding to leave for a new job. The survey also found that concern with work-life balance is not limited to employees within specific job levels. The response to this issue is almost identical for managers and non-managers.
Changing Times News Number 60 (29 June)
A gang of fraudsters who fleeced the government out of more than £2 million through an education scam have been jailed for a total of 9½ years. The three men recruited more than 8,000 students onto a computer correspondence course, with each student claiming the £200 that the DfES agreed to pay out in Individual Learning Accounts. However, the "course" consisted of one plagiarised CD-ROM, costing just £1 to produce. Andrew Wheeler, prosecuting, said: "The CD-ROM was sent to most students, although some didn't get it at all. The discs cost £1 each, but the company charged the government £200 a time. It became a licence to print money."
John Innes, The Scotsman 27 May
The latest edition of the TUC briefing on employment programmes has been added to the TUC web site.
URL: www.tuc.org.uk/welfare/tuc-10103-f0.cfm
TUC email alert 25 June
Bliss magazine, often described as the teenage girl's "bible", has devised a "boredom bingo" game, based largely on the corporate version that has been a long-standing favourite of meeting-goers. The magazine has printed a grid of 12 "rubbish clichés" often used by teachers, including: "Would you do that at home?", "Is this a private conversation or can we all join in?" and "It's your own time you're wasting." Three in a row merits a yell of "bingo".
The TES 10 June
Update comment: I wonder if teachers could do the same thing. On their grid, they could have phrases such as: "I'll get my Dad on you", "I didn't do my homework because my Gran was poorly" and "Am I bothered? Do I look bothered to you?" Dawn
Where's "The dog ate my homework"? Hazel
Moves to train science graduates to look after patients during surgery should proceed with "extreme caution", opposition politicians in the Scottish Executive argued. While Shona Robinson, Shadow Health Minister, welcomed steps to give nurses the skills to take over some responsibilities from consultant anaesthetists amid shortages of staff, she expressed reservations about extending the scheme to science graduates. Ms Robinson urged the Executive not to rush into the scheme. She said: "We welcome any initiative to combat staff shortages within the NHS, but we must show extreme caution in the introduction of science graduates and surgical departmental assistants as anaesthetists if we are to ensure the highest levels of clinical safety at all times."
Helen Puttick, Health Correspondent, The Scottish Herald 7 June
All those articles that Dawn or I thought interesting that aren't really work-related but aren't silly enough to include with the jokes.
A Shanghai online gamer has been given a suspended death sentence for killing a fellow gamer, after learning that his opponent had sold his virtual sword on eBay for 7,200 Yuan (£473). The two men had been playing online game Mir 3, and the gamer agreed to "lend" his virtual sword to the victim. While unable to comment on the details of this particular case, a spokesperson for eBay said that the trading of virtual property, such as weaponry and equipment from online games, was a growing market.
BBC News Online 9 June
Blackpool Council has implemented working time protection for – wait for it – its beach donkeys. Thanks to new regulations, the donkeys are now entitled to a 48-hour working week, with an hour for lunch and every Friday off. Licensing inspectors will undertake spot checks to make sure that no donkeys are missing out on their employment rights, and the animals will be entitled to an annual "MOT" to check their fitness for work.
workSMART newsletter, Issue 35 May 2005
Update comment: Ah, but are they entitled to four weeks holiday? And, where exactly would a donkey go for a holiday? The mind boggles. Dawn
If your office is full of lazy shirkers who refuse to take their turn on tea duty, you may be interested in a new website. Teabuddy allows you to set up "Tea Groups". The group is essentially a list of everyone in the office, complete with details about how they like their tea. When your colleagues get thirsty, you tick off everyone that you're making tea for, and it prints out an "order" to help you remember who wants what. However, the really clever bit is that the site records how many teas each person in the group has made – leaving "tea-slackers" nowhere to hide.
URL: www.teabuddy.com
workSMART newsletter Issue 35 May 2005
A High Court injunction has prevented two men from leaking details of the new Harry Potter book, after a reporter was involved in a shooting when the men tried to extort money for the stolen books. They were arrested after shots were fired during a meeting in which it is believed they were trying to sell stolen copies of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the sixth book in J K Rowling's best-selling series.
Fiona Govan, The Daily Telegraph 4 June
Update comment: And it all took place just round the corner from my home – while I was at work! Hazel
An initiative in India is putting computers into the reach of children. In deprived areas, a computer is placed in a hole in the wall, connected to the internet and turned on. The kiosk is physically arranged for access by children. The children are given no training and no adult intervention, but observations show that they very soon learn how to use the system and can gain great educational benefits.
Info@UK Issue 51 (June 2005)
URL: www.niitholeinthewall.com/
A survey conducted by mobile entertainment providers www.thelab.tv reveals that 63% of girls would rather be "glamour" models than nurses, doctors or teachers. "Glamour" models Jordan, Abi Titmus and Jodie Marsh were seen as role models by more 15- to 19-year-old girls than Harry Potter author J K Rowling and Germaine Greer. Moreover, a quarter of respondents thought being a lap dancer would be a good profession but just 3% picked the teaching profession. The findings have been blamed on the "endless media coverage" of women who become famous more for their physical attributes than talent or achievements. A spokesperson for The Lab said: "Teenagers are witnessing the likes of Abi Titmuss and Jodie Marsh gracing the covers of their favourite magazines every day, so it is hardly surprising that they want to follow in their footsteps. Taking your clothes off is now more lucrative than ever and teenagers see it as a great way of making money and becoming famous."
Manchester Online 6 June
Update comment: It would be surprising if many young people had even heard of Germaine Greer let alone considered her to be a role model.
"You're offering me the job? Well, the answer's no. How could I possible have any respect for a company that meets every one of my outrageously greedy and ludicrously whimsical demands?"
Management Today (June 2005)
Three academics from Bristol University were so fed up with rejection letters from academic journals that they decided to publish their own magazine instead. The result is Null Hypothesis, The Journal of Unlikely Science, a monthly journal which "casts a wry eye over the world of science and technology, presenting satirical and non-satirical articles from many fields". Catering for "anyone who's ever laughed at, or been amazed by, the world around us", the journal has shifted from its original target audience of academics, undergrads and postgrads, after realising that its core readers were drawn from the public in general.
Martyn Bull, The THES 10 June
More information: www.null-hypothesis.co.uk/
Update comment: And well worth reading it is too!
Billy Elliot, the heart-warming tale of a boy from a pit town becoming a ballet dancer, is at the top of a new "top 10 list of movies every child should see by age 14". The list, compiled by the British Film Institute, will be launched at a debate at London's Barbican Centre on 13 July. The list includes Kes, Hue and Cry, ET, The Princess Bride and a Japanese animated film, Spirited Away. Amanda Nevill, the director of BFI, explained: "It would be unimaginable that children leave school without having studied classic novels. The same should be true of films. So much more is absorbed through the moving image than written text these days."
Stephen Lucas, The TES 1 July
Update comment: I guess we could all add to those films mentioned above and, like the music which identifies your teenage years, which films you want to include will surely give your age away. Not that I will admit to having been old enough to see the original 39 Steps with Robert Donat except on television (I wasn't) but Laurence Olivier's Henry V was superb!
Yahoo! has been sued for $3 million because it did not remove nude photos of a woman, posted online by her ex-boyfriend without permission. The ex-boyfriend allegedly posted unauthorised personal profiles of her containing the photos. The profiles included her email address and work phone number. The former boyfriend also engaged in online discussions in Yahoo chat rooms while posing as the woman and directing men to the profiles, the lawsuit claims. The woman claims that Yahoo reneged on a promise to remove the pictures. A Yahoo spokesperson declined to comment, saying the company does not comment on pending litigation.
OUT-LAW.com 31 May
An ongoing project to collect and distribute the most obscure and rare words in the English language. Some rather lovely examples include:
dactylonomy: counting using one's fingers
deasil: to move in a clockwise direction
uranomancy: divination by consulting the heavens
hebephobia: the fear of young people
leptorrhinian: having a long narrow nose
lestobiosis: the act of pilfering food
URL: www.islandnet.com/~egbird/dict/dict.htm
Greenfairy.com
Here's an interesting statistic for you. According to experts in furniture retail, during the 1990s an estimated 10% of all Europeans were conceived on a bed that had been bought from IKEA. You live and learn.
Management Today
A 14-year-old girl is suing her local education authority for £50,000 after she became pregnant at a special needs boarding school. Her mother claims Hertfordshire County Council failed to look after her daughter's welfare, as she was given a room next to a boy of 15. She is due to give birth in October.
The Scotsman 21 June
A Durham University student caused red faces among the university's planning and assessment office staff after he stumbled on his results on an internal website three days before they were due to be published. A spokesperson for the university admitted that incomplete marks for around 40 modules had been published on the university's website. The spokesperson blamed an administrative error, and said that the accident was minor in the context of the "extraordinary" operation the university went through ever year to deliver results to over 11,000 students.
Polly Curtis, Education Correspondent, The Guardian 21 June
"Global Voices is an international effort to diversify the conversation taking place online by involving speakers from around the world." It links to text, audio, and video blogs, podcasts, and other forms of grassroots citizens' media being produced by people around the world. It doesn't seem to be searchable, but you can browse by region or date.
URL: http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/globalvoices/
Neat New Stuff I Found This Week 10 June
http://marylaine.com/neatnew.html
© Marylaine Block, 1999-2005
Across the UK people use many different words to describe the same thing. The BBC Wordly Wise quiz has been devised as part of the Voices project to find out more about words and phrases we use to describe everyday subjects. What is "Bagging?" Passing notes behind a teacher's back or taking a packed lunch?! Test your knowledge of these regional variations with this fun quiz:
URL: www.bbc.co.uk/shropshire/voices2005/wordly_wise.shtml
BBC Skillswise Issue 177 (8 June)
Update comment: I only managed a measly 6, but I'm not going to get reet mardy about it. Dawn
An editorial article in The Daily Telegraph (9 June) argues that the success of Google is "testament to the paradox of the internet: the web is supposed to represent pure competition, but it actually ends up creating some awesome virtual monopolies, such as eBay (online auctions), Amazon (books) and iTunes (music downloads)".
But not before I've reminded you that the conference booking form is available on the ADSET website <www.adset.org.uk>.
Rebecca Tee (whom you may remember better as the author Rebecca Corfield) is doing the keynote presentation on the theme of Information is NOT Informing! I've left it entirely to Becky how she approaches the topic but can promise that it will be interesting. Details of other presenters and facilitators are being added to the details on the website as/when agreed.
A jeweller standing behind the counter of his shop after hours was astounded to see a suspicious looking man come hurtling head-first through the window.
"What on earth are you up to? What happened?!" he demanded.
"I'm terribly sorry," said the man, "I forgot to let go of the brick."
Clean Laffs
A man, wanting to rob a downtown Bank of America, walked into the branch and wrote "this iz a stikkup. Put all your muny in this bag." While standing in line, waiting to give his note to the teller, he began to worry that someone had seen him write the note and might call the police before he reached the teller's window. So he left the Bank of America and crossed the street to Wells Fargo. After waiting a few minutes in line, he handed his note to the Wells Fargo teller. She read it and, surmising from his spelling errors that he wasn't the brightest light in the harbour, told him that she could not accept his stickup note because it was written on a Bank of America deposit slip and that he would either have to fill out a Wells Fargo deposit slip or go back to Bank of America. Looking somewhat defeated, the man said "OK" and left. He was arrested a few minutes later, as he was waiting in line back at Bank of America.
Clean Laffs
After a trial had been going on for three days, Finley, the man accused of committing the crimes, stood up and approached the judge's bench. "Your Honour, I would like to change my plea from 'innocent' to 'guilty' of the charges."
The judge angrily banged his fist on the desk. "If you're guilty, why didn't you say so in the first place and save this court a lot of time and inconvenience?" he demanded.
Finley looked up wide-eyed and stated, "Well, when the trial started I thought I was innocent, but that was before I heard all the evidence against me."
Clean Laffs
Appeared in my inbox Dawn
Top Sudoku: www.sudoku.com
Let's Play Sudoku: www.puzzle.jp/letsplay/play_sudoku-e.html
Sudoku Fun: www.sudokufun.com
The Daily Sudoku: www.dailysudoku.co.uk/sudoku/
Cambridge News: www.cambridge-news.co.uk
Joe says to Bill, "Want to see a picture of my Aunt?"
"Sure."
So Joe takes out a picture.
"What are you talking about?" Bill says. "That's not your aunt! That's a picture of a fish!"
Joe responds, "Well, sure it is... It's my aunt Chovy!"
Clean Laffs
Appeared in my inbox Dawn
And finally Murphy says...
"He who hesitates is last."
"If you think big enough, you'll never have to do it."