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Furthering Education Together

Issue 132a | October 2022
OCTOBER NEWSLETTER SUPPLEMENT

More ministerial appointments at the Department for Education (DfE) and more proposals for post-16 education reform have been made since the last newsletter was circulated. So, we thought you might find useful if we issued a supplement that briefly outlined what these are.

FURTHER DFE MINISTERIAL APPOINTMENTS

As you will know, Gillian Keegan was appointed as Secretary of State for Education in England, replacing Kit Malthouse who resigned on 25 October after just 49 days in office. Ms Keegan is the fifth Education Secretary to be appointed in four months. She is also a former Minister for Apprenticeships and Skills in England, having been an apprentice herself when she was younger

Ms Keegan has now been joined at the DfE by:

  • Robert Halfon. Mr Halfon is he current Chair of the House of Commons Education Select Committee, has been appointed as Minister for Skills and Apprenticeships, replacing Andrea Jenkyns. He is also a former Minister for Apprenticeships and Skills and his re-appointment to this role means that another MP will need to be elected to take over from him as Chair of the Education Select Committee.
  • Nick Gibb. Mr Gibb returns to the DfE as Minister for Schools Standards, replacing Jonathan Gullis. He returns to the position he held for more ten years before losing it in a ministerial reshuffle last year.
  • Claire Coutinho. Ms Coutinho has replaced Kelly Tolhurst as Minister for Schools and Childhood.

A full list of ministerial appointments across all government departments can be found here.

Perhaps surprisingly, Gavin Williamson has returned to the Cabinet as Minister of State Without Portfolio. Sir Gavin (he has since been knighted), is a former Education Secretary who was in post when exams were cancelled in 2020 because of the pandemic. He faced protests from students and their parents and criticism from the media when most of the exam grades awarded by teachers in that year were adjusted downwards by a DfE/Ofqual algorithm. The algorithm was quickly abandoned in favour of teacher assessed grades (TAGs), which were also used in 2021.

MORE POST-16 EDUCATION REFORMS PROPOSED

New prime minister Rishi Sunak says he wants to see more reforms to post-16 education. These include:

  • The replacement of GCSEs and A-Levels with a new ‘British Baccalaureate’. These would include the study English and maths up to age 18, along with personal development and research projects. (Presumably, this would actually be an ‘English’ baccalaureate since the devolved UK governments have responsibility for their own education policies). Robert Halfon is also known to be supportive of the introduction of a baccalaureate for 18-year-olds which, he says, should be ‘holistic’ and comprised of academic and technical skills, combined with personal development.
  • More government investment in education and skills. However, rather than providing more funding for existing colleges, Mr Sunak has proposed the establishment of a number of new ‘elite technical institutes ‘to transform vocational training’. Presumably, these would be similar to the two new ‘elite vocational colleges for the north’, proposed by Kit Malthouse during his brief tenure as Education Secretary.

Since the current government has only two years left to implement any further reforms before the next general election it seems more likely that these proposals will form part of the Conservative Party’s next general election manifesto which may, or may not, be implemented depending on the election outcome.

AND FINALLY…

A college lecturer was teaching an ESOL class. She said, ‘I normally comes before E, but can anyone give me an example of an exception to this rule’. Her students thought about this for a while, then one of them said ‘Yes, Old Macdonald had a farm’.

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Liz Chorley

Office Administrator

Liz has been with the team at Click since 2017, working both as an Administrator an Finance Assistant. During her previous career, she has worked at establishments such as South Staffordshire College as the School Links and HE Administrator and at QA Higher Education in Student Services and Registry. She brings years of experience to the role and is always ready to help our clients and associates achieve their goals. 

Outside of work, Liz enjoys reading crime fiction, spending time with friends and family and walking around her  local park, where she watches the deer and water birds.

Fun Fact: Liz was asked to leave the Brownies as a child, as she had removed the vicar’s gate during a challenge of finding items in his garden beginning with each letter of the alphabet. She still believes this wasn’t fair, as there was no other item beginning with the letter ‘G’!

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Wendy Preedy

Office Administrator

Wendy started working with Click back in 2011 in an Adminstrator role.  Before this, she had dedicated herself to a career in law, starting from the bottom as an Office Junior and having worked her way up to an Office Manager position. This has given her a keen eye for detail, which she uses to benefit both the team here and also those working with us.

Away from the office, Wendy enjoys spending time with her daughter and granddaughter. She loves to bake and also really enjoys dancing, having  even done masterclasses with Strictly professionals Natalie Lowe and Ian Waite!   

Fun Fact: Wendy’s a true fan of romantic novels, with her favourite being Jane Austen’s ‘Pride and Prejudice’ – she loves the historical charm of the characters that Austen brings with her writing.

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Mandy Chapman

Finance Manager

Mandy started with Click at the formation of the company in 2009 as Finance Manager, overseeing the company’s planning, budgeting and reporting functions. She supports the team with sound day-to-day operations, a commitment to financial integrity and continuous improvement.

Previously, Mandy had worked in the voluntary sector with a children’s services project that supported parents and children with care and play opportunities, whilst providing training and work experience for people aiming to work with children.

Outside of work, she’s a passionate fan of live music and Aston Villa football club.  She’s also  a regular yoga enthusiast and enjoys reading and walking her dog.

Fun Fact: Mandy recently broke her finger in Venice whilst trying to touch the `lucky nose’ of a statue!

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Colin Smith

Executive Director

Colin began his career in the land-based sector before moving into further education as a teacher, working his way up the ranks to become a senior manager. He has been involved in a wide range of curriculum areas, including construction, commercial services and land based. Colin then moved into interim management roles with Click for 5 years before becoming a full-time member of the team in 2016. He particularly values his time  working with  students who find accessing education and learning more challenging. Colin is also a Vice Chair of Governors at a large London College and is a part time Ofsted inspector.

In his spare time, Colin enjoys travelling with his family and dog and is a keen reader.

Fun Fact: Colin is a huge fan of historical drama stories, such as the James Clavell Asia sagas – he loves how they paint a colourful picture of social attitudes and how those attitudes have changed over the centuries.

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Annette Howard

Executive Director

Armed with in-depth knowledge and know-how of the UK’s further education sector resourcing, Annette has been going the extra mile with clients at Click since 2015. As an experienced former senior college manager, she has worked across a wide range of colleges and areas of specialism, including apprenticeship growth, marketing and ESF projects. She also has worked as an interim manager, bringing first-hand experience in placing associates. Prior to working in the further education sector, Annette was in marketing and business development.

Outside of work she enjoys walking her two dogs and socialising with friends. She also loves to travel and is slowly working through her bucket list of places to visit.

Fun Fact: As part of her ‘turning 40 crisis’, Annette decided to run a half marathon. As she was nearing the finish line, the traffic policeman on duty reported into his walkie talkie ‘just the stragglers coming through now’ – she hasn’t run a race since!

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Kate Mulleady

Founder

Our Founder, Kate Mulleady, has decades of experience in successfully placing high-quality interim managers and consultants with all kinds of education and skills providers. Kate has an in-depth understanding of the challenges faced by the further education sector, having first-hand experience as a former senior college manager herself. She was the Executive Vice Principal at Sutton Coldfield college for 10 years, and Interim Vice Principal and a Governor at Dudley College.

In 2009, she noticed that further education professionals need to be secure in the knowledge that they are dealing with a resourcing team that truly understands their interim management needs, quality improvement goals and recruitment requirements. She set out to give clients all the certainty they’ll ever need, building a team that has first-hand knowledge and experience of working in the UK further education and skills provision, and that is how Click was created.

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